The Billionaire

In this brief ‘story’, I will attempt to describe the journey that has led me to participate in this competition. I will also describe just how significant my little black book has been for me, along with a few other books and mentors I have been so fortunate to encounter. At this point in my life, I was at an all time low after having had my wrestling career end abruptly and unexpectedly due to an injury and dropping out of college. After working several jobs that definitely weren’t career worthy, and unintentionally losing the only two I really liked, and wanting to continue wrestling somehow, I made up my mind that my last option was to pursue a career in MMA.

I did my research and narrowed it down to two local gyms I was interested in. I called both but ultimately went to who called me back first. The person that called was Jeff Neal with Carlson Gracie in North Aurora. I went to the gym on my first day with nothing but a few years of wrestling experience and the eagerness to soak up all that I could. For several months I trained every day except Sunday and began seeing leagues of improvement in my boxing and wrestling. The rate and consistency with which I trained made it impossible for me to not start gaining attention from Jeff, the head coach, as well as other coaches at the gym. So, it was finally time to start preparing for actual competition. We started with jiu jitsu tournaments, and strategically progressed to boxing and then MMA bouts. The constant preparation and competition began changing me for the better. I started to see my own personal power of commitment and dedication and resiliency. It goes without saying that as time passed and the more we competed together, the closer and more involved in each other’s lives we became. Equally as valuable as the impact that training was having on me and my personal power, were the resources that Jeff provided to help with the mental side of competition. Of these resources Jeff recommended me, and there were several, the most impactful was a video by Jim Rohn titled: How to Have Your Best Year Ever.

How to Have Your Best Year Ever is a four-and-a-half-hour video, but I’ve now watched it to completion more than five times. This video inspired me to no end and the insights I’ve gained from the books Rohn recommends have become pivotal to who I am as a person now. Jim Rohn taught me that it isn’t the world that will change in order to change my outcomes, it is I and my philosophy that must change. He taught me to take ultimate responsibility for actions and realize that wherever I find myself, is due to my own doing. Although I’ve ended up getting several of the books Jim Rohn recommends in the video, the two most influential by far have been The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason, and more importantly, the little black book that led me to include obtaining twenty thousand dollars from writing this story as one of my goals on my journey to create great personal wealth: Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

Whoever is reading this, if you have any time to spare, I suggest putting this down to read Think and Grow Rich quickly before resuming to read and award this story the first-place prize. This little black book will end up being the most important book you have ever had the good fortune to come across, as it has been for me. This book gave me the courage! The courage to decide what I want to do and then formulate a practical, organized action plan of achieving it. My overall goal is to become a billionaire. You may be asking yourself why I want to become a billionaire. The first reason is because of the man I will have to become in order to make that goal a reality. Second and equally important to me, Mykayla, my one true love, has been through hell and back with me and has faithfully stuck by my side. I want to provide an extraordinary life for her in return. Most importantly though, is this. Another great teacher I’ve been fortunate to have, Phil Ammendolia, once posed the question: What is it a millionaire or someone richer could do that he couldn’t. He was basically speaking to the contentedness of his life and making the point that luxuries in life are only so expensive. Well, the answer I’ve come to is this: You can help more people.

I was born and raised in Aurora, Illinois and Appleton, Wisconsin. The city I rep is Chicago. Another couple of books that’ve been central to my personal education are: Before the Mayflower By Lerone Bennet Jr. and Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. These books have given me personal black heroes like Ida. B Wells and have given me the desire to be instrumental in lifting up and providing opportunities for blacks in Chicago. I want to start a fund that pays for kids to train at local MMA gyms at no cost to their family. The discipline and self-confidence people gain from training martial arts is akin to nothing. Also, it will give kids the opportunity to be in a safe place pursuing their own personal goals while also providing career opportunities for those exceptionally talented and dedicated few.

I plan on using my wealth to inspire and educate others on how to do the same. A point that is made in The Richest Man in Babylon, is that the prosperity of a nation depends on the prosperity of its citizens. We all know there is an enormous economic gap between the richest and poorest of us, and even more so among the various minorities in this country. There seems to be this mentality among the general population that there’s a limited amount of wealth to go around and that each person better try to get their slice of the pie before someone else takes it. This is not true. There is actually no limit to the amount of wealth that can be accumulated in any one nation or in the entire world. My plan to attack this is by developing an organization that provides free resources for underserved areas of Chicago with regards to fundamental business and personal financial management education. The main purposes of this organization would be to equip prospective business owners with an action plan and the know how to establish their own LLC or sole proprietorship, provide funding solutions for those that would otherwise have a hard time getting a startup loan, and lastly to develop young teenagers into leaders to prepare them for a career in management as opposed to low paying hard jobs that often tempt or force youth into a rotating criminal lifestyle of selling drugs or worse. Because of this common risk factor in impoverished neighborhoods, I want this organization to offer a one-time buy back of guns and/or drugs (depending on being able to create a cooperative program with CPD) in order to encourage putting those things down in order to commit themselves to real work that can be even more profitable and more importantly, legal!

Another thing I want to do to help is invest in the properties in run down, poverty stricken and violent neighborhoods. I want to create a program that will be able to pay residents to learn how to and assist with the construction necessary to improve these neighborhoods not only visually but also their living conditions. I would invest in local businesses and hire local residents to work at those businesses. Then, I would create a program for those that don’t own the homes they live in to slowly buy back their houses. This should raise the equity in these neighborhoods as a whole and give residents a reason to be proud of and take better care of their community. Then the residents who participated in the learn-while-you-build program should have some valuable skills to add to their resumes in order to be eligible for positions that not only pay for bare essentials but also provide the opportunity for accumulating personal wealth.

So, you may be wondering how I plan to accumulate a billion in assets in order to accomplish these hefty goals. The answer is simple. Think and Grow Rich taught me that there is but one guaranteed method for amassing a personal fortune: rendering exceptional service. This is important for profit, but in philanthropy as well. I was raised in the Methodist church, and so am used to rendering philanthropic service already. I’ve participated in Operation Christmas Child, I’ve served at soup kitchens at local homeless shelters, and contributed to a mural depicting racial tolerance and unity with an inter-congregational youth group called Luna. I currently donate to UNHCR and Black Lives Matters and will continue to do volunteer work in my community to stay humble and grateful. As far as accumulating wealth, I have recently gone back to school, financed by myself, for computer science and applied mathematics. There are two reasons why I chose to do this. The first is that when I had the privilege of working and studying under Phil, I was asked to assist with purchasing. Because I wanted to do the best job that I could, I was forced to attempt to compile years of sales data and turn that into actionable information. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. However, it was also one of the most fun and rewarding projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on. The second reason is that I read Mindfuck by Christopher Wylie. I was intrigued and horrified by what I found in those pages. It showed me what can be accomplished when self-serving and evil people have access to virtually unlimited data, but it also turned on my light bulb as to the things I could do with data if taught the skills and given the opportunity.

Ultimately, I plan on being able to do what Phil asked me to do, but for multiple companies. I want to be a data consultant. I will assist companies with making actionable decisions from their data and universally available data, with regards to direct marketing and advertising, purchasing, talent acquisition, capital budgeting, digitizing their data, and more. Because of my willingness to be the best student and my genuine desire to serve, I will have to become one of the most successful consultants to walk this beautiful green earth. I then plan on using essentially the same vehicles that made Donald Trump and Ray Croc billionaires: real estate. I will become an understanding landlord who is easy to get along with in order to create a wide referral network of tenants. I will be providing the service of providing affordable but competitive and well managed housing. The twenty thousand dollars I will receive for writing this very true story, will be used in three ways exactly. The first is to send an unexpected appreciation check to a few of my most impactful teachers. Second, I plan on finishing my degree and getting my masters from Illinois Institute of Technology so some of the money would go to that. Lastly, I would put some towards a down payment for my first home purchase and my real estate empire started!

My name is Trevon Lawson. I will become a billionaire because I want to, because I can, and because of who I’ll become in the process and the people I’ll be able to help in doing so. The start to this fortune and the many programs I want to enact to help my people, my city, my country, my world, will be the twenty thousand I receive from telling you precisely why I need it.