1. Andre “Gorgeous Dre” Taylor

Coming from a childhood with a mother as a prostitute and a father that was a pimp, Taylor had a difficult start. When he decided to change his life, he left the past behind him. Now as an author and public speaker, he created “Operation Andre Taylor” to reach out to other people and help them by sharing his personal life experience. He also started a life coaching business to help others to avoid the obstacles of life he once dealt with.

2. Tariq King Flex Nasheed

Known as “Tariq Elite” or “King Flex,” Tariq Nasheed is an author, actor, fashion designer and producer. He moved from Alabama to California to pursue other things in life. From studying different cultures, people, and how they interact with each other Tarik created dating techniques, and now calls these techniques “G.I.C.2″ which stands for: game, intelligence and common sense, squared. He calls himself a “game advisor” and teaches men and women how to use the “G.I.C.2″ method he came up with. He later wrote a book, “The Art of Mackin,” a New York Time Bestseller. His second book, released in December 2009, is called “The Elite Way: 10 Rules Men Must Know In Order To Deal with Women.”

Selling out lectures and seminars around the country, Tariq has lived the entrepreneurial lifestyle to the fullest. He has released an instructional DVD called Mack Lessons, and has a radio show with over 100,000 listeners called “Mack Lessons Radio Show.” Also be on the lookout with for cologne called “Risque Elite,” and a line of designer sunglasses called “Tariq Elite”.

3.Farrah Gray

A millionaire by the age of 14, Farrah Gray was an interesting child. Growing up, he had always considered himself a businessman- he was carrying around a business card at age 7 that read “21st. Century CEO.” Now a doctor, public speaker, and philanthropist, Gray has a lot to teach young entrepreneurs. “My message is not business,” says Gray, “My focus has been on making the best investment, which is yourself.”

4. Sipp the Surgeon

From cutting hair as a barber to designing barber chairs and hosting “hair wars”, Sipp the Surgeon has fully embraced his “niche” talent and industry. He went from giving $10 haircuts to selling $10,000 barber chairs. One main reason he succeeded is because he had a plan. He started with a long term financial strategy which included: “opening a number of businesses, including a barber shop”. He decided to learn anything and everything about the barber business, eventually leading him to where he’s at today.

http://arthurpledger.com/2009/09/22/hustlers-you-need-to-know/

                          

Below are TechStartUps.com’s 10 habits of highly successful people.

• Spend an hour a day working out. Spend another hour reading the newspaper.
• Be picky. This goes for when you are in a restaurant, when you are in the office, and when you are on a date.
• Know when to take a break and go on vacation. Make sure to also disconnect from the Internet while you are there.
• Give feedback — mostly positive, but don’t be afraid to be critical. There’s nothing worse than having no feedback at all. People want to be managed, so tell them what to do!
• Practice. Practice. Yes, practice again. You should feel obsessed with your work. At that point, you’ll have put in enough hours to become an expert.
• Be willing to relocate for better opportunities. Moving is a hassle, but throwing away physical things helps give you a fresh start if you need one.
• Eat with people you have meaningful relationships with. Double book for lunch if you have to.
• Be a people connector. There’s no sense in keeping your contacts to yourself. Once you help someone out, they will do everything they can to help you out. It’s best to pay it forward.
• Don’t be afraid to cut people out of your life, especially the small minded ones. And be sure to surround yourself with people who love you.
• Don’t be afraid to fail. Take a risk. And enjoy the journey.

                          

1. Give power to those who have demonstrated the capacity to handle the responsibility.

1. Create a favorable environment in which people are encouraged to grow their skills.

1. Don’t second-guess others’ decisions and ideas unless it’s absolutely necessary. This only undermines their confidence and keeps them from sharing future ideas with you.

1. Give people discretion and autonomy over their tasks and resources.

http://blogs.hbr.org/goldsmith/2010/04/empowering_your_employees_to_e.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+harvardbusiness+(HBR.org)

                          

Lloyd Banks fist single from the highly anticipated album H.F.M2 “Beamer, Benz and Bentley” officially went gold.  Congratulations from BU Magazine! We salute the hustle.

                          

Def Jam is releasing a new video game called “Def Jam Rap Star” this fall.  The game will be available on Sony’s Playstation 3,  Microsoft X360 and Nintendo  Wii.  The karaoke rap video game can be played in three speeds: solo (one player), duet (two players playing together), and battle (two players against each other for points). Additionally, with the selection of each track, the music video plays in the background and a “about” facts column pops up on the side stating a brief biography of the artist(s).

According to Allhiphop.com the game will feature Hip Hop artists 2Pac (“I Get Around”), The Notorious B.I.G. (“Juicy”), A Tribe Called Quest (“Scenario”), Big Pun (“Still Not A Player), 50 Cent (“I Get Money”), Lil Wayne (“A Milli”) and LL Cool J (“Mama Said Knock You Out”) among others.

The game is schedule to be release on October 5th.  Click here for more information

                          

The Fight for Distribution: What will Hip Hop Do?

There is big fight brewing between radio broadcasters, the recording industry and recently the mobile phone industry over music royalties.  The radio broadcasters and the recording industry have been fighting over royalties for decades but now electronic manufacturers and wireless providers are nervous about a proposal that could include a federal mandate that all new cell phones come with a built-in FM radio chip.

For decades, the National Association of Broadcasters has been fighting a music industry proposal that would require radio stations to pay music royalties to recording labels and performers for the right to play their songs on the air.  Current law requires broadcast radio stations to pay royalties to songwriters, but not recording labels or artists. Broadcasters argue that the existing arrangement makes sense because radio airplay provides free promotion and drives music purchases and concert ticket sales.

As the media, entertainment, advertising and technology industries cross into each other’s territory, the conflict will intensify, especially because the recording industry business model has been broken.  So the question is how the Hip Hop elite can benefit while the heavy weights in radio, the recording industry and mobile fight it out.  Do any of the so called Hip Hop elites such as Jay Z, Russell Simmons, P Diddy and Baby from Cash Money have the leadership and vision to position themselves to gain a significant control over media and the culture?

There is more to this story than just radio broadcasters paying royalties to the labels.  The real story is the fight for distribution.  For so long the recording industry controlled the distribution channels for music.  But because of the proliferation of the internet, piracy and a broken business model, the recording industry wants to take a piece of the pie from other distribution channels that decades ago they did not care about such as radio and mobile mediums.  Technology companies are now the new dominate distribution channel with the likes of itunes, Napster and to a lesser extent Pandora.

The confusion and fear brewing cannot be expressed any better than when singer John Mellencamp is stated saying that the internet is the “most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb. It’s destroyed the music business. It’s going to destroy the movie business.”

Now it is time for Hip Hop’s artists to band together and begin to think like real entrepreneurs and less as high paid employees and leverage their branding power to gain control of the industry that is ripe for the taking.  Or will there be the continual chatter amongst artist of beef, bottle popping and stacking so call “chips”?

http://www.thesudburystar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2720087

                          

Unless you have been under a rock you probably have heard a lot about this week’s (Aug. 24^th) U.S. Home Sales numbers plummeting to its lowest levels in more than a decade.  This news was not well received by the capital markets as the Dow Jones Industrial Index was down 133 points in a day because of the news.  Many who are novice in their understanding of the capital markets and economics are not able to grasp the significance of the news stating that U.S. Home Sales is 25.5% below the level that it was a year ago.  This is big news and shows a crack in the recovery of the U.S. economy.  In other words the economic engine of America is breaking down right before our eyes.

Some may ask why so many people are afraid because of the release of the National Association of Realtors dismal numbers on housing.  The answer is that the drivers of the American economy may be the top wealthy 3 percent but the engine of the U.S. economy is the 66% of the population that makes up the American middle class.  What many don’t really understand is that housing is the nest egg for the middle class.  The middle class use their house to a large extent like a bank in that they take the appreciated value of the home to foot the bill for future expenses; children’s college education, retirement, paying membership for the country club, buying a boat and taking that vacation to Europe.

When I explain to some of my friends that I am shorting (betting against housing) they think I am crazy.  They even look at me like I have 4 heads when I say buying a house is not wise if you still have the mindset that a house is an investment for the future.  Let me explain why buying a house for cash appreciation is not wise and to be quite frank in my opinion waste of money.  Statistics show that inflation is out pacing American families’ wages at an alarming rate.  The cost of goods (food, clothing, toiletries, gasoline, etc.) is more than what the American consumer can afford.  An article in the January 15, 2010 edition of the Washington Times showed that inflation-adjusted weekly wages fell 1.6 percent; the sharpest drop since 1990 and well below the 2.7 percent consumer inflation rate.  Many home owners are paying a mortgage that is more than what their house is worth and others are barely able to afford their mortgage at all and this is with mortgage rates at all time low.  To add to the depression of home values, the housing inventory is still inflated and in order for buyers to come back to the market home values must continue to drop.  If you are of the thought that there is a likelihood of your wages increasing due to salary raises, news flash, the Government is printing money like a lil Wayne cameo which will have long term inflationary implications.  To put it simply, inflation will more likely continue to outpace wages for some time to come.  In addition, current homes are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage, and the likelihood that home values will recover what was lost during the economic crisis is improbable.

I am not saying that there is no money to be made in real estate.  The truth is that there are a lot of opportunities to make money but it requires a new mindset and strategy.  If you want to make money you first must begin to think like an entrepreneur/investor and not as a consumer.  The days of a house being a cash appreciated asset are over.  You must view housing as any start up business; as a cash flow positive investment.  There are several ways to make sure that a property is cash flow positive but I will just mention one in this editorial.  Several organizations will offer assistance for first time home buyers if they qualify to purchase a home.  Some of these organizations sell multi-family homes and buildings, often renovated at below market prices.  Now these properties can be used as rental properties where the income from tenants will pay the mortgage and the owner will either break-even or in the best case scenario make a profit.

Considering that the housing market is regional, there are several other ways to make money in real estate but those would be out of the scope of this editorial.  The main point I am making today is that in order to be successful in today’s economy and to secure the financial future of your family, you must begin to think as an entrepreneurial leader and create innovative ways to generate value which leads to wealth.

Reference Links

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/15/consumers-are-squeezed-inflation-outpaces-wages/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/business/25econ.html?hp