Actually being successful or like moving out
of our mom's basement or whatever we put so much energy
and time into the presentation of not looking like that situation instead of putting the energy
and time into actually finding a solution to that issue.
And so at that point it was like okay I've been putting
a lot of time and effort trying to pretend things are good instead of actually
trying to find solutions and then, that's when I started to do everything I needed to do to try
to make money and just really… when I say embrace
it's not necessarily like accept it for what it is
it's almost like, "Okay, this is real I need to figure this out." Taking your surroundings
you take in the people around you you see how they're making money and I just didn't like
begging people for money.
And so I respected the guys
that were like figuring out hustles right? And so, for instance, there was an Amaco
right down the street from me and so, I would go there and I would
wash windshields and make money just try to save up enough money
to just be in a motel for the night and I mean like the nastiest motel but for me it was just taking in my environment,
seeing how other people hustled how I can do it better. Someone taught me how to play
drums on buckets and things like that. And so, you know, I just
tried to do any type of hustle that I could. I just started to learn how others were moving
and kind of adapted throughout. For me, it's… it's opening your mind
and opening yourself to people. I think a lot of people they are ignorant, they are..
Like rejecting change. Travel get out of your comfort zone, meet people from all different
types of backgrounds. If you want to build a product
or service or company that you want to build at scale and your friends are only the homies
that you've been hanging out with since you know, middle school.
Probably should meet some more people, get to know them, travel the world. You know, and even if you
don't have the resources to travel the internet, learn about different
cultures, learn about different people. You're at that computer
you tell me what you want to do I tell you, this is how you search this is… this is how
you find those resources. Now you got to actually go and learn. You have to be able to show people
that there's other options and that's what
spreading seeds is all about.
Showing people that they can
actually do something different. There's one thing being homeless but there's another thing having
everything taken away from you. I was literally living out of my car and so, even though I was homeless I was still trying to uphold
the appearance of everything being okay. When that moment happened
it was like, Whoa this is rock bottom, because now all my clothes are gone, all the cool shoes,
all the things that were material umm that you know, I tried to fake it
until I figured things out were gone. Now and not only that all the the the elements, so… now rain and snow and all these
things can get in the car.
So it was like mildewy and smelly
and so I smelled, right! And so for me in that moment I understood that wow this is…
I thought things were bad but things are really
really bad at this point. And now I can't pretend anymore,
I just have to really embrace this I think a lot of times
when we're going through things we kind of try to figure out how we're going to finesse our way into… people not knowing that things,
things are wrong instead of just saying this is my life this is real now. You have like these brief moments
of kind of peace until like the next
accident happens, right? And that's just life in general. You know it's never going to be
complete smooth sailing. One of the things that
I’ve noticed about a lot of people is that they let the hardships
and the things that happen in their life failure stop them from like Aaliyah says, you know,
"Dust yourself off and try again" right? And for me, I’ve just never let anything or anybody prevent me
from achieving what I want to achieve so I’ve always had
this relentless mentality.
And if you say I can't do something if I fail, if I you know, mess up it just motivates me even more,
I just become even more hungry and so I’ve always just had this you know, relentless mentality. I don't take, you know, no for an answer, I don't take failure
or accept failure at all and it's just always been kind of
in my heart to not give up. It's the rose that grows
from concrete, right? It's like no matter how
terrible a situation is, no matter how bad it is there's still going to be a rose
that grows from that concrete. And I feel like I was that, right? No matter what my situation was
I was built for this.
I was not going to let myself fail right! and I had that mentality and I understand that now, that I grew from that concrete
I’m starting to plant my seeds and there's more roses growing. What's so special
about the internet now is really anything you want
to do you can learn. Like if you want to learn how to code,
if you want to be a developer, you want to build software,
you want to build apps you can literally go on YouTube
and learn how to code.
And so, what I would tell that person is what do you want to do? Tell me anything, what do you want to do? Right? Now, there's resources
and there's things online that can help you build yourself
into whatever that is. So I think that- that kid
at the end of the day he has to have that kind of just, "I got to make this happen" right? Here's the thing –
no one can teach you that. At the end of the day, man,
you really got to want it. You got to really want it. And I think the problem is
is now with social media, before.. When I was growing up I didn't see all these examples
of people having cool cars or doing cool stuff all the time like, right? And now with social media
I don't care if you're in like you know, in the middle of nowhere
you can log on to Instagram and see just this whole world
of experiences and things.
The problem is, it's like, "Oh well, these people have it
so I should be able to have it." and it's just like, man you don't see
the work that goes behind this. Man, I started my first
marketing job at 14. I’m 10 years into entrepreneurship. It wasn't until the past few years where I started really
getting recognition for it, right? And so people don't see all that it takes to even get to that point
and that's the problem. And so, they think it's supposed to be
this- this overnight thing Oh, I started LLC give me money.
No, that's not how it works. This is a marathon, this is not a sprint right? You never know when that
moment is going to happen in your life where you find that passion
or you figure it out. The fun part
is just trying a bunch of stuff like when you get to a point where
you can just try a bunch of stuff it's like, Hey, sit down make a list I’m interested in all these
different things, right? Okay, I’m interested
in these top five things.
Now, how can I do something that not only am I passionate about
with one of these top five things but also make at least
enough money to just get by. A lot of times the thing that's stopping us from being the person that
we truly want to be is ourselves. It's usually ourselves. And I think being able to identify mental health, depression, anxiety,
all these things that we're dealing with and say that we want to make a change and we humble ourselves
to want to make that change is one of the biggest barriers
that one can break through. I’m going to launch a much more
successful business when I do launch it and it's because I took the time to learn and I just think that people
are in such a rush to have something especially money, money is like,
Oh, I got to get more money.
But it's like, if you launch
something that's piss poor. Even at a point where I had
accomplished so many things I almost did it, right? We're not perfect. I’m not perfect. You know, I still mess up all the time, man. Earlier today, like I was- came here
at the wrong time, right? So we- we mess up constantly but it's- it's identifying that and saying,
wait let me take a step back and let me do this the right way.
I am inspired by helping people. If I can make money too
damn, that's cool too, right? But the thing that really
gets me out of bed right now is my ability to help people. I don't need any more money,
I don't need any more material things you know as well as I know
that gets old, right? And you know it feels good temporarily but it doesn't really hold
any weight or substance. And so, the thing that I feel like our legacy is how do we affect as many people as possible in the most genuine
and impactful way, right? And for me THAT is what drives me today..