Do The Unthinkable and Unfathomable

Everybody wants to harness how to be successful, now more than ever. Here’s the one secret that is elusive to almost the entire world: do the unthinkable to garner success for yourself and not anyone else. Don’t think about pleasing some corporation, your parents or some job. Think about going to the entire next level for you. Get off Twitter, go on a Facebook fast, and get some MASSIVE stuff crackin’ for yourself.

Candace Allen pictured Making it Happen for herself

Years ago, I used to motivate my little sister Nandi Rene by singing a song to her when she was a little girl. The song went like this: “Make it happen for yourself.” I had a little tune for it which I will not bore you out of your mind with. I didn’t have to learn this from Russell Simmons, Rev. Run, Master P, or anyone. I learned this for myself. Do not rely on anyone else and take whatever you do to the next level for yourself and everyone else will come running to you and success is yours.

Here’s an example. In order to get myself into a position to beat out New York Yankee former catcher and current skipper Joe Girardi when we were both quarterbacks in high school, I started throwing the football everyday and would do it 500 times. How do I know? I counted every single throw that I made and had a log. I didn’t need some so called guru to tell me this. I did this on my own. I went WAY above and beyond to get results and make it happen for myself. I did the unthinkable. I spent the unthinkable hours providing myself with tools to make the coaches say “WOW!” But it wasn’t even about the coaches. It was about me. It is about YOU.

Make it happen and get things crackin for you. You don’t need anyone to achieve most things in life. I didn’t need a perfect life, a perfect father, a perfect house, or a perfect football field. I needed myself and I needed to throw the ball. That was my goal and I measured it. If you’re a writer and you truly write, finish your book or your script or your articles by Sunday. But do it in a gargantuan way. Do it MASSIVE. Do it NOW. Make it happen for yourself.

Money Lessons from a $2 Million Per Month Drug Kingpin

Man, you can learn anything from anybody. Seriously. This is not an endorsement of anyone selling drugs to the community. The lesson lies in the story. Some names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. While running my entertainment record label, I run across many interesting people. Many of these people drive Bentley’s and Rolls Royce’s and always claim that they made a grip from the music industry and that they are a high level producer that produces mega hits.

The Continental Bentley GT

Some people I believe especially if I know their history, most I do not believe. I met this one dude who had a very nice Bentley, a Range Rover, a Jaguar, and a Mercedes Benz S500. Young dude. He said he was a music mogul yet I had never heard of his name and I’ve been around some big names in music directly including Master P and many Bay Area legends like E40, Too Short, etc. I hadn’t heard of him. He introduced himself to me through some producers in the big city. They called him Big Cat. Big Cat had it going on. He was putting on huge concerts in the city. Throwing elaborate parties where he was able to book top name hip hop artists and models regularly with no problem. He had the cash on hand to easily book the venue up front and book the talent.

Big Cat had mad respect in the recording music and fashion industries. He would go to Vegas and get escorted into the casinos because the hotel staff new of him as a big spender. When I say big spender, I mean dropping $50,000 gambling on a Friday and Saturday night with no question. Money was never an issue. He spent it as fast as it came. I was always looking at him questionable and wondering what type of music he was involved in since I was heavy in the game and pinching pennies and trying to get all of my artists roster out into the market.

Big Cat ended up getting arrested and a life prison sentence as the cities largest heroine dealer clocking $2 Million per month in cash profits. What he did was unbelievable to get in that position. The drug kingpin before him was murdered. He had no experience in the game. He saw an opening and filled a niche. He recruited and organized a strong team of players around him who knew the street game well and paid them well. They made alliances with top level gang leaders and gave them a cut of the deal. The gang leaders would make sure that he was safe where ever he went in the city because they got a cut. He knew business very well and could damn near run a corporation better than the folks at Lehman and Goldman Sachs.

He understood team dynamics and how to build successful and loyal team members and alliances. He knew how to get the product cheap, add value to it, and sell it for a cheap price as well and get more customers. Yes, it kills the community but the point is that he knew to organize people and develop a business plan around his sales efforts. He even knew to build alliances inside the police organizations so he knew what was going on in there as well. My point? Get highly organized. If a major drug dealer can organize a team of people and mobilize people around a common goal, you can too. He took big risks that I would never take but I saw how someone was not afraid to go after something they wanted.

Doing business with the founder of Essence Magazine

I met Mr. Clarence Smith in the summer of 2006 in New York city. I was working a technical project in Union Square on E. 14th at ConEdison of New York. My technical business is as a systems integrator and I had sold software architecture and development services to them. Always hustlin, I was running a fledgling music business in New York as well. At the time, I ran a PR piece announcing a distribution deal that I had negotiated with a large online music distributor in New York, The Orchard. I was sitting at my desk at ConEdison when I got a very interesting call from a gentleman named Duke Jones who wanted to set me up with a meeting with someone named Clarence Smith in New York.

Founder of Essence Magazine, Clarence O Smith

Duke Jones asked me if I could meet him and Clarence Smith in Manhattan the next day. Ironically, he told me their offices were located on E. 23rd and Park and I was only 9 blocks away from them on the east side of Manhattan as well. Of course, I agreed to the meeting as I was poised to grow the Spinks Music and Entertainment Group and partner with a New York entertainment venture. At the time, I still did not know who Clarence Smith was until I googled him and researched who he was. I was shocked at the information I found via Google. I found that Clarence O. Smith was the original founder of Essence Magazine, a large African American magazine.

Needless to say, I was shocked, surprised and excited all at the same time. At the time, Mr. Clarence Smith was running a music record label called YOU Entertainment and a travel agency called Avocet Travel. He was looking for someone to help him grow YOU Entertainment and their roster of talent that included The Cafe Soul Allstars which consisted of Duke Jones, Peabo Bryson, Christopher Williams, Roy Ayers, and some other great all star African American jazz artists. I was honored. I went to the pitch meeting with my Apple Powerbook equipped with a presentation that I sat up all night at my hotel room in Secaucus, NJ developing.

Peabo Bryson of The Cafe Soul Allstars

I entered into the pitch meeting and was greeting by Clarence Smith’s CFO, Deon Douglas who runs Thinking Giant, Scott Folkes, and Duke Jones. They brought me into the room and said Mr. Smith was on his way and asked me if I wanted some coffee or water. I said water. In walks Mr. Clarence O. Smith and I was truly honored. He listened to the entire pitch without telling me anything about him. He was gracious, humble, and very forward thinking. I was blessed to even be in the meeting with such an African American business legend and leader.

Cafe Soul Allstars Love Pages CD

The meeting ended with him selecting The Spinks Music and Entertainment Group as his marketing partner. I was never happier and blessed to have such an opportunity.

Digging Ditches Until the Storm Passes

From the pages of my book…..

Despite any obstacles, keep your dreams alive. There will be setbacks that are a natural course of wealth building. You cannot reach wealth without setbacks. It is literally impossible to do. A natural part of the wealth building process is character testing. You will be confronted with countless things that will test your character from relationship breakups, court proceedings, bankruptcy bullshyt, family issues and so on. Regardless of all of these things that will happen, the wealth builder will keep fighting on and will not stop. You may hit pause temporarily due to some hiccup encountered, but do not ever stop doing your thing.

Gerard Spinks encourages you to dig deeper

You may decide that a certain project is not successful to pursue, but change up and be flexible. A lot of people loathe change and some people don’t like to see you change. If something doesn’t work that you’re doing, put something else in your arsenal. Don’t listen to anybody if they don’t like you’re change unless the change that you’re doing is negative and you are trying to now push bricks and sell rocks on the avenue. Change is the only real thing that you can count on in this world so if you don’t change, you might as well fold the cards and consider yourself done.

Real cats will change up, grow their stacks, and make some dollars. I’ve known people that had to move across the country, uproot their families, and completely change industries in order to make it. Sometimes, we have to swallow our pride and even do a job for way less money that we’re used to. I read once where Bishop T.D. Jakes was once digging ditches in Dallas, Texas before he started preaching and started Potters House. The thing that he did was keep his dream alive even while digging ditches for the highway department.

If you have to dig a ditch but you really have skills as a small business entrepreneur, just dig the ditch and keep your eyes on how to be successful. Let the storm pass. During times of intense storming, we have to be able to let the storm take its course as long as it doesn’t kill us and render us helpless and homeless. You can still build wealth and make your dream a reality. Perseverance will be your key to survival and overcoming this part of your character test. Just make sure the ditch that you’re digging is not your own grave!

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries, a black owned web content development, content aggregator, and marketing company based in Atlanta, GA.

Barry Bonds latest black man witch hunt recipient

If y’all can’t tell what’s happening in America, you’re lost. There is a witch hunt against the black male in America. America is tired of seeing us prosper, succeed, and grow financially. While I’m definitely proud of President Obama, his election has caused America to go into a witch hunt for all wealthy and prosperous black men. Time to hide your money and stop being so out there, Kanye West and you rappers.

Barry Bonds for Athlete of the Decade

If y’all cannot open your eyes and see what’s happening right in front of you, you’re deaf, dumb, and blind as much as Bernard Bernanke claiming the recession is fully over. I haven’t said anything about Kanye West debacle because it was total ignorance but seeing the latest headlines of Barry Bonds makes me fly out of my chair. In fact, I need to go on this run in the mountains in California just so I can stop thinking about this mess. Why are Kanye West and Serena Williams making us look bad? Don’t they realize they are black people and we are held to a GREATER standard than our white counterparts? Does Kanye West actually think white people and brands will embrace him and love him for grabbing the microphone from a young Taylor Swift? What?

You better ask somebody. Now, the feds are on Barry Bonds like a beast. Just like they wanted Michael Vick in front of the world on his knees crying and apologizing for days while the cops who killed Sean Bell are still eating hot dogs at Coney Island with their families. You’ve got Plaxico Burress in jail for two years for shooting himself. Racist cops are free. The feds are coming after Barry Bonds with a vengeance. The prosecutor is hell bent on making him out to be a liar and stripping him of his records and his entire career. If he were white, he’d be pat on the back with a “atta boy” mentality. Trust me. I know.

This witch hunt is on black men. If you are thinking and planning of shooting a video and throwing tons of diamond studded chains, mixed with a little swag and some strippers, I suggest highly that you do not do this. You and I have become America’s target thanks to President Obama. I watch my back constantly even running in the hills because I know that if I even seem successful to the world, there is a huge bulls eye target sitting on my back and someone has a scope pointed directly at my head.

Black men beware. They want us in prison WAY more than people want us to succeed. Lay low. Lay low. Lay low. The time is to lay low and not cause attention to yourself. Good luck Barry Bonds! You are a Hall of Fame candidate in my book. What a hall of fame career. Wish you were still playing, big dawg!

Gerard Spinks is the CEO of Spinks Industries; a web content developer and marketing company in Atlanta, GA. He is also a writer, publisher, and radio host of Beyond the Bling radio.