Stop Thinking About It..How to Get Off Your Butt And Go For Yours!!
Every January, I see the same routine where you see a lot of cats come to this blog the prior year, talk up hustles/businesses they want to set up and when January come around, all you hear is crickets. I noticed there are some bulletin boards out there that talk about hustling/entrepreneurship and I noticed it is the same cats still around for more than 90 days still talking about what new hustle/business idea they should try to start up. Well, we going to end this tired cycle here at Dream and Hustle and break it down how cats need to stop sitting around thinking about doing for self and start being about doing for self.
This is what I honestly believe – I believe Noah’s Ark is the realist religious story ever written period because I see the theme manifest itself over and over again. Noah was aware he had to build the Ark and he built one based on solid knowledge and a reliable informant – God. However, the cats around Noah mocked and laughed at him and this is where 99% of you cats are doing right now this moment. And the reason you are sitting back laughing, mocking and into small talk is because you have a follower mentality like a herd animal. Let me explain further, please.
See, if 100 cats just randomly start building an Ark, you probably would then build an Ark because you realize all these other people must know something – that’s how herd animal thinks. A herd mentality needs to see others make moves before they realize they have to move. But if you saw just one cat building an Ark, then you think that one person is a weirdo and you try to align yourself with a group of clueless cats and talk among yourselves like yall got it all figured out. And when the flood hits, all of you herd socialite f*cks are instantly wiped out like those flock of dead birds popping up in the news.
Marginalization of the African-American working middle class base is real and is going on and many of you brothas and sistas are still in strong denial or just sitting there doing nothing waiting for others to move before you make a move. This is what I believe – I believe many of you simply think Dream and Hustle need to be more “popular” to be truthful and credible in the same manner these Bible cats wanted to see more than one person like Noah building an Ark to take the flood threat seriously. And as the Bible and the story of Noah’s Ark tries to teach you cats, all of that socialite herd mentality rationalization means nothing when the flood hits and either you going to float or you going to sink, plain and simple.
We need to break the cycle and explain how to get cats from just sitting around lurking, thinking, pondering about doing for self and actually going out there and do it and get in the groove. Because on this blog plenty of times, I broke down the exact steps to accomplish things and no one made a real move even with the information presented to them. So African-Americans can longer say they are being denied when they have access to information on how to go for theirs. I believe the real problem is how African-Americans been mis-educated over the past century on how to stack their paper and get their money up. So the real solution is for brothas and sistas is to understand how to make money, go where the money at and f*ck everything else they heard.
Understand How to Make Money
The way you make money is to obtain it from someone else who has money. It’s funny that a thug or thief knows this basic concept but some young African-American from Clark Atlanta University walks around in a suit dressing to impress around other broke ass cats and wondering why they ain’t getting money. You cannot squeeze blood from a turnip and I met a brotha the other day who does something with blood and he travels around the world for his business getting his money up because everybody has blood. You need to understand what it takes to obtain money.
You need to understand the way you make money is to offer something of value to the cats who have money, plain and simple. Based on your current situation, you need to determine if you going to sell what people want or what people need. If you are broke and just holding a job, you need to focus on selling what people need. People do not need Mary Kay cosmetics and that MLM crap and some of you broke ass cats peddling that 5Linxs, Prepaid Legal, Ignite, Noni ish should be laughed out of the game altogether, real talk. But if you sold something like cheat sheets at work on how to do the job so people can keep their jobs, which is something cats will feel they need and will part their money to keep their paycheck money.
The only way you should consider selling what people like or think is cute is when you dealing with a crowd that truly and really got money to blow. The African-American community at large does not have money to blow and those that do are fronting. Cats in Dubai with oil resources got money to blow and cats in China who runs manufacturing operations got money to blow as well as Hollywood and Wall Street – these are the cats you sell the exotic cars and luxury clothing and botox injections. You should know by now that most efforts such as these ghetto fabulous designers like Karl Kani and Cross Colors does not last long because they trying to sell affluence to broke ass cats while Armani, Polo and Boss is still around because they sell affluence to affluent people.
After you understand you make money by offering the right things to the right people, you need to learn the process. This is where a full 99% of African-American wannabee entrepreneurs fail hard at. They know how to do everything except the process of collecting payment. I’ve seen cats show up and don’t even have a change purse and someone give them a $100 bill and they don’t have change. I’ve seen cats setup expensive merchant account systems and have to charge their customers an extra $5 to process the payment for the hair care treatment. We got to do better at learning how to collect money from the hustle – your hustle has zero value if you don’t have the process down to get the money.
Make the transactions short and sweet and convenient because to be honest, customers respect how the money transaction is made way more than the product/service they are getting. Have you been to a casino where they gave you wrinkled up money when it was time to cash out? Or did they give you fresh clean bills making you feel like a winner? Setup a process where you ask for the money, take it and provide change and a receipt quickly and efficiently. This is why I was talking about the point-of-sale and prepaid debit opportunities in our hood that we need to take seriously and setup the infrastructure for cats to collect money more efficiently. You should also understand the most profitable firms are the ones that know how to collect money better than they make a product or provide a service.
Go Where the Money At
To understand how to go where the money at, you have to understand money. Most African-Americans do not understand money and our culture shows our ignorance of money upfront and loud and center. Stuff like Radio One, BET, Ebony magazine and Black Enterprise magazine are the biggest perpetuators of displaying ignorance by showing money to Black people as fame, status quo and materialism. So cats are running around buying up Escalades and fur coats and Gucci glasses and want us to believe they are the money. The same with these Black elitists groups running around and Frank Ski at V-103 FM in Atlanta. Guys, this is not where the money is at and you clueless cats need to stop chasing these clowns and their materialism. I know plenty of women who chased athletes and realize the hard way that is not where the real money is at.
The thing you need to understand about money is money is always moving and you have to be at the right place and right time where the money is being moved. When you understand the money is only at the place it is being moved, then you will begin to understand money and stop looking at rap videos with cats showing off cars, gold chains and start looking at how money is being moved around you. At this point, you should realize that the movement of money is where the money is really at, not the cats who show off a lot of money that ain’t moving your way or direction.
This knowledge should help you understand that a corner store in the hood is moving money and that means if you open up a shop in the hood, you will be moving money in that community also. It also should help you explain being at the right place at the right time with the right opportunity like selling bottle water on a hot day with a lot of people walking down the street – money will start moving to satisfy a demand. So money is not at a fixed place, money is located where there is opportunity for movement of money.
Let’s take the nightclub or party example – many of you groupies think the money is the balla that comes in the nice car and buying bottles. But if you were smart, you should realize the money is the guy collecting money at the door, selling the drinks and the VIP table reservation and that is where the money is moving. So when I go to a club and I see a female more interested in some self-important cat with dough than the movement of money all around her in transactions, I know I’m dealing with a broke-thought sista that will likely spend her time on Dream and Hustle being offended about moo-nomics than trying to understand true economics.
F*ck Everything Else
Now that you understand how money is made and to be where the money is at, the last thing you need to do in order to get off your butt is to realize everything else is straight up BS. All of this crap about dressing to impress, look the part, network with others, get a mentor, develop a strong management team are all bullsh*t made up by cats who write books and magazine articles for a living. Nothing frustrate me more than the African-American that grew up in the hood who start believing in that damn sideways crap when they know damn well cats in the hood made money by getting money, plain and simple.
One of the biggest things I keep hearing is this build up an audience first and try to sell them something later that came from the dotcom game. You got a lot of Black web 2.0 cornballs that believe in this garbage more than they can see the reality before their eyes that this is not how you make money. You get money through an exchange of goods and services, not some “build this up socially and hopefully money will come around” type of thinking. Do not get caught up in all these fake obstacles and barriers that don’t have a damn thing to do with getting your money on.
You don’t need to be part of some elite club or secret society to get money, don’t need to be walking around looking professional to get money and you don’t have to be liked by the mainstream media to get money. The only way you get money is by offering a product/service someone wants to acquire in exchange for money. F*ck everything else.
Summary
The real reason you haven’t got off your ass and do for self is because you don’t understand how the money is made and where the money is at. If you knew how the money is made and where the money is at, you would be there by now. Cats in the drug game get in the drug dealing trade because they realize the money is made by selling product on the corners where the addicts are at. You need to have this basic thinking of money so you can fully understand how to get up, get out and get something for yourself.
values, my expressions, and what I care for are all reflective of that. I was one of those lucky children who experienced lots of love, and the benefit of good parenting – and it’s why I feel so strongly about giving future generations of kids the good homes and quality opportunities they need.
