Thursday, January 9, 2014

Lookin Past The Ave.




Hey what’s good it’s ya boy, A.B. I haven’t blogged from this page in a hot minute, just because I have been so busy with other ventures and trying to get my ducks in a row. Even though I am running the Black Omaha blog, I will still continue to bless y’all with gems on this page. So don’t sleep on me. 

The end of last year I came up with an idea for a company so I am making the necessary behind the scenes moves to make the idea come to fruition. I am taking the time out to address what’s been going on with this Thug Toddler fiasco. I spoke on the police department’s agenda, but now it’s time to address the mentality of some of my folks down north.

Life is much more than Sorenson Pkwy to Lake St. I really need for y’all to expand your horizons. Quit making city blocks your world. I feel as if there is an invisible fence around parts of northeast Omaha  and folks are scared to leave that area to do their business or to handle their business. Step outside of your comfort zone, we are too damn comfortable with bullsh*t. We need to tap in to our potential and be all that we can be. Self confidence will get you very far when you dive in to unfamiliar territory. I see a lot of folks that speak on being uncomfortable if they have to go in to a suburb of Omaha. They feel as if the whites there have never seen a black person before and it’s true I have suffered from that same feeling. But as I have gotten older I enter in that area with my head held high because inside I know that I have just as much right as they do to be there. Why can’t we have our spot at the table instead of settling for the scraps? Don’t lose your sense of self in those uneasy situations. And do not hinder your star to make those in power feel more comfortable in your presence. Do not become a domesticated animal. Learn the game that the infrastructure has put in place so that you can master it and break the rules the right way. 

Let’s face it, it’s hard being a person of color, even with the president being a minority. Stop and Frisk out east, every night some brotha is being portrayed as the boogeyman, our women are fighting not only racism but sexism as well.  I could go on and on about the problems that minorities face, but the simple fact is this, turn off the tv, educate yourselves, and make your dreams come true. My favorite quote is from Chris Rock and it goes like this, “See the black man gotta fly to get to something that the white man can walk to.” Let that sink in for a bit…Once you realize that you have to work twice as hard as someone who resembles those in power, you then understand how important it is to learn the game and break those rules. You can take artists like Jay-Z and his wife Beyonce, they really did step out of the box with their respective albums. Not musically, but how they sold the album. Jay went to Samsung and had them purchase 1 million copies before even hearing the album. His wife just dropped her album out the blue with no marketing and she let her fans do the marketing for her, good ol fashioned word of mouth via the web. Those are examples of infiltrating a system, learning it, mastering the game, and changing the game. Those are extreme examples, but examples to say the least. Another example is becoming an entrepreneur; do you really need a business degree to open up your own? No. You do need to take some business classes to learn trade laws and such, but a degree isn’t required. College is the new hustle for the federal government, decades before you could work your way up through a company, today you have to have a piece of paper that proves you know how to take tests. And this is coming from a full time college student so keep that in mind.  If you don’t want to go to college to take those business classes to become an entrepreneur due to costs, a library card is free. Self educate. Learn all that you can in that library and pick the brains of the higher ups at your 9-5pm, soak up that game. Note that being an entrepreneur is not easy, the concept is: provide a need to consumers. I feel like I’m rambling but I hope I am motivating at the same time.

I know only my FB friends and twitter followers read my blogs, but maybe just maybe if this is shared by you, then it could reach that little boy or little girl who can see past Ames Avenue. And it will fuel their dreams just that much more.

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