I just wanted to post real quick to wish you guys a happy new year & a happy new decade!

Many times, we get so caught up in routine and habit, we end losing steam on accomplishing the major goals we set out for ourselves.

Wherever the past 10 years have taken you, you now have the next 10 to make it count.

“It isn’t the mountains ahead, to climb, that wear you out – it’s the pebble in your shoe.” – Muhammad Ali

In this next year, and in this next decade, I invite you to join me in a challenge to remove all the pebbles from your life, and conquer that mountain ahead.

Meet you at the top!

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The past few weeks have been intense – to say the least.

Amongst a heavier-than-usual workload, slicing my thumb like it’s deli meat, and several personal engagements; I also came to a serious decision and milestone in my career. After 4 years of pouring my blood, sweat and tears into my own business, I’ve decided to close shop.

It was not an easy decision, by any means, however it was a decision that was desperately needed.

When I announced my decision via Twitter and Facebook, many people misunderstood and mistakenly assumed I was giving up on my career and walking away from the music business.

Heeeelllllllll no.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  It’s actually quite the opposite.

The fact is, running a small business with a full-time (and part-time) staff meant that I had to make decisions that were beneficial to the company as a whole – rather than just my own priorities. This was a reality that I understood, embraced and gladly obliged to from the very beginning. However, as time passed, I began to feel frustrated with the direction it was taking and the lack of freedom I had. I was no longer focused on my own goals and had lost much of the passion I began this venture with.

Starting (and running) your own business is supposed to be about fulfilling your passion and making a living out of it – and yet, I felt like I was stuck in a job that I didn’t even enjoy. Luckily, I’m a (relatively) young guy – I can still afford to switch up gears without hitting too major of a bump.

For the past few months, I’ve been evaluating and re-evaluating everything that I have been doing and everything that I wanted to be doing. Some of you may even remember one of my TwitterRants, when I publicly vented about this very situation.

To make a very long story short, after a lot of reflecting, I realized I was actually contributing to building my own obstacle. The bigger I grew my business, the bigger of an obstacle I would have to overcome in order to fulfill my own goals.

That’s why I closed the business. I needed to stop holding myself back. I needed to give myself the freedom to pursue my own goals.

Sometimes we get so caught up, we fail to realize that we’re actually moving backwards while mistakenly assuming that we’re moving ahead.

That’s pretty much the gist of it. I didn’t give up and I didn’t walk away. Those who know me personally would never assume so, because it’s simply not in my character to give up – ever.

I’m simply remixing my current situation to ensure my longevity and success.

With a great deal of relief and excitement, I can say that I am no longer for hire.

I may decide to continue doing consultation work in the future, however my primary focus right now remains on my own ventures and my own priorities, and I will continue to do so under the Rockstar Branded name.

I am eternally thankful to everyone I have had the opportunity of working with over the past 4 years; the staff at MEG/Rockstar Branded, our clients, vendors and affiliates, and everyone else who I have had the pleasure of encountering over these past few years. I look forward to working with some of you again in the future and wish everyone all the best.

“Quitting while you’re ahead, isn’t the same as quitting.”

Regarding what’s next for me, I’d rather not spill the beans yet, however, stay tuned to my blog and we shall continue on this journey – together.

Hope you’re ready for the next episode…

*UPDATE:* It seems like quite a few people are still misunderstanding the situation. Let me clarify once again; I am NOT quitting the music business. I have simply decided to work independently now rather than keeping a full-time staff, and am focusing on my own ventures (STILL in music), rather than making myself available for hire to work label priorities. That’s the change I’m making. There is a major difference between simply closing down a company and walking away from the music biz entirely. So once again, I am not going into another field; I am simply closing my consulting company and putting my attention on my own projects (again, STILL in the music business). I hope my excessive repetition has cleared up any and all confusion. Thanks again.

There have been a few things going on recently that got me thinking some things over.

So, I decided to do what any self-reflecting person would do in today’s world – I vented via a TwitterRant.

Rather than re-typing it or paraphrasing, I figure I’ll just post a screenshot of it and share it with the 5 of you who aren’t on Twitter. (Remember to start at the bottom and move up)

A lot of people asked me why I didn’t write a post about Michael Jackson’s passing, knowing how big of a fan(atic) I have always been.

The truth is, I did write one – actually, I wrote five.

I just haven’t posted any of them, because there’s no way for me to make a complete and concise post about the influence Michael Jackson has had on my life. The posts kept rambling on and jumping around to different stories and memories.

Over the past week and a half, every media outlet has been covering his passing. I don’t want to reiterate any of it, nor do I want to post one of the rambling posts I have in my drafts section; detailing tons of memories.

Instead, I just want to share one thought:

Some people may think of this as “just another celebrity death”; however, I grew up idolizing the man (as did millions of others).

My earliest memories in life involve idolizing him. Think about that for a minute – the earliest memories I have in life, involve me idolizing Michael Jackson.

And it never changed til this very day.

There was a massive poster of Michael above my crib as a baby. I would watch him on TV and attempt to dance like him before I could even walk.

My mother used to tell me I would kick extra hard when she was pregnant with me, as if I was dancing, everytime a Michael Jackson or Jackson 5 song was playing.

It’s one thing to lose someone you admire, but it’s another to lose someone you have idolized for as long as you have been alive.

As he lays to rest today, I just want to say “Thanks Michael”. Not only for the major influence you have had on me and the rest of the world – but because as you struggled to regain your lost childhood, you ended up providing me and millions of others with our own.

Thank you Michael Jackson.

May you rest in peace.

*I'm the small one on the right.

The homie EL Johnson just interviewed me for his site, Mogul Monologues – a business lifestyle blog for the young professional.

Read the interview below:

Name: Moe Arora
Age: Twenty-Something
Hometown: Montreal, Quebec
Company: Rockstar Branded
Pet Peeve: Egos and Music Snobs
Life Goal: To positively influence others based on my example.

Mogulmonologues.com has caught up with the hardest working man in marketing (in Montreal at least). As the owner of Rockstar Branded, Moe Arora is definitely an example to follow for any young marketing professional looking to break into music marketing. Respect His Conglomerate!

When did you start Rockstar Branded? and what inspired the name?

Rockstar Branded actually just launched last year. We had another business before, which we launched in 2005, however the company was taking a different direction than what was originally intended, so my business partner and I decided it was time to refocus our energy and resources before getting lost in the wrong direction.

Long story short, we made some changes and after a lot of deliberation, we launched Rockstar Branded last year.

How we came up with the name… to be honest, I wish I had an interesting story for it but I don’t lol. The name was my responsibility so I just went to my whiteboard and jotted down anything that came to my mind about what we’re doing and threw around a ton of ideas.

Some people place too much emphasis on inventing their own words fusing existing words together into one, etc – I already knew I didn’t want to do that. I wanted something bold, something classic and something that was self-explanatory. The result was Rockstar Branded.

Describe a typical day as CEO of Rockstar Branded

To be honest, I hate titles like that. People tend to throw around all these titles, saying they’re CEO of this, President of that, but the fact of the matter is, all these people are just doing it to create a fake sense of importance.

I’m just a small business owner who will wear whatever hat needed, and apply any skill set needed, to get the job done.

To answer your question about the day though; there really is no typical day for me. I work according to whatever my current workload and client needs are. Some days I work during the daytime like most of the world, while other times I work in the middle of the night.

In general though, the first thing I do when waking up is, reach for my Blackberry. I scroll through my received messages, texts, BBMs, Twitter msgs & call log to get a general grasp of what’s waiting for me.

I don’t open any of them though. I only check my messages after getting ready, when I’m ready to start working. Otherwise, I’ll jump right into it and won’t take care of myself first. That throws your entire day off, so I make sure I only check my messages after I’m ready.

After getting ready and grabbing a light breakfast, I’ll begin returning emails, phone calls, etc. I’ll do that for a bit, then either jump right to work or head out for meetings & errands.

Pretty much all of our clients are out of town, so no matter what I’m doing, I tend to spend quite a bit of time on the phone, IM and email.

Anyhow, the day is mostly just a big mix of computer work, phone calls, meetings and errands. There’s no real schedule or hours – you just do whatever’s needed as best as you can, and as soon as you can.

After all is said and done, I’ve recently begun taking nights off to just relax and dedicate some time to my personal life. Whether I’m out with a few friends, or home alone in front of the TV, I’ll make sure to give myself that time.

It’s really not easy doing that though. When you’re in business for yourself, you want to make yourself available at all times so that you can do whatever it takes to keep everybody happy. But you really have to be careful with that, because when you make yourself available 24/7, pretty much everybody will take advantage of you. Not only will their poor planning create an unnecessary “emergency”, but it also degrades your value to them. You’re less important if you’re always free.

I’m not saying, you shouldn’t be flexible with your schedule, but you need to have your limits. If you allow people to take advantage of you – they will.

So yeah, I’m learning to take some time off at nights and maybe one day on the weekend. It’s important to make some time for yourself in your schedule so that you’re mind and body aren’t overly exhausted and drained. It also helps keep you fresh and upbeat so that you don’t feel “stuck” in your work.

I sacrificed my entire personal life for my career, but when I looked around and realized I didn’t have anybody around me that wasn’t in some way attached to my work, I decided it was time to make a few changes and began making some time for myself as well.

Since you live in Montreal, how are you able to connect with so much clientele in the US?

Two words: technology & travel.

Right now it’s incredibly accessible to work from anywhere in the world. Especially as a consultant.

I don’t have to have face-to-face meetings all the time, but I have a US phone number which makes it incredibly convenient for my US clients to call me as if I worked just down the street from them.

Once in a while, if my client is set up for it, we’ll also have video meetings via iChat or Skype. This way, we’re able to talk face-to-face, in a certain respect, and bridge that gap even more.

I also travel when needed. If I have several clients in one city or I have one major client in a city, I’ll make a trip to go there so we can sit down and just break bread. I don’t travel all the time, but I make trips every now and then.

If you never meet the people you work with, they’re still just that person behind the screen, or that voice on the other end of the phone. Once you connect with people in person, you know their facial expressions, their sense of humour, how they carry themselves, their confidence levels – you just know their presence.

Plus, you get to have real experiences with them. These things make it so much easier to work with someone from a distance. And in all honesty, it’s sometimes even better that I don’t live in the same city as most of my clients. This way, we have a friendly distance to be able to work independently without that constant interference that hinders creativity and productivity.

And when we do get together in person – it’s always an event! We make good use of that time. Those experiences help strengthen your bond.

What would you say are some of the pitfalls of your business? feel free to share a story with us if you have one.

Particularly to Rockstar Branded; it’s been a little difficult to expand and accept more clients. With the nature of this business, you have to be careful with who you trust.

Everybody says they want to work in the music business, but 9 out of 10 really just like the idea of it more than they actually want to do it.

People like Russell Simmons & Diddy, have really popularized the concept of being an entrepreneur and a businessman in the music business.

They made it “cool”. Because of that, we have a flood of what I call “Diddy 2.0s”. They say they want to work in the business, but they’re more obsessed with the idea of attaining all the televised benefits of being a celebrity, without needing the musical ability of being an artist.

They just want to be fly.

This mentality is a serious problem – and the people who have it, make it more difficult for the real cats who are coming up in the business to be taken seriously.

So with my own business, it’s been a little difficult to expand my team, because I have to filter out the people who are serious from the people who are just idealizing it.

Another problem is getting paid properly.

Artists, management teams and labels will do whatever they can, just to get you on board with them; but once you agree and you’ve already invested time and resources to them, things start getting sloppy. They won’t fulfill their responsibilities, they’ll begin taking you for granted and they’ll ALWAYS have an excuse to delay payment.

Some of them will wait until you bring it up, then they’ll act like it just slipped their mind and offer more excuses to delay it.

We’ve found ways to avoid this from happening, but it still happens.

I just find it hilariously ironic when artists brag about how much money they have in their music and then call me complaining about how they can’t afford to pay.

What is something about Moe Arora that we may not already know?

I think what most people don’t know about me, is that I’m an extremely private person. I don’t know if that counts, but the only reason I mention that is because if you know me or have met me, you’d know I’m an extremely outgoing and social person.

When I go out, I’m out and I’m in that mode, but I’m really a homebody at my core. I prefer to sit back on the couch on a Saturday night and watch a movie or just kick it with a small group of friends, rather than be out at a club, being bumped in every which direction by people who can’t contain their alcohol.

That’s another thing people might know about me – I don’t drink alcohol. It’s not a religious thing or anything of that sort – just a personal choice. I’ll have a maximum of 2 glasses of wine or champagne in an entire year. Alcohol doesn’t really appeal to me and I’ve seen the effects of alcoholism from people very close to me since I was a child, so I just choose not to drink.

Is there any advice that you may have for other young professionals aspiring to work in the same profession?

I mean, I’m still making my way up too, but the best advice I can offer is for people to drop the ego. Ego is a poison that will burn you from the inside out.

Some people think it helps their image – that if they act important, people will think they’re important (fake it til you make it), but that’s bullshit.

We’re in a new time and this industry has been flipped on its back without a proven way to get back up. The new model is no model.

Right now, on this very day, everything in this business has flattened, in terms of “expertise” – where the young kid down the street who spends most of his time online, playing video games, downloading music & movies, learning to create websites, and chatting on IM & Twitter.. this is the first time where that kid, and somebody like Jimmy Iovine, probably have about the same chance of creating a revolution.

In fact, that young introverted computer enthusiast is probably more likely to succeed in it, because he’s part of the new society and the new fanbase.

So, if you handle yourself, in a time like this, with an ego – then you’re shutting down the opportunity to learn new things from new people, because you’re too busy being caught up with yourself.

If you drop that ego, and humble yourself, then not only will you be able to understand what’s happening today – but more importantly, the ability to understand what you can make happen tomorrow.

How can people reach you?

You can hit me up via the contact page on my blog (http://moearora.com/blog/contact) or on Twitter (http://twitter.com/moearora). I’m pretty accessible.

[Source: Mogul Monologues]

Check this out. I was this week’s feature on NerdLike.com’s Twitterati of The Week!

Excerpt:

What is your favorite 80s song?
I’d have to say Billie Jean. Back then, I had this little leather baby jacket with zippers everywhere & a t-shirt with a massive picture of Michael when he had the jheri curl.

I also have to mention “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. I was probably as obsessed with that song as I was with “Billie Jean”.

Click here to read the full post

Shoutout to Jazzy

I was so caught up with work recently, I completely overlooked a small, but meaningful milestone:

This past Friday, November 14th, was the 3 year anniversary since I’ve been a full-time employee of… myself!

Damn right!

I decided to start my own business 3 years ago and have been on my grind each and every single day and night since.

I wish there were time to celebrate, but as a result of all the time and effort I’ve put into it, I got work to do!

With that being said, I’m actually undergoing a few changes at the moment. As you can tell from the current header image, I’m currently re-designing my logo as well as the layout of the page. These changes will affect my blog as well as my business and I look forward to unveiling the new look to you shortly.

With that being said, even if I can’t take time off to celebrate properly, I can at least take the next 4 minutes to celebrate with all of you through the party that is this video.

I don’t drink alcohol though, so I’ll do my own personal remix and pop VOSS instead. Ha!

3 years! Wooo-hoooooooo!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jZmntdzFBY]

"The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams." - James Allen

Last night was a truly historic evening.

Most of us were overcome with so much emotion, it was and still is difficult to express our sentiments with words.

I recently discussed what Barack Obama represents for many of us; that he provides proof of the idea that we can do anything.

Although my post was quite brief, it inspired some great conversations with some friends, so I thought I’d delve a little further into the topic.

This has nothing to do with politics.

This is about having dreams, keeping faith and accomplishing goals.

All of us have people in our lives who tell us we can’t do something or they mock our attempt to do better. I’m sure you can think of a number of occasions when someone tried to discourage you from achieving something.

For me, there are many memories like this, but one in particular that stands out quite vividly because it was one of the first situations that helped give me immunity to naysayers and obstacles.

I was in the 8th grade. Our History teacher didn’t show up one day, so the principal came in as a substitute. The principal, Mr. Harding, was an ex-cop who always disliked me (my parents’ number was on his speed dial – and vice-versa).

During this slacker period, the principal needed to kill time so he asked everyone to take turns saying what we want to be when we’re older, why we want to do it and who inspired us to want to do it.

I was sitting in the back-row of the middle aisle, so I was more or less in the exact middle in terms of order. Everybody starting speaking on what they wanted to be when they were older. Lawyer, cop, veterinarian, pilot… a lot of the answers you’d expect from a 8th grade class.

Then it was my turn.

“What do you want to do when you’re older Moe? And remember to tell us why and who inspires you to follow that path?”

“I want to do one of 2 things when I’m older. I think I’d like to be a doctor because I want to help people and do something that makes a difference.”

“Very good, and who inspires you to become a doctor?”

“I don’t know, just the idea inspires me.”

“Okay, and what’s the other thing you’d like to be?”

“I’d like to be a music producer or something like that. I want to do that because I love music and I want to do something that makes other people enjoy themselves. I look up to people like Russell Simmons, Quincy Jones and Berry Gordy.”

He nodded his head and continued on with the rest of the students.

This was the last class before lunch, so as the bell rang he offered to give advice to anybody who wanted to talk to him after class.

I hated his guy, but after saying my plans outloud, it got me thinking so I waited in the small line by his desk to approach him.

I heard him tell other students in front of me to go to the library down the hall and find some books about what they want to be and ask their parents or the guidance counsellor for help meeting somebody in that profession to find out more.

I figured he would offer the same advice to me, but I highly doubted there would be any books about getting into the music world in our school’s outdated library, and I know for a fact that my parents would have no idea about that. Nor would they encourage it.

I was the last in line, so I had time to think of some follow-up questions so I can get some real, solid advice about pursuing my passion.

When it was finally my turn, he got up and said we’ll talk while walking to his office.

“What was it that you wanted to be again? A music something and what?”

“I want to do something in music like produce music or have my own record label or maybe be a doctor.”

“Well Moe. I gotta tell you; both of those are really hard to get into. You said you like Quincy Jones, but you know Quincy Jones is a genius, there might not ever be another person like him again. And as far as being a doctor, that takes many years of hard work and school. It’s not for everybody. Maybe you should think about other options and see what else you might be interested in. Try something a little less challenging”

If you think I’m exaggerating this or making it up for the sake of this post, I promise you I am not.

That one line that always resonates in my mind, “try something a little less challenging”. Verbatim.

After he said that, he opened the doors to the staircase and went downstairs to his office while I stood in the same spot with my heart pounding like it was going to burst out of my chest.

I lost faith that day.

This man who was principal of a high school of young, impressionable kids; this man whose responsibility it was to motivate and help shape the lives of young students, just ripped out my spirit, shred it to pieces and threw it all out. All in the matter of a minute or 2.

I became depressed and started to believe that maybe I’m not cut out for anything. Maybe I should just re-evaluate my goals and find something a little more “safe”. Something that I can’t screw up.

Either that or just do nothing until I die since I didn’t think I was good enough for anything anymore.

This wasn’t the only incident of this nature that’s occurred though.

I could literally tell you dozens of memories like this. No lie, dozens. Hell, even my father told me to drop out of school when I was college to just go ‘find a job at a factory or telemarketing’.

There are always going to be people who try to trample our dreams. Sometimes they do this out of malice, but other times they do this out of their own insecurities and cynicism.

Does it mean we should listen to them and not want more?

Eff no!

I’ve been through too much in my life to let anybody or anything stop me. When you’ve been to the absolute bottom and didn’t think you’d ever see another day – you never look at life the same again. Trust me.

Nothing can really scare you once you’ve already felt like you’ve lost everything.

For me, I don’t know exactly what happened that made me change my train of though after that incident in the 8th grade, but ever since then, I shifted my rebellious teenage spirit from rebelling against authority to rebelling against negativity.

Ever since then, I’ve refused to accept any mention or idea of inability and negativity. I don’t accept the status quo. I don’t accept the word “impossible”. I don’t accept the word “can’t”.

Hell, I don’t even accept the phrase “I’ll try my best”. Most people see that as being a positive statement, but I see it as creating a self-imposed bubble around your abilities and only attempting to reach that distance rather than shooting far and beyond it.

Sometimes I get a little preachy around friends, but that’s because I inherently cannot accept negativity. It boils my blood to witness it.

90% of the battle is just believing.

Today, everybody is celebrating Barack Obama for making history. And he is. But so are you and I.

We are all making history.

The things we do every single day, help us collectively create the society for our dreams to become reality. Many people have been working everyday towards creating a world for there to be the possibility of Barack Obama to become President.

And it’s not just because it’s him necessarily, and it’s not just because he’d be the first Black President, but it’s about everybody that was ever told they can’t do something. Its about refusing to accept limitations and believing that you can’t do more. It’s about never accepting the word “impossible”.

In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must do our best each and every single day in order to create the environment in which to accomplish them.

As long as we never give up, we are accomplishing the biggest portion of that dream – going for it.

The end result is just a celebration, but the real success is in the journey.

Had that principal never shot my dreams down like that, I might not have ever realized the importance of believing in myself and fighting every negative thrown my way.

It came in handy countless times, especially after I decided to pursue my passion and get into the music business. Everybody around me channeled that same negative energy I had gotten used to and told me I was making a mistake and that I would fail. And I do mean everybody.

I was alone in my belief that I could do it. But I keep that belief, and I bust my back everyday to fight for it.

Regardless of who is trying to discourage you from going after your dreams; it’s up to you to believe that they can be reached.

Today we have proof.

Dreams can come true.

I just wanted to drop a quick post to let you guys know that I finally got my MacBook Pro back!

I got it back last week actually; 11 days after it decided to die. I wanted to post sooner, but since it was my hard drive that crashed, I’ve spent the past week just catching up on projects and re-creating files from scratch.

Not fun.

Needless to say, I definitely made it a point to pick up an external hard drive to keep a full system backup of everything in my laptop.

I wasn’t sure what brand or model to go with, so I posed the question on Twitter and everybody led me toward the trio of Western Digital, Maxtor and LaCie.

After some consideration at the store, I decided to go with a 750GB LaCie hard disk. The box says it was designed by industrial designer, Neil Poulton.

His design?

A shiny black box.

Anyhow, it serves me right to experience this situation. If you take your business seriously, invest in it appropriately and make sure you’re well covered in case of ANY emergency or disaster.

Whenever you implement any new tool or piece of equipment into your business, make sure to have a way of still functioning in case it malfunctions or gets stolen.

Luckily, I have my business email hosted through Google Apps, so all email that goes through my email or the email of anybody else on my team, is backed up online – free.

We can even share documents and edit them collectively, in real time, as opposed to emailing a document to each team member and having 5 different edits.

If you’re running a small business, or consider yourself a business (even if it’s just you), I highly suggest checking out Google Apps. It’s free and it’s a lifesaver.

Today is Day 6 without my MacBook Pro.

And it hurts!

For the past 6 days, I’ve MacGuyver’ed my way around this major inconvenience by juggling between my Blackberry, internet cafés and others’ computers.

I also got my old temperamental PC working a little again. It feels like going back to an ex with shame and admitting that your new situation didn’t work out as well as you hoped.

But at least there’s some good news. The Apple Store just called saying they’ve received the parts needed to repair the centerpiece of my connected life.

Hopefully, I can get it back by the weekend – although I highly doubt it.

I’m off to drop it off at the Apple Store now. I think it’s time I finally go ahead and buy an external hard drive to keep my system backed up at all times and prevent losing ALL my files again.

Yeah.. it’s that bad.

I was running around doing some errands yesterday, and while walking towards the cash of an electronics store, I noticed a bin of DVDs for sale.

At the very top, as if just placed there perfectly for me, was Gattaca.

This movie right here, is one of my favourite movies period.

It’s a little old now (came out in 1997) and it’s a bit slow-paced, but the concept and message in this movie are incredible.

Without giving away any spoilers, Gattaca is about a society that lives in a “perfect” world. Parents choose how they want their babies; everything from what gender the child will be, to the colour of their eyes.

Basically, they order their kids as if they were ordering furniture.

Anyways, in this perfect world, there are a few “imperfect” humans or “defects” who end up trapped in a life without any opportunities or any possibilities of success.

The main character is a “defect” who ends up finding a way of sneaking into the superior class of society and completely defies his life plan.

He’s one of the best at what he does and nobody has a clue that he’s actually a defect.

It’s an incredible movie that really points out the fact that no matter who you are or who others think you are, you can do ANYTHING.

NOTHING is impossible and regardless of your past or present; the ONLY THING getting in the way of having EVERYTHING you have EVER wanted and everything that you have ever dreamed of, is YOUR OWN BELIEF.

Ignore everybody that says otherwise.

EVERYBODY.

Sometimes that has to include loved ones. Your family and friends will always say they support you and believe in you, but truth is, there are usually limits to their belief.

Plus, if they don’t fully believe in themselves, how can they fully believe in you?

It’s a bold statement, but it’s true.

People will always remind you of “who you are”, but the reality is that’s only the perception of who you are. You can be anybody and anything you want to be. Not to sound corny, but it’s true.

It really hit me when I first moved to a different city. I had never been there before in my life and didn’t really know anybody there. I decided to use this to my advantage and become a new me. Shed all my bad habits and develop new ones. I was a stranger to everybody so nobody would be able to say “that’s not you”.

I became a completely new person.

I gained a whole new sense of self-confidence. And that self-confidence allowed me to realize that I was FAR more capable than I ever realized before.

Even if you aren’t moving to a new city and you’re always around people who know your habits and your “abilities”; you can still become a “new you”.

What’s the worst that will happen? People will comment? Some might crack jokes and try to ridicule you?

So?

Let them be negative. That’s not your issue; it’s theirs.

They don’t have enough confidence or belief to be the best version of themselves, so they’re going to try and keep you down as well. Misery likes company, right?

If you allow that to affect you, it’s not them holding you back; it’s you. You have to make sure that NOTHING stops you.

This movie is an incredible visualization of that. And it doesn’t just have to be a movie or a story. It can be reality, and it is reality, but it’s just up to you to let it be.

One of my favourite lines (there are many great quotables in the movie) is during a scene where the main character (“the defect”), is swimming in a race against a “perfect specimen” and is winning. The perfect specimen asks the defect how he’s able to continue swimming for so long and with such stamina. The defect replies “I never saved anything for the way back”.

I love that line.

And it’s true. Most of us do that. We create this “exit strategy” in our minds whenever we approach a new task. A “Plan B.”

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a Plan B. That’s okay, but 9 times out of 10, people only have a Plan B because they don’t truly believe in their Plan A. They’re preparing themselves for failure.

Why?!

Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t prepare myself for failure.

Anybody who knows me knows how intense I can get. For me, it’s all or nothing.

I’m either going to die successful or die still working on it. But no matter what, when I die, nobody will ever be able to say I didn’t give it my all.

The main character in this movie said “I Never Saved Anything For The Way Back”.

Kurt Cobain said “It’s Better To Burn Out Than Fade Away”.

Malcolm X said “By Any Means Necessary”.

Tupac said “Against All Odds”.

Hell, even Nike’s motto is “Just Do It”.

There’s so many of these quotes, but they all have the same message, “GO FOR IT!”

Whatever motivates you, whatever gets you going, whatever pushes you to go that extra mile; just find it and use it every single chance you get, because there is NOTHING that is holding you back from defying all odds and acheiving all your dreams.

Believe in yourself and anything is possible.

ANYTHING.

Ladies and gentleman, today is a bad day.

A very bad day.

At approximately, 10:45am, while checking and responding to emails and making some phone calls to coordinate the day’s activities with some staff members, I got the sudden urge to make pancakes.

Yes, pancakes.

I don’t know why I was craving pancakes really. I don’t really eat them much and usually try to stay away from anything that’s too sugary or syrupy. But for some reason, I was craving them, so I figured why not.

I got up and placed my MacBook Pro (which you all know I’ve come to love so much and now consider a member of the family) on the couch.

I closed the lid so that the laptop would go to sleep and conserve some battery power while I get my Aunt Jemima fix on.

After I made a short stack, I walked back to grab my laptop so that I could continue my work, but when I opened up the lid, the screen didn’t turn back on.

I figured maybe it was still asleep so I tried waking it up, but nothing worked.

Getting crazy paranoid, I pressed the power button for a bit to let it shut down, then tried turning it back on again.

I heard a beep and got the white screen that the grey apple usually shows up on… only… this time the gray apple didn’t show up.

This scene repeated itself for about 30 minutes, with my heart beating faster and faster as time passed.

Luckily, I purchased the AppleCare Protection Plan, so I called them up and described the issue I was having.

The tech rep tried helping me troubleshoot it but nothing worked. He booked me an appointment to go to The Genius Bar the closest Apple Store by me.

When I got there, I repeated everything I told the tech guy over the phone, then the “Genius” checked everything out on my 2 month old baby.

10 minutes later, he looked at me and told me my hard drive is completely gone and that I had a faulty logic board.

I don’t know what a logic board is but if you’re telling me it’s faulty, then I definitely don’t want that, and I want my hard drive back.

It might’ve only been 2 months old, but I have a ton of stuff on there and I want access to it.

He looked into it more and said I can pay for a data recovery service, to get my files back, but from the looks of it, it’s highly unlikely to work.

Now I have to wait until they receive the parts that my laptop needs, which he said will probably be around next Wednesday or Thursday, at which point they’ll call me to bring my laptop for repair and the repair will be another 3-5 business days.

2 weeks without my computer?

2 weeks?

That’s a LONG ASS TIME!

Especially, when you’re always working on a computer and spend more time with it than you do with anybody else.

I don’t know what I’m going to do until then.

Apple should have a loaner service like some big chain mechanics. Give me a MacBook Air or something as a loaner while I wait these 2 long weeks to get back my system.

This sucks. My MacBook Pro is only 2 months old. It’s too young to go through such an unfortunate incident.

By the way, I wrote this on a PC.

Yeah. It’s bad!

The other day, my retarded PC (which I’m positive came from hell) decided to take it’s best shot at vexxing me, by completely refusing to turn on.

Press the power button.

Tower beeps.

Black screen with a whole bunch of gibberish shows up.

Little Windows screen shows up with the blue progress bar underneath.

Wait a bit.

Same screen.

Wait a bit more.

Same screen.

I got impatient so I decide to go get a massive salad bowl full of watermelon to munch on. I come back hoping to see Windows fully booted and ready for me to do some work and catch up on the tons of email killing my inbox.

What? Same screen?

Long story short, this scene repeated itself for about an hour and a half.

I got too frustrated to deal with it so I decided to step out and go for a quick jog to re-energize myself and clear my mind.

When I got back, the computer still wouldn’t load! I decided to change real quick and head on over to the mall. After about 45 minutes of being lost in this massive maze of a mall, I found this big shiny store that looked so welcoming, I had to walk in.

Inside this very clean, organized and symmetrical store, a lineup of staff members wearing blue and orange shirts, stood along the main isle staring at me with smiles that could cut the sides of their faces.

Creepy, yes; but half of them were pretty cute girls so I was smiling and staring right back at them without any concern of walking into something… or someone.

I was approached by a girl in an orange shirt. “How can I help you?”, she asked me cheerfully.

Trying to keep focus on her eyes, I reply, “I’m not sure. Just thought I’d look around.”

“Sure, no problem! Just let me know if you need anything. Whatever you need, we can help.”, she tells me while returning to that face cutting smile.

I look around for a little bit and begin to ask myself if I really need anything from them or if I should just leave before I make an impulse purchase that I’ll regret later on.

Not even a minute later, I’m ambushed into a corner by the same girl. I smile for a second, but then see she brought along a friend – one of those guys in the blue shirts.

“Huh? Why is he here? I don’t want to talk to you man. I want to talk to her. Alone. Please leave.”, I think to myself.

The guy tells me that he is there to help and that he can answer any questions I may have.

I explain to him that I don’t even know why I’m there in the first place and that I just walked in to see what was inside.

“Are you happy with your current ’situation’?” he asks. “If not, or if you feel like you just need something more, we can show you the answers. Believe in us. Follow us.”

This whole scenario seems really creepy to me. I begin to sweat a little and ask myself a ton of questions, “What did I just walk into? What did that sign outside say? Is this guy trying to convert me to a different religion? What is going on??”

He asks me again, “What are you looking for? What is it that you want?”

I don’t know what came over me, but within the matter of 5 seconds, I broke down and started telling him all my problems. I told him what’s happened to me in the past, what’s happening to me right now and what I ultimately want in the future.

He looks over at the girl, who’s still standing beside him, and they both smile perfectly in sync.

“Don’t worry. We have the solution for you. Everything will be fine. Trust me.”, he promises me with a mellow voice and creepy smile.

At this point, I’m completely spellbound, so I followed them over to the other side of the room where they begin to ask me for my personal information. I answer all their questions and eagerly await to feel like part of the family. Like I belong to something great!

I finish answering all their questions and I turn around to make my way out and enter the world as a new man with a new faith.

The guy calls me back and says we’re not done yet.

“Sorry Moe, but before you leave, there’s still the issue of payment”, he tells me.

Without even thinking, I just reached into my pocket to pull out my wallet. As I look for my card, I remember that I accidentally de-magnetized my card a few days ago and had to take out extra cash from the bank until my new card comes in the mail.

In a Frank Lucas moment, I pull out a fold of bills larger than I’m used to carrying and hand it over to them. They look up at me suspiciously and begin to whisper to one another as they run each bill past a counterfeit detector. Once the total amount clears, they change their facial expressions and look back at me with those creepy face-cutting smiles.

I walk out with this large box they just handed me and begin finding my way back outside of this mall. People are staring at me as if they could tell something just happened, and I start to think how I’m going to break the news to people.

Once I get back home, I see my broken computer just sitting there. I look at it with an evil eye but then remember where I just came from. I disconnect my old, broken computer and place the big box on its side, while emptying the contents onto my desk.

Now, I sit down at my desk, feeling calm and at ease; as part of a new family… with my shiny, new MacBook Pro.

I’m now officially part of the cult that is Apple.

And they were right – this was the solution to all my problems.

A little while ago, I mentioned that I wrote a post on another site a while back, explaining my motivation for starting this blog and naming it MakingTheMogul.com.

Well, I found the post and am posting it here to share with you guys.

Dustin from Think2wice (Check it out. It’s one of my favourite spots to visit online.) asked “How Did You Come Up With The Name Of Your Blog?” to members of a Ning site called, The Urban Blogger.

This was my response:

I came up with the name of mine a few years back actually. When I started my first internship at a major label, Donald Trump and NBC had just launched the show, The Apprentice, and everybody used to joke around that I was “the real apprentice” due to my strong work ethic and never-lose attitude.

I always thought there should be a show that mixed The Apprentice with Making The Band. A show where people compete to make it in the business side of the music business.

We ended up getting one TV series that was almost amongst those lines, BET’s “Ultimate Hustler”. I say “almost” because the show didn’t seem to have a defined goal; if you win The Apprentice, you work for Donald Trump, if you win Making The Band, you get signed to Bad Boy, but if you won Ultimate Hustler, you won a car, a new wardrobe and I think some cash.

Didn’t make much sense to me.

We also had AOL’s web series, “Tha Biz”, which was more along the lines of what I wanted to see, but it was only aired online and didn’t receive much of an audience.

I figured if nobody else is giving me the content I want to see, then why not create it myself. I decided that a blog was the best format for me to deliver my story. I might incorporate video and other elements into the blog later on, but for now, the blog is my main platform.

So my blog is my version of the show/story that I always wanted to see – the journey of a young professional in the music business…..MakingTheMogul.com.

That’s what I posted on April 6, 2008.

Now, MTV & 50 Cent are launching the same concept with their new show, Mogul In The Making.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not hating. I’m actually looking forward to seeing the show. I’m sure there are hundreds, if not thousands, of us who have thought of the exact same concept.

It seemed really ironic that we’d have so many reality show concepts and yet it took this long to launch this one. I’m happy they’re finally doing it though, although I just hope it’s executed up to the standards I always envisioned a show like this being.

Personally, I think it would’ve made more sense to have someone else rather than 50 do the show. Again, don’t get me wrong; 50’s definitely been doing his thing and has been making millions upon millions doing it; but we all know him firstly as a rapper, and as someone who’s name only became relevant within the past few years. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ came out in 2003. That’s only 5 years ago.

Like a true mogul, 50 is certainly proving to be successful in multiple avenues, however I would have like to see MTV partner up with someone whose history and success spans a longer timeframe. Somebody like Russell Simmons, Chris Lighty, Steve Rifkind, Jimmy Iovine, Steve Stoute, Lyor Cohen, L.A Reid, Jermaine Dupri, Jay Z or even expand the Making The Band franchise and have Diddy do it.

These are all people who’ve been breaking all kinds of records and making historic movements since before the new millennium.

As a fan and viewer, those are the people I’d like to see the show air with, but as a decision-maker, I agree that 50 Cent will achieve higher ratings than most of the people on my list; especially since most of them are not entertainers themselves and don’t have the massive fanbase as does an entertainer like 50.

Anyhow, like I said, I just hope the show ends up living up the expectations. (I also hope they end up helping my web traffic rankings rather than killing it!)

I just wanted to drop you guys a quick line to update you on a few things and fill you in on this MTV & 50 Cent situation:

MTV & 50 Cent Are Stalking Me!

Finally all those random emails and messages I’ve been getting about casting calls makes sense.

Turns out, MTV and 50 Cent are doing a new show called “Mogul In The Making”. But a lot of people seem to be confused, so let me officially say, I am in no way involved with MTV and 50 Cent’s “Mogul In The Making” show.

The concept of their show is pretty much the same as the original concept for MakingTheMogul.com. When launching this site, I decided to launch as a blog since it’s a more feasible approach than video for me to share my journey.

I actually wrote a quick explanation about what motivated me to launch this blog on another site a little while back. I’ll find the exact post and paste it here soon.

It just vexes me that I almost registered that domain also (just for safekeeping), but decided against it. I even have a category on here titled, “Mogul In The Making”.

Ah well… gotta keep it moving!

Pssst… 50… Judy. Scrap the auditions. Holler at me and we’ll do it up EdTV style.

Free Kush on Friday the 13th

I’m hyped up for next Friday, June 13th, 2008. That day marks a very important day in the history of hip-hop. It marks the release of…

Asher Roth’s new mixtape, The Greenhouse Effect, with DJ Drama & Don Cannon.

This mixtape is going to be bananas! And it’s true what they say, the best things in life are free.

To get the free download of Asher Roth’s “The Greenhouse Effect” on June 13th, make sure to check out http://thedailykush.com.

On The Hunt For A Rebound

I’ve finally had it with my computer. If it freezes, automatically reboots or overheats once more (which it does for no reason and comes with a LOUD siren noise), I will send this useless thing flying out the window to be ran over by a city bus.

This computer acts like my ex-girlfriend; it’s always heated, very unpredictable in its actions, never stops yelling, and rarely acts right when I need it to most.

After 3 years of trying to make it work, I’m done.

A lot of people have been suggesting a MacBook but I’ve also been getting a ton of suggestions about a few PC laptops like the IBM Thinkpad series and the Toshiba Satellite series.

What do you suggest?

I need a solution fast, before I break my foot kicking my current tower… again.

I Will Reply Soon!

Thank you to everyone who emailed me in response to the “Mogul’s Network” post. Things have been really crazy recently (I’ll fill you in soon enough), but I promise to reply to everyone who’s contacted me.

That’s it for now.

Bless.

Okay, this post might crossover into rant mode, but I have to get this off my chest.

A little while ago, I noticed someone had sent me a friend request on 2 different social networking sites; Facebook and LinkedIn. I know who the person is, but I’m not very familiar with her because we’ve only briefly dealt through someone else in the past. On the few instances that we have spoken, she seemed nice and professional, so I decided to accept her friend requests.

She contacted me with an update of what she’s doing now and we exchanged a few emails over a 2 week period.

As you already know, I have my own business; so I have a few people on the team, but I also keep a short list of freelancers who I’ll outsource work to for certain services. I’ve seen her work and thought her quality of work and price would be a good match for one of my clients.

I called her up and gave her a brief rundown about this potential client and what was needed, but never went into details about who the client is and where they’re from. We spoke a bit and agreed on a rate for her retainer services.

Later that night, I logged into my Facebook account and noticed that she added 3 people from my Friends List. 2 of those guys were the clients who I was discussing the contract for, but I never mentioned their names or any real details about them.

We don’t live in the same area and she works in a very specific niche, so it’s unlikely for us to have many contacts in common.

I thought it was kind of strange but thought maybe she’s just one of those people who treats Facebook like MySpace and adds as many people as she can without making real connections with them.

Then, the next day, I get a call from my client telling me that he just got a message from her saying she can offer him a cheaper price if he goes directly through her.

WHAT?!

How bold can you be?

But wait, it doesn’t stop there.

The same evening, I noticed she joined about 5 groups that I belong to and ended up adding the admins of those groups as well (also people on my Friends List). These were all relatively small, local production companies and labels that don’t really operate within her niche; so again, it’s highly unlikely that she knows them.

The next day, I got some phone calls and emails from a few people telling me that she contacted them also and offered them the same thing. They noticed I was the only “mutual friend” so they wanted to give me a heads up on this back door shyster.

I can’t lie – I was vexed! I was about to pick up the phone and put her on blast. Did she think I wouldn’t find out? Did she think I’d just ignore it?

My blood was boiling at first, but then I realized – these people all called and told me about it. They got this random person who just added them on a social networking site and started pitching them straight from the gate. They don’t know her nor have they ever heard of her. All they know is that the only person they can link her to is me and that they hired my company to handle the services she’s pitching them.

They all sensed a rat and even deleted her from their Friends List as well.

But the fact that I’m the only person they can link her to plays into their perception of me and my judgment. We really have to be careful about who we keep around us. It’s hard sometimes because most of us work in industries that are built on greed and backstabbing. Especially the music business!

How do we know who to trust and when we find those people, how do we know how far our trust should stretch?

Obviously, she can’t be trusted and I’m curious as to how many bridges she’s burned so far, but even though she went directly to some of the artists, managers and indie labels I work with; I’m not really worried. She oversaw my secret weapon – Personal Relationships!

I don’t just walk up to people, hand them my business card and walk away. It doesn’t make any sense to me. I see it all the time at industry events; people walk around and give out their cards like they’re passing out club flyers – they don’t even speak to anyone. A lot of artists and beatmakers are guilty of doing the same thing with their CDs: just put it someone’s hands and walk away. I call that “spam networking”. There’s no point to it; nobody’s going to remember you when you spam network.

For me, I don’t just meet people; I develop relationships. When I look through my address book, I don’t see “contacts”; I see PEOPLE. I see experiences and memories. That’s not something that just takes 5 minutes to build. This is something that takes while to build and that you maintain on a constant basis.

Whether it’s wishing someone happy birthday, taking them out when they’re in town or even just grabbing a drink together because you haven’t seen each other in a while; these things are important. But don’t just do it because you feel obligated or for networking reasons only. People can tell when you’re being fake. Do it because you genuinely want to. Lucky for me, I’ve come across many people who I easily get along with and whose company I enjoy.

So, back to the situation at hand; to her and to anyone like her – you can steal all the contact info you want and try to pitch them, but I can pick up the phone and share a laugh or even ask for a favour if ever needed.

No matter what you do, what industry you’re in or where you are in your career, never underestimate the power of a personal relationship.

Note: I get a little side-tracked in this post, but it all comes together, I promise.

Have you ever felt connected to and genuinely proud of an artist’s success because you were a fan of theirs before they became major celebrities? You somehow believe you were a part of the movement, even if you were no more than a mere observer.

I have.

I’ve been a fan of many artists before they became stars. As they moved ahead in their careers, I became proud of each of their accomplishments as if I played a role in it. One person in particular is Kanye West.

*Okay, so I didn’t really “discover” Kanye, but you get the point.

The first time I heard the name Kanye West was back in 1999. At this point in my life, I had formed this little group of local artists; 2 rappers and 1 singer. I wasn’t rapping or singing though; I was the “producer/manager”.

We were working on a couple tracks and I started searching online for other artists and producers to collaborate with. I heard this one R&B joint that I thought was bananas. I checked out the rest of the webpage (this was before everybody had their own websites and the people who actually were online had webpages hosted on GeoCities – remember that?), and found out it was from a small R&B group in Chicago. Their contact info at the bottom of the page led me to their producer.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with that song really; I just knew that it was hot and that I wanted it. So, I contacted the producer and told him I wanted to do a remix of it featuring my group. We spoke for a while and he ended up sending me about 5 CDs full of beats. From all those beats, only a small selection were good and I decided to take 3 of them. (I still have those CDs actually. I just checked).

This was during the time when the bedroom producer was really beginning to take reign and the indie game was over-saturated with corny sounding Fruity Loops beats (I’m guilty of that too). This producer’s main pitch was that he wasn’t using Fruity Loops, but actually playing it out on his Triton. Every beatmaker and their mama was about the Triton back then. If you weren’t using it, then you weren’t really serious.

Anyways, after that we ended up speaking on a regular. One day he started telling me how he first got into producing:

“My mentor is Kanye West. You ever heard of him? He works with some big names now. That’s my dude. He taught me to play the keys in our church group. Check him out, that’s my mentor.”

He would mention “Kanye West” every chance he had. I remember asking him about these vocal samples he had in a beat I wanted to buy:

“Don’t worry about those samples. Kanye West doesn’t clear them unless it’s for a big artist with big budget. He told me it’s cool if it’s just for a smaller artist who doesn’t get much airplay. They’ll only catch you if your song gets real big, but by then you should have the money to clear the sample anyways right?”

Whether this guy was for real or not, I kept seeing Kanye’s name pop up after that – magazines, cd & mixtape credits, online forums, etc.

“Isn’t this the guy homie kept telling me about? Hmm.. dude’s moving up.”

When Jay-Z dropped the Kanye-produced, “Izzo (H.O.V.A)”, I felt this weird sense of pride as if it was someone within my crew. I told everybody I knew about it and spoke about it like it was something we should all be proud of.

It continued like that for a while.

A few years later, I was watching RapCity with Big Tigger and they aired Kanye’s first video, “Through The Wire”.

“Dude’s a rapper now?? This joint is siccck. Playa is on point!”

I was all about it. I kept telling people about it like I was making commission.

I guess the label thought it wasn’t getting the type of buzz they needed because the record and video disappeared like it was never even serviced. No mention of it, no traces of it.. nothing.

It re-appeared a few months later and this time, it got major push. Now, the label was fully behind it and talking about an upcoming album. Now everybody knew his name and was all about it.

The Kanye-frenzy began and it wasn’t my little secret anymore.

Coincidentally, I had just began working at the label when “College Dropout” was released and although it was a different division that was responsible for marketing the record, I kept a close eye on the project as if I was protecting my own investment.

The record dropped and the frenzy began. The first tour was damn near sold-out, if not sold-out, in every city. (Side note: John Legend performed a private after-party that night at a tiny africana-jazz bar near my apartment with a maximum capacity of 100 people . One of my favourite music memories, by far.)

The rest is pretty much history.

Now, Kanye’s the biggest name in the game and has everybody waiting on his next word. But even so, as an early supporter, I still kinda have that sense of familiarity with him and feel like I played a role in his success in some weird way… do you know what I mean?

I guess my point is; everybody has experiences like this – so keep this in mind with your own career. Connecting with your fans early on, will not only make them feel more connected to you – but can also help propel your career to new levels.

Here I was last night, just doing some work and listening to some new tracks from an artist I might start working with. I noticed my Outlook was closed, so I drag my mouse over the little icon to open it up and as it begins to load up, it tells me there’s an error and can’t open.

I even get the little Windows Alert: “Send Error Report”?

Sure, why not.

I persist to open Outlook, so I click on it again and this time as it begins to load, it freezes.

My computer is a little retarded so it freezes from time to time but usually doesn’t last too long so I didn’t sweat it – just waited for it to pass.

10 seconds pass. Nothing.

30 seconds pass. Nothing.

1 minute passes. Still nothing!

I decide to move the mouse in a circle because somehow we all believe that will fix nearly any computer problem.

Now, not only is my computer frozen but I see a trail of frozen images of my cursor on the screen and not even my mouse is working.

I leave it alone and decide I’m going to just say screw it and restart my computer. Before I can even press the button, the tower starts beeping like a police siren. I honestly thought the tower was going to blow up in my face. The ringing is piercing my ears. I just turned the tower off.

The computer begins to restart and I’m hoping it’s going to behave now.

Blank screen.

It didn’t even load windows.

I left it alone for a while and came back an hour later, around 4am. Turned it on…

Blank screen.

It hasn’t turned on since then.

I’m taking it for repair now but anybody who’s ever experienced anything like this knows just how frustrating it is and how much time you’re losing to do work.

I have a great interview I was supposed to post today for everybody who’s into music production and engineering. I’m hoping to get my hard drive back with all my files intact so I can post it for you guys tonight.

Lesson learned: No matter how good a deal, never buy a computer from eBay.

–
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network