In these troubled times, we need to find new ways of achieving success, both financially and in other areas of our lives.

Many people are financially successful but still don’t feel successful. Their lives are empty. They buy more and more, spend more and more, perhaps they are drinking heavily or using drugs.

This is a lot of the reason why the banking crisis occurred on both sides of the Atlantic. People who work in the City (London’s financial district) would go out in the evening after work and spend copious amounts of money on alcohol in order to impress others – their colleagues, their competitors, their clients, and sometimes the press. But this spending didn’t make them feel good inside.

This chapter is excerpted from What They Don't Want Us to Know, an ebook for people of African heritage.