How You Like My Blog Now?

I explain the title of my blog from time to time for my new audience followers. Someone who may not have a clue about the blog title. I refer to all of us that have been moved to the middle class as sophisticated slaves. Census Bureau statistics will show how many people are at or below the poverty line. It is political correct to place us in the middle, this way the powers that be, don't have to be responsible for us.


Did you know the etymology of sophisticated in the late Middle English meant 'tampered with' or 'mix with a foreign substance' Yes, yes, it is not just bad enough to be a slave, but to be tampered with, my, my, my.

So where is the middle class entrepreneur? My argument is that the system is set-up against the entrepreneur (there are pockets that are more lucrative). Please read about some insights of blacks that I have heard recently about the black man's plight.

Professor James Small gives an overview that the African should be able to provide food, clothing, shelter, security and safety. Dr. Randell Pinkett believes blacks must enter the marketplace and remove the 'glass ceiling' he argues blacks must adjust to the systems changes.

Author Don Onukogu expressed the importance of the thought process to write and produce a book. Willie Cooper expressed passion in writing about his ancestors from the civil war. He even walked around with a proudness as if his every step was on his ancestors shoulders.

Author Kofi Ayim with his reflections and unsolved
mysteries of Jack Cudjo, a black revolutionary soldier 
whose history has been forgotten shows tremendous respect for our ancestors. Professor Nashid Al-Amin talking about the black Vikings reminded us again that blacks have done so much, but have not been given the credit.

Finally former mayor Sharpe James (Political Prisoner) shared his stories, but made it clear if you go to high, people will pull you down. He has lived thru the most recent history to prove it.

I will give my insights next post. I am working on keeping these post short to increase my readership.
I also have to add photos and other good stuff. I have something very insightful to say.

Do You Have Any Power?

It is clear. It is plain to understand. Our power comes once we control our economics, politics and culture. If you look around where you live, if your economics, politics, and culture is not controlled by your community, guess what, you have no power.
No power.

This is why a blog like this is so important.
It is a dissenting voice. It is a voice that differs from mainstream media. This is important. This is why I say again and again
that Africans must start their own businesses so that they can begin to control the economics of their community. Why do I say this? I say this because we have no power.

It does not matter if you go to the NBA and become a superstar. It does not matter if you
become a singing sensation in the world. It does not matter if have a storefront or mega church. What matters today? We must control the economics, politics and culture in our communities. Else, we have no power. So, do you have any power?

Do You Know How to Get Power?

One of the best feelings in the world is that moment after you make a decision, you can say to yourself, I made the right decision. Priceless. For many of us,  including me that process of making quality decisions has developed from making the wrong decisions. This is the life process, live and learn.

I resigned from my job in December 2013. It was a great job from many peoples perspective. A government job with good benefits. Layoff was probably not going to happen because of the nature of my work. My boss. I can live without him. But was happening inside me was I felt I was short changing myself. Everything about life was so predictable and boring.
I also had talents that lay dormant without any ability to
express them in my job.

The frustration built up in me like I was being tormented by a demon. I felt driven to start my own business. I had no money, I knew I had God's gifts in me, some people would say, I am God. Semantics, semantics. I wanted power. Power that would make me feel good about myself. What I realized is that Webster's definition of power never was the power I wanted.

What do you think about this definition of power? Power is the ability to define your reality and have everybody else accept your definition of your reality as the only definition that defines you. If you don't do that, then you are a slave to any and everybody else. This is a quote from Professor James Small. Click on this Link: Culture vs Religion

I am glad I named this blog 13 years a Sophisticated Slave, as we see ourselves in the true reality (conscious ) then we can take actions to acquire power. Come along, but it is not for the feeble at heart.

The Power of Words

Come back with me during my time in grammar school. Do you remember the saying at that time? Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. It implies that if someone cursed at you or spoke indecently toward do not be ready to fight because words cannot hurt you, right? After all it is just a word, how can a word inflict punishment on someone? When you are hit with a rock you can see the mark and if hit with a stick you can see the mark where you have been hit. How do you show the marks of words that are said to you? 

I can remember to this day the words I was called. The kids would call me “lips” this is because I have very large lips. At that time because the word stigmatized me I always was offended and wanted to fight. The word lips has no power until it is comes through a persons world filter. World filter to me is how a person views the world. Some people view the world with a filter of anger and bitterness others have a more realistic view of life and their filter is less clouded. The other word the kids would call me is “soup”. It was a reference to my last name being the same as the Campbell soup company. This should give us so incite to how the words people use have power. The words in most cases attempt to make you feel uncomfortable with who you are and make the person who used the word feel empowered if you respond to the word
.

The power of any word is its ability to break your perceptions of yourself or an idea and replace it with a new line of thinking whether positive or negative. Listen to the language and the words in the Gettysburg Address from President Lincoln” Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Can you see how the words are used to imply and change perception depending on how the hearer accepts the word? Words have power only as they change your world filter and touch your soul or personality, the Greeks called the soul your personality.

How do we explain the power of degrading, of abusive words? It has an affect on anybody because encased in certain words are negative energies. And it is not healthy to absorb this time of abusive over any period of time. As a matter of fact if you enjoy hearing and accepting abusive words, it is very likely you esteem is very low. Years ago I use to work in a residential treatment facility counseling dually diagnosed teenagers. These kids the secret to creating trouble and possibly getting their way was to start using abusive words to staff to set them off. If a staff responds through their emotions then more likely they will retaliate with abuse and get in trouble. The point is the creator of the abuse knows fully well the intend and purpose.

The power of words lie in the how a person translates the word through their word filter. Regardless of the tone or placement of the word, if the word is not translated right Any response can result. I can same “I like you” to a young lady and she may be going through a drought (lack of sexual activity) and she can have misconceptions that I want to start a relationship. Someone else can say “I hate the way you do that” those words can be taken as hating the person and not the action. However I hope you can see there is extraordinary power in words, but it is the mature person that allows words to have power when they should and minimize their power if needed.

Facebook vs. LinkedIn - What network holds more value for B2B?

Anytime B2B is mentioned, it is referring to specifically the business to business exchange of products, services, or information between businesses. This is different than business between business and customers. Another term often used for B2B is e-Biz. If we are going to ask the question which network holds more value for B2B, Facebook or LinkedIn, there origins and development will show us which holds more value for B2B.

Mark Zuckerberg shares in his own blog in 2010,”  I founded Facebook on the idea that people want to share and connect with people in their lives, but to do this everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times.

This idea has been the core of Facebook since day one. When I built the first version of Facebook, almost nobody I knew wanted a public page on the internet. That seemed scary. But as long as they could make their page private, they felt safe sharing with their friends online. Control was key. With Facebook, for the first time, people had the tools they needed to...That's how Facebook became the world's biggest community online.  We made it easy for people to feel comfortable sharing things about their real lives.

We've added many new tools since then: sharing photos, creating groups, commenting on and liking your friends' posts and recently even listening to music or watching videos together. With each new tool, we've added new privacy controls to ensure that you continue to have complete control over who sees everything you share. Because of these tools and controls, most people share many more things today than they did a few years ago.”

Zuckerberg’s goal was to establish a community that would be social in cyberspace. This was his main goal. But lets take a look at how LinkedIn has developed into as a network.

In the article The 3 Social Media Networks That Are Best For B2B Marketing By Douglas Burdett, he explains,  “If you only use one social media network, make it this one. LinkedIn currently has 260 million users in 200 countries (and in 20 languages). The greatest benefit of LinkedIn is its ability to make contacts and build relationships. And the key to a successful presence on LinkedIn is providing valuable support and information to your connections and Groups.

LinkedIn also enables executives and companies to build their brands and establish thought leadership. LinkedIn Groups is where most of this happens. There are over one million LinkedIn groups, some with a very narrow industry focus, including your own. The best networking happens in the context of comments and status engagement.

From a marketing standpoint, LinkedIn allows you to run advertising that can be extremely targeted by location, industry, title, company and other demographics. On a company level, LinkedIn has recently enhanced your ability to showcase your firm via company pages feature. This is a smart place to introduce your company, share your content and boost traffic back to your website.

But the most appealing feature of LinkedIn, especially in B2B sales, is the ability to find out most everything on a professional level about a target prospect. And, you can determine if there’s an opportunity for a warm introduction through one of your connections. At that point, you will want to take the conversation from LinkedIn to an offline, person-to-person interaction.”

Burdett makes it clear that LinkedIn development has and continues to expand around building brands and building business relationships. LinkedIn as a network functions purely in this professional arena. Jasmine Sandler in her article Which Social Network is Best for B2B Marketing? “Hands down, LinkedIn is the best social network for B2B marketing. LinkedIn is the only real B2B social network that was developed purely to develop direct B2B sales relationships for B2B marketers.

The other social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube – all should be in the toolbox of any serious B2B marketer. But if you're on limited time and resources and looking to greatly increase your bottom line, you should invest wholly in LinkedIn.”

LinkedIn is clearly the network that holds more value for B2B. Facebook was a building block to networks like Twitter, Google+ and YouTube among others. I don’t think it will lose it’s clear advantage, but only extend it in the future.

Burdett, Douglas/The 3 Social Media Network That Are Best For B2B Marketing/ Business2Community/10/1/2014

Sandler, Jasmine/Which Social Network is Best for B2B Marketing/ Search Engine Watch/10/1/2014