by JuJuan Buford
Is your dream bigger than your excuses?
It’s a real simple question really.
Can I be real?
How many times have you denied yourself? How many poor (passing over opportunities repeatedly) decisions have you made, because of temporal circumstances? How many times have you been distracted by what’s standing before your nose, the chatter of those who don’t have your solutions, or the fear (mythical excuses manifest in your mind), reacting repeatedly with the same responses expecting a different result (insanity), as opposed to responding?
And what does responding look like? The description is coming soon. This blog is already about to be too long.
See you have to embrace becoming, before you become. You have to be, before you become. A two-dollar mindset will be departed from a million dollar windfall.
This one is going to hurt. Remember that one? That one that really, really loved you; understood you, accepted you; no, no mater what? I'm just saying...what the fu#! were you thinking?
How many layoffs? How many periods of insecurity? Feelings of feeling trapped? See you can’t steal second base with one foot on first. Michael Jordan failed his way to the top. Cut from his high school basketball team. The Detroit Pistons (Deeeeeetroit!). Then there was the long hours in the gym, and than the decision.
Decide. Homicide. Suicide. Pesticide. You following? Something has to die. When you decide, something has to die.
See, the excuses have to die. The negative voices have to die. The deprecating self-talk has to die. Critics must die. The opinions of family who are more critical than supportive must die. The influence of friends who rather whisper on the side, as opposed to advocate or possibly even join (who owns gas stations in Detroit?) must die.
Those who critique and even diminish your personal development, because your finances haven’t caught up with your growth yet….because they fail to realize that the extent to which you become valuable to yourself, followed by those around you ultimately determines whether one achieves financial dependence as opposed to perpetual servitude. Or to keep it simple…sharecropping.
And yeah, you can borrow this. I did.
Smell the roses. Smell the roses. Let them Ridicule and Oppose. And smile when your success becomes Self-Evident. Ask anyone who has ever achieved. They knew well before the material became apparent.
But the excuses must die. Must f-ing die.
So what you’re tired. So what folks are criticizing and looking down upon you. So what, it’s difficult. So what, someone rejected you. So what, it’s snowing. So what, you have to do without that big screen television, that $1,000 hairdo, a couple nights at the bar, endure snickers, do without that one who supposedly loved you, but left you hangin…. (yeah, ima go there)… What makes any of this any different from any other day? Would you rather pay now or pay later?
You have all your life to fail. But in life… if you get it right once… it’s done. Just continue to get better. And it’s done! Imagine working because you want to. Imagine pursuing your passion without concern for how you’re going to pay the rent. Imagine your children receiving more yeses than nos. Imagine waking up one morning, dialing up your cadre or crew, and being like…let’s take a jet to St. Kitts. And they respond like, okay, but I gotta brush my teeth first. Whoa!
But in order to know the aforementioned… you have to decide. Make up your mind. Is your dream or your excuse bigger?
To live, doesn’t mean you are alive. Which is bigger?
What inspired this outburst? Nicki Minaj's "Moment 4 Life". Yes, Nicki Minaj. It's another entrepreneurs' anthem. Igore the ignance, and take in the spirit.