My story is one of struggle and sacrifice, but it is also one of hope and determination. I am an Afro-Bahamian fellow who lives in the Bahamas, where my dad’s family are from here, whilst my mom’s family are from Jamaica. So to give a little bit of context, mom at a young age early 20s thereabout, she was offered a ticket by a church friend to move to the Bahamas whose kids were left without a mother after an untimely death. So the father wanted someone to babysit and be a help to be around the kids. As time went by, the kids would have taken treated her as a family member who could be around for them whenever their father took off for work. Mom eventually met dad as he was out one day in the town, eventually got to know one another through dating which led to marriage later on. This encounter started well but dad’s abusive lifestyle kicked in after a while into the marriage as he always had some indicative problems related to alcohol abuse. Also, poverty followed strongly as both of my parents who struggled with their relationship, also had a job problem where I saw both would struggle with finding a decent wage job.
In spite of such a time, I endured years of this poverty-stricken livelihoods, from I can remember in Eleuthera where it all started, seeing both parents struggle when I was age 7 or thereabouts, all the way to when they separated from each other, as life got worst. It was a difficult time to find food to eat, I remembered not having a tub or toilet at home as a result of financial hardships. The family would take turns to bathe by using a huge washing bucket and the toilet would be an empty paint bucket then that would have been thrown out into the bushes at the back of the house. This continued until we moved to Abaco Island north of the Bahamas for better job opportunities and living conditions, where we stayed with family of dad’s.
Today I have a strong desire, and have always dreamed of pursuing higher education and still determine to complete my education to one day use this as an example to inspire others to never quit. Building a better life for myself and my family is ultimately one of my greatest goals to becoming a blessing to family, and others who were instrumental to any successes I had in the past despite of background, religion, race, class, or anything else. In fact, I always desired a better life, but circumstances have stood in my way.
Growing up, my family faced immense challenges. My parents separated, and my father’s alcoholism brought a great deal of pain and turmoil into our lives. My father, who was an alcoholic, would often take out his anger on my mother and the family which led to the eventual separation during my high school days. I was too traumatized from his abusive nature when he came home drunk when i was about 6 years old, where he beat me over the head with a gallon bottle. Mom was at work at the time. She came home and they both argued for a while. Despite these difficulties, my mother worked tirelessly to provide for us.
In Eleuthera was bad. However, when we moved to Abaco, it was still a struggle but the jobs mom took on helped, as she took on multiple cleaning jobs just to make ends meet, all while raising my three younger sisters and me, being the only boy birthed to my biological parents and oldest out of my siblings.
To take you back into a time that I met my grandmother, my mother’s mom, including my wonderful great grandmother who passed away but she bragged about our encounter, where I left her with an experience she always shared with others, I recalled having a strong desire to visit both my great grandmother and grandmother in Jamaica again in the future. It never happened dus to the financial strain on myself. So great grandmother passed away, but I am currently still going to make the best efforts to make the trip to grandmother. I believe life’s relationships and time is precious, so I think we must value this. I have established the means to fund my trips and immerse myself with the culture there, which I will want to honor their lives for what they truly represented the first and last time my mom, siblings and myself visited them some 16 to 18 years back. Both my great grandmother, and grandmother provided us with a hospitable short loving experience when we went to visit them. Mom saved so hard just to make that trip happen and we went over to visit, despite the homes not up to healthy standards, I want to create a family business and some day build at least my grandmother a nice healthy home including mom for all she did for my siblings and I.
Today, my grandmother is living in a physically health challenging circumstance in the same poverty circumstances we left her, where mom tried to convince her to move to the Bahamas but she never agreed to it. She never took a plane and she doesn’t have any interest to do it now. Regardless, I’d love to eliminate and make some aspects of her life better, building a more comfortable home, by building a successful business, also documenting my journey by starting a YouTube vlogging channel to document my visits and other lifestyle encounters. I would like to interview grandmother and have her share her story by taking a journey into the past with her as our conversations go over some of her personal experiences or wisdom. Vlogging this experience would be based upon invaluable inspirational stories with the world, whilst turning this passion for motivating others into another way to reach out and honor contributors to my life. Those few days will never be forgotten with my great grandmother, where I sat with her and sang the good old spiritual hymn “To God Be the Glory” for her at her ripe old age, where she would smile and be amazed. I noticed this brought her great joy.
I was only about 14 around this time, and sadly never got the opportunity to sing for her just one last time to her due to my poverty circumstances, related to physical, personal or psychological obstacles. Being honest, I have decided despite some psychological challenges from childhood traumatic exposure from dad’s abusive lifestyle due to alcohol, I would continue to push forward with ultimate goal to establish the way forward to a better future for my mom, grand mother, siblings and others. This psychological hangup led to moments of nonprioritizing what matters most, such as even to say the least to call my great grandmother and sing that way, this was something never really occurring to me as something truly of importance as I was extremely ignorant or oblivious to many of life’s priorities due to poverty, lack of education, or exposure to circumstances whilst living the island life which kind of dawn on me when I moved to New Providence the capital city island of the Bahamas. Many psychological woes only compounded any clarity to make a coherent response to the circumstances that bound me, so I became too distracted by a world of confusion, trauma seeing dad’s abusive actions on mom and myself, where I did not really have the best morals, true healthy emotional intelligence or perception, understanding the true nature of valuing family relationships or how much time truly mattered.
I remembered the time spent with my great grandmother as she was very hospitable to me and siblings on our short few days visit to Jamaica. After I woke up at my grandmother’s house, I would walk next door to my great grandmother’s house, where she cooked a nice meal and made me comfortable as she turned on the television for me. I later sang for her and she was very moved and told my mom and grandmother about it. It was a great time. I sang with a bass voice she loved deeply but most importantly a spiritual song that she told everyone around her almost all the time till the day she passed.
There are many people who I’d like to honor including family and friends of the family who I label as family.
Let’s take a good look at the life of a legendary IT professional who name was Sinclair.
One of few ideas that I considered was to start a Vending business with my folks in the US, today mom is divorced and remarried as of 2024 in the US to her new husband, but before this time she once worked for Sinclair some 15-20 years ago, in the island of Abaco which was destroyed in 2019 by hurricane Dorian, which forced her to move to New Providence where I am, and she then met her husband where she now lives in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.
Mom’s past experiences between the year 2000 to 2018 put her before many people who she came across such as all of her heartwarming caucasian friends, who were both American and German homeowners who lived or visited the Bahamas, particularly Treasure Cay, a community in Abaco. Whenever mom worked for such homeowners, I remembered the shower of compliments she got from them. She would take her cleaning jobs very seriously, washing laundry, scrubbing the tubs and toilets, washing the dishes, sweeping and mopping the floors, wiping the windows, she would go over and beyond for these families who came year after year.
Sinclair was one of many of them who was an American jolly old soul, just a very nice guy that invited us a few times into his home occasionally, where we ate and even went for a boat ride at sea one time. I thank God for having some moments where folks saw mom and believed in mom who was very reliable, very hardworking, caring, and courteous lady to them. She would always thrive to keep a roof over our heads, my siblings and I. Many of moms employers would tell her to keep their homes in good condition until they were back seasonally. Whenever they left to go back to US to work, they left their refrigerators and cupboards with tons of food and drinks to mom but only the beers, rum or wine was left. Mom’s bosses would always remind her to take whatever she needed.
We would have eaten many days this way because things were already hard and cost of living in those days was high and is much higher today. Even when they offered alcoholic beverages, she would not drink but left her bosses’ alcohol beverages alone. She remained faithful to her christian values. Mom was blessed with moments of having food every now and then to take home even though it was not always common among all homeowners.
During the pandemic, my grandfather who was very communicative with me and sisters, as he lived in Chicago before he passed away, he used to want what’s best for my sisters and I, as he was always concern about our livelihoods, he would call every few weeks and checked in. This was a very empowering experience, and I believe that I should have done more to reach out to him as much as he did in the latter years of his life. Kenneth, my dad’s father was a deeply caring man, even though him and dad were not too close maybe somewhat communicative throughout the years, since dad didn’t find out that Kenneth was his biological father until probably in his early to mid 20s.
Despite this situation, my grandfather was very seemingly empathetic man some months before his passing, as he was able to communicate with us, where I would just have thoughts to live in the US or at least be able to tap more into a greater opportunity for financial stability. However, grandfather would have passed some short time after the pandemic, and I would not have been able to stand an opportunity to move there and establish something for my family and I. When I visualize the opportunity to empower my family, I was convinced after many hours of praying, calculated thought, planning and learning from other successful people, that despite not having the right circumstances, I would still give this new idea of starting a businsss, as I came across few Vending business owners online videos including I read 1 or 2 vending machine authored books, it helped me to gain clarity, confidence and a determination to become a successful business owner. It was exactly the kind of work that I was very excited would do alot as it appeal to my past experiences of selling services where during the pandemic, the financial strain came about and my only thought was to sell my shoes on Facebook marketplace and a cooling fan. I was successful with both sales in a short span of time. This built my confidence where I gained that feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, appreciation and inspiration from the whole ordeal.
Likewise, I considered even more to open a book Vending business as opposed to a snack Vending business with a unique focus on providing adequate books on financial education and marketing concepts, such as Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiosaki, Richest man in Babylon by Napoleon Hill, From trash man to cash man by Myron Golden, or Business Secrets from the Bible: Spiritual Success Strategies for Financial Abundance by Rabbi Daniel Lapin to list a few examples. As I grow greater in this opportunity to expand power of reading opportunity bringing some of the great insightful minds in business ownership to my homeland people, it is my passion to spread this love into the US eventually, as I would love mom and stepdad to some day help with a new vending book branch in their state, so more persons are encouraged to read which I kind of struggled to incorporate into my life growing up, but as I became older, after reading many books, listening to the authors and the Tony Robert’s, and Benjamin Carsons out there, it matured my perception.
I am deeply compelled to help many Bahamians including others outside the country expand their minds, transforming their way of thinking, more visionarily especially living in the islands where we are least expose to so many insightful ideas, where most Bahamians do not have many of the same job opportunities as first world countries with vast opportunities to work or showcase one’s unique talents to a greater population, whereby putting one’s unique strengths into available areas of businesses or jobs in demand. In my case I would like to expand this love of reading to the Bahamas and around the Caribbean and eventually to US through beginning to step up here first, doing more to bring that vision into a reality so as to bless mom with a home that she could call her own, since she always wanted to have a house on a hill, and a store to sell a variety of items whether it be hats and shoes etc. She always wanted some way forward, and it is my desire to follow my heart towards fulfilling what she tried so hard to do in her 30s as this year made her 60 years old.
She seemed to have fought over the years to move into her own home and start a business, and break this family curse of poverty that has been a long frustrating journey starting back generations in the past to this current day. Life hit really hard when my great grandmother passed some years before my grandfather. I went from the Bahamas to Jamaica where I met her, she was a very pleasant old lady at the time, and I was about 14. She would take me and my sisters into her home and cook for us and would allow us to watch the television, and take a nap on her couch. This trip only happen once in my lifetime, as it was very expensive for mom at the time to afford to take about 4 of us including herself on this short few days trip. She always use to tell mom and my grandmother who is my mother’s mom about the time I sang for her the song “To God Be the Glory” at age 14 with a bass voice.
Unfortunately, before I could have traveled back to Trelawney Jamaica from the Bahamas, years later where I could find a job in New Providence to sustain the high cost of living, it never happened as only the struggle to support myself and family compounded. I would have love to take a flight on my own whilst hopefully in my mid or late 20s, but I was met with the financial challenges of my own, including my family, and also not knowing that she would have passed eventually, I felt very disturbed by the news as I didn’t give her that opportunity to see me later at a grown age and possibly sing to her just one more time, maybe a few hymns since it made me happy for some reason as she listened and enjoyed my company of singing to her, something she always bragged about with other family members and everybody else in the neighborhood.
Today, it is still my plan to visit my grandmother who has aged alot and has not much of a home, or the best living circumstance as it was my grandmother’s experience. I want to not only bless mom but my grandmother with a better and comfortable home maybe to start my YouTube channel where I would like to record and share some closer moments with her letting her share her story as she is now showing some signs of age related concerns that alarms me to be a bit more intentional about seeing how best I can truly thank her for also sharing some days with her in Jamaica, in her home as she cooked and gave us a place to lay our heads. She was the most attentive person to our needs and whenever we felt sick, she was more concern than mom was even though mom was very concern, grandmother would check on us almost every few minutes.
To make ends meet for my family, I would love to start with a Vending book business, visit my grandmother along with other relatives, eventually go into vlogging on YouTube sharing my family’s life journey to be a pillar of strength for others, and to record those moments that truly should be prioritized and treasured. After getting to start this Vending business, along with vlogging eventually, I will continue to accumulate the capital to go into building a better or more comfortable home for both my moms, and start a business for them both by branching out with the vending book business, or anything else that they would love, a store or similar, as mom would love a laundromat store. Then on my end I would love to possibly complete civil engineering education, and do more in real estate, and rental businesses such as AirBnB or apartments that both grandmother and mom can own and benefit where other relatives can assist with the daily operations.
I have been very blessed to have been introduced to the internet world, Google at the age of 14 by my mom’s caucasian friend and boss, who name was Sinclair, I remembered that he shared a story about his contribution to building the world’s first computer which was super in size. Sinclair was a genuinely nice guy who moved to Abaco, Treasure Cay, as an IT professional. I remembered before he passed how he pitched an antenna outside our apartment and gave us free internet. This was around the time when we connected to the internet through dial network system. Sinclair would have invited mom, my siblings and I many times for dinner, where he cooked us homemade spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. He was a very hardworking relentless always giving kind of elderly guy with a great heart and vision for the community. He was the type of guy when people had a financial need, if he had the money he would help you when you struggled or had a need. I will never forget what life or love he left behind for those who loved and knew and kept him close not as a close friend but he was everyone’s big brother, and that is what we all experienced with him.
There was never a dull moment in his company whereby he always made fun jokes that put the smile even on the saddest face despite of himself having his worst day, he never showed it and mom knowing this always tried to get him to open up and unfold his thoughts which he did in her company from time to time. In stating all this, I have dedicated my journey from now moving forward with great determination whether God sends someone to assist me through funding today or where I will eventually break free of this poverty cycle to one day elevate higher through my action to keep pushing forward, as I would like to share my vlogging platform, and get to first meet some of my goals to family, honoring my two moms including great grandmother and grandfather loving sentiments which despite how short those days were, both moments were very important to me and my new zeal, then venturing out to reaching Sinclair’s family in the US, honoring him through giving back something precious that demonstrated his love for us the island community, his family away from his US family. I remembered years ago before he passed, I asked him why move away to the Bahamas and spend his days here, he answered with a unapologetic response where he appeared to have found peace here as he took the community as his family.
He was who helped me to gain a love and accessibility to the world of the internet, where I found out eventually about YouTube and now I would love to honor my mother’s contribution to always endeavoring to give me her best despite of poverty, including Sinclair but I will honor him through special recognition to his family, I will honor them as family and friends whom I am sure Sinclair would have appreciated me for doing such an amazing thoughtful act as I have decided once I am more established with the finances to get a painting portrait done with him, maybe showing him being apart of the first computer invention but a part of my early childhood journey of enjoying the huge world of the internet and how that came along with imparting his own genius and his spirit of giving upon the entire Treasure Cay community and those who knew him. It would probably be difficult to find residents from Treasure Cay community nowadays, to pay him tribute in some ways once connected to his US family, because now ever since hurricane Dorian, the majority of residents left Treasure Cay and sold their homes or never came back due to the total devastated blow or wipe out of that community. Treasure Cay would have had to start from scratch.
Nevertheless I will put some work in and make my contribution to his family as thoughtful as possibly can even if it means finding a good number of people who are back in the US, or other islands of the Bahamas, and getting them to do a short video that I can share when vlogging this particular experience. My aim is to be as much a blessing to families just as many who may support through their gracious lives the financial capital that will set me on a life long thoughtful journey to meet such people, or anyone who was very instrumental upon this journey of mine, as my mind is creatively at work to honor many, and be a blessing in some ways, to encourage, put a smile on somebody’s face, or give without requesting for money in return. Everything I do will be from a genuine heart to spread the love, so others in the world can do the same, offering themselves to pay it forward, asking for nothing in return, but yet stepping forward gracefully and honorably, making the world a little better through our acts of compassion, gratitude and selflessness.
Consequently enough, after reading many books, watching hours of family podcasts, and listening attentively to different people and circumstances, my mind took on a gradual growth to what was a reality. There was a time during financial hardships as mom being a single mom, separated from dad, struggled with our expenses, me and the sister who attended college around 2008 to 2012, where we endured some hard weeks, mom working multiple cleaning jobs a day whilst taking care of us in New Providence the capital island, as she also took care my youngest two sisters in Abaco, and I had to leave the rented unit for search of a part time job but whenever I went into a business, positions were already filled. I was determined to work and help as I always did when I was in high school where I would do construction in the summer and hand my salaries to mom a good number of times or some of it.
When I completed high school, myself and the oldest sister out of the three, we left Abaco for College of the Bahamas located on New Providence the capital island in 2008. I was determined to pursue a college education. I enrolled in the civil engineering program at the College of the Bahamas, and the government provided some funding for my studies. However, the financial strain on my family was immense, particularly my single-parent mom. With limited support and a high cost of living, which in the Bahamas our currency to US currency is a dollar to dollar, but still cost of living almost doubles or triples compared to the cost of living in the US, I had to make the difficult decision to drop out of college, College of the Bahamas to help support my family.
While I was away, my single mother struggled to support my two younger sisters and herself by working multiple cleaning jobs. I felt a responsibility to step up and help support them financially, so during summers, I would search for construction jobs and contribute most of my earnings to the household expenses.
Unfortunately, the financial strain became too great, and I had to drop out of college to focus on finding ways to uplift my family. I worked various jobs, including security and gas station clerk, to send money back to my family in Abaco. This continuous labor gave me a newfound determination to become a business owner and provide stability for my family.
Over the years, I have worked various jobs to try to provide for my loved ones. From security positions to gas station clerking, I have done whatever it takes to keep my family afloat. Despite my best efforts, we still live in dire poverty, and my dream of giving my family a better life remains unfulfilled.
Recently, within the past year I have discovered a potential opportunity that could change everything for us. I learned about the vending machine business, read books on it, watch videos, and also felt the power of books to empower individuals. I have a dream to start a book vending business, focusing on providing books on financial education, business ownership and marketing concepts to my community. I believe that by spreading the love of reading and knowledge, I can help lift my family, my community, other persons to value reading and myself out of poverty.
But I cannot do this alone. I am reaching out to angel investors today, humbly asking for your compassionate support. I understand that everyone has their own struggles and financial responsibilities, but any assistance you can provide, no matter how small, would be invaluable to me. Your generosity would help me take the first steps towards establishing my vending business and creating a better future for my family.
With the capital I accumulate from this venture, I dream of visiting my grandmother in Jamaica and documenting our shared story through a YouTube vlogging platform. I want to create a lasting legacy for my loved ones, honoring their sacrifices and resilience. My ultimate goal is to build a comfortable home for my two mothers and start a family business, all while continuing my education in civil engineering and expanding into real estate.
I also want to honor the memory of a kind-hearted friend named Sinclair, who introduced me to the world of the internet and inspired me to dream bigger. He believed in giving back to the community and left a lasting impact on my life. I aim to honor him by reaching out to his family in the United States and creating a tribute that exemplifies his generosity and love.
My plan is to start a vending machine business, initially in the Bahamas and then expand to the United States. In addition, I want to focus on providing books on financial education and marketing concepts through vending machines. This will allow me to spread the love for reading and empower individuals in my homeland community of the Bahamas then branch out to US and Caribbean probably on a small scale, where I will encourage more reading, something I found rewarding as an African Bahamian who tried not to make excuses for myself taking on a new mindset despite the limited access we have to many jobs in demand compared to the US where more jobs are in higer demand or more jobs exist. Regardless of the first world countries that helps to put our limitless potential to good use, finding opportunities that align with our talents or gifts is still a good way forward out of the struggle for those who are living in third world countries such as The Bahamas, where our number one industry is mainly built upon tourism. Our country thrives on tourism dollars, so most of the jobs are built around construction, hospitality, financial institutions or just minimum wage helper jobs or similar that helps to maintain our livelihoods amongst our tourism product.
Once I establish the vending business and YouTube channel, I aim to accumulate enough capital to build homes for both my mothers and start businesses that they would love. Additionally, I want to complete my education in civil engineering and venture into real estate, rental businesses and possibly mom’s laundromat idea.
I am grateful for the opportunities the internet has presented me, especially being introduced to Google at a young age by a kind-hearted friend named Sinclair. Sinclair not only taught me about the internet but also showed immense generosity and care for our family. I want to honor his memory by giving back to his family and the Treasure Cay community where he lived and called home like many of us back in those days.
Ultimately, my goal is to inspire others through my actions and acts of kindness. I want to spread love, encourage others to pay it forward, and make a positive impact on the world. I believe that by showing compassion, gratitude, and selflessness, we can all make the world a better place.
I understand that my dreams may seem ambitious, but I believe that with your help, they can become a reality. Your support would not only change the course of my life but also inspire me to continue spreading love, compassion, and gratitude to others. I am committed to paying it forward in any way I can, using my experiences to make a positive difference in the lives of those around me.
I am deeply grateful for your time, consideration, and potential support. Your assistance of $10,000-$50,000 could be the stepping stone that propels me toward a brighter future. If you wish to help, please reach out and you can fund me via platform www.beggingmoney.com, PayPalme link: paypal.me/BuyoffJungle where you can contribute directly to my cause.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
With utmost gratitude.
Any assistance from you would be greatly appreciated.
I’d start my book vending business then add a snack vending machines later or same time.
In the Bahamas, our currency is 1bs to 1usd, or dollar to dollar with the US.
1 book machine at $1500-$2000 from Alibaba including shipment and customs duty: total cost may range from $2000-$2500 when reach the Bahamas.
5 machines: total cost $12,500
Book capacity of 1 machine: 200pcs
5 machines: 1000pcs/1000 books
Books average cost at $15
1000 books at $15: $15,000
Mini-Van for business: total $7500
Total: van + 5mach + 1000 bks = $35,000
1 snack vendo 721 machine cost: $4k-$5k
3 snack machines: $15,000
Total funds: $50,000
Considering the cost of other miscellaneous necessicities such as a rented small storage facility that can cost between $1200-$2000 a month, I would try avoid this and make some effort to find a friend who can accommodate space for bringing my machines to serviced at their place if need be. Main priority is to build a profitable successful business within the first 6 months to a year, then by 24-36 months, fully reaching operational capacity to providing great quality service to customers with at least 50-100 machines by that time. My ultimate goal is to increase the amount of locations where my machines are stationed from 5 machines to 10 machines, up to as much as 100 book vending and snack machines respectively amongst 2 or more countries.
Here is a video that have taught me quite well as I look forward to further new knowledge in paying for the full course training: https://youtu.be/-s_Y-O1nosw?si=4e9ph3Ve32VRnJj8