Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Why Is McDonald's Flagging?

Why are McDonald's profits slowing? The answer is simple. One word, two syllables.

Subway.

Subway is the upstart, the old upstart, that promised years ago that it would surpass McDonald's in number of restaurants nationwide. So how did subway win?

First of all, location. McDonald's are much easier to get to, but Subways are more economical. They are parked at free, open, well-lit locations that sort of lead you to the library, or lead you to work. It something to do on your way to do something else.

McDonald's, on the other hand, leads you to a cul-de-sac parking lot and a death trap eating area, full of cumbersome immovable furniture.

What else is there? Subway is the restaurant of the Proletariat, whereas McDonald's mainly targets the Steve Easterbrooks of the world as customers. What? Subway's cheaper. Not only that. Subway is cheaper, more filling, arguably better tasting, healthier and provides more energy.

If you go to Subway for breakfast, you can get the best-tasting, most filling and almost most affordable sub they have (Spicy Italian) for just $8.12, which includes a fountain drink that you can mix yourself. Suicides, anybody?

What does McDonald's have? Well, if you're going for the breakfast menu, you can get two Sausage McMuffins with Egg and a soda (no mixing allowed) for $8.60. That's an extra $14.88 per month in taxes.

But isn't two better than one?

Not exactly. Those two sausage McMuffins with egg are the size of doughnut holes and you'll be hungry within the next fifteen minutes again.   

Monday, April 3, 2017

My One Word

I received my copy of Evan Carmichael's YOUR ONE WORD last Thursday. Reading through the book, it seemed a little...cliched obviously. It was pretty much standard fare. You owe it to yourself. Stop making excuses. The usual. I got up at 4:00 am to read it, and I was ready. After all of my hard work, I'd made it. How to make your one word. I don't want to ruin it for you, but I went through the exercise and it turned out that my One Word is...SLAVE!

What cruel fate! When I had first heard Evan Carmichael pitching his One Word philosophy on his Youtube Channel, I said " Oh, that's easy my brother! My one word must be READ!" Why? Well, I normally read for four-and-a-half to five hours a day. So I thought that "Read" would be a shoe-in for my One Word. It seemed so...Intelligent. So astute. So prudent. So...safe. I could've gotten invited to a few school assemblies with that one.

But what does #Slave mean to me? Well, everybody keeps telling me that slavery is over, that it was "a million years ago" and that it has nothing to do with today. I'm a conservative, of course (as conservative as a black man can be) but I can't fall for it. Since 250 year is the "cutoff" year for relevance, why do I know the names Plato, Socrates, Poe, Shakespeare, George Washington and Adam Smith? Just today I started reading and enticing little book about Alexander The Great. Really fascinating stuff. If stuff that happened three centuries ago has "no bearing" on today, then how does something that happened ten times as long ago get to be mentioned?

Why we're at it, why do we keep using those damn wheels, that pesky mortar and that confounded roof? Why not abandon them and live underneath a wind mill? I know what I will be accused of, but my ancestral history as a slave is very integral to my personality and my current life. I don't try to run from it anymore. It's in everything that I do. It's the way I think. Always applying for that next job. Waiting for permission to strike out on my own. Ever seeking someone's approval. Raised on welfare. The list goes on.

We went from being considered less than dogs to being the president of the United States. If you say that Obama was only half black, like I do, then we blacks should stand aside and applaud the Mulatto men of America, whose very existence would've been illegal less than 300 years ago. Even more remarkable if you ask me. But it all comes back to #Slave.
And blacks weren't the only slaves. Many races recovered from slavery, but we recovered the fastest and the strongest.

As a black man, if you doubt that the history of Slavery in the United States impacts you today, just walk outside. We are still half-way in transition from the plantation to the promised land.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Important Life Lesson For 2017 And Beyond, Part 3

The fourth lesson from Chinkee Tan's video was that poor people believe that they are the only people that matter. I have to stop and think about that for a while. Do I believe that I am the only one that matters? I regularly help others, but could I help more?

When I eventually read a few of David Backh's books, he constantly drilled into my head that if I wanted to get more I would have to give more. I'm not quite sure how this works. Look at Bill Gates. He's the richest man in the world and he gave away over $40 billion, around half of his fortune at the time. But the fact is that he's got at least a billion dollars. He can afford to buy any property in this country.

He'll never starve or be homeless. Me, on the other hand, if that check doesn't come like clockwork I'll be on the street.

But I do understand what Chinkee Tan meant. He means that, well, poor people are poor because they are selfish. My unnamed relative was the number one person always begging her relatives for money and shelter. But let a homeless person ask her for a quarter and all hell would break loose.

It goes deeper than that. If you believe whole heartedly that you are the only one that matters, you won't help others to succeed - not sincerely - and as a result your community will fail. You'll be living in squalor. A popular activity for blacks in the ghetto who are riding in cars is to give the middle finger to anyone they see walking. If you ride the train past the white areas, it is almost empty at rush hour. See the connection?

Blacks are always bragging about this and that, but we all fall behind because no one wants to be truly selfless. But the question is, do I believe that I am the only one that matters? I believe that no one else cares about me. I believe that I am the only one on earth who has my interest at heart. Everyone else on the planet has somebody looking out for them, except for me. So I do think that way in a sort of round-about way.

The fifth and final point that was made in the video was that poor people believe that they will never be successful. This is poison. You know, as long as I have been alive it seems like every time I try to get my life together, to become successful, something comes along to rip that success out of my hands.

When I started high school I said, "You're going to be an A student." But it seemed that I was fated to fail my freshman year. Even when I pulled it together, graduated high school and made it to college (on a scholarship, no less) it happened again. I started failing my freshman college classes.

I made it all the way to my final class for the Bachelor's degree and all of my money dried up. I was penniless. I don't believe that I will ever see success in my lifetime. I think that it's too late for me. And I work less hard as a result. Other people seem to get all the breaks. I know that this mindset is holding me back, but that's how I feel. 
JJ

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Important Life Lesson For 2017 And Beyond, Part 2

Continuing my previous article, there are five rules of what you should not believe if you do not want to become poor. I found the video by Chinkee Tan by searching Youtube, the second most popular search engine, for "Why people don't succeed." I avoided the video at first because I didn't like the aesthetic, but, just like so many other videos, I found that it was top notch and of great quality. This is the ultimate internet. Finding videos that make you think, that make you want to succeed.

So, I went through the first and second points he made in his video. The first was that poor people believe that success comes overnight. That really hit me hard. The second point was that poor people believe that other people can give them success.

The third point he made was closely related to the second point, which is that poor people believe that someone else is at fault for what happened in their lives. It's really hard not to believe that as a black man, especially as a victim of abuse. If somebody does something directly to you and that action that they take against you has an effect, it's hard to turn around and say that nothing happened. But truth be told, I don't judge black men anymore, because I know how the game is played. If you felt that you were dealt a bad hand, you probably were.

But I also believe that there are many, many avenues toward success. You can be successful in life if you apply yourself. I haven't been able to make it for myself, but I'm glad to say that I'm motivated to try. More importantly, I understand that I was ultimately responsible for what got me in this situation. The entire world deceived me into believing that the only way to survive was to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a worthless piece of paper, without even a handshake, and I ended up trapped in an abusive situation because I wouldn't just walk out the front door and cut my losses.

The problem with that narrative is that if I had just walked out and "cut my losses," I would have been living on the street without the possibility of getting a job. I could've gotten hypothermia, beaten, bitten, killed, framed or all of the above. I guess that what I'm saying is that it's not so much that I don't blame anybody for where I'm at. It's that I'm satisfied that I made the best choice given my options. I guess that for me it's the equivalent of saying that "Nobody got me here but me."

But how do we eliminate all criminal records for black men in America? I can't even begin to fathom the answer to that question. Just being more lenient on crime and not reporting would result in a spike. Increasing prosecutions would result in a cycle. Maybe if we treated it like a sport, like basketball or football, that would get the young minds excited about beeing "Free and Clear." That's all that I can think of.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Important Life Lesson For 2017 And Beyond, Part 1

A few months ago, I watched a video by Chinkee Tan on Youtube. The title was "5 Things To Avoid Becoming Poor" and it was a life-changer. The reason why it is important is that Youtube is the second most used search engine in the world, right behind Google. It is a cultural phenomenon, and it's surprising that a lot of journalists don't talk about Youtube. Originally, Youtube was all about the pirated music. The only reason to watch was to go back to my childood and re-live my days of listening to B96 on the school bus.

From Lil' Cease to Puff Daddy, I got around. It wasn't until a few years later that I found the true power of Youtube. Ultimately, what everyone wants is success. So, why not search for it on Youtube? It took me a while to get through the pirated music, the pirated video games and the pirated comedy shows, but eventually I got to the real meat of the website. Real people talking about real success for real people.

In the video by Chinkee Tan, he went over the 5 points without wasting any time. His first point was that in order to avoid being poor, you have to stop believing that success happens overnight. This really hit me hard, because just earlier that year I had started crowdfunding for the first time. I can still remember my emotional state. I wanted to get rich within the month. What I actually got was an emotional beating that will last for as long as the internet does, at least. Over 200,000 people came together to laugh at me. To all of them I was the lowest of the low, a stereotypical black man who probably couldn't count from zero to one.

The first point hit me so hard because I understood that I deserved it. Success doesn't happen overnight. It takes years, or in my case, multiple generations. I may never succeed in this life, but if I keep myself in line, maybe one of my descendants will see the success that I have precluded myself from.

The second point was that in order avoid becoming poor, you have to stop believing that "somebody else" has to make you successful. This one hit me square in the face. How many times had I been sitting around, waiting for somebody else to walk up to me an hand me success? How many times had I literally sat in my house, wondering, "When are they going to come over here and make me rich?" It was completely insane how I was thinking. I'm just starting to learn now that success is not something that can be transferred from somebody else.

I can't stress enough that all of the background work that is required to be done by you. Nobody else can do it. Growing up, I was just handed everything. I never learned how to work. I was handicapped by that, but now I'm trying to learn. I want to learn how to do things. Last year was my first year reading over forty books. Looking over my past days, I know that I'm headed in the right direction.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Christmas Message

All is not good in this world. I haven't been feeling myself lately. How many of you know that it's only after you lose freedom that you know how valuable it is. The original settlers knew what it was like to live under an oppressive king. They had that "If only I were free. This is what I would do" mindset. And that's exactly what they did. Early in George Washington's military career, he was put in charge of a group of men and sent out to fight the British incursion. They found the British unarmed, but used lethal force against them. Eventually, Washington and his men were captured. As part of his release, Washington confessed to murdering unarmed explorers. You read correctly. Our first president was a murderer. That is just how much people want freedom. When they've had to do without it for so long.

Just one day and it will be okay.

Remember this: people never realize how much they miss their family until their family is gone. Remember the friendly banter, the "in" jokes, the references to childhood. It could go on forever, right? Not exactly. You see more powerful than missing your family is missing your freedom, as I said originally. Had people been too attached to family, America would never have been born. Moreover, evolution would be an impossibility. As a tree's seeds are carried by the wind and birds, so must the human seed develop and find fertile ground in which to lay. So don't be controlled by your parents' money. I know that this is the boomerang generation, but you must claw and fight to have a place with only your name on the lease. This is especially important if you are a black man.

Oh, the pain...

Remember: life isn't about expensive toys, or even having all of your limbs. Be careful what you wish for. You can take what you want, but others can take from you, so think of ways to protect yourself. To the young men, I cannot judge you because I know what being a man entails. I know how hard it can be to process all of this information. When you do get what you want it can seem like a curse. It's gone and used up before you even knew it was there, or were calm enough to notice.

Remember: if you felt what you had lost before, it means that you have more to lose now, so keep your mind straight and fortify your riches in this earth. What I mean to say is that if you can feel what you've lost in the past, chances are you will feel whatever you will lose in the future. Past evidence helps create future prosperity. I cannot and will not judge the young men, because life never goes according to plan. As they say, the battle plan never survives first contact with the enemy. I understand where you're coming from. You did everything you had to do, said all of the right things. You even slept in the cold and avoided confrontation. But the system still got you.

It will take a whole lot of power to create a world in which young black men aren't being carted off to prison.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Why Trump Presidencies Matter

Donald Trump could not have come at a greater time for Americans and American democracy. People keep going off the rails about how we had a "chance for change" and how we could've proved how "progressive" we would've been "if only" we'd elected a female president. First of all, didn't we hate two straight "chances for change?" I'd say the little tikes are all tuckered out from change. We need the cash crop of known sums to sustain us now.

As American as apple pie. The fact that we have elected a man, to the White House, no doubt, who has honestly spoken his mind and used his first amendment rights to the fullest - that, my friends, is the true "progressive" event of this election season. If every media outlet and every pundit is either directly or indirectly saying "hire the woman," there is no progress in doing only what every other American is telling you to do.

When the founders created the first amendment, they were thinking more about a "ban Muslims" situation than a "Deplorables" situation. What does this mean? It takes no work to jump on the bandwagon and say something against the most popular enemy, conservative straight men. What takes real work, is to identify the sacred cows of America. Namely, immigrants. Minorities. Unsuccessful people. After a lifetime of dealing with those who smile in your face and stab you in the back, it's a relief to meet a man who smiles at your back and stabs you in the front.

But that's not all. You see, it's not a coincidence that Trump came along now. The truth is that Trump's ascent to the presidency is important, not only for America's founding, but America's future. You see, there's this thing called a smart phone. It can call, text and even display pictures, full motion video and streaming video. Sound familiar? And that's not all. There's this thing called a Facebook and a Twitter. People can share their innermost feelings with their favorite high school friends.

What's the point? These Zuckerbergs promised us heaven, promised that we'd never be lonely. We put up our statuses and were hooked. And now we know that it was all a trap. How many men have lost their jobs by saying something non-PC on Facebook or Twitter? How many have been caught in the online porn trap? I went through this long statement to say that Trump is a rallying point in this war campaign against political correctness. We need to learn from Trump how to become successful even if you don't see every grown woman as a three-year-old girl, like liberals do.

More than anything, Trump is a locus of control. Men can become successful, even if they don't think like a PC robot. We need to stay close to him and listen to him so that we can learn the secrets to the kind of power that even a SJW couldn't shame. Imagine if every risque statement you made online, or in person, was magically prevented from hurting your career or family life. Did you see how his family members rallied around him? This is truly a great day for conservatism. I'll never understand why so many more blacks voted Republican this year. I don't think like a black man. But I welcome their addition to our tribe.