Why I Wrote The Latino Journey to Financial Greatness

3 Feb 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:50

In this personal monologue, Louis Barajas explains the origins of his book, The Latino Journey to Financial Greatness. He recounts growing up in Boyle Heights as the English‑speaking eldest child of a Mexican immigrant father who ran an ornamental‑iron business in the 1970s. Helping his father sparked his early exposure to entrepreneurship and money. After earning a degree from UCLA and a master’s in business from Claremont Graduate School (where Peter Drucker taught), he worked at large financial firms serving wealthy clients. There he realized that the Latino community’s wealth gap was not merely a lack of financial literacy but a deeper “poverty mindset” – fear of investing, belief that wealth is for others, and silence around money. Leaving the corporate world, he returned to his neighborhood to open an office and address these mindset barriers. The book was written out of love for his parents and a desire to give honest, ethical guidance to families like his. He emphasizes that changing mental models is the first step toward financial dignity, and he invites viewers to follow his “Real Talk about Money Mindset” channel, join his community, and purchase the book (available in English and Spanish on Amazon).

Chapters

I want to share with you why I wrote the Latino Journey to Financial Greatness. Now, I didn't get into finance because it was a dream of mine. I got into finance because my dad needed help. It was mostly out of necessity. My father came from Mexico and started an ornamental iron business back in the 1970s. I was the eldest kid, the one who spoke English, the one who loved school. So I helped him with his business. Out of necessity. I learned about entrepreneurship and money. I made it out of the barrio, went to great schools, graduated from ucla, earned my master's in business at Claremont Graduate School when Peter Drucker was there. I ended up at big firms surrounded by wealthy clients. And that's where I saw something that changed my life. We thought our community needed financial literacy. But wealthy families weren't just winning because they knew more about finances. They were winning because of how they thought about money. Their mindset was different. So I left the corporate world and went back to Boyle Heights to open up an office and serve our community. Now, I wanted to teach financial literacy. But I realized something deeper. Again, information wasn't the biggest problem. It was the beliefs of our community. The poverty mindset, the fear of investing, the idea that wealth is for other people, not for us, the silence around money in our homes. So I wrote the Latino Journey to Financial Greatness out of love for my parents, for families like mine, and for a community that deserves honest ethical guidance. Because if we don't change what's happening in our heads, no amount of information will close the wealth gap. And that's why this message still matters. And that's why mindset is where real wealth begins. Please follow me for Real Talk about Money Mindset and Building a life with Financial Dignity. And also click the link in my bio to join our community. Also, again, all my books can be found on Amazon.com in English and in Spanish.