Before my wife calls me a liar, she drove 2 hours to Connecticut and I drove 2 hours back home to NY. We drove to Connecticut to support my high school friend's (also the Godfather of my son) new Caribbean restaurant in Waterbury. We even took our two children with us. I married a Jamaican woman but I'm not really into Caribbean food! My friend's restaurant serves a wide variety of food. The funny thing is that I went all the way to CT to have an American hamburger and fries! I'm so damn ignorant but I been picky since day one of my life! I'm saying of all this to communicate that I went to support my friend out of love and respect. It didn't matter what was my food preference. Sometimes, you just got to go the extra mile for the special people in your life. Here are the lessons that I learned taking that trip to Connecticut:

LESSON #1: JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS A FRIEND OR FAMILY, IT DOESN'T MEAN THEY WILL SUPPORT YOUR GOAL, DREAM OR BUSINESS

I would like to think that I know a lot of people. I'm in several different circles which include family, friends, associates, fraternity, sorority, church, etc. However, I can count on my ten skinny fingers, how much of those people support my business as paying clients. As a tax accountant, I have about 4 family, 3 friends and 2 fraternity Brothers as clients! Lets break it down further. My family includes my sister, parents and one cousin. My friends consists of two high school classmates. I'm in a fraternity with thousands of Brothers and I only have 2 Brothers as clients. It is not like my business is a secret to anyone that knows me. The funny part is that I'm even not mad that my own people don't support my business. Honestly, I was mad early in my journey but now it doesn't affect me. Tell you the truth, I'm thankful. Everyone is not a good ideal client especially family or friends! Even if you don't own a business and you are selling girl scout cookies for your child, don't get discourage if your social circle don't support your cause. Love them anyway and continue to pursue what God has put you on this earth to accomplish.

LESSON #2: IF YOU HAVE A FRIEND THAT SUPPORTS YOU THEN YOU MUST RETURN THE SUPPORT

My wife can tell you that I'm one selfish human being. However, she will also tell you that I'm very loyal to people who really support me in any shape or form. For example, the friend that I drove to support in CT was never my client. However when I needed help to create podcasts for my business, he went the extra mile to help me. When I create social media posts, he is one of the rare friends to share or like them. When I disappeared from my high school friends after college (about 15 years ago), he was the first guy to call me to ask me what is going on. Matter of fact, he cursed me out during that phone call for disappearing! Since the curse out, we remain in regular contact ever since the call. He was one of my groomsmen and the Godfather of my child. Therefore, support to me is not about giving me money to do your damn taxes. Don't take for granted the "ride or die" people in your life. If they need you then just support them without any question. My FaceBook friend list is extremely small and always getting smaller. I think I deleted more FaceBook friends then I actually added. I'm getting too old for fake friends. I'm always disregarding friends requests from people that just want to troll my page.

LESSON #3: LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO WASTE TIME ON PEOPLE THAT WILL ONLY LET YOU DOWN

My disclaimer is that I have burnt more bridges than an evil empire! There are many situations that I look back now and say "Jamaal, you were an asshole!" I'm a work in progress and hope to be a better human being as I get older. Karma is a bitch and I definitely got screwed by a lot of people that I thought were my friends. It is funny how life works! I can't count how many times I got screwed in my business. Nothing surprises me any more but it was hard at first. I gave these people who I thought were my friends, too much of my mental space. There were times when I spent too much time figuring out what went wrong in the friendship or potential business partnership. I hate to sound too blunt but I'm learning that shit happens but we must ALL move on. Learn from your burnt bridges and become a better person. Don't allow anyone the power to create negative energy in your life. I'm still getting burnt in my personal and professional life but I recovery from them a whole lot quicker.

BTW....My friend's restaurant is called Passion Fruit Tropical Grille. Their wings are going to win a lot of awards! I highly recommend that you go check them out:

http://www.passionfruitgrille.com/

Until next time....Stikks Signing Off!!!

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