A New Beginning

HELLO WORLD!!!!!

SO this is something different for me. I am entering a different phase in my life where now I am becoming the old head…WOW… but with that comes certain obligations for the next generation, hence this little effort right here. Let me begin by saying I have been doing what you all are about to start reading and hearing and maybe one day seeing for a number of years, mainly to people within my circle, and that is motivating them to do and be more than they would have thought possible. Showing them how some of the decisions they are making are helping or hindering their personal development. Before you think it though, no I am not going to list out schools attended, courses taken and certifications earned because this is not a resume. I have heard countless times I should write a book or I am going to be a politician, and honestly all those things are still open options for me, but now my goal is to reach SOMEBODY and hopefully get someone to where they want to be. The inspiration for this came from an unlikely source, Facebook. A family member posted a blog and friend of mine made a video talking about stepping out of her comfort zone, so I thought to myself it’s my time. One of things I have learned over the years is what good is having knowledge if its not shared, so here goes….SOMETHING?!?

Now to why you came in the first place. Look, first off there are things I need to be honest about. There are certain things that just don’t sit right with me and among those things are laziness, complacency bad work ethic and folks that are driven by excuses and not results.

To be honest the reason that these things are some of the things that annoy me is because at one point I was these things. God blessed me with talent, intelligence, drive and discipline and I refused to use any of it, until…..I didn’t have a choice.

Story time folks. I left a Federal Government job with DHS to take a management position with the world’s largest retail company, no name given but you all can Google it, just because they money was so much better, I was almost tripling my pay overnight, why not right, WRONG. To make a long story short I lost that job a year later and at the time I could not bring myself to take personal responsibility. Sure they were doing restructuring but so what, everyone didn’t loose their job, so why did I. I thought of every possible reason why except for picking up a mirror. After all I worked hard, I was relatable and trusted by the people that reported to me, it had to be because of the color of my skin (that’s a whole different story) or just because someone didn’t like me because I wasn’t weak minded or more intelligent than them so I was threat and had to go (once again that A WHOLE other story) because I couldn’t be controlled.

See, self-accountability is one the hardest for people to embrace. Its’ just so much easier to blame other people, it’s the same concept as the teacher gave me an F vs. I got an A. Not one time did I even consider I had gotten complacent and my work product wasn’t as good as I thought. Maybe it was because I aligned to much with my subordinates and in the process alienated my peers and superiors????…Nope that’s not it, it’s because I’m black, yea that’s got to be it…RIGHT????

Listen, everyone that goes through a traumatic experience has a time a self-reflection and I had plenty during the 18 months I didn’t have a job, you saw that right 18 months!!!!…I’m talking a different kind of broke y’all, I mean bill collectors just stopped wasting their time broke. When I got my first job after all that I looked at as a new beginning, and it really was, it was part time working LP, yep chasing shoplifters. At this point I had really learned that there was a blessing in everything and I was extremely grateful for that opportunity and made some friends, like FRIENDS in the process, one of which was my manager at the time and the one who blessed my with the opportunity.

So now you say cool story bro, but like they say, make it make sense. The reason I looked at that job like a blessing is because during my “self-reflection time” I had no choice but to look at what God have given me and decide on a few things. How would I use the gifts and how can I make sure this never happens to me again, but more importantly to never make another excuse.

Think about this, I want to you give yourself a VALID excuse for being lazy and y’all know what lazy is….I’ll wait…..take your time….EXACTLY!!!! If you get out of your bed everyday and go to somebody’s job why is the goal not to show the people you report to that you are better then you were yesterday. Someone is reading this who is just like I used to be, and you wont make a change until you are forced and 9 times out 10 if you are forced you will end up in a TERRIBLE position totally unprepared….Kinda like Peter McNeeley and Mike Tyson….

What I am here to tell you is DON’T GET FORCED. You know if you are lazy, complacent, have a terrible work ethic and are excuse driven, nobody else should not have to tell you that and if you don’t realize any of that, It’s time to re-evaluate. If you have people around you that enable you to continue that pattern you need to re-evaluate them. Those folks may have true love for you and maybe genuinely hurt if something negative happens to you professionally, but how are they trying to help you ensure that it doesn’t?

Do not give a job a supervisor a manager or anyone control over your destiny. Do your part and understand that your actions and behaviors do not just go away. They are like anything else, they are learned, and once they are learned they become ingrained. Once you develop a bad work habit it will follow you. Why would expect it to stay at job you leave, it wasn’t a part of the benefits package now was it. No matter what phase of your career you will take whatever you develop with you into the next phase be it good or bad.