A man's gotta do...

"A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

I called my Dad today to wish him a good week and he dropped a jewel on me. He had spent his weekend working in the yard at his second house and while commenting on his not so relaxing weekend he said, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do." This is not something I hadn't heard before but it resonated just as true as ever. Allow me to borrow a line from a famous hip hopper, "Along the road to riches and diamond rings real niggas, do real things." While following your passion on the way to achieving your goals you will have to do some things that may not be glamorous but definitely will be noteworthy. For instance, when I was 25 I was attempting to break into the behind the scenes world of professional basketball. I took an internship with the Los Angeles Clippers in their Public Relations department and of course the internship was unpaid but I didn't care because it payed in access. At the time my network within the NBA was so strong that I was buddies with the Clippers' Director of Player personnel before I took the internship but I had yet to transfer those connections into dollar signs so I was hustling. This internship required me to work 2-4 days a week & 8 hours a day for the Clippers doing everything from sitting in interviews and extracting quotes for the media to making sure Ralph Lawler got popcorn at halftime. Needless to say it was a pretty cool internship but T-mobile doesn't let you pay their bills with good times...I needed to make a check so I got another job. I ended up landing a gig with a start up eBay store in Beverly Hills. I would work at this store for way less than I was worth for 8-10 hours a day then pop on my Staples Center credential the next. I worked 7 days a week month after month but I didn't realize that I didn't get a day off until a few years later because when I was running around Staples Center like I owned it I wasn't really working. I was having fun jive talking Cheryl Miller. I would run stats during timeouts and get yelled at by Terrell Owens saying he wanted to race me. I was definitely not working when I sat in on a Lebron James interview in the visiting team locker room only to have my buddy Donyell Marshall try to kick me out. This was a great time in my life because I was working towards my goal but I had to work a job that I didn't really care much for to allow me to do that. I didn't have to sell drugs like Jay-Z or strip like The Game (lol) but I had to do what I had to do. Even today I am working on 6 figure deals but in between deals if I need income I'll do what it takes to get me to that day those checks are signed.

When you are following your dreams there will undoubtedly be obstacles in the road. The people who achieve their dreams find a way to crush the obstacle. Namaste.