5 Ways to Focus on Money

Teri Williams is the CEO and owner of the biggest black-owned bank in America, One United. She is a Harvard Business School graduate, a mother of two, and has been married for 25 years. OneUnited manages greater than $620 million in assets and this summer launched a social media campaign that has caught the eye of a lot of A-list celebrities.

OneUnited Bank has over $620 million in assets under management. This conversation is less about how to earn more money and more about howImprove your attitude towards money. During my time at Williams I learned five things ways to increase my wealth mentality:

Leave room for probability

Williams admitted to being a Type An individual, but has found that her biggest opportunities come from “staying open to possibilities.”

Teri Williams’ vision of shopping for a bank was never on the board. “My sole purpose was to provide economic empowerment to African Americans. I didn’t know how I was going to accomplish that big of a goal,” Williams says.

When her husband first proposed buying the bank, she thought it was an extended shot. Well, the long shot resulted in the ability couple buying three smaller banks and mixing them right into a nationwide umbrella, now referred to as OneUnited. The name was chosen to reflect the vision of uniting banks and the black community.

Williams says a part of her process isn’t really about owning it. “For me, it’s about recognizing that you don’t know what you don’t know. In fact, if I had my process laid out that way, I would have shut myself off from people reaching out to me and educating me on ways to do things better,” Williams says.

Williams took an identical approach when she enrolled at Brown University.

“I had no idea what an Ivy League university was,” she admits. “I went to Brown University on the recommendation of a family friend and simply because they offered me the most money. But it was at Brown that I was inspired by my peers who wanted to become judges, international lawyers, and doctors. That started to question my initial career interest in becoming a teacher. After hearing all of their ambitions, I decided that studying economics would be a better fit.”

Your teachers are in every single place

Williams says that although she was proud to be top of her class at Harvard Business School, have an MBA and work in corporate America, she owes her business talent to her great-grandmother, Anna Coachman, affectionately referred to as “Ma-honey.”

Ma-Honey had a portfolio of properties: a juke joint, a candy store and a barbecue grill within the Nineteen Fifties. (*5*) Williams says. “We should never forget where we came from. Always remember that you are someone’s child, someone’s grandchild and someone’s great-grandchild, and those relationships can be the foundation of your success.”

Where you come from doesn’t determine where you are going!

I’ve heard many stories concerning the rags to riches rise to power, but Williams’ story was still a motivation to make cash. There was a way of possibility within the room as she spoke of her humble beginnings in Indiantown, Florida, where the median income is now $28,000 for a population of 6,850, according to 2010 U.S. Census data.

Yet Teri Williams is now the CEO and owner of the biggest black-owned bank in America, with $620 million in assets under management across banking offices in Miami, Boston and Los Angeles. She attributes her success to a disciplined lifetime of prayer for guidance and the strength to act on that guidance when it’s given.

Stay curious

Although Williams was the primary in her family to graduate from college, her parents played a big role in fueling her curiosity. One family tradition that Williams found encouraging was Sunday drives together with her family. Despite their limited financial resources, Williams’ parents felt it was essential to see the opposite side of the town.

During these trips, Williams says she began looking the windows of homes and wondering: “Who lived in these houses, how did they get here, what did they do to live like this, why do these people have a lot and why don’t we live like that, and what drives them?

A seed was planted. Williams says that since then, curiosity has driven her to understand why some individuals are wealthy and others aren’t, and what drove them in a single direction or one other. Those drives not only gave Williams curiosity, but additionally a way of confidence: “If they will do it, I can do it.

Your goal will grow with you

“My goal of economic empowerment for African Americans — that’s a growing goal. That’s a goal that I’m committed to from now until the day I die,” Williams says.

In August 2016 #BankBlack challengereleased by Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, prompted black America to pour $10 million into the bank in lower than a month. In that point, OneUnited went from opening fewer than 50 accounts a day to greater than 1,000 a day.

“You can’t know everything at the beginning. But if you keep going and listen to the clues, you’ll find them wherever you are,” Williams says.