Wakanda Forever

This post is being written with a heavy heart. I ask that you tune into the ABC showing of Black Panther in honor and memory of Chadwick Boseman. My brother, may you rest peacefully knowing that you moved this world in a way that will never be forgotten. You're portrayal of Thurgood Marshall, James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and of course your epic role in Black Panther will live long and inspire many for generations to come. Wakanda Forever

I'm know Black Panther or Luke Cage...I just use my everyday skills uplift myself and hopefully you. My everyday skills continue to see a nation that is hurting and in need of re-engineering.  A different and newer term used in my profession is transformation and I am a lead architect in transforming business and cyber security operations for companies across the world when they experience "issues". So you can rest assure, you are not alone...even countries and companies have issues and need someone to help.

I find out why things are broken and often challenge my stakeholders to lead me to the "root cause" of the issue. This exercise can be enlightening, humbling, and even embarrassing depending on people's personalities and what may have been overlooked as we uncover the issues affecting a team, department, or company.  We may summarize our analysis in a technique called a SWOT analysis --- which documents the (S)trengths  (W)eaknesses  (O)pportunities  (T)hreats of the entity being reviewed.

I have a fiduciary responsibility to my stakeholders so I come in as a independent party that has to be ethic and honest in reporting what I find. In the business world we have learned that only an "independent authority" will things get cleaned up. When I look at critical issues that African-Americans are facing with police departments, there is often no independent authority --- completely removed from the police department that can objectively weigh in and hold officers accountable. If you have immunity, it does not matter what I find in my analysis, and I suppose it does not matter what a cop does because immunity negates accountability. 

I often summarize what I do as being a Detective, Lawyer, and Psychiatrist. I'll breakdown why I have 3 different roles:

As a Detective, I have to accurately and even record all my interactions with my stakeholders. I find it strange that in my profession, all accurate interactions must be accurately logged yet we still have many police departments across the country that can't, won't, and don't securely record, log, and document all their interactions. If I chose not to do this I would get fired, why are police forces not held accountable like I would be in the corporate world?

As a Lawyer, I do have to advise my stakeholders when it appears they are in situations that are non-compliant with the law and the intent. But again, I find it strange, that there is a haze around the "baseline" conduct of how an officer must interact with it's stakeholders so that persons like myself can review how well they are complying to the baseline. We do things such as a lookback analysis. If you did a lookback analysis the my corporate methodology could quickly deduce that African Americans, particularly males are being negatively harmed by police forces across the country at a disproportionate rate to other classes of people. A lookback is a scientific way of identifying harm or abuse and we use it in the financial industry as research has shown that elderly people are often the targets and harmed by financial crimes. So if we can protect and prosecute elderly harm...why are African-American males not afforded the same protections.

The shooting of Jacob Blake and murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd are simply a small sample of my lookback analysis and the data is grim. There is no one taking any action with this clear and factual data which means by doing nothing...our politicians and our citizens are complicent if they do nothing with this data.

Finally, as a psychiatrist I listen to those I am working with to understand the entire story. I want to know what's working, what's painful, and what works well. When I see Portland, I hear the pain of a system that is broken. When I heard Doc Rivers question "Does this Country Love Us", I think he raised the question so many African Americans and a growing number of minorities are feeling. You just have to listen...and many people are not good listeners. Doc, I've have written over the years the contract that America has with African-Americans and it's people of color is a bad contract that needs to be re-written. It's the driving force as to why I will continue sharing my pillars. Love, Spirituality, Freedom, and Volunteerism are the paths forward. But in the US, if you are not financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically healthy and organized then the toxicity of wealth and leverage of those in power will try to snuff you and your voice out...like they did George Floyd. 

As a security expert, I use tools like: Cyberark, Zscaler, Crowstrike, Splunk, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, NortonLifeLock, Tenable Holdings. 

However, I remind my clients that tools make you more efficient they hardly ever solve the root cause of who is responsible, what was the target goal and how do you measure progress, and finally how do you hold someone accountable?

Stay Balanced, Stack Your Chips, Get Organized and Let's use our Leverage --- to truly effect change.

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Portfolio Summary:

Collectors Universe Hit new all-time high of $50. - So your boy finally did it. Some of my shares are officially considered a 10 Bagger. That's when they increase 10 fold. If you'll recall, I bought Collectors back in 2008 so some of my shares bought at $40 finally reached this status first described by the great investor Peter Lynch. Still Holding

Sprint Finally Sold -  Here is my sale of 50% of my Sprint stake for roughly $5K in profit. I wish I would have held on until 1 full year for it to be considered a Long Term investment for tax purposes but that's another class for another day. I grew up with not much so I'll take these blessing and put them to good use. 

Don't Cancel ---- Investment

 I wanted to speak on the "Cancel Culture" phenomenon that is alive and well within our society. Cancel culture goes by many names in different cultures. Some call it the crab mentality, I jokingly say the hit songs "Can't Nobody Tell Me Nothing" by Little Nas X and "Thank You Next" by Ariana Grande epitomize my point. You'll see Cancel Culture is NOT so alive and well when a music artist is praised for using their 1st Amendment right to lyrically talk about abusing or killing their spouse or  when other artists or politicians  use "blackface". In these moments the masses say 'its just in fun', or 'wow look at their age', or even better --- 'you can't govern speech'. The funny thing is this falls out of alignment with what I learned in Corporate America. Someone has to set the tone from the top and be accountable and oh by the way aren't these musicians, artists, and politicians governed by a larger corporation or government structure. 

So I wonder why I see a difference when certain people appear to be targeted or (wait for it) the Cancel Culture comes calling when its a subject on race, supporting the marginalized, or leveling the playing field.  

If I to ask to diversify Board Rooms and the CEO suite, which is severely underrepresented by people of color, I'm told we can't find the talent.  --- I like the response of Alex Ohanian, Chairman of Reddit who simply stepped down and said I'll make a path. --- I didn't like the response I saw of one company who needed my help on a cyber project. I went to their website and they boasted about having a diverse board. The board was all-white but now had 4 white women in the ranks. So I decided not to pursue it further.

If I ask to diversify Hollywood, which is also underrepresented, my show might be canceled, Instagram page flooded with cancel messages, etc.  --- What happened to data driven metrics. Without much argument data should be able to tell me the diversity mix without someone telling me I need a cultural sensitivity lesson for trying to solve an age old problem.  I wonder instead of the quick to cancel response, we find ways to open doors like Alex Ohanian did, or does he only now understand the problem because he is married to an African-American woman, Serena Williams.  In the corporate world, we form joint ventures and partner with small startups and businesses --- so WHY did Tyler Perry have to build his own film production company to make films that are directed, staffed, and include actors from multi-ethnic backgrounds. The cancel culture can infect even people that look like you as he was sometimes even canceled by people that look like him? He's a comedian and he employs African-Americans...strange we DO NOT critique or hold Corporate America accountable but we come down on him, Michael Jordan, and others --- Cancel Culture not everything we do will be advertised on the internet. 

Why is my analysis of data considered a protest when the facts are clear that most African-American dollars DO NOT even circulate within our own community. Will you try to cancel me, call my statements a protest? Or will you make a path for me, sometimes partner with me, even take a risk on me so that I can simply do what many other cultures do.  Will you try to cancel me for wanting my real estate property to be managed, or the plumbing to be fixed, or by college or work diversity, or the movie I watch to be comprised of people that look like me. Or should I just cancel culture you, like when you tell me to revisit a Confederate museum, or the Constitution, or your cultural history. 

I don't mind revisiting history as I've revisited the world's history all through school, college, and even in your responses. I will take up the challenge to learn from you BUT SHOULD I cancel you since Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, Boardroom and Workplace Diversity, Police Brutality are  racial, civil, human, and even religious rights issues that predominantly affect me and my African-American community.  Thank you for offering up your history, let me offer up mine. 

I call in the Bunce Island Response: 

When you put on Blackface, put a knee on a neck, make an insensitive joke, question me against my will after a volunteer event, tell me your commute is impacted by a protest, allow the Confederacy to mark public buildings and landmarks, or fail to defend against hate speech to African-Americans you are complicit in denying our true history. My history is your history as the world was involved. Bunce Island was famous to the world as one of the primary processing points for slaves to be sold for the rice plantations of the South. My people's villages were raided for their expertise, what we now called Subject Matter Experts (SME), in cultivating rice. Let me take you to my our home of West Africa, where Africans were rounded up from countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Gambia, and even as far as Angola to survive concentration boats, concentration plantations, and horrendous abuse from slave labor.

To deny our history is to deny a path forward to solving this problem. I ask modern day citizen, how many weeks, months or years would you work without pay? How would that make you feel and how should these wrongs be corrected?  I saw interns recently sued the big magazine corporations a few years ago for internships with out pay. They could leave after the summer go back to school --- what if for multiple generations your family's identify, wealth, assets, investments, SME, children, wives, fathers were killed or assets stripped, or compensation never paid without any fair market based valuation.  And then go to a school name after the person who robbed your family --- How would that make you feel?

So when I, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Oprah, Lebron, Nas, or the host of many people talk about African-American investments, owning assets, and circulating dollars and knowledge without our community, please don't stand in solidarity...take action. Don't cancel culture me as you accumulate debt or pile debt on people that look like me...let's invest together. And if you're afraid to take risks, I understand  --- over 400 years ago and systematically since then many of us have been programmed to get what you can and NOT to share with others out of fear that there is not enough for everyone. haha a rising tide lifts all boats.

Like Jay Z said I'm not a businessman,  I'm a Business, man. Or as I like to call it a Platform:

• 1 Primary Home
• 1 Rental Home (more coming)
• Investment Portfolio with over 30 stocks at any given time
• 401K 
• Rainy Day Savings
• Corporate Job
• Own a Small Business - training and employing underserved groups on how to enter the information technology field
• 529 College fund for my kids

I enjoy doing deals directly and don't like middlemen. I manage my own money to eliminate the fear from years of being told you can't do it yourself or simply you're not enough. My final point, I sat down with a Certified Financial Planner a few years who told me what I already knew. I gave him all my numbers and he said you're good until roughly 81-87 years of age. He wanted my business...nope at 37 if I got to 87 by myself...tell me how you can help grow my platform...not take a cut. Don't ask for a hookup, ask how can I learn from what you're doing. And realize everyone brings value to the table, teach others what you're doing...don't bottle it in but then again canceling is easy.  Until then stay blessed and get your Urb on

Store My Gold on Racks (GOLD, GDX, GDXJ, RXT)

Need for a Bubble

So in my last post you saw my brief tribute to Nas and Lauryn Hill. They are true giants, in my opinion, in lyrical expression and miseducation. Similar to Lauryn Hill, my blog is a miseducation on life because it asks you to wake the F%!# Up and think. I call my version of miseducation -- unplugging from the matrix. Don't get my blogs twisted, in order to wake up you need to ground yourself in the 4 Pillars we often cite here. One of the biggest being education and continuous learning...I call it SLAM +, please look up my post on Science, Legal, Arts, Math and + (technology and trades skills). I heard today COVID-19 has shown a disparity that I'm sure in negatively effectively some of my readers. College educated workers, especially those with 401K retirement type accounts are thriving in this pandemic. One of the root causes --group most likely to Work From Home.  Which then allows them to sit back and throw stones...like a common phrase I've heard: "Why were the unemployed getting an extra $600 a paycheck?"  This is the type of bs I can't believe we are still discussing...they must have been listening to Jay because --- they have no passion, no patience, and I guess they hate waiting --- on items like evictions, unemployment, safety of front line workers, etc.  Unbelievable, you want to send the less fortunate to the front lines while we can chill at the crib, reducing our risk, while watching the Federal Government bailout our 401K plans and re-inflating them past their previous levels. I guess main street doesn't get a bailout that rivals what your 401K got?  When I made a decision to WFH over 3 years ago, I vowed to never return to a physical office ever again. Many laughed at me when I gave them my risk assessment but look at where we are at now. I told you then and say it now, I can get my work done, take care of my family and better use my free time (while often working more hours) at home. But this benefit I've worked hard for, doesn't mean I should forsake my front line brothers and sisters. They need the best security, protections, and piece of mind for their families like WFH gives my family.  OHH did I mention, I am assisting my daughter with her virtual school program -- not exposing my baby to unnecessary risk when the National Basketball Association just showed all of America what is needed to survive and thrive in this pandemic --- A BUBBLE...sound familiar.  

Storing My Gold on Rack

I could give you my best Tyga, Rack City impression because I am a fan of his music but I think more importantly a fan of his mindset. If you recall, he was one of the first defectors from Cash Money Records when his L (in SLAM) - Legal contract appeared to be whack and NOT in his and his family's best interest. He was called names and the cancel culture told him be happy with what Baby (owner of Cash Money Records) gives you and did for you.  How did that turn out...well years later let's ask Lil Wayne who was also disgruntled and this led to The Carter V album release being delayed over disputes about...yep you guessed it his contract. At the end of the day, you have to do what best for you and your family and I have always rocked with Tyga before and definitely after that move. I'm not even going to touch the Kylie Jenner subject because at that time I was quoted as saying she was the most "down to earth" Kardashian Jenner AND I thought her then Social Media business empire was growing quite well. Fast forward to today and a company I owned Coty (cosmetics industry) bought a 51% for a roughly $500M stake cementing her Billionaire status. Now every hit song he writes, he gets a full "Taste" haha pun intended of the profits!

So Tyga let me tell you about my Rack City:

I have not been shy about owning GOLD in this economy. History has shown when the Federal Government prints money out of thin air to inflate the economy (and then does it at the fastest clip ever seen in history.) then it's time to put GOLD on my investment rack. My previous posts disclosed that I own shared in a small mining company called NOVAGOLD (NG) and I also like the Gold and Gold Miner ETFs. I've even disagreed with one of my first mentors Warren Buffett by owning GOLD since the 2008 financial crisis when my Billionaire Boy Club buddy John Paulson introduced me to NovaGold to hedge the pain of the financial crisis. Another time in history that we printed money like nobody's business. 

1) I agree with Warren that Gold has NO intrinsic value, and 

2) I agree that it should NOT be usually held as I technically have NO way to value this asset. 

However, assets like GOLD do have a place in this world and that is when there is FEAR in the water. While I am not fearful of much, I do think the US economy is at one of it's most dangerous crossroads possibly ever. The divineness is HIGH as people are diving the country along racial, economic, and social issues. So I am glad to hear that Warren the teacher, has done something that his pupil has done since 2008 --- buy GOLD!!! And he did in a major way:

1) Warren Buffett and the Berkshire team purchased a $562-million stake in Barrick Gold (GOLD)

2) He also SOLD --- most of the major US banks (JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs)

Warren won't be speaking soon on TV soon because he doesn't want to scare the masses that follow what he says. But like systemic racism and oppression, I have a responsibility to speak out and keep it real. I would follow what he's doing BUT I already own GOLD, but will consider evaluating Barrick Gold. Investors make purchases like this when we see risk in the economy. Go back and search my posts using the term GOLD and you'll see I own:

Novagold (NG)
Gold Miners Juniors (GDXJ)

and like but do not own:

Barrick Gold (GOLD)
Gold Miners (GDX)
Gold ETF (GLD)
Gold ETF (IAU)

I'm even re-thinking my position on Bitcoin as its a useless asset but if I believe there is trouble in the water, I want to consider assets people will run to.

 In honor of Tyga, Mr. Rack City, I also purchased shares of this stock:

Rackspace (RTX) - around the $17.5 range, the word on the streets is Amazon is sniffing around this company. Time to take a flyer on my version of rack city!

Novagold (NG); Gold Miners Juniors (GDXJ); Barrick Gold (GOLD); Gold Miners (GDX); Gold ETF (GLD); Gold ETF (IAU); Rackspace (RTX) 

If I Ruled the World, Imagine That

Imagine smoking weed in the streets without cops harassin'

Imagine going to court with no trial

Lifestyle cruising blue behind my waters

No welfare supporters, more conscious of the way we raise our daughters

Days are shorter, nights are colder

Feeling like life is over, these snakes strike like a cobra

The world's hot my son got not

Evidently, it's elementary, they want us all gone eventually

Artist(s): Nas ft. Lauryn Hill       Song: If I Ruled the World (Imagine That) 

I'd free all my sons.... and with the loss of Breonna Taylor I feel like I need to free my daughters too. In the land of the "free" and the home of the brave it's irreprehensible that history continues to repeat itself. Why does history repeat well let's ask Trevor Noah. He reminded us that what is happening is not a failure of the system, rather the system work as it's intended. Every movie depicts the home of the brave as one big melting pot, yet when I moved to Chicago I found quite the opposite. I received coded messages even about where to live. They went like this: "Whatever you do don't live on the South Side or the West Side. Being new to the city, I heeded this warning and didn't even include the South or West sides of Chicago in my search for my first apartment. After a few years, I eventually learned this coded message was telling me to stay away from the predominantly African-American sides of town. So when the time came buy my first crib, I put every wish list item that EVERY person (white, latino, AA) told me they dreamed about having in a home in Chicago and then of course I considered my shoestring budget...and guess where it took me...to the Southside -- Lake Shore Drive to be exact. My humble abode is in Hyde Park, hence why I was given the nickname The Oracle of Hyde Park by close friends. Remember when I invest, I am a contrarian --- I listen to mainstream America (the man) and then simply do the opposite. I was always told get city views, have a roof deck, live by the Lake, a garage (if you're lucky), and you can't afford no more than 2 bedrooms (so I went w/ 4 bedrooms, 3 baths in a duplex penthouse). That was true in Lincoln Park but in Hyde Park I found a gem right off the lake by firing two real estate agents and going at my search alone through the aide of a technology startup at the time called Redfin, that "took the bias" from the agents outta my search. Even though gentrification is coming slowly to my hood, I ain't selling because like Nas said "Evidently it's elementary, they want us all gone eventually". So my job is to hold the fort down, teach others how to unplug from the Matrix and join me as in owning assets, shunning the materialist crap that doesn't increase in value, and create a legacy that you can begin to pass down...so hopefully each generation to follow start on an equal footing. 

 

If I ruled the world and everything in it, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X would be my co-Presidents. I never bought into the stereotypical viewpoints that pitted them as polar opposites when in actually they were fighting for the same things. They fought for the equality of African-Americans using different methods but with the same goal in mind. That goal was to free all my sons...and daughters: Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Philando Castille, Laquan McDonald, Breonna Taylor, Amadou Diallo, George Floyd.... from the tyranny of oppression and systemic racism that has continued be it 400 years, 40 years, or even 4 months ago. So I am simply telling people to try a new method, the only language a capitalist nation speaks in --- and that is in owning assets. Using the 4 Pillars, the poor working class can strengthen themselves for the battle ahead. We double down on the basics educational principles of S L A M + (Science, Legal, Arts, Math, +) I shared a few posts ago and build institutions that fight for our best interests. We incentive more people of color to be lawyers, doctors, police, accountants, technology, teachers, clergy, judges and most importantly political professionals that go to battle with one broad goal. A goal that will truly allow our communities to invest ourselves, our neighborhoods, and our family's future. People keep calling these officials in office dumb, when in actuality their plan is working as intended. If you go back and look at the history, the deaths, and the treatment of black people in this country, one might come to a conclusion that these tactics are telling you...you're not wanted or appreciated here. I've made that point on many occasions (again a contrarian viewpoint) and I wonder if it's because I know my roots, have seen a different homeland, traveled the world, speak different languages, and more importantly know the legacy of true kings and queens. I was surprised to hear someone else speak this truth, a musician I listen to often from Nigeria, Burna Boy. He echoed some things I've said for quite awhile:

Source: The Guardian - Burna Boy Interview

"The only way we can move forward is if we all know that Africa is our home and make sure our home is a place that is respected"

“I’d like to use this opportunity to say that some time around 1835, there was a mission to turn Africa into a dominated nation,” “Now is the time to overturn that, and go back to the royalty that we were, because, in order for black lives to matter, Africa must matter.”

To quote Nas at the end of If I Ruled the World, "I'd Open Every Cell in Attica Send em to Africa". I agree with Burna Boy that to truly move forward, African-Americans must first remember they are Africans. My trip back home to Sierra Leone was the most amazing experience that I've ever felt. Noticed the world felt - I was surrounded by the energy of belonging as soon as I stepped off the plane. Your talk, dress, style, swag, names, face, dance....to see and feel the source of it all was truly profound. It gave me a new set of armor as I came back home to the US and engaged in corporate meetings, business negotiations, or dealt with people who want you to feel less than or worse place a knee on your neck. If you're not working towards having options --- the option to walk away from that job, negotiation, negative energy...then you may be consumed by it. 

This week, I made another stride in my side hustle being truly my main hustle. I signed my first corporate supplier agreement. I'll post about this moment another time but it was painful as every step of the way I was dealing with negotiations that tried to take advantage of me, my value, my legacy that I'm building for my kids. I know when I'm being shortchanged, we all do and I held out...and got almost everything I've asked for. Now my new mission is to deliver on this agreement and show them what "WE" can do and I'm bring a whole lot of people that look like me along for the ride. This will be the final trade I share for awhile as I hunker down for what I believe will be turbulence in the American economy beginning in the 4th Quarter. School starts, flu season, a hunt for a vaccine, and a grid-locked political system that acknowledges record amounts of people are unemployed, with back-due rent, and agitated because they can't go back to their normal consuming lifestyle they've been sold --- are all a recipe for the unknown. One thing I've learned from analyzing the corporate world is they like "certainty"...and when the future is uncertain I think Volatility comes. There are many haters in life but I know my worth, so I don't spend time entertaining their BS. I write so the world can see and invest because my trades are my journal documenting exactly what I was thinking. I knew last year uncertainty was coming so I purchased literally just that a VOLATILITY fund that protects your portfolio when the fear sets into the economy, the markets, and people. It's not about the money, it's about making educated clear minded decisions about the future using very good clues from today. 

In November, I felt something wasn't right and I started to best against the markets, economy, etc. It resulted in the fastest and the largest gain I easily ever experienced in my life when COVID hit in March. See here: I was up roughly $29K after it was all said and done!!!

Notice I purchased those shares in November 2019 (see above). Nov, Dec, January I began to doubt if my thesis was correct: The market was over extended, one economic shock would send it cratering. noting had happened for 3 months and doubt sank in like it does when someone doesn't know where they came from. So on January 27th I purchased a hedge giving in to that doubt (see below). This hedge would allow me to walk away with a nice payday ($3K) but IF I was right about my thesis...I would be kicking myself for a long time to come. 

Well, guess what I should have never doubted myself. I was right about volatility in a major way and my shares ended up being worth roughly $29K in just a few months. I was locked in at that nice payout I spoke about above ($3K). For most of March, until my hedge ended, I kicked myself as I watched my hedge closeout --- meaning I gave the other $26K in profits back to someone else.

At the end of the day, $3K in profit is still a game changer for this poor boy from the hood. All $29K would have been one for the record books. But Nas and Burna Boy, I'm just getting started and the goal is to bring our people with me for the ride. Because If I Ruled the World...Sky's the Limit.  For those that think I'm playing, you better get out of the way.