No Opportunity-No Money to Start
No Opportunity-No Money to Start
Introduction
Miguel doesn’t have a dime in his pocket. Not twenty pesos. In Mexico, he figures, it takes at least 32 pesos a day to feed a family as big as his. Fuhrat has five hundred thousand dinars-but it doesn’t mean much since it takes nearly that amount to buy a loaf of bread in Iraq. That’s if you can find one in the local marketplace, which is most often closed due to threats of violence. Hanna has a vision, but in Bulgaria, it takes more money than she has to make it real. Or so she thinks. All three of them are about to learn that in a global economy, there is a much larger market for what they can provide than they ever dreamed. They will access opportunities and accomplish things that their parents could not have imagined.
Miguel… Miguel barely has enough to eat. He fishes to survive. Legs dangling off a broken wooden pier on the outskirts of Progresso, he hopes for a fish big enough to feed his family for a few days, and dreams of the better life he could create if only he had more dinaro. Once in a while he gets a job cleaning the barnacles off of a boat owned by another fisherman in the small village. The work is hard, and the seaweed is annoying, but it puts some bread on the table along with the fish. Fish, dream, scrape. What else can he do?
Fuhrat… Fuhrat was once the wealthiest man and the largest employer in the city. Until it was ravaged by war. His tile manufacturing business was destroyed. He had long ago found costly but manageable alternatives to the difficulties in importing needed supplies and materials, as a result of the United Nations embargo. But in his violence torn city, the costs of transportation for his merchandise skyrocketed, along with the costs of bribes and corruption. The costs of paying drivers to navigate the dangerous roads exceeded the income potential. His employees lost their jobs. “They didn’t really want to go to work anyway,” he consoles himself. “It’s too dangerous for them.” Exhausted, depleted, emotional and financially, Fuhrat sees no future- no recovery. Little does he know, he will re-emerge from nothing, re-gaining all and more right there in his homeland-and then one day, migrate with his family to the United States.
Hanna… Hanna has a dream. It involves sewing. She has always loved drama, ever since she went to the city and saw a great performance of Zmeyova Svatba (The Dragon’s Wedding) on stage at the Blagoevgrad Theater. It was the most exciting event of her life. The minute she saw the cascading mosaic of colors and song on the stage, she knew she could do it: sew great beautiful, ornate costumes. And she knew just how: she would use gossamer materials and the finest threads, dying them with colors made from the local flowers. And sequins- she would add fabulous shining sequins of cut colored glass. The headdresses..
“Wake up!” Her mother-in-law shrieks. Startled, Hanna emerges from the life she would have to the reality she does have and gathers her cutters to prune the palm fronds. Her sewing machine long ago broke. No wherewithal to have it fixed, she has been cast into a life of perpetual servitude at the beck of others if she wants supper.
All three of them will become fabulously wealthy. Each will take a very different road to that end. But achieve their dreams they will- without ever leaving their village. They can do this, because it is a world of global opportunity. They just don’t realize it yet. With no money- nothing to start with- how will Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna earn money and create the life of their dreams?
Check back for the next post. This article, will continue in segments, tracking the journey of Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna, three poor individuals in three different countries, as they discover and access economic opportunity
This continuing article is not designed to sell anything. It is intended to broaden awareness of immediate opportunities and recognition of possibilities for people who erroneously think they are “stuck.” In America, we call it “not seeing the forest for the trees.” If one doesn’t know that quinine can cure Malaria, that person may die on the eastern slopes of the Andes in a grove of cinchona trees. (The bark of the cinchona tree is used to make quinine. For a great article about that, click here: “Malaria and Quinine.”)
Oh, what a little knowledge and creativity did for Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna!
What’s your dream?
POST 2 The Stories Begin
Manuel from Mexico
Dejected, Manuel hung his feet over the dock and proceeded to attach a worm to the hook. He couldn’t even afford chum. That morning, his wife had shouted in desperation that “he had nothing and he was nothing.” It was little consolation to him that despite the cruise lines of tourists running through the port in his village in Mexico; his reality was also the reality of most residents in the village: stone poor. How to make something from nothing? How to ever get beyond the daily need to fish for his family’s dinner? If he had money, he would start a business. But he had nothing. Nothing but seaweed, he mused, as he pulled a piece off of his sneakers.
As his mind faded into the solace of the comfort yielding serenity of fishing, a wee small voice inside him chastised, “That’s right. Nothing but seaweed. It’s all you’ve got, so work with it.”
The next day that Manuel caught enough fish to feed his family for two days, he took the following day off from fishing and went to the library to learn all he could about seaweed. He would use this knowledge to parlay “nothing” into a life of wealth and prosperity for him and his family, by accessing global economic opportunity.
Fuhrat from Iraq
His factory in shambles, Fuhrat recalled the day that he was the wealthiest man in his city. Then came the violence and corruption that destroyed his life and the life of his employees, when he could no longer afford the costs of transportation of materials through the dangerous streets, or the costs of repairs to his tile production factory. And his date-palm growing business- that was gone, too. The lack of electricity and fuel had made it impossible for his workers to attend to the trees. And even if there had been enough electricity and water, the workers would have stopped coming because the streets were too violent to navigate. There is no way to recover from this, Fuhrat ruminated. The violence had subsided and the marketplace was once again open. Peace had come, along with new liberties. He was a strong and experienced businessman who knew how to make things happen. But he had been reduced to nothing. He had nothing. No opportunity- No money to start.
As his mind took refuge from distraught in the mindless comfort of kicking stones, a wee small voice inside him rebelled: “You do not have nothing. You have YOU! You are what you’ve got, so work with it!”
In that moment, Fuhrat set himself upon a course that would re-establish his prosperity, enabling him to build and maintain business offices in three different countries, and immigrate with his family to the USA.
Hanna from Bulgaria
Hanna’s mother-in-law shouted at her to wipe the fingerprints from the picture frame. She had barely touched it. Of course, her hands were dirty from the hard labor in the field that morning. Her clothes were filthy, too. She was only allowed enough soap to clean her one dress once a week. It had been that way since her husband died. Her only comfort, sewing, had been lost, too, when her sewing machine broke and there was no money to fix it. As her mother-in-law screamed at her to clean the latrine, her mind faded to the escape of daydreams about sewing beautiful colorful costumes for the National Theater in Sofia… Catching her own worn image in the piece of reflective glass hanging over the sink, she was thrust back into reality. You have nothing, she thought to herself. No opportunity-No money to start. So quit the daydreaming, she chastised herself.
Setting back to the task before her she plunged the plunger into the toilet (if you could call it that.) The filthy water slapped back at her face even as the inner voice of strength slapped back at her resignation:
“Find Your Opportunity! Find the Money to Start!”
And find she did. The next day was the first day of the rest of Hannah’s life. It would be a wonderful life of creativity in design, including sewing and beautiful (and expensive) fabrics in all the colors of the world. She would even make a new home in the USA.
Come back next Sunday for the next installment of the stories of Miguel, Fuhrat and Hanna. Three impoverished individuals from three different countries, who achieved prosperity by accessing global economic opportunity. All three had No Opportunity-No Money to Start. Learn how they did it.
What is Your Inner Voice Saying to You?
