I’m not a reader. Growing up, I’d see my mom and brother constantly reading books, finishing a book every 2 days and excitedly running to the library to check out 4 more books. I’d always laugh in my brother’s face and call him a nerd for being such a bookworm. I was generally a pretty good big brother throughout our years growing up, but I remember always making fun of the little runt for constantly reading. So much for me and my big mouth. I enrolled in Indiana University as a Criminal Justice major and my brother has a 3.9 in the Honors Business School at Emory University. Oh well. Recently, I have been reading a pretty decent amount myself. I have never been able to read story books, I’ve always been more the biography or business book type of guy. While I sat at home over winter break in of one of the most entertaining cities in the U.S., I read an amazingly interesting book called Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell is the author of The Tipping Point, which in my opinion, is one of the best non-fiction books ever written. In Outliers, Gladwell makes an extremely compelling argument about success in business, sports, and life in general. He argues that it is not only brains and ability that allow the world’s most successful people to get to the level that they are, but it is also about being in the right place at the right time. His argument is much more complex than that, but he basically discusses how people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born in the perfect time periods to start computer companies. As I was reading this book I kept asking myself, “Am I in the right place at the right time?” Lately, I have been asking myself this question even more, as I see so many discouraged young people out there who are struggling to survive in today’s economy. Anyone that knows me well will tell you that I am a pretty laid back, usually optimistic guy. I feel like I am in the right place at the right time, but I just don’t know it yet. All of the Gen-Y young adults are in the right place at the right time, but they just don’t know it yet either. We have to be able to see the opportunity while the world around us is crumbling. But what does being in the right place at the right time really mean? I wish I had the answer to that question. Every day, I am seeking the answer to that question myself. This economic downturn has ruined a lot of lives, but it has motivated me, and hopefully all of us young adults out there, to try to find the light at the end of the tunnel. Sounds optimistic doesn’t it?
After being out of the bubble world for well over six months now, I have realized that college really didn’t prepare me for anything. I was in a better mindset to get a job after I graduated from high school. We are heading into the second great depression. Is this a blessing in disguise since I am young, and am only responsible for myself? Luckily, the economy didn’t wait to take a turn for the worse until I had a ton of money to lose. In the same token, I have no motivation to go and work for a corporation. Lets fast forward six years. I work my ass off for JP Morgan, putting in 60-70 hour weeks. All of a sudden the stock market looks bleak, and I am a goner. I spent three months working in an office this summer, and if that isn’t hell, I don’t know what is. Sitting at a desk is the anti-innovation technique. Want your business to take a nose dive? Leave your employees with no motivation, and a tendency to slack off throughout the day. The office work that I was required to do over the summer was all completed at home. I cannot think in an office setting, and if college taught me anything it was to enjoy life. Society keeps knocking at my door, trying to take away my freedom. I will never work for the assembly line. Repetition is boring, and it leads to complacency, which I fear. When I say the assembly line, I refer to the 9 to 5 daily grind that the every day citizen has to cope with every day. Lack of sleep, not enough health benefits, and a greedy boss, are three reasons why our economy is where it is today. The old Wall Street days of putting in 80 hour weeks are over. The technology boom has led to our generation with attention deficit disorder, and an inability to sit still for hours on end. I was born in a hospital, I ain’t dying in an office.
So, looking back it would have been nice if my dad handed me $120,000 check and said, “son have a good college experience”. I probably would have learned more about myself through that experience than I did in college. I don’t know what is in store for me in the future as of yet, but one place you will never find me is in an office space.
On the cusp of my final semester in college, all of my friends keep telling me to make it last as long as possible. They all have the same horror stories about searching and searching for the perfect job, only to end up taking what the economy has given them: the equivalent of a pile of dog poop. A college degree from a major 4 year university used to equal guaranteed job when you graduated. For some, it meant close to a 6 figure salary and a plush job on Wall Street. Today, all that 4 year degree means is moving back into your parent’s basement and applying for the same rotation of jobs on Careerbuilder.com and Yahoo HotJobs. Pretty crazy that we didn’t graduate 5 or 10 years ago where 22 year olds were buying real estate or starting the next Facebook. I’m hoping to get some people to post their experiences of getting shit on over the past few months by the job market. If it’s happened to you, we want to hear from you!
Ahhh, but with economic downturn comes opportunity. Think about all those people out there who are unemployed or looking for jobs. There has to be a business opportunity in that right? Well, I think I have found one. Talking to my friend Billy Bob last night (hiding his real name because he is too cool for a blog), we were brainstorming ideas. He is one of those guys that can come off as a bullshitter and a cocky son of a bitch, but he is a very smart guy. He will also tell you he had the idea for Etsy.com in high school, which hammered home my personal thoughts that he really is a little bit cuckoo and off the reserve. Long story short, we think we have something. Stay tuned for more updates. I’m hoping we can start something that takes off, but if not, I’m excited to start sending my resume to all of those plush Enterprise training program jobs on Monster.com!
In 12 months, I could be running my own music management company. For those that don’t know, my business partner Mike & I currently manage an up and coming hip hop artist, Sonny Bamboo. He is one of the most talented unsigned artists out there today. You can check out some of his music at www.myspace.com/sonnybamboo. We have been working with Sonny for about 2 years now, and are trying our best to figure this whole music industry thing out. The music industry is at one of its lowest points ever, with record sales declining by the day. The advent of the internet has allowed so many more artists a way to be heard, but it has also hurt many of the major labels out there. Now I am not a huge supporter of record labels as it is, as over the past few years of being involved in the music business, I have heard many horror stories of people getting f’d over by major labels. But as I have learned, it is so difficult to make it in the music business going the independent route. To be honest, Mike & I first got involved with Sonny not only because we believed in him, but because we saw the potential to make a ton of money if he ever got signed my a major record label. But we really did not know what we got ourselves into when we first started this whole thing. Back then, we were naive entrepreneurs who thought because we had made one business successful, everything we touched would turn to gold. Well I can admit that that is far from the truth. We didn’t really realize how much harder this whole music thing is when you are doing everything on your own. Running a full time business, being a full time student, wanting to have a social life, etc. has kind of hindered our ability to focus our time and efforts on Sonny. We have invested more money than we ever thought we would, but to date, we haven’t seen anything out of it. But, we have made a ton of connections along the way, some of which could lead to bigger and better things down the road. The best connection by far is D., who ownsa big music management company. His company manages, among others, Kanye West. You should probably stop reading my blog now if you have never heard of Kanye West. D. has also managed Lil’ Kim, Lauryn Hill, and The Fugees. He currently manages one of the biggest up and coming hip-hop artists, Izza Kizza, who is signed to Timbaland’s label. Mike & I had the chance to meet D. in person this summer when we drove out to his apartment in Jersey City. All I can say to describe the feeling of when we walked into his apartment was “Wow”. Not only did this guy have a baller style apartment, but he had a ceiling literally lined with Gold & Platinum plaques. Considering this was one of the first connections we made in the music industry, we were pretty proud of ourselves. Long story short, he is a really cool guy. He built his management company all on his own, and he had a ton of good advice for us. Ironically, like 2 weeks later, he was coming to Baltimore for the weekend to come to Virgin Mobile Fest, a weekend long huge concert at the place where the Preakness is held every year. This was one the sickest concerts I’ve ever been to. I went for only the last day, which had Bob Dylan, Nine Inch Nails, Lil’ Wayne, and Kanye among others. Kanye was scheduled to close the show. There was an insane crowd there, and one of the craziest things I can remember was waiting for Lil’ Wayne to perform, and all of a sudden, I see D. and his sister on stage. My mouth literally dropped open. I mean, I guess I knew he would have the hook up considering he is boys with Kanye. But it was still pretty crazy to see him on stage pumping the crowd up before Lil’ Wayne got on stage. On a side note, Weezy’s performance was ill, especially when he brought Kanye on stage for “Lollipop”. The crowd literally went apeshit. But Kanye’s performance was on another level. For those of you who have seen him in concert, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The dude is one of the most talented artists out there today. Not just in hip hop, but in every genre of music. And he puts on a ridiculous show. He went all out, and it was a truly amazing performance. Although the guy is a dick, I have mad respect for his abilities. Haha, now that I think about it, I have a couple of crazy pictures saved on my computer from this concert. Check out these blonde girls who were making out hardcore before Wayne’s performance. They were getting crazy cheers from the crowd obviously.
I also found this video I have of Kanye performing “Jesus Walks”. I’m such a giant that I pretty much towered over everyone in the crowd and I was able to get some pretty sick video of his performances. I think Kanye went like half-crazy while he was performing this song. Check it out.
Anyways, after our meeting in the summer, D. kind of dissapeared for a while, and we turned our main focus back to BtownMenus.com. But we recently got back in touch with Daniel, and I actually had a long phone conversation with him last night. Among other things, we talked about me interning for him for free for 6 months or a year. I think this would be pretty cool. What better way could I get involved in the music industry and make connections? I have been thinking a lot lately about whether or not this whole Sonny thing was a good idea. But I really would love to get involved in the music industry, and I feel like working with Sonny combined with interning with one of the biggest managers in the hip hop game would really get my foot in the door. But is this the best route for me to go? The music industry is in such shambles right now that I feel like this is a terrible time to get involved. Record labels aren’t really signing many artists because they have no money. Then again, if we can blow Sonny up, we will have a proven track record of knowing what it takes to get an artist big through the independent route and I will have instant credibility to sign other artists. And if I went to work for D., my ultimate goal would be to first see if I like the whole music industry thing, and then if I do, to make enough connections that I could eventually branch off & do my own thing. But I’m also questioning the music route because we have tried to implement as much of the stuff as D. told us to do, but it is an every day struggle. Sometimes I feel like no matter what we do, Sonny is never going to blow. And that would be a devastating thing for us, because we have invested a lot of money, time and effort. But it would also be an absolutely devastating thing for Sonny. I can say without a doubt that he is one of the most hard working artists out there today, and he puts his heart & soul into his music. At this point, I not only want him to blow up for us to make money, I more want him to blow up because I have a ton of respect for how much passion he has about his music. I would put him up against any other unsigned artist today. Period. He not only writes amazing music, but he is one of the best battle rappers there is in the world. Check out one of his battles, and see how he just murders his opponents with his words:
He is an absolute beast when it comes to the battle scene. And I’m not even saying that because I manage the kid. Read some of the forums and blogs and search around for his videos and you’ll see that most people within the battle scene feel the same way. The more I think about it, the more working for D.’s management company sounds like an awesome opportunity. But I just don’t know.
So a former business partner of mine suggested that I need some more “direction” with my blog if I really want to get anything out of it, and gain a solid reader base. After doing some soul searching (and listening to his advice), I realized that the best thing to focus most of my blog about is life as a 23 year old with no clue what he is going to be doing over the next 12 months. I have had the unique experience of being forced to grow up a lot quicker than many kids my age because of the responsbilities that were placed on me when I decided to start my own business. And as I look back on my years of college, I realize that while this business has provided me so much opportunity and opened so many doors for me, I sit here today, on February 2nd, 2009, with no clue what I am going to do with my life. I am pretty confident when I say there are probably a lot of other Generation Y’s out there who are in the same position as me. I have one semester of college left to party and pretend like I don’t have to enter the real world at some point, and the thought of having to leave college is just plain depressing. I would love to just be Van Wilder and chill in college for 8 years, plan parties for the Jewish Hillel kids with unibrows who can’t get girls, and make money off of BtownMenus.com. But then again, do I really want to spend the next 3 or 4 years in Bloomington? The thought of that is just plain depressing as well. I’m going to try to detail the thought process of someone who is 23 years old, has a lot of real world experience in the business sector, and has always had a dream to never once have to submit a resume to anyone. In 12 months, I don’t know where I’m going to be. All I know is it’s going to be a crazy ride until I get there. And if you want to ride that roller-coaster with me, read my blog. In 12 months…..
Wow. That’s all I have to say about last night’s game. Steelers 27, Cardinals 23. I hate the Steelers. And I hate Ben Roethlisberger more. For those of you that know, you all know I’m a huge Cincinnati Bengals fan. The Gaylers play in our division, and somehow manage to tear ACLs to win playoff games every year. (Carson Palmer) But I have to give it to fucking Santonio Holmes. If you didn’t know about this dude, you sure as hell know about him now. What an insane, crazy, ridiculous tippy-toe catch to win the game for the Steelers last night. I don’t know if anything can match up to that Giants-Pats Super Bowl from last year, but last night’s game is about as close as you can get. Just when you thought the Cardinals had the game won, Big Ben executes the drive of his life. He should be jerking off Santanio Holmes under the film room table for the rest of their playing days. And how good is Larry Fitzgerald? That guy catches every ball thrown to him. Sometimes I think he puts glue on his gloves before each Cardinals offensive drive, but the dude is just that good. Period. His stats in the playoffs are absolutely RIDICULOUS: 30 catches, 546 yds., and 7 TDs. The yards and touchdowns are both records. Those stats come from just 4 games. This guy unquestionably enters the 2009 season as the #1 WR in the NFL. Anyone who wants to argue that simply is stupid. Too bad for the Cardinals and Kurt Warner. I really felt like they deserved to win that game. In my mind, Kurt Warner is a lock for the Hall of Fame. This guy goes from bagging groceries 10 years ago to NFL Hall of Famer. Talk about a feel good story. My boy last night gave me a stat that Warner currently holds 3 of the top 4 passing yardage totals EVER in the Super Bowl. If that stat is true, which I’m sure it is because kids from Cleveland always tell the truth, that is Hall of Fame type shit right there.
You can’t talk about the Super Bowl without talking about the commercials. As always, there were some really stupid commercials. But I have to say, this year had some of the more memorable Super Bowl commercials that I can think of. Although nothing really wowed me, there were a bunch of quality ones. Here are some of my favorites from the night:
Bud Light, “Meeting”
This commercial was fucking hilarious. To me, the funniest commercial by far during the whole game. Everyone I was watching with was cracking up when this dude gets tossed out of the window. Bud Light always seems to be innovative with their Super Bowl commercials. Imagine sitting in an office meeting and being “that guy”? Next thing you know, you’re being tossed out of your office’s 30th floor window. Funny shit.
Audi, “The Chase”
Jason Statham is the man. He is a karate and kung-fu master if you’ve ever seen any of his movies (Italian Job, Transporter 1,2,3) and the dude is jacked beyond belief. I really enjoyed all of The Transporter movies, although they were low-budget shitty action movies. Statham drives around in an Audi “transporting” packages because he is being threatened by some violent madman. He always ends up karate chopping the shit out of every person that comes in his way, usually without a scratch on him. This commercial was super-cool because it reminded me of the crazy car chases that make the Transporter films awesome.
Doritos “Crystal Ball”
Another fucking hilarious commercial. Free Doritos! This guy throwing the crystal ball has an arm on him. Maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates want to sign him like they signed those two dudes from India who have never thrown a baseball in their whole life.
Year One
I am not posting this because I liked this preview. I am posting this because I hate Jack Black. He has got to be one of the ugliest, most disgusting actors in Hollywood today. It’s hard for me to look at the guy without laughing, but he does prove that you don’t need looks to make it in Hollywood. Oh well. Michael Cera, on the other hand, is the fucking man. Superbad is one of the greatest movies ever, and I saw him in LA like a month ago in a vintage store on Melrose. Cool ass dude.
GoDaddy.com, “The Shower“
This was one of the more creepy commercials of the night. I understand the concept. The three dudes in this video would never have any chance of getting a girl that looks anything close to Danica Patrick, or any of the GoDaddy.com commercial girls for that matter, so they might as well jerk off to videos of her in the shower. But Danica Patrick creeped me out. Look at her when she brings her arms up to wash her hair or whatever she is doing. She has MASSIVE muscles. I always thought she was an attractive girl, but man oh man. This commercial might have changed my mind just a little bit.
Gatorade, “Talking Heads”
I love these commercials. Gatorade has some genius marketing company working for them, because when I saw the first commercial with Weezy F.’s voice, I immediately asked myself, “What’s G?” I spent the next 30 minutes Googling and Youtubing shit until I found out that it was in fact a Gatorade commercial. This one was pretty cool as all of the other “What’s G?” have had a narrator voice in the background. This one has such famous faces as Jimmie Johnson (really?), Tiger, Usain “Lightning” Bolt, and the goofiest athlete of all time, Peyton Manning, talking about what “G” means. I also thought it was awesome they had the mentally-challenged Jason Alweiss on this video. (I think that’s his name) Hopefully, those of you smart and educated people out there can notice which one he is. For those of you who don’t know who he is, Sportscenter profiled his story about a year ago about being a manager on his high school basketball team, who ended up getting put into a playoff game and preceding to drop like 30 points in 3 minutes. True story.
PETA, “Veggie Love”
I know, I know. This commercial wasn’t actually on during the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, NBC decided it was too “racy” for the 4 year olds in trailer parks to watch. But boy oh boy, is it a great commercial. This is one of the greatest ads in the history of the Super Bowl. That’s enough reading. Watch this amazing video come to life.
I have thought about blogging for a long, long time, but have always been to lazy to actually start one. Today, it dawned on me that I have to write a blog: period. Enough excuses. Considering I have one more semester left in college, and I am only enrolled in one class, I figured this to be the perfect time to attempt a blog. But I keep questioning what the fuck I am actually going to blog about? Alot of these blogs that exist today have so much information from all of the place, but I have found very few that I ever actually follow. Not that anyone is going to follow my blog, but I figured I might as well try. I am going to attempt to write about what it’s like being a college student in today’s world, especially one that unfortunately, has a lot more responsbility than he ever would have thought at age 23. I will also post cool shit I find on the internet for all you cool people that will read my cool blog. Welcome to post #1!
I have had a unique experience that I guarantee 95% of today’s college students have not had: running a full-time business while being a full-time college student. As I sit here on this Super Bowl Sunday awaiting what could be one of the most boring Super Bowls in history, I have just realized that I spent an entire morning/afternoon trying to reflect on what exactly I have learned in college, and whether or not I will use any of this information in my future life. My parents have spent upwards of $100,000 on my education, and it is sad to say, but much of those dollars have gone to waste. (Mom & Dad, if you’re reading this, everything I have told you about college is true: except this part.) It’s kind of funny and scary at the same time that a lot of my friends who graduated last year with those so called “job-guarantee” Kelley degrees can’t find jobs paying them more than $30,000 a year. All those connections and so-called “tools” that the Kelley School of Business provided couldn’t help my friends get paid. True story. Maybe these kids were brain-washed into thinking that the shit they were learning in Management 100 and Finance 350 was going to transfer into the real world with a snap of their fingers. But let me be the first to tell you that nothing, and when I say nothing, I mean NOTHING, will transfer to the real world like real-world experience. I could never have predicted that I would be thrown into the business world at 19 years old. I figured I’d be partying my nuts off, meeting as many girls as possible, and occasionally going to class. But starting BtownMenus.com when I was only a sophomore made me grow up fucking quick. As my business began to grow, I started realizing that I was learning a hell of a lot more about business, college, and everything in between than any class taught by some tenured professor at Indiana University could teach me. I was dealing with 50 year old business owners who didn’t give two shits what my finance class told me. All they cared about was making sure that I was making them money, and that they weren’t getting ripped off by some cocky sophomore college student.
College has been one of the best times of my life, and that is not even a question. I’ve met some of the craziest and coolest people ever, and enjoyed every minute of the party school that is known as Indiana University. But college has also been a humbling experience. Having the opportunity to run a business while I’ve been a full time student has forced me to learn things about myself that I never thought possible. It has also taught me an important lesson that no one can learn until you actually experience it: real world experience is more important and more educational than any class, professor, or homework assignment. Go Cardinals!
