“The End is important in all things” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hagakure) In this great pursuit of the good life, I think that one of my biggest fears is that I will get to that big apple in the sky and forget why it is I sought it out in the first place. Something about the grind, the ups and downs, and the people that we meet has a way of twisting and changing our course to where we end up old, lacking focus and only knowing how to seek for more. This is a depressing end to a journey isn’t it? You see epic movies and stories like Lord of The Rings, where an end goal is stated and fought for and in the end when the heroes have achieved it, they gather around, raise their tankards and breathe out in relief of having thwarted that danger, defeated that grand dragon or rescued the fair… [Read more]

More than likely as your business grows you will run into a client who claims that their last contractor ripped them off or didn’t finish the job. Something along those lines where they squarely put the blame on their last contractor. This is a huge red flag to me in business based on experience. While they may claim that their last contractor was terrible, they themselves turn out to be bad clients. What they don’t tell you about their last contractor is whether they (the client) paid what they were supposed to pay, whether or not they were clear with their instructions or whether or not their check bounced and they took their sweet time making it right. These are major things that would slow or stop any contractor in their work but you are never told that side of the story. All they want you to know is that the last person sucked and… [Read more]

The title says it all, when you have a passion (which you should), oft times you don’t end up working in that field. While everyone is not entrepreneur material, it is a good idea to keep your focus squarely on what it is that you really want to do. Getting to that goal is it’s own article but what I do know is that the daily grind will blur ones vision. Before you know it you become that salty employee, mad that your co-worker makes $1,000 more than you and mad that your boss hasn’t acknowledged all the extra effort you’ve put in a month before your review (heh). What not to do at your job: Tell others your dream: Nothing is more of a buzz kill than telling your dreams to disgruntled employee guy. The pats on the back and encouragement that you seek will not be returned. What you will get instead is… [Read more]

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“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln Why is it that we applaud the efforts of musicians who “woodshed” for hours to master their instrument or athletes who wake up to ingest supplements, work out and drive their bodies to the brink of failure, yet dismiss the businessmen who stay after hours to help out a customer or sacrifice a vacation in order to put the company back in the black?  Now don’t get me wrong, I mean the guys who are “minding their own business” not the loyal employee who breaks his back for little to no reward… there are enough overworked, broke and unappreciated corporate slaves out there to warrant 100 articles. Why is the entrepreneur such an unheralded icon in our society today? Do you realize that our ancestors all had to utilize an entrepreneurial spirit in order to eat… [Read more]

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People that know me, know that the prospect of working to make another man rich is as poisonous to me as drinking rattler venom. The gangsters I studied for so many years called guys with jobs “crumbs” because they would work for a man, toil for 5 days of the week and then thank that man for letting them have 2 days off while putting aside crumbs of money to hopefully retire one day. While the gangster mentality was mockingly harsh, the reality is that these guys were hypocrites, their rackets weren’t easy, they had to kick up to a boss weekly (who would kill them and not fire them) and they would die broke. Still, when you read this stuff it becomes a part of you – so deep down I resented the thought of being in the rat race or being a crumb. Business is a game of Texas Hold’Em In my last… [Read more]

One of the toughest things to do when you’re an entrepreneur is to stay motivated for growth. You got out, things are going well and a few years down the line you realize that you have settled without even realizing it. Your friends laud you as being “the man”, your bills are getting paid and you even have a little put to the side for whatever. But in the beginning you imagined your business to be much more than it is right now and even when you remind yourself of this you are still just going through the motions at the end of the day. Having gone through this, I want to share 4 of the best tips I know to keep you hungry and eventually off of that plateau of self-employment: 1. Keep Similar Company (Entrepreneurs need enterprising friends) When I was employed, a buddy of mine (Paul) was of the same mind as… [Read more]

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I was elated, it really wasn’t scary, I felt empowered, free, a man going places. It was the ultimate natural high waking up the next day prepped to grind my ass off to make sure that I kept afloat. This feeling cannot be replicated, I had it only once before and that was after a racist boss of mine set me up and strategically fired me from a position to slide his friend in. It was guys like him that made it feel good, the assholes who cut my check, the trust-fund babies who ran daddy’s company and hired guys like me to spin the gears. It was the average Joes who looked at me like a colossus for daring to go it alone. Long story short, it isn’t as scary as it seems my dear readers. Preparing to get out – when did I think I was ready I worked a management position that… [Read more]

A true hustler is born not made, sometimes the hustle is within but it lays dormant, asleep and unseen. It may take a life-changing experience, meeting the right mentor or even education to wake up the hustle, but once it’s awake other hustlers will recognize it. To this reasoning I do not take people seriously that are “pretend hustlers” or “big game talkers”. These guys are everywhere and make up a majority of people you meet at mixers, business meetings and (clears throat) “grown folks night”. Recently it came to my attention that a certain sect of successful women are recruiting these guys for their husbands and then trying to make hustlers out of them. These women have the game backwards, you support the hustle, you don’t invent it! A hustler on the come-up for some real cash flow is normally a busy, focused guy. He thinks all day long about extending his assets in… [Read more]