This post is the epitome of transparency. This subject is of great importance to me and my family. What I am going to share with you is my experience and while I invite and enjoy lively debate I ask that if you plan to comment please read my entire post, do not insult my intelligence and respect that this is my experience and what I have lived in and through.  I want you to please really think about what I write in this post in relation to what is happening today. You will discover my passion for fighting and standing up for freedom, Capitalism and less government in our lives and why.

This is highly likely to be the most important election of our entire lifetime. While the message in my post is political in nature it is more about why I am who I am and not about the candidates although who I am has a lot to do with choosing a candidate who will be most likely to keep the entrepreneur spirit alive in America. Through many of my comments (of which I am proud to say) I am not about political correctness since my core belief is that the very essence of inquiry and free speech is squashed and diminished through political correctness in its' many forms. If you have read any of my political comments on other blogs here you will have bits and pieces of my experience. If you are a regular reader of my blog; you will know how I feel about taxation, freedom, parental rights, religious freedom, darwanism and global warming. This post is more about the how and the why.

If you have been following my plight to fight corruption in Latvia  with Russian mobsters and corrupt judges and government you will know a part of the heritage of my family of which I am very proud. I have very close first hand experience into what it is like to have it all and then have it all taken away from you.

I am born of a line of what they call 'blue blood', royalty dating back to the Viking Era on my mother's side. Our family tree is legendary and dates back to the days of medieval times. Latvia lies along the Baltic Sea and has throughout history been a very important seaport for export and military purposes and therefore Latvia has been the land that others covet.  Our family belonged to the group known as land barons which has a negative connotation in the world then and even now. You see, from the beginning of time, there has always been those who believe in wealth redistribution. But my family worked hard to buy land, to open factories, to build railroads and to provide jobs. All the members in my family were privileged to attend Universities in Riga Latvia and Kiev Russia before Stalin was in power. We had a summer house on the beach, land to cultivate crops that sharecroppers lived and worked on, and a bustling home in Riga for the busy meetings of business owners. We were what you would consider today as very wealthy. My family helped the poor, provided education for the sharecroppers children, trained many people to work in the factories, paper mills and to build the railroad going through Latvia that would later transport these same people to Siberian concentrations and Jews to their unmarked graves of mass slaughter.

Marx and Lenon has different ideas and partnering with Stalin poisoned the youth and spread propaganda about class warfare and how bad rich people were. That rich people needed to give their money to the those that did not work and that you should take from those that have to give to those that need based not on effort or work ethic but rather on the very popular held belief that all misery is caused by the rich who provided the jobs. Land ownership was propagandized as enslavement of the poor and landowners quickly were listed as enemies of the state.

Soon the entire country became enthroned in the Marxist movement, which quickly stomped out any right to inquiry and free speech. With the media on their side and wealthy elitists wishing to remain in power the lies quickly became that Marx and Stalin were men of the people and defenders of the poor. This was far from the truth and the more they rose to power, the more people were killed and scared into submission. Soon there were no more jobs, the government owned all the land and the buildings on the land. Then, the government owned not just your land but your mind too. Taxes were so high and the very essence of human dreams and goals were stomped out within the souls of the people. Most of the people my mother's homeland became alcoholics and gave up any desire to do anything for themselves. In fact, the devastation of the killing of the human spirit to prosper and grow created such entrenched enabling of dependence that when the Iron Curtain fell many people could not function and even worked to get communism back because that is what they knew. Alcoholics Anonymous chapters are the fast becoming commonplace in the former Eastern Block countries.

My family escaped the Stalin hit list by fleeing to Germany with only the clothes that they had on their backs and some sentimental items. They lived in a refugee camp in filth and poverty until a sponsor from the United States was found. Their new home would be in Tacoma Washington.Prior to leaving Latvia my grandfather contacted the United States to make sure that if he put his money in the banks here, it would be safe. He was assured that this would be fine. FDR broke that promise and my family discovered that their money had been given to Stalin.  In those days, the impressive degrees and PHD's meant nothing in the United States and would be of no help to them. My great grandfather became a janitor for the YMCA. My grandmother went back to school to replace her degrees and ended up being a high school teacher of languages. My mother went to Stadium High School in Tacoma and got a full scholarship to Stanford University where she met my father and got married. I was born in the Stanford Hospital.  

Fast forward to when I was 8 years old; my mother and father divorced and soon my siblings and I would find ourselves in extreme poverty. My mother moved back to the states from Germany and went back to get her PHD at Stanford. Meanwhile I was the oldest of 4 children playing the caretaker role;  feeding, teaching and caring for my siblings. I wrote a tribute post for my mother here. We lived in a very upper income neighborhood which was quite tough because we were the have nots. My brother and I would shoplift, but we did not shoplift toys or candy. We stuffed food under our clothes because we were that hungry. One time the store manager stopped my brother who was wearing a big Parka. He opened the jacket and felt so bad for us that he put the food in a bag and let us go home with it.

It was during these times that I  formed my resolve never to be poor again. I would imagine myself being a model, an actress, a writer, a clothes designer, a rock star, a person of charity and a business owner. I felt in my heart that it was going to be up to me to make my own way. I did some crazy stuff as a teen and went pretty wild. My mother was a hippie and did crazy and irresponsible things. I was able to break free from the poverty mindset. I clung unto my 'blue blood', knowing that I was going to make it in this world and be successful.

I rose above it all to become a very successful business owner. I became a model at the age of 15, an actress at the age of 16, a clothes designer at 17 ( that was a short lived business), then a mother and a Realtor,  along with owning Tae Kwon Do schools for about 15 years, earning my black belt and instructor certificates, then a coach and a writer/speaker. One of my goals as a homeschooling mom was to instill in my children the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Through this journey I worked for what I gained. I became a successful businesswoman. I went broke a few times and made good and bad business decisions. But no one came to bail me out. Now I am considered 'RICH' by certain political candidates.  My family came from rich roots to poverty and I climbed back up the economic ladder. We gave more in % tithing than most candidates collectively give and now they want to take my honestly earned money and redistribute to those that choose not to work as I did and do. They think they know better than me who I should give my money to. At the tax bracket we are in, we are already straining for college tuitions for multiple children. Higher taxes would mean that our last 3 children may not be able to go to college. You see, how much money you make is relative to the cost of living of where you live and many other factors. You can live in great style in Kansas with a huge home for 250k per year, but that same amount of money would get you a small apartment in New York and the cost of living of everything else in New York would make a family with that income just average, not rich.

The best antidote to the poverty mindset is to become inspired  and live with passion. The best movie I ever saw on this subject is the movie Will Smith portrayed Chris Garner in, The Pursuit of Happyness. If you have not watched this movie, please see the clip below and then go and rent this movie. This clip here is the Don't let anyone steal your dream clip and the one that is right after this one is when Chris and his son were homeless.

Poor people do not overcome poverty by hand outs. Poverty is a mindset. Money can not keep you where your mind can not hold you. I  can speak with authority on this subject. Rich people do not get empowered nor inspired to make more money by having it taken away from them. They either stop working as they did in England and Germany or they move their money out of the country. Ireland is looking pretty good right about now, but they don't have any short sales:)!

If you are in business for yourself; right now perhaps as an agent you are only making $50,000 or $75,000 but if you work smart and learn to push your income ceiling you too could be improving your business into the figures that have the new 'rich' definition to them. If you are looking forward to getting there, I am asking you to think long and hard about the implications to your growing business when you go into the voting booth. This is the most important election of our lifetime and will either make or break your business as you grow.  Watch this clip to experience what Chris Garner felt when all this struggles and all this trials turn into his blessing.

Copyright by Katerina Gasset 2008 All Rights Reserved