I am enjoying a ton of success in the worst economy this country has ever seen.

Thats said with a mixture of pride and sadness. I want everyone to come up with me – if you are willing to put in the work.

Thats why I am dusting off this site. I am trying to get back on this Hustle and shine a light on the end of the tunnel for the rest of you.

I am getting mine – it’s time to get yours.

Keep Hustling

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

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 3^rd 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.

R.T. told me that if someone comes up and pushes you, you were to drop a hammer on them. There was no pushing back and getting into a tussle. I was told to hit them until I couldn’t move my arms any more – then you kick them. This is survival in the jungle. There is no such thing as a dirty or a fair fight. There was only surviving the fight. You keep moving until you can’t move anymore. That’s how you get what you want. That’s how you survive.

So, while messing around with a friend, I said “Come on man, there is nothing between us but air and opportunity” it stuck in my head. I thought about all the times I let air keep me from my goals. I let air keep me from opportunities.

I was at a high school graduation in San Diego, which was attended by Tony Robbins. You might remember Tony Robbins from his Personal Power self-improvement books and tapes and infomercials. Tony was about 12 feet away from me. I wanted to go over and shake his enormous hand (no offense Tony, if you happen to catch this, but come on man…), maybe get a picture of us together.

I don’t get squishy over celebrities (he is not the first and only one I have ever met) but this was pretty cool and I respect what he was able to do – he started out broke too. Plus he wasn’t celebrity by pretending to be someone else. He was a celebrity based on his Hustle – there is a difference.

My sister-in-law is a friend of his son’s. They went to high school together and we were all there at their high school graduation. I stood there and invented a dozen reasons to NOT go over to him just to say hi. My wife and her family tried to motivate me to go over. I said no…

“This is a personal occasion, I don’t want to bother him”
“He is with his family”
“It would be rude”
“I don’t want to interrupt”

The truth is that for some reason, walking the 12 feet to say “hi” scared me. It didn’t feel like it at the time – at the time it felt like it would be inappropriate. But now I realize that it was fear.

Admitting that you are afraid is a hard fact to swallow. I’m no punk. I have stood eyeball to eyeball with people that wanted to kill me, even shot at me. I have been surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned and survived. I have been in high-speed pursuits with the police and got away. I have looked at my family through the wrong side of wired glass. I have played with high explosives and lived. I have been through some scary stuff and have been able to keep my cool. Introducing myself to a stranger is nothing compared to that stuff. But for some reason, I seemed to care about what might happen if I went over and put out a hand to this guy.

What is the most I could have gained?

A huge contact
A friend
A mentor

What is the worst that could have happened?

He could have said “Nice to meet you.” and walked away. I mean he wasn’t going to punch me in the throat for saying hi.

Afterward I told myself that this would not happen again.

So why do we do it? Why do we let the air between us and opportunity hold us back? Fear of failure? Maybe. Fear of the unknown? Are we afraid that someone who you want to meet will look at you and dismiss you as irrelevant? All of this is bullshit.

I gave this dude power over me. From 12 feet away he was controlling my actions. He didn’t even know he had pimped me. More accurately, I pimped myself.

Nothing, short of a gun to your head, should ever prevent you from advancing your hustle. Never hesitate to go up and say something to anyone. If you are at the store and you see a guy rockin a Rolex and a tight suit. Say hi. Introduce yourself. Ask what he (or she) does. Ask for a card. Write on the back of the card a quick summary of what you talked about and where you met.

Get used to doing this. I have made many contacts from chance encounters. I have boxes of business cards that I have picked up from people. If anything you will have a cool mailing list of people that you could either sell to or hit up to finance your next project. No matter what, you will build a database of people who are already on their hustle. And that is a good list to have.

Never let yourself pimp yourself. Never let air prevent you from making a move. Never let air get between you and opportunity.

Keep Hustling

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.

Tow Yards – Many Tow Truck companies have impound contracts with the cops. When people don’t pick up their cars, the tow yard doesn’t want to sell them like they are a car lot (they usually don’t have a license to sell cars). So they sell them for scrap to the local junkyards. Offer to sell those cars for them for a split of the profits. They only get $50 to $200 for the salvage on those cars. You might get the car with a salvage title, but my first three cars had salvage titles and that didn’t bother me. Plus a lot of those salvage yards just sell those cars anyway. You are acting as a broker and can list the car on craigslist or ebay if you want. If you have $50 to $200, just ask to buy the car from the lot yourself and don’t split the upsell value.

Recycling – I am not saying go get a bicycle and a bunch of bags and hit the garbage cans. Not that there is anything wrong with that, those people are Hustlers in their own way. I am saying to go by the local bars and restaurants and talk to someone. Maybe it is the owner or the manager or the security guard that is guarding the dumpster. Offer them 50% of the recycled value of the cans and bottles. You swing by once a day, week or month – whatever works. You will make a few extra dollars for sure and you could even turn this into a little business. I used to do this when I was a kid. I didn’t have a car so I would just go to the restaurants around the grocery store and get them to give me their bottles. I would turn them in at the store for cash. It was an easy $10 for an hour of work in 1982 when minimum wage was a little over $3/hr in California.

Mobile Car Wash – If you live somewhere where people like to drive, then going to their homes and telling them that for $5 to $10 you (and your kids or spouse or friends) will wash their cars. If it works out you can set it up so you can stop by once a week to once a month. Use quality soap and nice cloths and bring your own hoses and nozzles so you don’t have to borrow anything from the owner. Make sure you have nothing sharp on you (watches, belts, keys). You can even take a camera with you and take a picture of each car (to document existing damages) and have a check list with a drawing of a car (like the rental places use). In the winter time, shovel snow. Get to really know them and get them on an oil change schedule too.

Be a Mobile Store – People buy water. You can buy it bulk, cheap. Go places where people are exercising (the park, the gym, the community center, little league ball games) with a backpack lined with water resistant cloth (think solar reflectors from PepBoys or thermal blankets). Freeze some of the bottles and put them on the bottom. Make a T-Shirt at Zazzle.com or CafePress.com that say “Water $1.00” or “Snack Pimp” or something like that. If you are in a wheel chair and like to beg for money as your hustle – don’t go panhandle – put some hooks on your wheelchair and be a mobile store. I am far more likely to buy something from you than give you my hard earned money for nothing! And likely people are more likely to give you money if you at least make the effort to sell something.

Make Something – You know how to do something. What are your friends calling you up to help them with? You help people all the time even if it is moving furniture. Do you have a truck, rent yourself on Craigslist for people who need the help. Do you know how to make necklaces? Are you willing to learn something? Open up the PennySaver or phone book to the handyman section. What are other people doing? Learn it and do that too! I have a concrete back patio that my wife wants to stain. It is stamped so there are a lot of brick-like patterns. She wants me to get out there and stain each “brick” individually in alternating colors. Yeah, it will look good and it is easy to do – but I don’t want to do it. I would pay someone $500 to come do it for me over the weekend. I would pay for the stain, brushes and kneepads. And in California as long as it is under $500 you don’t need a contractor’s license. There are a lot of guys like me with more money than time. You have more time than money. Go get their money.

So there are 5 solid ideas. Not everyone can do all of them but anyone can do at least one of them. Take that little money you get and throw it into a CD or savings account or Roth IRA or mutual funds or something. Sit on it and let it grow until you find the next hustle.

If I had done this when I was 16, and increased my savings to my earnings, as I got older – I would have over a million dollars cash in that savings account. Life is funny like that. When you get older you see all the missed opportunities. But while you are looking back at them, don’t forget to look around at the here and now. You don’t want to be 10 years older looking back to now thinking about all the opportunities that you are missing right now.

That bar/restaurant I am opening started from $20. I fixed some computers and stuff when I was 16 years old. I taught myself how.  I read books at the library and hung out with other people in that kind of stuff and learned what I could. I charged $20/hr to fix any computer problem that I could fix. I used that money to buy a 1966 mustang for $1,200. I sold that Mustang for $2,500 to help put together the down payment to buy my first house. I sold that house for $200,000 more than I paid for it. I took about $100,000 of that and paid off all my debt and used the rest to buy a crappy little bar in the ghetto. The other $100,000 I used as a down payment on the next house.

I set that bar up, cleaned it up and squeezed every dime out of it until it was the most successful 1100 square feet in that neighborhood. I took the money from that and leased a very high traffic and visible spot in the good side of town. Just by moving into the new building the value of that business has doubled. Remember what they say about real estate? Well it is the same for businesses too – “Location, Location, Location”. The day I open the doors the business will be worth about $500,000.

It all started from a $20 hustle.

Keep Hustling

1. Give good advice.
   At some point, someone is going to ask your opinion about something personal. Short and sweet is the key. If someone tells you their wife is sleeping around or their kid is an asshole – they don’t want to hear a 2-hour lecture on your childhood (unless you are buying the beers). Give advice that helps in one or two sentences. If you can’t do that, then you haven’t thought about the question hard enough.

   Friend: “My wife is sleeping with my best friend. It is driving me crazy. What do I do?”

   You: “Anyone sleeping with your best friend is not your wife and anyone sleeping with your wife is not your best friend.”It may not be what they want to hear, but it is an irrefutable statement. It also may give them a new perspective to start from.

2. Tell if someone is lying to you.
   Everyone has a theory. I like these: Liars change the subject quickly. Liars like to say “Honestly”, “Can you believe it?”, “You know you can trust me.” or swear you to secrecy. Liars will sometimes stare straight at you and employ a dead face. Liars place objects between themselves and you during a conversation. Forbes Magazine published a little on this too.
3. Shake hands.
   Steady, firm, pump, let go. Use the time to make eye contact, since that’s where the social contract begins.
4. Read some non-fiction.
   You may enjoy Stephen King or some other horror or romantic novels. But no one gets rich reading this stuff. Also in business company, these authors never come up. However, Larry Winget, Suze Orman, Seth Godin and authors like that – all the time.
5. Not monopolize the conversation.
   When I was younger, I suffered from this affliction. You want to be heard. You want people to notice you. You take it from the fact that everyone around you is letting you talk because you are saying some smart stuff. The fact is the opposite. There is an old saying – “It is better to be quiet and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”
6. Buy a suit.
   Avoid the $99 suit sales if you can. Know your style and what you need it for (work, funerals, court). Squeeze the fabric into a fist — if it bounces back with little or no sign of wrinkling, that means it’s good, sturdy material. And tug the buttons gently. If they feel loose or wobbly, that means they’re probably coming off sooner rather than later. The jacket’s shoulder pads are supposed to square with your shoulders; if they droop off or leave dents in the cloth, the jacket’s too big. The jacket sleeves should never meet the wrist any lower than the base of the thumb — if they do, ask to go down a size. Always get fitted. Labels aren’t that important until you start running with the $2,000 to $5,000 suit crowd – but fabric and patterns matter. Stay with the basic colors and patterns. Get creative with the shirt and tie. That’s where you add flavor. I found this video too.
7. Talk out a fight or know how to throw a solid punch.
   You may be in a restaurant or bar with a client or employer. Someone may get stupid. Learn to speak softly and let the folks involved know why it doesn’t suit their interests in pursuing their current course of action without assaulting their manhood. This is an important and difficult skill to master. I was a bouncer for about 4 years and learned how to squash fights before they happened. This is important for me today as sometimes people look for trouble. A few words in private and they are usually willing to walk away. Knucklheads will say this makes you a bitch. Going to a meeting with a black eye or a broken nose is stupid.If all else fails, you have got to know how to throw down. You have to stand close enough, but not too close. Swing with your shoulders, not your arm. Long punches rarely land squarely. Follow through; don’t pop and pull back. Remember, the bones in your hand are small and easy to break. You’re better off striking hard with the heel of your palm (I like to use my knees and elbows). It doesn’t hurt to take some boxing or fighting classes. I like (and studied) Krav Maga.
8. Tie a tie.
   I am talking a Half Windsor knot or Full Windsor knot. Not that half-ass “Four in hand knot” crap that you learned in the boy scouts. And it doesn’t matter how tall or short you are. Make sure the bottom point of that tie comes over your belt buckle. Nothing makes you look like a country fool faster than having a tie that ends above your waist. Do I really need to say anything about clip-ons?
9. Know how to order a social drink
   When I was younger, all I drank were Tequila shots, Kamikazes or whatever was being passed around. This got me in trouble when I went to a business meeting that took all day and into dinner and everyone was drinking scotch or some mixed drink. You need to know what you can or want to drink in this situation without standing there, looking like a dumbass.Always call the liquor; never go to the “Well”. You need to know Brand, amount, style, fast, like so: Booker’s, double, neat. If you need help finding “Your Drink” go to a nice bar or restaurant and ask the bartender to make some suggestions. Try some things out. Find something you like and memorize it.
10. Speak a foreign language.
    You don’t have to be fluent. Grab a copy of an at-home study course – there are even free ones online. I took two years of Japanese and two years of Spanish in high school. I speak no Japanese, but understand the culture. I also like freaking out my border brothers when they try to run game on me and find out later that I understood everything they were saying about me to each other.
11. Sew a button.
    I can’t tell you how many times I have been on my way to meet someone and had a button pop off, break or whatever. Most hotel rooms either have a sewing kit or you can get one in the gift shop. It is not hard and beat the hell out of looking stupid because your shirt is missing a button or your fly keeps dropping. Learn how now.
12. Talk Politics without starting and argument or expressing your specific views.
    The rule is that you never discuss politics or religion. But just a few weeks ago I was talking to 3 different clients in a social setting and the election came up. Not knowing where the political views of my client lie, I did the non-committal two-step. I said something to the effect of “The whole process is driving me crazy. It is almost making me lose faith in the process. I really just wish I could find a candidate that I truly felt had the best interests of the country at heart”. No matter which side of the fence they were, they all nodded in agreement.
13. Know how to play Gin, Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Craps, Dominoes, Billiards (Pool) and Chess.
    One of the richest guys I have ever met has reached a point where he travels the world to visit kings and leaders to have tea and play Gin. That is all they do – travel the world and play cards.Learning any game based on strategy will help you out in life and give you a point of connection with the people you are trying to know.I don’t gamble recreationally. You will rarely catch me in a casino unless I am there with a prospect or part of a group trip. That being said, I have a strategy for Roulette, and all those games above. I learned how to play pool when I was eight years old and played competitively in local tournaments. I am not a great player, but I am pretty good. Plus, if you are playing pool at a bar with a client, they don’t notice that they are drinking and you are not.Make three different bets at a craps table. Play the smallest and most poorly labeled areas, the bets where it’s visually evident the casino doesn’t want you to go. Simply play the pass line; once the point is set, play full odds (this is the only really good bet on the table).Learn to shuffle a deck of cards. I have played cards with guys who can’t shuffle, and they lose. Always.Know when to split his cards in blackjack. Aces. Eights. Always.
14. Know how to speak to a waiter.
    You don’t own the restaurant, so don’t act like it. Act like a guest in someone’s house. Don’t speak into the menu. Make eye contact. Say please and thank you. Women will tell you that they will size a guy up by how they treat the server at a restaurant. I do the same thing.
15. Say no graciously.
    You can’t do everything, but you don’t want to burn bridges. Learn how to say no “this time” but leave the door open for a future relationship. “I would love to do that, and normally I would, but right now I am just not able to devote any time to that. But let’s plan some time for next month to get together and take a look at what projects you have coming up.”
16. Throw a ball.
    Company picnic or a pick-up game of ball at the gym – you have to be able to be part of the team. Learn how to throw baseball over-hand with some snap. Throw a football with a tight spiral. Shoot a 12-foot jump shot reliably. Learn how to drive a golf ball, even if it is only 50ft off the tee. If you can’t, play more ball.
17. Iron a shirt.
    I hate to iron. Usually I just dry clean everything. If I am out of town and the clothes are clean and they just need to be ironed, the dry cleaners will press them for about $2.00. But if you are really in a spot, you have to be able to break out an iron and get the job done. Rolling in a wrinkled shirt is never allowed unless you just got mugged. And in that case, you had better be bleeding.
18. Write a thank-you note.
    Make a habit of it. Follow a simple formula like this one: First line is a thesis statement. The second line is evidentiary. The third is a kind of assertion. Close on an uptick.

Thanks for having me over to discuss your business. I hope that I was able to answer your questions satisfactorily. I will be thinking about our conversation and if I am able to come up with some more ideas I will definitely give you a call. Next time, let me take you out to lunch so that we can get to know each other a little better. Thanks again,

So that concludes this list. Obviously this isn’t everything you need to know. But these are some things that come up pretty regularly in my day to day life. This is just a pimer to get you set up with some basics so that you can focus on the real skills to get your hustle going.

Keep Hustling.