Age is Just a number.....No cake this birthday, just humble pie.

The good thing about a blog is that you can see how much crap you have been talking and how much you have accomplished since you were talking said trash. This time I have to step back and say - yeah I was talking trash last year when I turned 34 (The post is referenced below) but who knew how bad the recession was really going to get. In the last year of my life I've gotten hit with the following:
1. The first Black President
2. My first lay off
3. My first collection of unemployment
4. The successful continuance of my t-shirt business
5. GM & Chrysler Bankruptcy
6. Relocation out of Michigan
7. Back "a top" the money earning game.
8. Promotion at new job in first 90 days
9. Purchase of a new (well different car).
10. Getting my swagger back on the East Coast.

That is not a typical year by any means; therefore I will allow myself some slack. However - now I have to get it poppin.

Now from the smack I talked last year....slightly embarassing considering I lost my job a few months after the posting but considering the circumstances it's ok. A little humble pie never hurt anyone.

*******************************************************

As I talk about my sister's birthday (In my last post), my birthday was not too far behind. I hit the big "Three Four" Monday. I vowed to be rich or independently wealthy by 35. That's 359 days and counting. I better get moving.

I look at being 34 like starting a new career.

"What???", you ask.

Stay with me....This week is the first week on the job of being 34 years old. I will have this job for 359 more days. Get it now?

But this isn't like other jobs, I have been doing a similar job for 33 years already! I'm a professional. This means that everything I do, every move I make, has 33 years of experience behind it.

How can I not get reach my goals! If I don't know the answer, or if I don't know what to do in a certain situation, I at least know who knows. 33 years of training for this new job, tells me that there isn't any situation that I can't handle. I might need help, but I am smart enough to know I need help when I need it.

OK, you're with me now! So everything I eat, I know from 33 years of experience what it's going to do to my body. Cake is going to make me fat! I know it. If I don't work out and eat a lot of cake, I will get fat!

If I drive too fast too often, I get a speeding ticket! I know it. 33 years of experience for this job tells me “Slow your ass down”.

Therefore, there is a higher responsibility put on all my decisions. With that responsibility comes confidence and a humble swagger with 33 years of horsepower behind it.

(Sorry, for those hip-hop illiterate readers: Swagger is defined as:
to move with confidence, sophistication and to be cool.
Swagger is to conduct your self in a way that would automaticaly earn respect
To dress in a very stylish and quirkily fasionable way that would suggest one has a swagger. Still OK to use - Not like Bling which is dead )


Every move I make has experience, swagger, charisma and life experience behind it. How powerful is that! I have become that person I have always wanted to be. And part of becoming that person, is wanting to become better everyday, and getting better at becoming better.


Success is attracted and is attractive. Successful people attract success. Becoming a millionaire isn't the goal, it's what "I" become, or who "you" become when we are millionaires. It's that person that will be created, while creating the fortune. That's what's important.

Have you ever wondered how millionaires can lose their fortunes and make another fortune a few years later? Because they have gained the skills, the swagger and the experience needed to do the job.

This is very analogous to cooking a Thanksgiving day meal.
The first time you got cook books open, pots and pans everywhere. Your measuring shzit, burning stuff up. It takes forever. But after you get the first one done...OH LOOK OUT. You are writing your own recipes! You are putting a dash of your own seasonings, adding stuff, flipping and bouncing that Turkey around the kitchen like a ghetto Martha Stewart. You don't even taste it as much because you already know the shzit is going to be on point. It takes you 1/4 the time and you probably do it better.

Do you see the similarities! Now that's food for thought, Bread for the head.



359 days and counting.......

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have arrived. I just need the $999,999.99 to go with my swagger.

-MJL

Don't take life too serious...but take it serious..Sometimes

Don’t take things too serious but……

Remember that life is not too forgiving.

What do I mean by that? Well let me explain the basics and then I will relate that to our favorite topic…..money.

Life is not too forgiving, meaning small mistakes can have catastrophic repercussions.
Recently I have vowed to restrict my cell phone usage while in the car. No text messages, no phone calls initiated, just answering calls. Just picking up the phone and talking. There have been too many accidents caused by negligent drivers. We aren’t that good, we are just lucky. When you are lucky so many times you start to misconstrue that luck until skill. “I got this” you say while texting, glancing up, and driving with your knees. All is well until you hit the car in front of you. Or maybe just rub the divider. A simple scrape on an unblemished car is a like a boil on Hale Berry’s face. All because someone texted you something stupid that you just had to read. Now you have to look at that dumb scratch on your car everyday. So not worth it.


DUI is another prime example. Look at Beecher from the show OZ. He got a little tipsy at a company part and he kills someone on his way home, and now he ends up in prison on manslaughter charges. A really good guy, small mistake, catastrophic results. Who hasn’t driven a little tipsy. While you are learning your threshold and tolerance you might drive home just a little on the edge. So let’s say you don’t kill anyone, but you get pulled over. Boom! DUI. fines, tickets, etc. All because you had one drink too many, or started to drive just an hour too soon, or didn’t eat enough before the night’s festivities began. All little mistakes catastrophic results.



AIDS. Same thing. Girl meets boy, girl get carried away, unprotected sex. This Small mistake results in AIDS or baby. Life taken or life provided. The entire dynamic of your life is changed in the blink of an eye. I can’t think of an analogy that can capture the amount a life can change due to one instance this small.

The list goes on an on. Christopher Reeve had a horse back riding incident. Did he do all his safety checks, was he playing around on the horse, or was it just one of those things. When it’s “Just one of those things” then it’s more acceptable then you doing something dumb.


You must take the above into consideration during your daily hustle. Even when you are doing the right thing life throws you setbacks, so you need to minimize these setbacks by taking control over what you can control and minimizing your errors. That comes with better judgment, utilizing and listening to mentors, and learning and reading. Doing the right thing is a learned behavior. All of these things are difficult but doing the difficult is what separates us from the masses.
We specialize in the difficult. Difficult we get done in a day; Impossible we get it done in a week. That’s how we roll.

-MJL

Why it's so easy to be Regular?

How come people don’t strive to reach their highest potential?

I was listening to the great Earl Nightingale, and he asked, “Why is the gas station attendant, only a gas station attendant?”. “Why is the guy in the donut shop, only the guy in the donut shop?”. This a question that I have asked myself thousands of times. The answer is simple, that’s all they see themselves as being. Seriously. They might have dreams, but they treat their dreams as such. Have you ever seen the manager of a fast food restaurant during rush hour. His job is 10 times harder then many middle managers that I’ve worked with who make six figure salaries. The employees he deals with are much ruder, less educated and sometimes more dangerous then white collar workers, but yet he only makes $26,000 a year. Why? Because that’s all he thinks he‘s worth . If he thought he was worth more, he would go and get more. This way of thinking doesn’t just come, you have to train yourself to think this way.

Our brains are trained to steer us away from pain, heartache and defeat therefore we settle and take the easiest way out.
We don’t like doing certain things because we are not good at them. Why do some people like math and some hate it? Because they aren’t good at it. Think of something that you hate doing, and then try to become proficient at that activity and you won’t hate it nearly as much. Turn the pain into pleasure.

Think of some really obese people you know. You look at them, and they are the neatest, self conscious people on earth. They have their hair and nails done, pedicures, lip gloss, but they are a 6 piece Mcnugget away from bursting. Why, because the nails, the hair, the make up…that’s the easy stuff. It’s an easy victory. Losing 100 lbs and keeping it off, now that’s the hard part.
We can’t fault them because we are the same way, and do the same thing. That’s why we stay at jobs we don’t like. We are like the fat lady. Our jobs are our hair, and nails and our cute “Fat Girl” outfits. Thinking we look cute, is like getting that little paycheck at the end of the week. It’s easy, safe, and you are not disappointed. You do the easy work, you get a little payout. Losing 100 lbs and putting on a bikini, that’s like starting to work for yourself and getting rich. Why doesn’t every one do it? Because you can put in a lot of effort and only lose 20 lbs, or 30 and gain the weight back, which is just like starting something and failing. But if you don’t try and lose the weight you are guaranteed to be fat.
Think about it, that fat chick doesn’t fail until she gives up. You don’t fail until you give up, and succumb to a life of mediocrity.

You become what you think about the most. Period. It’s true. Your mind starts to pick up opportunities that it didn’t see before as you zero in on your goals. Your subconscious starts to help your conscious focus on your goals. It’s powerful!

Example: Notice when you buy a car, how many cars just like yours are on the road. Those same cars were there before but since your subconscious wasn’t zeroed in on it, it didn’t pick up on it. That’s how the brain works on what you think about the most. It will begin to work on a conscious and subconscious level, thus doubling your mental efforts and making sure that no opportunities pass you by.
…….and we all know, that when opportunity knocks, you better be ready to get the damn door.
Holla at your boy.
-MJL