Continued from Page 1One of my favorite people is Emmanuel Steward, the famous boxing trainer Andre had introduced to me a while back. He taught me the importance of developing my body along with my mind. I have a daily training routine, which is never broken unless I'm ill. I do a minimum of one hundred to five hundred push-ups a day. My workout time is more than me building my physical body. It is also a time for me to regroup and get centered.
Being on the road gave me a chance to reflect on my life, the past and my future. My family was at a different crossroads at this time. I was traveling on my own across the country with little need for an escort. I was suddenly a breadwinner for the family. Since I still wasn't at the age where I could sign business documents, Andre would deposit my earnings, and I'd handle the management of my income and expenses. Grandma was the bookkeeper who'd pay for household and entertainment expenses. I can't tell you how good it felt to be able to provide for the two women who made me what I am today.
In the span of a few years, my life had done a complete 360. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was becoming my mother. I know you're more accustomed to hearing women saying that about their moms, but it was true. I was becoming Mom. I was spending more time in the air than I was at home with my family. And if I wasn't on a plane, I was on the telephone making a deal. I had become accustomed to a certain lifestyle, but my travels left little time for me to bond with my family, who were all doing their own things.
Andre was setting up in Las Vegas, which demanded a lot of his time because he had to work within several time zones in the U.K. or Japan. Kiki had started studying to become a certified fitness trainer. My brother Jonathan had gone to Chicago, and Alex was still in Phoenix with Grandma.
Slowly but surely Mom gained her strength back. I sensed she would never be able to run as hard and fast as she used to. She was like a former heavyweight boxer. She still had that fire in her belly, which meant you always had to keep a watchful eye on her. You just knew that one day she'd walk into the room and announce her comeback, whether it compromised her health or not. Even on my travels, I called her several times a day.
I was enjoying my newfound freedom and earning power, but I missed my family. What kept me going was a liberal adaptation of an Aesop fable.
It seems that a fox spotted a rabbit and started chasing him around a field. The fox did everything in his power to track the rabbit but could never seem to catch him. The fox barked, thinking he could scare the rabbit into submission. He growled, thinking that maybe the rabbit would surrender. Finally, the rabbit was gone. Two people were watching the entire pursuit. One of the men shook his head in wonder. Then he said to his friend, "I wonder why the fox didn't catch him?" His friend looked out into the distance as the rabbit disappeared from sight. "The fox," he said, "was chasing and running for fun. The rabbit was running for his life." I'm the rabbit in this fable. I started running to provide for the health and financial well-being of my family at thirteen years old. I was running for my life.
Excerpted from 'Reallionaire: The Essential Lessons that Took Me From Public Assistance to a Millionaire by the Age of 14' by Farrah Gray with Fran Harris. Copyright© 2004 by Farrah Gray. Excerpted by permission of HCI Books. All rights reserved.
