That is what Dr. Roberta Hoskie wants everyone to understand “Nothing is Impossible.” With her book, Poverty Curse Broken: The Roberta Hoskie Story, it is what she wants her readers to know, and apply in their life.
“If my story can help inspire and have someone believe IT is possible, whatever IT is, then, to me, that’s fulfilling,”
The first publication seeks to show readers how anyone can rise above circumstances to achieve greatness.
Known worldwide as Ms. Millionaire Mind$et, Roberta is a real estate investor, inspirational speaker, entrepreneur, and community activist. Her many accolades and accomplishments include numerous awards from hometown organizations such as New Haven, Connecticut’s Chamber of Commerce, African American Affairs Commission, the New Haven Register person of the year and many others. She has recently been awarded the key to the city of her hometown, New Haven, CT! Roberta has also spoken at the prestigious Yale University as well as been the subject of numerous news segments both locally, nationally, and even internationally. She has also hosted radio programs to teach others how to break what she’s dubbed the “Poverty Curse” and the mindset that holds too many from reaching their full potential. Fighting poverty isn‘t a struggle she studied in Sociology 101, but lived through like millions of others.
She remembers standing in church, holding her son in the prayer line when her mother encouraged her to jump in, and recalled the pastor pointing to her young son saying: “Look at your son. His life is directly linked to yours…directly linked to what you do.” He laid hands on her and she passed out. That was one of several turning points in her life she discussed in the deeply personal memoir.
It was enough to make this single mother on welfare, who dropped out of high school ask: ‘What is MY life?’” She looked at her condition and recognized she was surrounded by generational poverty and questioned what her son’s future would be. She thought about the statistics surrounding black men, her son’s father’s drug dealing, being a high school dropout, and having 22 family members in the same housing projects. ”What do I have to offer this kid?” Hoskie asked herself.
She changed her mindset to think about what future she wanted for her son & family. “It’s a matter of believing that it’s possible. The minute you believe it’s possible and don’t give yourself a Plan B, then only A can happen. My plan A was that my son will not have generational poverty, be a drug dealer, or be lost to these streets,” she explained. Hoskie focused her energies and worked hard to break the curse of poverty and the mindset that normalized it. The road ahead was not going to be easy; but for Hoskie, the road behind lead nowhere. Poverty Curse Broken details Dr. Hoskie’s journey from bullets whizzing through her project window while her son slept, to working up to a 6-figure salary, on to becoming independently wealthy through real estate investment.
Exposing her traumas and her impoverished beginnings was as deeply personal as it gets. Talking about being abused, being poor, uneducated, a teen mother, and dropout wasn’t easy. Her tears stained the pages of her notes recalling the many struggles she had experienced in her young life. But while she was the subject of numerous stories in print, television, radio, and podcasts, she felt HER story had yet to really be told. So five years ago, she began writing companion journal entries to accompany her 21-day Mindset cards. Initially avoiding the prospect of sharing the deeply personal pain of her experiences, she found she couldn’t help but interject her own life experiences
At times, the writing process stagnated – even for a woman who teaches others that procrastination is the enemy of progress. “I was beating myself up for procrastinating,” she recalled, “My youngest son Oliver said: ‘Mom, maybe the part that you need in the book hasn’t happened, yet…” Shortly after, a Facebook Live video Hoskie posted showing an interaction with a homeless man she posted, went viral. Initially, Hoskie’s Facebook Live post meant to show that there are good, honest people. She’d lost a $10,000 check getting out of her car. A man named Elmer Alvarez found the check and called her office to return it. What Hoskie didn’t know at the time, was that Alvarez was homeless. Posting the meeting on Facebook took a local story international and changed both of their lives. And despite this chance happening, Roberta does not actually believe in chance or coincidence in favor of divine intervention – that things happen when they happen for a reason. Submitting to a higher power and putting oneself in position for those blessings is key.
Helping the homeless good Samaritan, Alvarez was relatively easy for Roberta. Elmer Alvarez now has a home, car, attends church regularly, and is on a path to what he dreams of, becoming a pastor. However, it showed Roberta the potential to change someone else’s life in a really substantial way. And with that, became the thing that her book needed. She went back through her emotional journey of dredging up the past, as painful as it was, Hoskie knew it would help someone.
Newly inspired, she returned to writing – sometimes typing on tear-stained keys. But her desire to share her story took over despite the pain of digging up the past, and potentially angering family members. “I can’t be selfish…That’s why I was very transparent. There are plenty of people that have been in abusive situations, and couldn’t come out, or let the past haunt them…The things I put out there are the things your people tells you never to discuss in public,” Hoskie explained, referring to a chapter in the book called Shush, Don’t Tell Nobody.
And while some may look at this book as the culmination of the journey, Hoskie sees much more down the road and a part of a larger process to help people become the best versions of themselves – finding their own personal success and freedom from the curse gripping millions around the country and the world. She continues to expand her Millionaire Mindset Sisterhood Program with chapters in Connecticut, New Jersey, Georgia, New York, Tennessee, Los Angeles and even the Dominican Republic. Touted as the rise of a 21st century sisterhood, this faith-based sisterhood is devoted to breaking the poverty curse by promoting real estate investment, group economics, profit-sharing, and property acquisition amongst its members. So while the future looks bright for Dr. Hoskie, she wants the future to be just as bright for others and that success is what one defines for themselves.
Roberta recalled crying in her car on her way to her 6-figure job, asking God for forgiveness because she had come so far and achieved so much, yet remained unsatisfied. She felt she was being unappreciative – even greedy. And then she heard God speak: “God told me: ‘That is the way I designed you because I have work for you to do. And what I have for you to do, you cannot be satisfied.”
Credit: Blacknews
This book is inspiring and then some. There is a reason why it has been on so many bestseller lists. It gives you an insight into how some of the greatest companies got where they were and how others lost their greatness. It is a great read and has sequels that are also worth the time. I highly recommend this for leaders and upcoming leaders; we can all learn a lot from the successes and failures of those that have gone before us.
