Between Barrack Obama and his Harvard Law School classmate actor Hill Harper, I surprisingly think that Harper could have as big an impact on young Americans of all colors. Hill has dedicated his life to sharing positive information with others. Below are my notes from his first book. The underline sections are the beings of paragraphs that I really found useful.
Letters To A Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny Author: Hill Harper
Xii I want young men to have knowledge of the things that bring them true empowerment: education, a strong sense of purpose, compassion, confidence, and humility to name a few.
Xvi It is no coincidence that both my mother and father became doctors just as it is no accident that I graduated from Brown University magna cum laude and received graduate degrees with honors from Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. My family taught me that doing my best, educating myself, and being in service to others were not optional and that having values and being truthful were not negotiable.
p. 5 You will live longer, become better educated, make more money and be happier than the previous generation. You are here to improve the human race, and you need to embrace that.
p. 8 A good man is honest, lives his life with integrity, and behaves responsibly.
p. 9 Be Balanced
p. 13 You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends.
p. 14 While it is important to have friends, it’s also important to realize that you, completely on your own, have to be able to make yourself happy.
p. 17 There is nothing wrong
p. 20 Luckily, as I matured
p. 21 Rejection is God’s protection
p. 21 So the most important thing I learned is that my absentee parent didn’t leave me, she left the situation. My mom left the relationship with my father because she felt she had no other choice. Even though your father may have left when you were a baby, it’s important that you realize he didn’t leave you. He didn’t even know you. Your father left for reasons that had nothing to do with you.
p. 24 Truth be told
p. 24 Also, you may not
p. 33 Will Smith: Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.
p. 34 School, as hard as it may seem, is easier than the real world.
p. 36 The only two areas in your life where you should allow yourself to owe someone else money is for school (education debt) and when you buy your house – and notice I’m saying “when” you buy your house not “if” – that’s what we call “mortgage debt.”
p. 42 Hey, man
p. 44 General Colin Powell: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”
p. 44 “Working smart” means using your brains first to formulate a plan of how to “work” most effectively. If you are working smart, you are first very clear about what you want to achieve – that’s your goal. Then, before you take the first step toward achieving that goal, you use all the knowledge and information you have at your disposal to decide what the most effective route will be to get there.
p. 66 “There are some things that money can’t buy.” In fact,, if you break it down, money can buy one thing, and one thing only and you know what that is? Options. Money cannot buy you freedom or happiness or love. If you have enough money, it gives you options as to what you can do in your life and with your life.
p. 68 More focus needs to be put on developing an inner happiness, doing what you love, and having faith that if you do these things, the money will come.
p. 69 For instance
p. 74 The first car
p. 79 Girls are attracted
p. 81 Women care about much more than just external things. A woman wants a man who will treat her with respect and wants to do fun things with her and make her laugh.
p. 82 Sanaa Lathan: All I want to know is can I talk to him? Is he really interested in getting to know how my mind works? Does he truly listen when we talk? Do we have fun, do we laugh, and ultimately how do I feel when we’re together? Be careful of wearing too much bling cuz it might outshine your better qualities.
p. 87 Throughout the history of the world more men have been brought down and had their lives destroyed because of their irresponsible sexual activity than by any other single act.
p. 88 Sex is not a bad thing.
p. 89 And remember, just because a woman wants to have sex with you, it doesn’t mean you should feel you have to have sex with her.
p. 90 Men have lost
p. 92 Gabrielle Union: Oftentimes as girls and women
p. 99 Let’s face it-mistakes
p. 101 Mistakes are decisions we have control over. And you can make a mistake in an instant, which is why it’s important to know who you are and what you stand for before you find yourself in a situation where you make a wrong decision.
p. 103 It seems a recurring theme
p. 111 So let me set you straight- making money is not a goal. Making money is a result.
p. 114 If you find what you love to do then, ‘hard work’ becomes easy – it’s more fun than just chillin’ or doing some job just for the money. If you’re doing something you love, working hard at it is more fun than working just to work; now that’s hard!
p. 116 Venus Williams: School is very important
p. 122 Here are some questions
p. 128 I’ll give you an example….Barrack Obama
p. 129 You have to first, dream; and second, work hard to achieve those dreams.
p. 135 “There are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen; those who wait for things to happen; and those who sit and wonder what happen.”
p. 155 Every day we are faced with challenges and choices. Some are harder than others. And sometimes, what seems like a big deal at the time doesn’t matter at all a week later. The one thing I’ve learned is that if I approach each day with an attitude of gratitude, even the most difficult challenges fail to bring me down.
p. 156 Obama: Life appears to be hard
p. 161 Wealth comes from knowing both your value in the world, as well as the value of the blessings life has brought you- family, friends, future opportunities, health, and the opportunity for true unreasonable happiness. You win when you embrace all of these and look toward the future with a positive attitude. So yes, you are wealthy already if you just look around you.
p. 163 Another wealth component
p. 167 Mantras and affirmations are strong tools that have been used for thousands of years in prayer and meditation.
I promise:
- To be strong so that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
- To make everyone feel that there is something special in them.
- To look at the positive side of everything and make my optimism come true.
- To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
- To learn from the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
- To have a cheerful presence at all times and give every living creature I meet a smile.
- To give so much time and effort to the improvement of myself that I have no time to criticize others.
- To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
- To be a light for others, not a judge of others.
