Never Let Up
Reading time: 3 – 4 minutes
Just when you think you have it all GOD will give you a punch in the gut to let you know you aren’t finished. I was the cat growing up who never stopped doing whatever was ahead of me but as I get older I realize I have let up a lot. Now it only comes back to haunt me when bullshit in my transactions are fvcked up primarily of a technicality. Something so small and insignificant but to the cat I am trying to do business with it’s what they base the deal on. When I sit down and think about it on the whole I can pinpoint it to me not finishing something off completely. I’m usually retty good at ending things but once I made the mistake of thinking time is on my side I end up paying for it later on in time.
I used to accomplish so much when I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I mean I would read like 12 hours a day on just about any topic related to money. I would work out at least 3 times a day, 3 x 45 minutes on the elliptical, bench press, biceps, squats and damn near the whole gym. I would work a side job at night and still had time to break bread with my homies at happy hour, then a club and then a afterhour margarita bar each friday night. Man I was in the zone and on top of my game as I was making money and living life.
Sooner or later I got used to things just coming to me in a easy way. I lost my discipline and my aggressiveness towards making chips. I started to become just like all the other Suckers in the game walking around here worrying about bullshit politics. I just let everything go like I was watching seagulls at the beach. I woke up 4 years later and realized I didn’t care too much about anything and was becoming happy with nothing. I got out of my hole that I was born into and for once in my life I was actually enjoying life. I lost all my anger and frustration and was damn near turning into a Black hippie in life. I had all that I needed and I was cool with living that life. Shit I saw everything I wanted to see, ate everything I wanted to eat, lived everywhere I wanted to live and thought there was nothing new under the sun.
Then one day the bug got in me again and I took off again to start a new mission. This one is not so much based off of being rich but about building something. I’ve been ramping up and getting back in overall fighting shape. But, since I let up so long ago I have to take care of shit I should’ve done when I could. I am now realizing I retired too early and I should’ve never stopped building in this game. While it’s frustrating at times I know I’ll get there. But DAMN I wish I would’ve never let up.
Happy Holidays…. enjoy the videos below as these are actually mine when I bought a HD camera 4 years ago… when I made the mistake of letting up!
Twitter
Youtube
RSS
Email
Facebook
That’s right homie, in this Game we must always have a sense of urgency or whatever it takes for us to continually forge forward.
I plan on wheeling & dealing, hu$ling & busling till the day I pass
720P is higher than 1080i. Just seen a caption on your Vimeo, Sorry I am a video geek it happens. Anyway keep posting blogs I learned so much from your Alibaba blog man – Your podcast are the shit.
I love them all. I can’t wait till you come back with more and more.
Man Freeman we’re on the exact same page. I was just thinking the same thing, just on a lower level. I was so on top of things, then let up but I’ll get back.
In reality, you’re still 19 steps of most, as the “only” thing you’ve lost is time (which I agree is no small thing) but the realization of “Damn, I fell off” makes you more dangerous, given your deep understanding of how the game works and your history of doing it.
And in my experience, it comes back faster, stronger, and better. I started my company four years ago, and established everything legally, but put it down when I married the wrong person. It has taken me 2 years to find my path again, but only 6 weeks to rebuild my infrastructure!
The paths, the journey, the blueprint sounded all too familiar; I could sense that these recent posts were more than words and that you were up to something. Jump back on the bike, Brother Freeman!
@Supreme – Sometimes I think I got this game on lock and I just put it on cruise control. Then me not paying attention to the road makes me miss my exit. Then I got to turn around and go back. That’s what the story was about as if I was on my tippy toes I never would’ve missed the cut. We can’t stay on heightened alert our whole life but we can take care of things as we see them so we won’t miss any opportunities.
@PY – I’m with you on the 720p as that was literally my first day with that camera. I just went to the beach and sat down to relax.
Thanks for the compliment and I’m really glad you used the Alibaba angle as that’s the missing link to a lot of people’s game. New years is around the corner and I’ll be back with more stuff. Just sometimes need to take a break to recharge and not think about being prolific lol!
@Jb – I think it’s natural and the only way to learn never to let up is literally to take things for granted. I’m on my J-O-B now about everything in my life and things will bubble for me soon enough. Just hate to learn lessons that are really self-inflicted as those are the worse.
@Peace – I’m on the bike, the elliptical, the weight bench, the kindle, the sales calls, the transactions and the discipline all at the same time. I’m not necessarily trying to bring the Hustle back, as it never really left; I just took it for granted. The thing that shocked me into the realization was me losing a deal over a technicality and that pretty much sent me through the roof. It’s one thing to lose because someone beat me it’s a whole other because I didn’t thoroughly prepare.
The Marathon Continues I guess and I just made the mistake of thinking I can cruise to the finish line. I’m definitely up to something in the backdrop of the R&G as I got something big cooking. But, like I said I hate to learn the lesson again when I should’ve already known to never take my foot off of the gas pedal.
I’ve been feeling that lately too. It might be age..sometimes you get sick of the BS and your falls. Like working out…you adjust your work out to get stronger and more healthier. Life happens too. Accept the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’ve been relistening to alot of your podcasts lately. Happy Holidays, fam. Keep building!
My sense of urgency comes from the gratitude I have for having an opportunity to Ri$e & Grind. My country back home in Afrika has ANY U.S. murder capital beat ten fold. So My WORST day over here is better than any there.
Same reason, why I stay fit. Cause after a med thing that had Me on the sidelines, I’m just grateful that I can hit the iron again. So I Go
@AH – It’s always a end of the year thing with me personally. I try to think of all the places I failed and make sure they will never happen again in the future. Always some sort of refinement is going on in my head. So while others are celebrating the new year I am usually sitting down thinking about what I could’ve done better. It’s life I guess.
@Supreme – Yeah you learn to take advantage of everything when you either come from where you were limited or a life experience gave you a second chance. Like I told my favorite lady at my fish place. I’m just having a bad day in a overall great life!
i was just feeling the same way as i was reflecting on the year. i started 2011 off with a vengeance. had money coming in from 3 different angels (all legal) then lost steam for 1 reason or another, even got so relaxed i let the grades slip and dropped 2 too many classes. i always try to remember the last track off of jay z’s black album called “my 1st song”…its a clip from biggie saying “the key to staying on top of things is to treat everything like its your first project”.
now that im on semester break im working on regaining that sense of urgency again and trying to remain busy with working out twice a day, working on my rosetta stone, and finishing some books i started.
Enjoy your holiday weekend bro.
I hate that at the end of the year I do a self assessment. I’m so hard on myself I never count it as a good year anyway. Always something to work on it seems.
I got to get back up to just doing everything and anything as that’s what got me here in the first place. I woke up this morning and got tired of compromising and living like everyone else. It’s time to attain the impossible again as GOD knows it’s so much better than sitting here making a fvck ass 5 year plan. I need the 5 day, 5 hours and 5 minutes plan.
I got something in the works that should set me on a new path and I hope to get it out before Black History Month.
Enjoy the downtime because as soon as it’s over you’re up homie!
Don’t stay in the wildernes for too long or you may find yourself lost there – adapting to it and becoming a part of it.
Don’t worry it’s the old lesson of a body at rest tends to stay at rest. But, when you get up from that long rest you realize you’ll have to work a bit harder than you expected to get back up to speed. It’s easier to get in great shape when you never stopped maintaining your basic workout.
I can never become part of it as it’s not home for me! While I may be here in body I’m surely not here in spirit!