#would you believe me if I told you i resurrected a decade old blog just bc i can’t stop drawing him it’s a disease

[doodlekatts]

another unfinished hassian ₊✩‧₊˚౨ৎ˚₊✩‧₊

[theblacktivity-blog]

Why I Write...& ‘TIME: The Kalief Browder Story’ [Two Parts]

I’m often asked by many people what it is that I do. When I offer up that I’m a writer, what often follows is a question so typical that I can almost mouth it in sync with the inquirer; “oh wow that’s cool, what kind of stuff do you write about?”. At this point the conversation usually goes one of three ways: 1. If I am in the process of crafting a piece mid question, then I will often keep it quite short “all kinds of stuff mostly commentary”. 2. If I am reading or doing research for a piece I go into a bit more detail, (because I’m not a rude person and my Mama raised me right): “I run a blog called The Blacktivity and I write essays and critiques about everything from pop culture, to social issues, to politics”, and hopefully this answer is detailed enough that they’ll either have to engage (which is what I often hope) or take their non-engaging or nosey asses on somewhere. 3. If I have a bit more time on my hands I give a backdrop of what informs my writing (mostly my being Black in America for 31 years and counting, and my passion for journalistic, critical, and creative writing that I’ve had since growing up as a kid in Richmond, VA’s Gilpin Court Housing Projects) and where I intend on going as a proud member of the Black literati (“Niggarati” to some. And NO you probably shouldn’t say that if you’re white). Naturally since most Black folk spend most of their time around other Black folk, these questions are posed by people that look like me. For me this is great. After all, we are living in what I believe to be a renaissance of African American and other minority forms of cultural empowerment and thought and as members of a group maligned for centuries and counting, it’s good to know that we can be both fly and woke. It’s also good to know that there are many of us out there who still seek knowledge (despite claims to the contrary) whether through The Blacktivity or the millions of sources out in the ether. All of this gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling in my fingertips. But to be fair, while the much of my work is directed toward and about Black America and the ways in which we effect and are effected by politics, pop culture, and society, I write with welcoming arms and open ears. Because unlike a great deal of white America, I believe in genuine cultural exchange. I’m unabashedly and unapologetically African American/Black whether I’m around my own culture or others because our cultural history, legacy, and make up is just as rich and complex as anyone else’s. The narrative of our struggle is ongoing and deserves to be heard and spoken about with honesty, however brutal those truths may be. It is for this reason that some of my most elucidating conversations about what I do have also been with white folk. Like above, it typically starts the same way, “watcha got there?” or “watcha reading?”, or “watcha writing about?”. More times than none I take the questions with a grain of salt, as being just as curiosity based as the same inquiries from my Black counterparts. But, I’m also aware of the unique history in these United States of what educated or “educated looking” Black people tend to mean for some white people…” uppity”, “trouble-maker”, “too-quiet” or “know-it-all”. If you’re wondering if this is still “a thing” going into the second decade of the new millennium, oh yes, believe it. I have encountered this on several occasions and when the opportunity arises, I rarely miss the chance to give a little (or hella) schooling to such white folk. Why? Because it is to chagrin of many of these types that they find themselves living in a world where for as much privilege as they obviously have, that they find themselves increasingly surrounded by Black folks and other folks of color who are (and quite frankly have always been) the chief exporters of a unique and flavorful ‘American’ culture. As such, this leverage is now being used in conjunction with a more connected world to defy and debunk hegemony in ways and at speeds never before seen. To be sure these moments are nothing new. The fight for justice in with Blacks at the helm in the western world has always been a series of gains, which are then followed by rollbacks in the form of state sponsored terror, extralegal violence, as well as coded and recoded laws and policies (see; The Reconstruction Era and the following ‘Southern Redemption’). In all honesty, what’s currently unfolding in the world of not just U.S. politics, but geopolitics in the form of massive white and European nativist populist movements is but one more such historical reaction to an empowered and funky technicolored world. “The Blacktivity” I tell my ‘curious’ ones “is one among the many outlets advancing Black culture further through purposeful sometimes (hopefully) funny, and serious critique”. Do I get pushback? Of course, wouldn’t be fun without it, wouldn’t be America without it. I’ve gotten everything from the more “liberal”: “Keep in mind, there were other oppressed groups of people as well such as the Irish”. And of course, the world famous: “Well I’m not prejudiced, I have quite a few Black friends”. I’ve even gotten the self-righteously delusional: “Your people actually did better thanks to America”. Yes, this is indeed the world we live in and our politics of the current time are attempts at some form and fashion of reinforcing these narratives and bringing about that America that was once “great”. Luckily as stated before, we more connected than ever. Our voices now have more leverage than ever, and we are melding the world in a more realistic image of all our group and individual complexities. From Black Lives Matter and the hundreds of other organizations fighting for social justice, to independent and mainstream Black and Latino media outlets and blogs our stories are being told with force. And that’s why I do what I do. To comment, to critique from the inside and outside those forces of racial oppression, political chicanery, and pop culture foolishness that deserve it. But The Blacktivity also gives the big ups to the spaces where progress is being made, when politicians/political operatives and movements get it right. There is nothing but love from The Blacktivity when there is something so relevant in pop culture and media, so timely, that it can do nothing but spark the dialogue that leads to change. And right now, the most important Black story in media is “TIME: The Kalief Browder Story”.

TIME: The Kalief Browder story is a 6-part documentary series executive produced by none other than Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter that first aired on Spike TV March 1st, 2017. It follows the tragic story of then 16-year-old Bronx native Kalief Browder who was arrested on trumped up charges of stealing a backpack from someone (he was arrested for no reason while walking home from a party) and was subsequently held for 3 years in New York’s infamous Riker’s Island while awaiting trial. Even more than the false accusations, the inability of his family to make the $3,000 bail also played the key role in Kalief’s subsequent incarceration. In the 3 years that Kalief Browder spent on Riker’s Island, he found himself the victim of numerous assaults by other inmates and sometimes by sheer necessity of survival, the perpetrator of assaults on inmates. Per usual in American prisons, Kalief also found himself on the receiving end of violent encounters with prison guards who in seeing the helplessness of an innocent Black 16-year-old in an adult prison felt it necessary “teach him a lesson”. Such “lessons” included “The Program”, a term coined by the inmates for newer arrivals to Riker’s, a gladiator like test to see if newbies could be or were willing to be broken. Kalief unwilling to allow such, was subjected to “The Program’s” punishment as they looked on. Or it also could mean being beaten by guards themselves (one video captures a group of guards’ bum rushing Kalief’s 8 x 8 cell reportedly beating, kicking, and stomping him). However, among the many atrocities of Kalief’s time on Riker’s Island one of the worst and most damaging was his being subjected to the mental torture of isolation.  Out of Kalief’s 3 years on Riker’s, 800 of them were spent in solitary confinement, remind you that this is all while he was awaiting trial, for “stealing a backpack”. Including isolation, Kalief was subjected to other tortures as well such as starvation and heat exhaustion during the summers when solitary cells rose to over 100 degrees in temperature and over time these tortures affected Kalief’s mental health. Despite eventually telling guards and other prison staff the “he wasn’t feeling right” and that he needed to see a psychiatrist, all of this was met with no response and more harassment. The teen’s first attempt in taking his life came at Riker’s where he made a cord with his bedsheets while correctional officers looked on in nonchalance. After being cut down by the officers, he was then repeatedly beaten. As you can imagine the cycle of beatings, tortures, isolation, waiting under Legal Aid caseloads, emotional duress, and rage of innocence continued for 3 years until eventually Kalief would be released 5 days before his 20th birthday, but the damage had already been done. Kalief’s extended stay at Riker’s was part and parcel due to his bravery at facing a criminal justice system in which 70% of the cases are closed by plea deals. Kalief refused. This was also the source of his angst, the knowledge that inherently the system is rigged against young Black men. After Kalief’s release he wouldn’t be the same. He was haunted by paranoia and social reclusiveness twice attempting suicide after his release and being admitted to a psychiatric ward at least three times. There was however a moment of resurrection for Kalief as he pursued and obtained his G.E.D. with a 3.5 grade point average and soon after enrolled in Bronx Community College as a part of the City University of New York’s Future Now program, which offers a college education for previously incarcerated youths.  However, after his fall semester Kalief dropped out due to a mental health relapse, but went back during his spring semester. He was attempting to make good of his like despite the hand that a racist system dealt. Kalief then took a job mentoring other G.E.D. students in math and one as a security guard until he was abruptly fired from one of his assignments at a psychiatric ward which he was sent to upon his release. Later at the behest of his defense attorney Paul V. Prestia he was connected to a job on Wall Street where he held a part-time flyer advertising job. In a statement regarding his time on Wall Street Kalief replied; “I see businessmen and businesswomen dressed in suits, I want to be successful, like them”. Kalief would go on to become an advocate and media presence on several issues ranging from criminal justice reform to mental health and along the way he would garner interviews with media outlets such as Vice, The Huffington Post, and The View. He was also met with support by celebrities like Jay-Z and Rosie O’Donnell. Kalief was private about these relationships however and found each subsequent interview about his experience harder to discuss and as time passed Kalief would sink further into relapse until on June 6, 2015 he would finally succumb to those demons created for him by American racism and take his own life by hanging himself. His last words to his mother a day before his death; “Ma, I can’t take it no more”.  The documentary follows Kalief and his mother’s fight for him up until the time of not only his death, but hers as well (Venida Browder died just a little over a year later October 14th 2016 due to complications from a heart attack). The series of vignettes and raw interviews with both Browders, including a host of insiders of this corrupt system and advocates for reform bring to bear the very truth that Kalief’s story is the story of Blacks and “criminal” “justice” in America. Because in fact, while Kalief’s story is tragic and as such has gained national attention, the system itself is archaic and insidiously methodical. There are millions of Kalief Browder’s whose story hasn’t been told but this tragic tale serves as a fill in for them. America is indeed a racist society whose ideals have yet to catch up with its reality, no amount of pomp and circumstance or flag waving changes that, and Kalief Browder’s story is another reminder. And as I watched this story in the way that wrenches the gut, I thought about the very fragility of Black life in this country. The millions of faces including my own that could at any moment replace Kalief’s in the line of succession in the violence upon Black bodies. I’m then also reminded about why it is that I write.

[rjhamster]

You'll Never Regret the Pursuit of More by Rebecca Bender, In Pursuit of Love As I sat in my tiny apartment, tears ran down my hopeless cheeks. My freshly washed, yard sale pot and pan sat upside down draining on my twenty-five cent Goodwill dish rag. I had just tucked my eight-year-old daughter into bed, plopped like a deflated balloon onto a kitchen chair and cried. Is this all you have God? Is this the hope filled promise that I hear others talk about? I don’t want this either. I was starting my life over with nothing but a promise, lamenting to the Lord, when a piercing thought shattered my loathing. “If You give Me the same amount of time that you gave the enemy, I will never be outdone.” In that moment, I knew God had more, but His promise was not going to come easy. The process would take intentional and deliberate time. I decided that I would dig my heels in, come what may, and fight for a new life, a new me. What if a pursuit could change your destiny?  What if one small step every day toward a new direction, a new habit, a new resolve could literally be the shift you need to redirect your course? I know all about trying my best to create new habits and behaviors. For nearly six years I was sold into an underground world of human trafficking before God saved me. I was branded, brainwashed and abused. And yet, in the midst of my sin and in the depths of my despair, God saw fit to pursue me. He took me out of the muck and the mire and set my feet on solid ground, steadied me as I walked along (Psalm 40 paraphrase). Steadied me as I walked along. That means it wasn’t instant, it wasn’t immediate, it wasn’t fast, and I still have to work at it daily. Changing character and deeply engrained habits from sin and modeled unhealthy behaviors takes time and effort. It takes looking that thing in the eye that you want to fix and going after it, wrangling it down even. Another word for pursuit is HUNT. It speaks of chasing it down — to run it down, to take up, to track, to seek, to stalk, to follow after. It’s a word that speaks of fierce hostility, tenacity and force to overtake, to slay. I heard someone once say, “you can never go too deep with God.” We cannot get to a place in our walk where we think we’ve mined all we can out of the Word of God. He wants us to pursue Him and His Word, dive deeper, hunt for what He has and who He is, a little longer each day, each week, each circumstance. As we stay the course for a new resolve in this next decade, many of us have started the year with a “word for the year.” I have approached this tradition each January and it’s been great to use as a barometer throughout the year. Once, I felt the Lord impress upon my spirit “inhale.” I knew He was calling me to focus on taking a breath and to build internally within my non-profit that fights human trafficking in the U.S. Last year, I heard “strengthen” and knew deep down that it was intended to focus on strengthening my family in 2019 for all that God wanted to birth in 2020. This year my friend told me her word was “believe” and I immediately went and bought her a necklace that said believe. My other friend got “resurrection” and we talked about doing a word study to let the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts on what our words means to us. I’m guessing you may have a word that God has stirred in your spirit too. Or maybe this is the first time you’ve heard about this intentional way to press more deeply to Jesus with intention. Wherever you are, I want to invite you into something special this year: Pursuit. Take Inventory of what you NEED Psalms 34:14 is a great reminder of God’s directive to pursue. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. — ESV Pursuit isn’t just about going after more or increase. Pursuit can be about finding more rest, more space, more peace. Take some time to lean in and take inventory of what you need in this season. How can a young person live a clean life? By carefully reading the map of your Word. I’m single-minded in pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.[1] What road signs has God posted for you that you need to pay a bit more attention to? Start by simply jotting down the first word that comes to mind. Then close your eyes and imagine how your heart could feel if you had more of it. Fill in the blank with YOUR word for the year and let’s not tip toe into what’s next. Let’s hunt it down and overtake what God has. PURSUE REST PURSUE HOPE PURSUE BELIEF PURSUE DESTINY PURSUE KINDNESS PURSUE SELF-CONTROL PURSUE ___________________ YOU DECIDE. What are you practicing? It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself — Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration. — John 4:23-24[2] Whatever we practice gets stronger. That’s how our physical muscles work, but that too is how our spiritual muscles can work. If we practice gossip, it gets stronger. If we practice being critical it grows and spreads. BUT if we practice biting our tongue and using self-control, that fruit will ripen. If we practice kindness and grace, that too will strengthen. Creating new habits in our lives is being honest with ourselves and with God – being “honestly ourselves” and identifying the areas we need to get stronger in. What is holding you back? Fear? Shame? Lies about yourself you’ve believed. When I started my journey toward true freedom, I had nothing. No money, no social capital, I knew no one. I slept on couches and got on food stamps and kept relying on Him. What are you practicing and what is holding you back? Put in the workout to strengthen what you need and pursue healing in the areas that you need to overcome. If you really want all that God has for you, if you want every promise that He’s gently whispered years ago, and you haven’t yet seen. This is your year to pursue hope, to pursue renewal of dreams, to pursue more. You can choose to do things like you’ve always done, or you can choose to pursue God like never before. Watch the Video [1] Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (Ps 119:9–10). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress. [2] Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (Jn 4:23–24). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress. Written for Faith.Full by Rebecca Bender, author of In Pursuit of Love. * * * Your Turn What are you pursuing this year? Building our spiritual muscles and changing habits takes daily practice, a change of mindset. Let's pursue God like never before and watch His promises come to fulfillment! Share your thoughts on pursuit on our blog. We want to hear from you! ~ Laurie McClure, Faith.Full

[agirlunderarock]

Writing through the decade: 22 (2019)

So I actually do have some short blurbs and scenes written out BUT

BUT

I really like poems that came out of my poetry analysis class. They’re all original, they were all fun to write, and I feel comfortable ending this post series on that note. 

I think these poems get me more than anything else I’ve written. I think my personal story is one of resilience and attempting to be more authentic in my writing, in my actions

The first poem is a blackout poem from an interview with Natasha Trethewey. We were working with her collection Native Guard. 

The second was supposed to be a eulogy, but instead I took the time to reflect and apologize to myself for 15 year old me. It’ll make sense when you read it

The third poem is one that stems from a Walt Whitmen poem song of myself

And the last one is a poem I posted when I first started this blog four months ago. Its a poem I wrote based on Bri Larson interviews and did it sort of like I did the blackout poem. I’ll post a link here -> https://it-is-that-deep.tumblr.com/post/186916894833/it-is-that-deep-this-is-a-poem-i-wrote-as-one-of

Memories

I am going to put down as much as I can

There are things I remember

Many that I don’t.

I know she told me that

Was expected of me, for how I spent my time.

 She then told me that one of them had used her

She’d never had time to grieve

This glorious freedom from responsibilities

 This stuck with me

I must have my own anniversary

I never discuss my loss

 I know too time in increments

Are symbolic

I thought I wouldn’t survive that year

 I was death

I should have been resurrection

 This is why I started writing

I would be moving back

My past, my great loss.

 I wrote some things down.

A reflection:

I think I’d ultimately write an elegy about my youngerself. I had a hard time thinking of what to write for the people in my life right now that I care about, not so much because I have little to say, but because I can’t imagine being so distant from them that I can only express myself that way. For now I don’t miss them. Instead I’d rather take this time to reflect on how I’ve grown and changed over time. I’m not the same person I used to be. I feel that the girl I was in my early years of high school lost so much. That girl dealt with so much she shouldn’t have had to, and missed out on being able to enjoy her life. Instead of trying to grow and make friends, she retreated inward and away from everyone. She didn’t learn to make connections or to communicate, she grew skeptical and was disillusioned. At fifteen she hated reading about romance and didn’t believe there was a magic that could ever fix her problems, she wanted stories with dreadfully dreary endings, things to fit her life. Instead of fretting over content for classes, she was anxious and sick at the thought of just walking into the campus. She hated school, not for the work or the classes demanding so much of her attention, but for the distractions flying text books, words hurled through the air meant to cut into her very core.  She should have had a moment of being boy crazy, blushing and giggling when one looked at her funny, but instead she grew sick with nausea at each look, kept her head down and willed herself to turn invisible and avoid their cruel words. She could have looked forward to each new day, bright eyed and excited to be one step closer to graduating, but instead she looked forward to the comfort of her bedroom at night where she prayed, thanked God for giving her the strength to live another day despite feeling more worn and drained every night. She could never embrace herself, love herself, or let herself enjoy what were supposedly the best years of her life. At least that was how the movies framed it. No girls looked like her, she felt too wide, too broad, too pudgy, too round, too conscious of how much space she took up. That girl could not imagine life the next day, let alone the next three years of high school, and I’m so sorry for that girl. I’m so sorry she felt so unworthy of kindness. She knows better now, and she’s learning to love herself as she is.

Not something to own

“Over hand the hammer rolls—over hand so slow—over hand”

The clanging of stone on steel crying out with shrill rings.

“They do not hasten, each man hits his place”

He embers fly up to stern sweat streaked brows

Still determined to make their mark

“Over hand the hammer rolls—overhand so slow—over hand”

Still determined to hit their mark upon the shining blade

And in the end they carve their mark into the shining blade

And in their mark they leave determination

to mold in their image and purpose

And in their mark, they claim it for their own

But steel is not theirs to own, it comes from ore,

and from the earth.

And to the earth it will return

In the hand thats grown cold pale

[skymarkventures-blog]

Why is Entrepreneurship Hard

“I can’t possibly do that,” quipped the bartender. “Entrepreneurship is hard.”

After coming back from my consulting engagement in Madrid, I settled down to have a cerveza at my favorite tapas bar in Barcelona. Yoda’s words still echoed in my mind, and on the plane back to Barcelona, I sketched out my business idea on a piece of napkin.

“Muy duro, my friend. Muy duro.” He smiled politely and went back to cheer on the local soccer team with the rest of the crowd.

I held onto that napkin, which had the greatest idea in the world for a startup - at least in my mind. But this bartender thinks it’s too hard. Why bother?

I pocketed that idea of mine. Sipping my beer, I watched the crowds go “ooh” and “ahh” at the soccer match between F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. Not only was Yoda’s Spanish voice ringing in my ears, but now it got me thinking:

Why do we think Entrepreneurship is sooo hard?

I get that there’s a lot of financial and business risks to entrepreneurship, especially when you have to quit a good paying job:

But it’s like anything else we think at that moment is hard. Once upon a time, I really thought it was hard to get up and take my first step as a baby. Once upon a time, I really, really thought, writing a 500 word essay for 4th period English was hard. Once upon a time, I thought leaving New York to study and work in a Spanish-speaking country (when I didn’t speak the language) was sooo hard. But guess what? I did it.

According to a published work in the Forum for Research in Empirical International Trade (FREIT), we develop a biased perception of entrepreneurs. Non-entrepreneurs “maintain laudatory portraits of ‘entrepreneurs’,” when in fact they are like everybody else. Hence, we develop this self-defeating attitude of “why me?”

I kept sipping my beer and watched the crowd cheer the local team. Questions in my mind only led to more questions:

Is entrepreneurship really any different? Why are we afraid of change?

Formal education breeds conformists

“Things were getting to me. Just how people are. How they always expect you to be a certain way…” 

-- High schooler Angela Chase from My So-Called Life (1994)

Rise and shine honey - it’s time for school. Eat your bacon and eggs. Don’t forget your bologna sandwich! Don’t be late. Come home right after. Do your homework! No more TV after 8:00. Goodnight, sweetie.

Sound familiar? It’s a typical day in a student’s life in America. Kids all over America are thought to wake up at a particular hour in morning, be at school at 8:30 and leave at 3:30. Yearbook activities from 4:00 to 5:00. Go home. Then homework. Dinner at 6:30ish. Bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. You can’t blame the parents - they’re even more predictable:

Wake up the kids. Drive kids to schoolwork. Work at desk job from 9:00 to 5:00. Pick up kids. Make them do homework and cook dinner. Eat. Seinfeld and Friends. Turn off TV. Sleep.

We are taught as kids and as adults that there are grave consequences if we deviate. If you don’t get an A, you won’t get anywhere. If you don’t show your face from 9:00 to 5:00, then how can you possibly retire by age 65? You have to be a lawyer. You have to be a doctor. Why don’t you want to be a doctor? Do you wanna be poor?!

According to the New York Times, education is a path to conformity. Pre-college kids are programmed for twelve-hour days, and taught that going to Harvard and having the initials M.D. at the end of one’s name are the ONLY keys to success. Parents ignore how Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell boot-strapped billion dollar businesses from their garage.

Granted, Gates and Jobs are exceptional thought leaders. But the first step - even for Jobs and Gates - was a mental one. They told themselves: I can do this.

I won’t critique how to fix the American educational system, as that would take a research paper that would rival War and Peace. But what we can start doing is telling and believing these four words:

I can do this.

It starts with breaking from that hive mentality from 4th grade. Success is NOT linear.

“The secret of life is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.” 

-- Paulo Coelho

We fear the unknown

We laud entrepreneurs because they are fearless. I can’t possibly do that!

Our fear of the unknown stems from our fear of the dark. There’s an evolutionary reason why we fear the dark. Back in the age of cave people, men and women didn’t have flashlights and iPhones, and they had to hunt for a living. This meant hunting in dark forests, where bigger predators could be hiding in a dark corner.

Moreover, as humans we have five main senses - sight is one of them. Darkness impairs our ability to see; hence, we fear anything that blinds us from assessing our environment.

In psychology, Sigmund Freud posits our fear from darkness stems from the childhood trauma of separation anxiety. Parents would abandon their kids at night (to sleep in their own rooms), leaving their kids to sleep alone. This separation is why we invent monsters under the bed, or the boogie man that will jump out of the closet.

In history, explorers were afraid to sail west to reach India and China. They didn’t have established routes across the Atlantic making navigation difficult. It took the courage of Christopher Columbus (and the Vikings before him) to sail west and discover a whole New World.

We praise entrepreneurs for their fearlessness because of our inability to overcome our own fears. Hence, our own self-doubt leads us to this inevitable conclusion:

Entrepreurship is hard.

Just like we looked up to our big brother who would check the closet for the boogie monster. Just like we loved our mothers for checking under the bed for that oogly, boogly bed monster. In time, we learned how silly we were for having these fears because we learned this:

“Only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Entrepreneurs are no different from you or I. We all have the same five senses. 

Why am I special?

We watch movies and read tall tales about Bill Gates, displacing IBM in the 1990s. Then we watch movies of how Steve Jobs resurrected Apple, Inc. to become the world’s most valuable company. We watch Social Network, and wonder in awe at Zuckerberg’s development of Facebook.

Indeed, these entrepreneurs had exceptional skills. Gates was great at software. Jobs is a legend in design. Zuckerberg had the technical know-how to build a social network. Non-entrepreneurs create self-doubt because they think they have no skills.

I can’t possibly do that!

Consider this guy with a niche for reviewing fast food.

In today’s Youtube and Pinterest world, you can do almost anything and build an entire business around it. You can be a Star Wars channel, an SEO blogger, or a fashion maven on instagram. What’s the common theme in all these successful entrepreneurs?

They found their niche.

Do you think your ability to put on make-up without using your hands is silly? If done right, a video on this unique ability could go viral on Vine or Youtube. Do you like eating decades old military rations? Guess what - there is someone out there making money on it.

In this blog article for Skymark Ventures titled “What Startups can learn from ‘shock’ Donald Trump win,” the section ‘Know your market’ details Trump’s path to electoral victory. Peter Thiel suggests “start small and scale upwards.” In other words, Trump picked a niche (populism for middle-America and blue collar workers) and built an entire marketing campaign around it. He didn’t care about the liberals on the east and west coast; he used populism to win the battleground states that helped him secure a victory in the November elections.

Lack of knowledge is no longer an excuse in today’s world. There is a WEALTH of information in how to take action steps to build a business around your niche. How to build a website? Try this. Need SEO help? Go here. How to budget and raise money? Try Skymark Ventures’ FREE budget tools.

At one point in their lives, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg were just like you and I. For them, it just clicked. They identified what they’re good at, what they’re interested in and had the courage to build it.

In short, they had dreams like everybody else. Do you have dreams?

As I sip my beer in that fateful day in Barcelona, thoughts of dreams, fears and wants swirled in my mind, like cream melting in an expresso.

I watched the crowd in that bar go “ooh” and “ahh,” even though the game was at a stalemate at 0-0. THEN - almost at once - everybody stood up...

Barcelona star Lionel Messi broke free from the pack. He zig zagged down the field… Twisted around a defender… Shot a fastball past the goalkeeper for the winning goal. It was a beautiful display of finesse and courage.

Indeed, not everyone can be Lionel Messi. But once upon a time, Messi was just a little boy, like everybody else. He had hopes and dreams, like everyone around him. He had a unique talent, like you and I. He believed in himself.

That last part is muy duro.

In a world, where we’re taught to be like everybody else… where we’re all expected to get Harvard degrees and have the initials M.D. at the end of our name… where we’re expected to go 9-5 for forty years until we collect social security… It’s hard to think we can be different.

This is why we laud entrepreneurs. They think different. They actually believe!

To enact change in one’s life, it’s first important to believe you can be different. You have a unique talent that’s waiting for a global audience. Consider these words from Jobs in a PBS documentary:

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your job is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is - everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

I finished my beer and said my goodbyes to the bartender. I walked out of that bar, and realized the napkin was still in my hand. I looked at it again, thinking it was the greatest idea in the world.

I glanced up at the Spanish sun. I remember thinking: here I am, a New York native, living and thriving in a non-English world.

Who’d have thunk it?

Why is entrepreneurship hard? I guess I’m about to find out.