Take My Hand, God Inspired, god lead...
When someone says they don’t know where to start, people always say start at the beginning but I’m not really sure where the beginning is... Because Take My Hand has been in my spirit since I was about six years old. I was born and raised in Baltimore, MD.
I'll allow all of your assumptions about my hometown stand... One night, while watching the evening news, like my mother and I did every -- single -- day, a story about homelessness in Baltimore aired. After watching the story share the incredibly sad and disheartening stories about people from where I'm from, I turned to my mother, at six, and said, "Mommie, I want to build an apartment complex for all of the homeless people to live! I'm going to pray to God to bless me with money so I can do it!" My mother looked at me, gave her encouraging words AND rebuttals... Little did we BOTH know, God was moving even then.
My freshman year at Spelman College, I sat in a financial seminar... I had no idea how my life was about to be changed! During that seminar, the panel discussed finance, business, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and all things money that I could not relate. At the beginning of the seminar, one panelist asked the question, "If any of you had a $500 emergency, how many of you could handle it with no problem?" A little more than half of Cosby Auditorium raised their hand but I just barely paid my tuition so I couldn’t raise mine. That stuck with me...
I'll allow all of your assumptions about my hometown stand... One night, while watching the evening news, like my mother and I did every -- single -- day, a story about homelessness in Baltimore aired. After watching the story share the incredibly sad and disheartening stories about people from where I'm from, I turned to my mother, at six, and said, "Mommie, I want to build an apartment complex for all of the homeless people to live! I'm going to pray to God to bless me with money so I can do it!" My mother looked at me, gave her encouraging words AND rebuttals... Little did we BOTH know, God was moving even then.
My freshman year at Spelman College, I sat in a financial seminar... I had no idea how my life was about to be changed! During that seminar, the panel discussed finance, business, entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and all things money that I could not relate. At the beginning of the seminar, one panelist asked the question, "If any of you had a $500 emergency, how many of you could handle it with no problem?" A little more than half of Cosby Auditorium raised their hand but I just barely paid my tuition so I couldn’t raise mine. That stuck with me...
I decided to change my major from Child Development to Economics with a minor in Studio Art. I began digesting business and finance books, in addition to the required reading. I went to business seminars, real estate seminars, and I learned as much as I could. I was
building my entrepreneurial foundation. I already had the resilience and the determination to achieve my goals; unfortunately, I wasn’t in a place, mentally, spiritually, or professionally where I could actually achieve those goals.
So, at 24, degreed in Economics and Art, resume decorated with coveted internships, personality to sell any product, and enough drive to arrive safely at any destination, I lived in the brand new Spelman Suites as a Spelman graduate with my then girlfriend sharing a twin size bed. It was bad. Understatement. At that point in my life, I was going through what most consider their quarter life crisis but in addition to that, I was going through a mental health crisis that I didn’t know I was dealing with... Sure, I was severely depressed but I had no idea at that point that I’ve had bipolar disorder, undiagnosed, unmanaged, and unmedicated.
On one of those days of struggle, after my girlfriend stole breakfast from the café for me, I sat crying asking myself some questions about my life. How did this happen? Why did this happen? How will I come out of this? It was just… bad. In spite of my depression,
I was able to motivate myself out of the bed and to my computer. I googled “I need help,” and at the time, the Stanford commencement speech delivered by Steve Jobs was one of the first links that came up. I watched it and cried the entire 15 minutes as Mr. Jobs shared anecdotes of connecting your past experiences to your future success, finding love and purpose in losing every thing, taking negatives and focusing on positives, and using the intellectual concept of death as a mighty motivator. Mr. Jobs’ stories were beyond motivational for me and were a God send; they held healing for my mind and spirit. From this valley experience, four business ideas were conceived, Aesthetically Spoken, Lux Creative under another name, Take My Hand and another I can't mention because I'm going to build it. My spirit was renewed. Steve Jobs changed my life.
Goals of Take My Hand
Take My Hand will connect people in need of answers & resources to people & organizations best suited to answer those questions and provide proper & necessary assistance.
Once complete, Take My Hand will cover the seven areas of life: mental, financial, family, physical, career, social, and spiritual.
That's it... That's all. Take My Hand WILL change the world!
