Dear Y.B.M.:

I trust that you are doing well.

I hope that you have taken heed to the advice I gave in my first two series of letters to you. In doing so, I trust that by this time you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and that you are growing in your relationship with God through prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, and sharing the Gospel with others in your community.

I trust also that you are making headway on the road of education and that you are learning and growing in knowledge and understanding. Most importantly, I hope that you have prayed for and received God’s wisdom.

I hope that your relationship with your family members, friends, and acquaintances are strong and healthy, and that you have taken seriously the Biblical directives given regarding dealing with your parents, grandparents, siblings, wife, children, or what have you.

In the over twenty years since I wrote Letters to Young Black Men, a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same. Honestly, I still have to say that our community is in a bad away generally speaking. But there are pockets of hope amid the decay, light amid the darkness. And, through this third volume of letters, I hope to nurture the light, feed it, and help it grow so that young black men in America may rise and lift their communities out of the mire by the power of God.

In this volume, we will discuss three very important topics:

1. Living a life that matters: Everybody wants to (or should want to) do something of significance with their life. I will show you how to find your purpose and pursue it with all your might.

2. Character and leadership: Our community needs people who are leaders rather than followers, but a good leader is not just one who can inspire, but one who has the character to do the right thing and lead others to do the right thing even when the odds are against them.

3. Finances and business: Like it or not, money is very important in this life. In this section, I will teach you how to get some and keep some. I will also show you how to live a life of freedom by working for yourself by doing a job that you love.

As always, everything that I share will be based upon Biblical principles and proven wisdom.

I hope that you are ready for this leg of journey that will change your life and benefit your family and your community.

Yours truly,

Daniel Whyte III