Archive for the 'Author Background' Category

11
Aug

A Hustler Update

By The Hustler 0 Comments
Categories: Author Background, Being a Hustler, Starting a Business, Strategies and Uncategorized

I know a lot of you are out there struggling right now. The economy is bad. Unemployment is up. There is no a lot of money to go around (so it seems).

Then you hear on the finance channels that now is the time to invest. Days like these are the days that made the Rockerfellers the Rockerfellers.

Thats  true – these are. But the Rockerfellers weren’t broke before the depression either. So, here is what I hav been up to.

The restaurant is open. I ran into a beef wih the local police because they didnt want me to open. That process cost me an extra $15,000 that we didn’t plan for. That pissed me off because the issue seemed “made up”. But I got over it. After 8 months of being open we are scratching at profitability. That means I am about 10% away from operating in the black which, in this industry is considered miraculous.

But there is work to be done. I have a lot of competitors and folks who have connections that do not want to see me be successful. But all of that makes me stronger. See, while they are focused on me – I am focused on their customers. Which strategy do you think will bear more fruit?

A few of my other businesses have been hit hard by the economy. Fortunately I believe in diversification. For me, that means I have multiple products and services that I offer my clients. One of those products replaced a more expensive service. So clients that have had their budgets cut and can’t afford our big expensive services, can still work with us and know that we are solving their problems. This means that I didn’t lose a client – instead I just solve their problems differenly. This has also earned me some attention in a few national publications in he industries that I serve. That brought me new clients.

We are about to launch that new business I told you all about. I know, launch a NEW business? Remember what I have said before. There is opportunity in every environment.

I can’t go into detail on what he project is right now but it is timely and here is an unfilled market. That is a good start. The part that is really interesting is that I am doing it with a partner. I am going to try it again.

Partnerships have never worked out well for me. I think I may have even recommended to you all to avoid them. I am hoping this will be one of those rare exceptions.

I was completely up front wih my partner (who has been a friend for a long time. He even hired me once for a job when I was 18 years old ) I told him that I have never had a partnership work out. Never. Neither has he (except for his wife). We are working out a partnership agreement. I am hoping that wisdom will temper this new relationship. I am betting on success. The idea is too good to not pursue and neither of us would pursue it alone.

I have a lot more to say and I will try to keep up with this momentum. Right now I am typing from the ba, on my laptop. I have been coming in more ad instead of sitting n my ass or watching TV – I am ging to try an talk with you folks.

Keep your head up and keep hustling.

28
Jan

I got called out today – I’m a Hustler not a Gangster

By The Hustler 4 Comments
Categories: Author Background, Being a Hustler, Personal Notes and Strategies

I was heading out to the office this morning and hit my emails before I hit the door.

I saw I had a comment where I was told that "Every man is out for himself" and I hustle "Pussy Style".

The point of the comments were that I need to be a gangster to really be on my hustle.

I disagree. I think the gangster level hustle is only the beginning. I used to run my game on the street. I even came up a little. I wasn’t pulling $3 million dollars as the poster claims but I was flipping about $100k a year when I was in my late teens. Sad thing was, like many gangsters, I was spending it as fast as I was making it. I had a solid crew, but the thing about being in that game is you are "Out for yourself" and in a volatile world like being caught up in the game, sometimes someone will flip on you to save their own ass. In my world (now) that could mean that the IRS come knocking or code enforcement shows up at one of my businesses or at worse, one of my businesses fail. When i was in the game, I had to worry about people fire-bombing my house (actually happened), being shot at or drivebys (actually happened), being stabbed (actually happened) or people going after my family (actually happened). Those are liabilities that I am not willing to accept anymore because I know that I don’t have to.

I can have all my chips AND not have to worry about someone else coming at me sideways.

The idea at that level of the game is that your hustle will always be strong and the game will never change. It reminds me of when crack hit the streets (and again when Meth came up). All those gangsters making their chips on heroin and weed and coke were watching their customer base dry up. On the inverse, there were a few big players in the crack game that were coming up. You had big names like Monster Kody and Tookie Williams, the originators of the street gangs that ran the drug industry in Los Angeles.

These guys started buying property (investing in real estate) to hide their dope and their cash. They put money on the streets, helping folks pay their rent and for sports leagues to build a community that would support and protect them (investment and community development). At any point, they could have probably run for city council and won in their districts. They were real kingpins. The problem with those cats and the likes of George Jung and others who came up pushing dope and violence is that they get trapped.

They never stop and look around and say, if I keep going this way, I will end up dead or in jail. I could lose it all in a minute. One bad decision and it is all gone. I could take all this money, drop out and flip it in legitimate enterprise. I could have all the money, fame, and luxury and never have to worry about a lick gone bad or a sucker with a gun at my door. I would never have to worry about a nosey cop or a dirty cop with a hand out. Life would be uncomplicated and easy.

Thats the limit of the gangster hustle. I might be on a "Pussy Hustle" now, but now when I see cops, they nod at me. They know me. If they jam me up, I can call my councilmember, who I am on first name terms with and have it handled. See the city doesn’t like to have upstanding business owners harassed by the local boys in blue. It affects their income. As a legitimate employer, I have power over the politicians. As someone who knows how to work with the media, I have power. As someone who knows how to motivate people and make things happen, I have power.

I think Ice T said it best when he said, "Real Gangsters wear trenchcoats, wear black suits, black ties and seek votes". Remember that and the old saying "Game recognizes game."

Politicians don’t care about Gangsters, but they are terrified of Hustlers in suits with the ability to speak to the press and make a point.

The Gangster hustle is short term at best. It is lucrative, you make money, you have a little fame (locally) and get to do some crazy stuff and have a good time (if you can deal with the hard life).

But it is a short term hustle with no retirement plan and serious liabilities. To the reader that sent me that email, get out man. Get out of the game and into your Hustle. Take all that knowledge you have learned on the street and flip the script. You might be making millions in the hood but you could be making hundreds of millions in "The World".

The last thing you said was, "Run with the big dogs".

I do, I chat with millionaires and billionaires that make decisions and run hustles that affect the world.

They don’t get much bigger than that and I never have to worry about taking one in the chest while playing cards with them.

So respect to you man. You came up the hard way, but you came up anyway. If I could impart a little wisdom your direction, it would be "You don’t have to stop being a gangster, just elevate your hustle. Take it out of the streets. Remember, real gangsters wear suits. "

Keep Hustling

06
Aug

There is nothing between us but air and opportunity

By The Hustler 7 Comments
Categories: Author Background, Being a Hustler, Personal Notes, Sales Training and Strategies

I said that the other day out of reflex. I hadn’t said it in a long time. I was joking around with one of my buddies, play-fighting if you will. It is one of those standard responses when someone wants something from you (even if all they want is a fight) and you are trying to motivate them to make a decision.

Normally it is two guys squared up, ready to fight. Both are willing to go the next step, but neither wants to commit to the next step on their own. But no matter what the circumstances, neither wants to take the first punch. They each want the other to make the first move so that they can react. They are waiting to follow, neither want to lead.

That strategy has always bothered me. In the schoolyard, guys would talk tough. They would bump chests, push each other, talk about each other’s mommas – they would do everything but commit to the first punch. This is what I knew of school yard fights in the 3rd grade. It took an older guy to teach me that it was the one who threw that first punch who usually came out on top. It was the guy who had the heart to act first.

R.T. was an O.G. in the literal sense. He was my best friend’s older brother. He was a gangster who worked his way to the top of the game (at the street level that is). He died around the age of 26 doing gangster shit. But before that, R.T. taught me how to fight. My dad taught me how to box, my mom taught me how to find sticks and rocks when your hands can’t do the job (see how men and women attack a problem differently?). R.T. taught me how to survive for real. Continue reading ‘There is nothing between us but air and opportunity’

31
Jul

Start that $20 Hustle and make a million dollars

By The Hustler 7 Comments
Categories: Author Background, Being a Hustler, Financing Your Hustle, Money, Money Making Ideas, Personal Notes and Starting a Business

Sorry I have been gone. Those who are regular readers know that I am in the process of opening a bar/restaurant and that has been eating into my time and money. But it is an investment and I know that a little work now will pay dividends later. That reminds me of a post I was working on called Start that $20 hustle and make a million dollars.

Most people don’t know what $20 a week can get them. Hell I was told what it would do for me when I was 16 and I didn’t listen. If I had, I would have an account right now with over $100,000 cash in it grown from $20 a week.

To, for some folks, $20 is a drop in the bucket. It is lunch money. For others it means the difference between hamburger helper for the family and just plain helper.

$20 can be found almost under every rock in your neighborhood, if you know what kind of rocks to look for.

I get emails all the time (so if you sent one and I haven’t responded, hang in there, I am working on it). Most of the time it is stuff like “How do I get my hustle going?” or “Where can I get money to finance my hustle?”

The hardest part to locking down a strong hustle is money and patience. If you have ever done any kind of crime, you know that you spend a lot of time waiting. You are either waiting in the bushes for traffic to clear so you can break a window or you are waiting for the store to clear out a little before you run in there. Maybe you are waiting for a foggy night to do your dirt or you are waiting for a homeboy to call you up with the ok on the spot where he works.

Most of the time it is a gut check. You ask yourself, does it FEEL right. Being kids of the 70’s and 80’s my friends and I used to call this our “Spidey Senses”. Some of my other friends called it being ghetto psychic. It is how you know someone is a cop, even though you don’t really know. It is the gut feeling to know that now is the time to act.

But the waiting to act is hard. That is the hardest part to get over. You can have millions in the bank but unless you check the gut, keep it in your pocket. This is why I think that those who grew up in the game have an advantage over those who didn’t. You can smell danger. The other advantage is that you know when to take the risk of running up and smashing that window.

So now that we know that you have to have patience to know when to act, you have got to find the dough. Money has a funny way of multiplying. Think about it. When I was a kid, I sold candy on the schoolyard. I had a little store in my backpack. Actually I carried a duffel bag that was half candy and half books with zippers on both sides. I stole about $2.00 worth of nickel gum and Jolly Ranchers from the 7-11 near my house. I would go back and pay for them as I have the money now but they closed like 12 years ago.

Anyway, I flipped that $2.00 in candy into $4.00 that afternoon. I went and bought $4.00 in candy and sold it for $8.00 the next day. I did this until I was making between $10 and $20 a day net. That’s a pocket full of cash for a 3rd grader in 1983. I took those profits and rolled them into extending my line and setting up distribution (selling candy is like selling crack or weed or anything else). I was the Nino Brown of the elementary school.

But all I needed was that seed money. So here are some ideas for setting up your empire, starting with your first $20. By the way, I have done each of these things myself so i know they work. Continue reading ‘Start that $20 Hustle and make a million dollars’

08
Mar

Web sites to help you get your hustle going.

By The Hustler 6 Comments
Categories: Author Background, Being a Hustler, Building a Crew, Financing Your Hustle, Money, Planning, Sales Training, Starting a Business, Strategies and Time Management

A Hustler is constantly evaluating their surroundings and the resources available to them. I have said before that if all you have is time, use that time to advance your hustle. I lived in a housing project near some agricultural drainage ditches. People would go down there to catch crawdads to make soup and other foods and then sell what they could make (even just sell the live crawdads at the flea market). I used to collect cans and bottles that people threw away to gather up some money. Whatever it is that surrounds you, take a look at it and figure out who doesn’t have it. Farrah Gray took rocks and sold them as door stops. He took extra lotions from around his house and mixed them together and sold them for extra money. Farrah Gray is a Hustler.

One thing that is pretty much available to anyone in the United States is Internet access. Coffee shops, libraries, Internet cafes, schools are all potential sources of computers with cheap or free internet access.

Now, you might not be able to charge folks to use these free computers (but if you can, I might have a job for you because that would mean you are on top of your sales hustle). Anyway, so you now have this incredible resource. Every day, people like you are making a few dollars to a few thousand dollars using the Internet. I have. I was making a few hundred dollars a month on eBay about 8 years ago spending about 4 hours a month posting items and mailing them out. I didn’t do anything special. I could probably start it up again if I wanted too, but it was boring. I make better money now doing things that are more fun for me – and isn’t that the real hustle? Continue reading ‘Web sites to help you get your hustle going.’

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