Maximizing The Cards We Are Dealt In Life

When i travel, sure i travel in beat up clothes…..I like to stay low key, when i left the training center interviews yesterday, i was dressed up more then usual……and man i could tell….beggars, kids on the street, all staring at me and im like a magnet for people looking for handouts. But when I’m wearing old, casual clothes, people disregard me. I’m just some english teacher or student or something they figure. I can fit into my environment more. AND i have a BABY FACE!! I always am told i look young for my age. blah blah. And it used to piss me off, but u know what, i gotta make do and play the card. So when beggars and possible thieves come at me, hey man I’m just a student here on travel, or whatever. Just get them out of my face. I feel I get less heat than an old foreigner here, because they look like money “machines” and are magnets for pickpockets, beggars, and cheaters! So I play the babyface card.

In the interviews the other day there were a few giving me the “sob story” saying they dont have money to feed their family and have to work day and night. While it kind of annoys me that has to be brought up in professional setting (business isn’t about charity, we all have to remember that), i also gotta respect they are working the angles they can in order to maximize the “cards they are dealt in life”

If i was an african american or other “minority” (how is that defined anyway) in usa. I would apply for all kindness of grants for small business. I remember when i first wanted to learn about how to start a business in new york, i attended the small business association free seminars. I also wanted to see if i could get any government loans or grants. Because i wasnt a woman or a minority, i didnt qualify….so i had to look for other ways

Since i have no government or special aid programs being a middle income white male, i have to play that card as the “token white guy” in china….and am seen as an expert american marketer – see what im saying????

Its about the hustle.

Bruce williams says it well, that he could be dropped anywhere on this earth with very limited resources and build a new business startup. He would study his environment and find gaps and holes – or opportunities – where he could flourish. And that is what we call hustle, or what we call business!

I liked being in the boy scouts, and was considering army (until i realized i had to blindly accept orders from superiors, that blindly received orders from their superiors) because i liked the idea of survival. Being independent. To explore and make do with what tools you had.

My favorite merit badge (you can call boy scouts “gay” or nerdy, but i think its cool!) was wilderness survival. This was all about disaster situations, no power, no food…..we studied how to make s.o.s. Signals in various ways, in various formats.

And during summer camp, you had to take a night out deep in the woods with nothing by a knife and a flashlight. It was awesome…build a small shelter, withhold your hunger….it was about learning to get by in bad situations. It made me more confident in life.

And being in china, philippines and the rest of asia to come, its practiced these techniques, in so many ways

Just a few days ago i was in the manila startup office by myself….and i slam locked the door to get groceries and quickly come back….i realize i don’t have my cell phone, or keys!! And marie is on holiday….and it would be dark soon…..

I was proud of myself, i didn’t freak out….i took a minute to assess the situation, climbed the window, saw the keys on the tabletop. Came down, got a stick, wasn’t long enough, found anothe r stick….got the window open, leaned my body inside, and patiently hooked the keys (well knocked some things over, but not that bad), and that was it. I dealt with it.

In my high school year book I put (something like, don’t have my yearbook around) “Time to shuffle the cards up” – stating that we are all going our own ways into the professional world, and its time to get a new deal from the deck of cards.

I think we all need to think more deeply about our own strengths and weaknesses. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE CARDS YOU HAVE IN YOUR HAND. And hustle them, pimp them out!