Christopher Pitt’s Story
The inspiration behind our mission to offer financial literacy education and asset building support to marginalized communities.
How it started...
Growing up in the 1980s, I lived in a 2 bedroom house with up to eight extended family members.
I slept in a room with my mom, my two siblings, and two cousins.
The house had no running water and we used an outhouse.
No one had cars; no one had a driver’s license. We walked or drove old tractors into our extremely poor, rural town.
I started working on the farm at 7 years old doing manual labor. The memory that constantly replays in my head is in the height of summer 90-95 degrees in the the tobacco fields. Each person had to go down a long row breaking the leaves off the tobacco stalks throwing leaves into a bag or trailer. The thing that is still so vivid is when I got to the end of the row, I literally saw my entire mother’s side of the family in the same field. I worked every summer of my childhood on the farm.
Now as I reflect, I can better understand my childhood. I grew up in an environment that was closer to growing up in 1950 & 1960 than the 1980s. My family was still stuck in the sharecropper era.
As a kid I thought everyone lived like that until I started school. I was completely stunned when I realized only 10 miles away from my house, “Nobody” lived like that anymore. Literally I could not believe people had cars, non-farm jobs, and houses with bathrooms. I know it sounds crazy but I thought you had to be rich to have a house with a bathroom.
So around 9 I really started to feel embarrassed by my circumstances which led to anger. I could not process why we were living like that. I remember telling my mom I don’t care how many hours I had to work on the farm, we had to get out of that house. That house had everything in it that was detrimental to any kid. Alcoholism, drugs, abuse, limited food, and just poverty. Still to this day I do not know how my mom was able to protect us and loved us like she did in that environment.
Her love was all we had.
The motivated move
I became obsessed with trying to help my mom find a house. So around 10, my mom found a house off the farm. The house was white on a dirt road and needed some work. But it had 3 bedrooms, running water, and a bathroom!
I remember moving into that house and when I woke up the next day knowing it was not a dream. I felt rich for one day. I felt the embarrassment starting to leave me, I felt safe, I felt calmness in the house. I felt my siblings’ happiness and I felt pride from my mom’s knowledge that she got us out of that old house.
We did not own the house, but for the first time, something was ours. Today at 45 years old I still don’t feel like I have repaid her for changing my life. That is one of the biggest driving forces I have to succeed. I want her to see it and feel it so she knows her sacrifices were worth her kids’ success.
I knew from that point on the dirt road that my mom had taken us as far as she could with what she had. As the oldest sibling, it was my job to take the family to the next level. That is where the pursuit mindset came from.
I had no mentors, no role models, no plan. I just knew I needed to be successful somehow.
My “Why”
Fortunately a football coach believed I would be good at football. I never played because I didn’t have a ride. That coach came to the farm where I was working. He told my mom he would take me to practice to see if I could make the team. In the ride to practice, coach said, “You know, if you are really good at football you could go to college for free and don’t have to ever go back to work at that farm.”
It was the first and only time I had a plan to escape poverty. I went all in with football and I knew I would be great because their “Why” was not bigger than mine.
I’m passionate about providing resources and opportunities to people in need because of what happened next. I made the football team, but still I did not have a consistent ride to practice. After my first game, people believed I could be really good. Once people believed in me, they wanted to help. I must have had up to ten random people and one family member take me back and forth to practice. Some nights I ran 2 miles home because I was dropped off at the only store in town.
Another vivid moment was my step grandfather from my mother’s side, “Big Bay.” I did not view him as a good person but he was one of the first ones to volunteer to help when my mom asked. He drove 40 miles from work to pick me up. We were in the playoffs and I needed a ride. He told my mom he was having pains but he still would take me. He drove me home and then drove himself to the hospital. He died the next day. I will never forget that.
My point is if these people didn’t help me, I would have never had the opportunity to show the world I could be good at something.
People need to believe in you to genuinely help you, from my perspective.
So when I do this type of work, in my mind I’m just paying it forward.
I know a stable home changed the trajectory of my life.
Every time I see someone struggle, work hard, and fight to purchase their home, it reminds me of my childhood. When I see the joy in their eyes, it reminds me of how my mom looked at me when she got that house for us on the old dirt road.
Now I’m on a mission to help other hard-working families do the same. We’re building the path for you.
Stay In Pursuit.
