Who's Your Daddy?: What Every Son Needs To Know

By Kevin Davis Sr.

Son, if I were to die before you turned 18, this book will serve as your guide and our family legacy. It's important that you don't make my mistakes. So here is the story of my life as told directly from your fathers heart. You will learn the importance of family, the importance of investment, and the importance of financial literacy.

This journey started out just as a private guide, but due to the overwhelming response, it's become a guide for all families and their children as well. It's time to shift how we set up and leave our present and future generations. My intention is that this book inspires every parent to leave a blueprint behind for their children to follow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 23, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646694099

Book preview

today.

1 THE GIFT OF GUIDANCE

Son, this is your life’s guide, financial guidance, and my story I leave for you.

First and foremost, always know that your mother and I love you more than life itself.

You are my first born and as such, it is your duty to take care of your mother and any siblings that come after you.

My deepest intent is that you grow up to be an honorable, respectful man that suffers humility and leads with the heart of your family.

My hope is that you walk with love in your heart and humbleness in your words.

Love is the strongest word in the English language, and it is very often expressed without words. You will find that until you love yourself, it will be difficult to love another. You are a product of love.

As parents we sit and watch you smile and laugh everyday all day showered by the thankfulness of such a magnificent blessing. You are the heartbeat that surrounds our world and the oxygen that flows through our blood. We understand our blessing from the inside out and want to penetrate your existence with such an exceptional love that you will have a humble heart.

A humble heart is a loving heart. The best way to describe this is your mother’s love. Besides God’s love, there is no deeper love than a mother’s love.

This is a love that is relentless and unconditional. So, protect your mother’s heart by being a light that illuminates the love that was instilled in you.

I physically watched your mother exhausted but relentless in the care of her newly-born blessing. There were many sleepless nights in the beginning, toiling over her need to be perfect for what we considered the perfection of God’s greatest gift.

Your name is Kevin Hunter Davis, Jr.

You were named after your father and your grandfather. Your middle name is your grandfather’s middle name.

Your grandfather’s name was Thomas Hunter Davis, Sr.

Your grandfather passed in January of 2019. But before God called him home, he held you in his arms, and he smiled and reveled in his love for you - his first grandchild of his oldest son, your father.

Your grandmother’s name is Diane Patricia Davis. She also loves you more than life itself. You are the light that gives this family purpose and hope for a better future.

On July 31, 2018 at 9:15 pm, you were born and given the name Kevin Hunter Davis, Jr.

The name Kevin means handsome. But even this description fails to describe your amazing looks!

You were born to Kevin Davis, Sr. and Whitney Davis. We are your parents. Never in our lives have we been more blessed to have such a magnificent gift bestowed upon us.

You are a king from a line of kings and will be raised to be such.

So, here today on May 11, 2019, I pass you the wisdom of our family in hopes that you have a guideline that helps you navigate this cold and harsh world. My sincerest wish is that life is a better place for you and the lives coming after you.

This life is what you make it, so take total responsibility for the life you want to create.

Life is not easy and nothing will be given to you. It is a must that you earn everything in your 3 feet of space.

In life you will find that no one owes you a damn thing, and tomorrow is not promised. So if you are blessed to wake up, give life your all. The entire legacy of the Davis name is at stake.

At the age of 7, I was taught how to play the game of chess by your grandfather. The first thing he conveyed to me was you can’t get F.A.R. in chess and in life if you don’t Focus and Analyze before you Respond, meaning always think and assess your situation before you move forward.

This taught me how to understand the power of choice and not to make hasty decisions.

Son, a choice is nothing but an option and in life you will have plenty. The key is to make wise decisions by understanding how to analyze the situations you are presented with from top to bottom.

When you are making important decisions, you must analyze the pros and cons, not just how you feel but if the math or logic makes sense.

You must understand the difference between a logical and an emotional decision.

A logical decision is a sensible one built very often with common sense or it can be formulaic like math - laying out the steps to solve the problem.

An emotional decision is an unstable decision, so never make a decision out of emotion - 9 out of 10 times, it’s an irrational one.

Many times you will be faced with the question - Is it good for you or for the greater good and who will be affected by the decision?

Now a business and personal decision are two totally different choice mechanisms.

Your intent personally should always be to make a decision with love in your heart, and this doesn’t always mean making a favorable decision in the short term. But in the long term, it may be the best for all involved.

Life is about relationships - your relationship with God, your parents, friends, and one day, your wife and children. Throughout your life you will be met with certain decisions. So, it’s very important you know the difference between right and wrong as a whole.

So what does this mean? Let’s classify wrong as anything that doesn’t make your heart feel good, takes unfair advantage of or hurts another person, and right being what is just in all situations.

Now remember you are a child of God, so you must seek the greater good in all situations.

Because of this fact, not all decisions you make will benefit you. They will benefit the whole of the situation.

For example, let’s say you meet a lovely young lady and fall in love. One day she gets a call from her grandmother that her grandfather is extremely sick and she has to move to take care of him and assist her grandmother, which means she has to move 5 hours away by plane to another state.

This is a matter of the heart and you may not want her to go. But to express this openly puts her at a crossroad because now you are forcing her to choose between you and her grandparents, which is wrong and unfair. So the best decision is to support her and her family and do not put any undue pressure on her to stay. Now you have a choice to make, do you move or do you break up?

Now this just became a financial and an emotional decision and the question remains - do you have a job or business arrangement set up that will allow you to relocate financially?

Secondly, can you cope with leaving your family and friends behind? The choice is yours, but it’s important that you add to, not subtract from, a situation.

If she is the one for you, the decision will be simple. But if around every corner there are complications, this may be your sign to move on.

In most successful relationships, the hard decisions always seem to come easy. This is because the decision is always about the greater good or what works best for both.

It is only when the decision becomes one-sided or selfish that the problems start.

Now let’s look at making a decision from a business perspective.

When doing business, you must operate from a logical, non-emotional point of view, and this means understanding the deal in its entirety from both sides of the table.

Son, in business, people will attempt to gain the unfair advantage.

So it’s important that you understand this upfront and not get your feelings involved. It’s business, not personal, and should be handled as such.

So let’s look at the basics in terms of owning a business or conducting a business transaction. When you get into a business arrangement or start a business, you must understand that everything comes down to a pie chart.

For example, if you own 100% of the pie and your business is booming, you stand to earn a great deal. So the more you get or give from your pie either benefits or subtracts from you and your family.

Now in business, people will look to take advantage of your ideas and knowledge, so they will attempt to get more of your pie than they deserve.

This is why it is so important to seek higher counsel in the form of a trusted family member as well as lawyers.

Keep in mind you are in business to make a profit and to build and maintain your family’s legacy.

So if someone attempts to gain an unfair advantage, this would be wrong.

Now there is a saying in life: a fair exchange is no robbery. This means that as long as both parties agree that the exchange, or trade, is fair, then it’s fair. This doesn’t mean that you give up the advantage. It means that you are paying them what they are worth in that particular situation.

For example, let’s say you came up with a better way to monetize the internet, and it was revolutionary. And you needed to raise some capital. The person who is investing may want a big equity stake in your business in exchange for their investment capital. Now for the sake of the example, let’s say there are 4 slices in this pie and they want 3 of those slices leaving you with one slice. This is not only unfair, but they will own 75% of your business and you essentially work for them owning only 25%. So what would be fair? Well let’s look at it, you created the idea, you own the patent and trademark. So you want to have controlling interest, meaning anything over 50%, preferably 90 to 95% of the business.

It’s very important that you and your family benefit off your hard work in the short and long term. So never sell your dreams or legacy short.

Now on the other hand, if you had a partner and you both came up with the idea from scratch and you put in equal share, then 50/50 is a reasonable split. But if you put in a higher proportionate share, then you should have controlling interest, 51% or better even though you built it from scratch as a team. There’s no such thing as an easy buck and the man with the bigger purse strings calls the shots.

You will grow to find that there are 2 roads in life you can take – the common path or the road less traveled.

Let’s imagine you were in a library and in it, there were only two books. One book was titled I Work for You and the other You Work for Me.

Now, let’s say you work for me, and I give you a job. This would make you my employee. As per the dictionary, an employee is a person employed for wages or salary, especially at a nonexecutive level.

Now Son, when you agreed to take the job, I agreed to pay you a wage. Be it fair or not, it is a must you operate within the guidelines laid out to you at hiring.

Now, let’s say you quit after a month because you felt the wages were unfair. The question I would have for you is Why did you accept a wage that was less than your worth?

If your answer is I needed a job, my reply would be Why rely on a job when you can rely on yourself? You determine what your worth is. No one else. So Son, never accept a wage that you feel is less than what your skill set is worth.

Now be very mindful if you accept a wage, you are accepting a price and you must ask yourself, Is the value of your person priceless or worth the price they are offering? If you value yourself as priceless, you determine the wage. But if you accepted their wage, they determine your wage, worth, or price.

If you let someone determine your price, you are no longer a person but a product, which makes you no greater than cattle.

Sure you will hear phrases like there is nothing wrong with an honest or decent living especially when they are trying to make you accept a low wage.

While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with obtaining a job, in most cases as an employee, you are taking the road most commonly traveled.

The route is simple - most will go to school for perhaps 21 years if they are lucky enough to afford it. They will spend 44 to 49 years working for a corporation, and, if they are lucky, retire at 65 or 70 years of age. This ironically is when their health is declining as well as the value of their retirement dollars due to inflation. Unfortunately, this is the path for most in society.

Now there is nothing wrong with being a doctor, lawyer, or school teacher. But if you must get a job, there are a few factors to consider. First, does the pay-out pace the cost of living? If not, you will live check-to-check.

Second, do I have enough free cash flow left after each paycheck to invest the difference?

And lastly, will I be able to pay off my student loan debt and maintain a good quality of life?

It’s important that you understand what your time is worth.

So my question to you is Why waste time building someone else’s empire when you can build a dream castle of your own?

Now it cost to be the boss, and building your own business is no easy task. But the question you have to ask is what’s worse - sinking most of your good years into a job only to look like a squeezed lemon at the end or working 80 hours a week to build your passion making money doing something you love?

I have seen your mother work a salaried position and give her nights away to a deadline working overtime in which she made not one extra dollar. And all of this for an Attagirl and a pat on the back.

When you are a salaried employee, no matter how many hours you work past your standard 40 hours, your pay stays the same.

This may seem like a cool idea at first, but when the demands of the job start to lean over into your personal life and steal your time, this can get old really quick.

I used to say to your mom, Why put in unpaid overtime when you can work on your entrepreneurial projects and build something worthy of the extraordinary effort you are putting in?

I would tell her it’s not like they are going to call you up and tell you congratulations, Whitney you have been a fabulous employee so our family has decided to give you ownership in the corporation!

Absolutely not! They will continue to generate the income you allow them to make unencumbered by emotional feelings or what’s in your family’s best interest.

Since we know this to be the case, it’s crucial that you understand this early so that you know what team you are playing for and you are playing to win.

Now if you’re going to start your own business, you have to either fulfill a need or be a problem-solver. To be clear, identify a market or industry where there is a large void and plug it up with your product, goods, or services.

For example, let’s say you were driving through a decent neighborhood and you notice that the lawns weren’t being cut or manicured properly and then it hits you: How about we create a subscription-based lawn maintenance company?

You get so excited and you come up with the slogan: We Spread Flowery Love One Yard at a Time.

You buy all the necessary equipment, hire the right people, and then you hit the neighborhood with the goal of becoming known for your love of gardening and your green thumb.

You market to the homeowners that you will cut their grass the first time for free and it’s a hit!

Next, you do something amazing and rather unexpected. You do more than is required and notice that the mailbox is not matching the decor of the home. So, with the client’s permission,