A few days ago I was sitting working on my weekly email from a local Starbucks when next to me I could hear the conversation between an older gentleman and a young man talk about business. The older gentleman was giving all types of business advice from knowing how to manage a business, setting up a budget, to knowing what to charge as a business expense. I was trying to concentrate on my business, but the older gentleman kept talking until finally, he said something that got my full attention, “entrepreneurs always find a way to get the thing done no matter the circumstances.” I felt like going up to the older gentleman and give him a high-five. Entrepreneurs always find a way to get things done no matter the circumstances. Think of all the celebrity entrepreneurs you hear about on television (e.g., Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg) all of them have done what impossible to possible no matter the circumstances. John Paul Dejoria (Co-Founder of Paul Mitchel hair products) went from door to door selling his hair products to saloons when he was dirt poor. 50cent was selling his mix tapes to bootleggers so that they could hand them out to people. Michael Dell built computers from his dorm room. As an entrepreneur, you have to find a way to get things done no matter the circumstances. As Dr. Michal Morris writes in his book Entrepreneurial Intensity, “successful entrepreneurs can combine adaptability with persistence in adjusting their concept when confronted with the obstacles, both natural and arbitrary, that arise along the way.” Next time you face an obstacle in your business, startup, or life make sure you find a way to get through your obstacle, that’s what entrepreneurs do. Mr. J Real TalkBusiness educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
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In my vlog episode 3 I continue to talk about LeBron James $1 million investment in Blaze Pizza current value at $25 million after a significant investment by a private equity firm. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel Mr. JPersonal Finance/Entrepreneurship educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Last night's Facebook live I discussed LeBron "King" James turning his $1million investment in Blaze Pizza into $25million after a private equity firm invested in the company. How to be an entrepreneur in your own right, and establishing SMART financial goals. Mr. JPersonal Finance & Entrepreneurship educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Mr. J Real Talk Vlog Episode 2 is all about writing SMART Financial Goals. SMART is the acronym for Specific, Measurable, Action-0riented, Realistic, Time-Based. Every financial goal that you create must be written down a specific goal, measure the amount, take action towards that goal, be realistic, and have a deadline. Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube Channel for daily Vlog updates. Mr. JPersonal Finance & Entrepreneurship educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Earlier this week I received my copy of The Economist, The future of learning: How technology is transforming education. The first article under the leader's section titled, “Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools” captivated my attention from the first to the last word. As an educational technology (ed tech) advocate, user, and student of the profession I will highlight parts of the article that I agree and disagree. The article started by stating how the ed tech has a cycle of hype and flop due to teachers and their unions along with the unproven methods of ed tech. I am assuming the writer has not talked to all teachers across the country because surely not every teacher or union is against ed tech. The hype and flop happen with any industry except in the education industry “factory methods” of teaching is still prevalent, and innovation takes a while. The article also claims that for ed tech to function correctly in schools three things must be right: personalized learning must follow how students learn, narrows the inequalities of education, and ed tech potential relies on teachers embracing it. I will agree on the personalized learning must follow how students learn. When a new ed tech tool comes out everyone is fascinated by the tool and when you add the “personalized learning” tag to it even more so. The tool has to do what it says it will do, and there has been actual evidence that it is increasing student’s knowledge, not just scores. In regards to the inequalities that is up to the states to determine when every school district gets its far share. As long as school districts rely on property tax for funding, I don’t see how inequality in education will disappear. There is only so much philanthropy money to go around. Teachers are embracing technology, but with time the newer breed of students will take over the arcane methods of “factory teaching.” All over the country, there are weekly education twitter chats such as #oklaed for educators in Oklahoma and #edchatsa for teachers in South Africa among many others that share ideas and better teaching practices. So going back to the point of teachers being the reason for the hype and flop, check out one the local ed chats to see not every teacher is to blame. I wholeheartedly agree with the article's statement, “given what ed tech promises today, closed-mindedness has no place in the classroom.” For ed tech to work there has to be an open mind, find what works for the class, and have results not just outcomes. Mr. JPersonal Finance & Entrepreneurship educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
In last night's Mr. J Real Talk show I discussed the new rules affecting credit scores, developing an elevator pitch, and private student loans.
Credit Scores In a new ruling public records on credit reports will not affect peoples credit scores. The two public records include tax liens and civil judgements. The new rules will affect 7% of the U.S. population and will raise their scores by at least 20 points. However, the new scores does not mean that banks and other lending institutions will not look at other factors affecting credit score and history such as high credit card debt. The best things to do is lower your credit card debt, pay your taxes, and try not to get sued. Elevator Pitch An elevator pitch is a one minute speech to persuade a potential investor you meet in an elevator to invest in your company. In reality the elevator pitch is just a speech about your business said during a business plan competition or investor meeting. In my experience the best elevator pitches come from people who are fully invested in their company, give passion, and do not have to use notecards to give their pitch. I used a template from the Founders Institute to write my pitch for this show and you should too if your having trouble writing your elevator pitch. Private Student Loans If you have private student loans you may be in for some luck. The National Collegiate Student Loan Trust recently lost $5 billion in student loan paperwork. If you have a private student loan with the Trust I highly suggest you check to see if your paperwork went missing because you may be off the hook. Let's just keep our eyes and ears open for any other company who loses their paperwork. Tune in Sunday, July 30 at 9pm CT for the Mr. J Real Talk show live on Facebook Live. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk 50 Cent is known for his music, books, acting and entrepreneurial ventures. He is highly successful, with a net worth estimated at $270 million, despite lacking even a high school degree. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/words-of-wisdom-from-50-cent-20326/#SSFDIXCyo6vqLd4Y.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Hip hop artists and professional athletes have something in common: Most go bankrupt during or at the end of their careers. There are only so many shoe deals, commercials, and sponsorships available for either hip hop artists or athletes, and both tend to live large. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/50-cent-building-wealth-it-takes-more-than-a-beat-37100/#7RThvJ8sMwHOWyd7.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Before the birth of iTunes, the career of a music artist was entirely focused on selling albums, getting their songs on the radio. Getting on tour. iTunes changed that dynamic. Hip-Hop artists, along with the entire music industry, realized that selling albums would not guarantee financial success because people could easily download the songs for free illegally or purchase them individually from iTunes. It no longer required an album investment for a body of work. Consumers could spend less than $2.00 and buy the one song they wanted. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/hip-hop-entrepreneurs-establishing-wealth-outside-of-album-sales-20516/#QoGA6f3m8Y2f3UI5.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk College students today are worried. Will their massive investment in a $100,000 liberal arts degree pay off in the future? Will the non-paying internship they’re involved with actually open the door to a career after graduation? Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/entrepreneurship-in-college-building-valuable-real-world-skills-31802/#b6G6I1zGOt1Dr7lu.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk “Shark Tank,” the popular ABC business reality show (also running in syndication on CNBC) has gained fame for the pronouncements of its tough-nosed business “sharks,” such as Mark Cuban, Daymond John, and Barbara Corcoran. All are blunt with their business critiques, giving the show’s would-be entrepreneurs chills up and down their spines when they pitch their own business plans to these bigwigs, hoping for an initial investment of real money. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/would-be-entrepreneurs-miss-the-real-lessons-of-tvs-shark-tank-33044/#LXlohppc4hEDfuk4.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Entrepreneurship has become an increasingly popular alternative to working for an established company. Millennials do not want to work for one company for their entire careers, and they also want control of their own destiny. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/entrepreneurship-lesson-test-your-concept-locally-33663/#0XM6Skqr7eu2oTH3.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk According to The Wall Street Journal, millennials are reluctant to take sales jobs immediately after college graduation. Rarely today do newly-minted graduates and job seekers aspire to sales careers, since most people, at least in their demographic, associate sales jobs with telemarketers calling at dinner time or with sales clerks nipping at their heels at the mall. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/taking-a-sales-job-after-graduation-34484/#y74IVMBCmX6D0OV4.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk Since the beginning of the 2007 housing bubble the media has been focusing on the high levels of student debt that has exceeded $1 trillion dollars. Students are graduating with mounting debt that can exceed $40,000 for an undergraduate degree and not learn a single valuable skill that will make them employable. Parents are starting to ask college administrators whether it is even worth it to send their child to college when they come out learning no new skill other than knowing how to study. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/learning-a-valuable-employable-skill-in-college-36380/#HOCKxbLGHGg16KCk.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk As a student moves into middle school, his or her creative mind starts to become more like a factory assembly line, processing information and not asking questions. This is largely due to the widespread move toward constant state testing and data gathering and decades of teacher-to-student instruction where the teacher talks and students listen without having to think on their own. Read more at http://www.commdiginews.com/business-2/entrepreneurship-and-creativity-in-education-37733/#iXXhvMcdcyOjq8JR.99 Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk
In July 19th, 2017 show Mr. J Real Talk discussed 50cent Effen Vodka deal, the little details of purchasing a vehicle, and how fun in the sun can turn into fun in hell.
Purchasing a Vehicle When purchasing a vehicle it is important to look at the all the small details before making the purchase. People often over look additional costs such as local and states taxes, license plate fees, and other fees that can add up. Before making the purchase do your research, get a good interest rate on your car loan, give a sizable down payment, and make sure your total car costs do not exceed 20% of your monthly net pay. 50cent Selling his stake in Effen Vodka Reports are saying that 50cent recently sold his minority stake in Effen Vodka, which made him a cool $60 million. This is 50cent's second successful business ownership venture, the first being the $200 million he made from Vitamin Water when it was bought by Coca-Cola. Fun in the Sun can turn into Fun in Hell When vacationing make sure you do your research and not go extremely cheap. There are times when spending a few extra dollars is worth every penny, for example, extra leg room on long international flights and flying direct instead of connections. Trust me spending a few dollars will not only save you the headaches but also from having to spend extra on hotels or missing flights. Resources https://www.dmv.org/ http://www.taxrates.com/ https://www.hopper.com/ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/11/whens-the-best-time-to-book-a-flight.html https://www.vibe.com/2017/07/50-cent-ends-partnership-with-effen-vodka-60-million/ Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk RSS Feed
As millennials, it is our dream to work for ourselves and have no boss. For many of us, that means becoming “entrepreneurs.” Media outlets have made this profession famous over the last decade—and made it sound easy to achieve success. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk I remember the exact moment that I realized inexpensive fast food could hurt my wallet and my health. I was living in Oklahoma City and preparing to move. I was spending a lot of money on the move, but getting everything ready left me short on time and energy to cook (packing my kitchen stuff didn’t help either). So, I ate nothing but fast food for ten consecutive days. Big mistake. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When I was building my start-up, I was also working a full-time job and getting out of credit card debt. It was not easy balancing all of this. When I focused on my start-up, I lost focus on my full-time job—and vice-versa. I knew that one day I would fully commit to my start-up, but I wanted to be respectful to my full-time job until then. Read more Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk In my start-up experiences, and I've had my fair share in my 20's, the one key ingredient that start-ups need to have are a coherent working team. Yes, execution is important and yes ideas are worthless but if you don't a team that can work together during the bad times, especially when no paychecks are going around, having a well-established team goes a long way. I remember my first time at a start-up the main reason for the collapse wasn't the product or the execution but the poor handling of team management. One of the main co-founders was such a control freak that everything and anything could not have been done unless it was his way. The three of us who took part in the business plan competition that won our first round of capital either quit or got kicked out, I was the one who got kicked out. Two other start-ups I was part also failed because of the lack of teamwork. I remember the first meetings were filled with happy thoughts but as soon as work needed to get done communication diminished and daytime jobs along with excuses took priority. I recall how in an online magazine start-up, the principal founder was so upset about our first online magazine issue that he talked to me for an hour of his displeasure, and we never worked again on making another issue because everyone else had other things to do and could not get over the fact that the issue did not come out his way. Starting the next Facebook or Snapchat is difficult enough but finding the right chemistry in a group is even harder. How many mainstream startups have you heard where the primary funders broke up? Does Facebook and Twitter sound familiar? This blog post was not meant to downplay anyone I worked with because each start-up brought something valuable to the table, but the main challenge was building a team chemistry that would take the start-up to the next level. So when you are building your start-up make sure your team has chemistry because that's what will get your start-up from nowhere to somewhere. Mr. JEducator, business, and blogger on things that matter in life. Follow @joseful Yesterday I wrote a post about companies giving people with start-up and gig job experience the opportunity to work for their companies. The reason for doing so is because there are just times when no matter what you do you just happen not to find the right niche in the gig economy thus having to make money working for someone else. In this article, I am focused on a person building an entrepreneurship career regardless if they are part of a start-up or working for a company. Innovate at all times Every day I find new ways to innovate myself because I am a product that has to sell myself to the market and be ruthless in my pursuit of having the customer want to buy my services. For example, when a client wanted me to create an online professional development course with a zero dollar budget I had to innovate in what training I had in online education and resources that were low cost or free. If you are not innovating, someone else will take your place. The same in entrepreneurship if a business is not innovating some other company will take over. There's a Solution to every Problem Last night my father told me, "except death, everything has a solution, " and my dad is correct. There have been times when a student or co-worker quickly quits and says there is no solution to the problem. I then look at the problem and find a simple solution. For example, a student would say, "I can't find any resources for my peer team teaching assignment" and I would respond with, "did you use Google?" The student would respond with a no answer, and I would mention to the student to start using Google. There is a solution to every problem whether we like it or not so find the solution because innovative companies and successful individuals always do. Persistence The one word I would say that keep successful companies and individuals at the top is persistence. No matter how hard it gets or what the future holds persistence goes a long way. I wouldn't have been able to get where I am at if it was not for persistence. What lacked in the start-ups I was part of was persistence among some individuals. Persistence gets people through the tough times, makes them innovative, and can find a solution to the problem. The world is quickly changing and globalizing at every turn in every industry. Having entrepreneurial traits such as innovation, finding solutions, and persistence goes a long way in an entrepreneurial society. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk When reading over job classifieds on LinkedIn most of the jobs require some sort of masters degree and/or five or more years of experience. Let's not forget that job openings are either minuscule or non-existent so how than does a person gain experience if there are no jobs to begin with? Companies should start taking people who worked for start-ups or in the gig economy seriously and here is why. Working in a start-up or gig economy job will require the person to build customer relationship skills, leaderships skills, creative ways to gain customers, and most importantly patience. I cannot think of another job in the gig economy where being an Uber driver or TaskRabbit tasker would require patience with customers who may be impatient or rude. Or in the start-up world where there is no guarantee of a paycheck every two weeks. With that being said companies should also realize that job experience is going to come from non-traditional ways such as start-up experience and gig economy jobs and no longer from the typical 9 to 5 job that most have done away with. I've had several tries in the start-up world and there has been no better training that could prepare for working in a Fortune 50 company. I can tell you that having patience and building a strong team are critical factors in the start-up world that without them the start-up will most likely fail before even launching. Being in a start-up you have to continuously innovate and be persistent because if your not than there is no traction in the marketplace. And with no traction comes no money and with no money comes no job. Why wouldn't a company want someone with start-up or gig economy experience? If anything it shows that the person is hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. There are no safety nets in the start-up world or in the gig economy and that makes the person more creative, built tougher for the tough times, and be optimistic for the future. So companies I am telling you know if you want a person hungry for success, ambitious, and willing to go the extra mile for your company don't set aside a persons application when you see start-up or gig economy experience. Mr. JPersonal finance & entrepreneur educator and blogger. Follow Mr. J on social media @MrJRealTalk |