The magic formula to making it to wherever it is you want to be in life. — If you’re afraid of the word no, not getting replies to cold calls, or are unwilling to send emails to possible, prospective clients, customers, readers, or employers, ones that have a high percentage of never being answered, or maybe even read, depending— this post probably isn’t for you. Because it…

Life’s never been one thing and never will be, nor will we. — I don’t mean to sound like a pretentious arrogant prick but most of Bukowski’s best advice came naturally to me before I ever heard of dude. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the kids in my class who struggled with the most basic writing assignments. I didn’t get it. …

And I couldn’t be more happy to admit I was wrong — and even happier I was. — Sometime in what I want to say must’ve been 2016 I wrote a post, personal essay, or better-described opinion piece, about how I felt about the state of hip hop as it stood day of publishing. I wrote it for me. It’s what was on my mind, irrevocably at the…

An exercise of humility. — I self-published two books earlier this year. I cannot put enough emphasis on self, although likely for far different reasons than your average person would like to think. …

A story of struggle, help, and hope. — I remember being ten or eleven years old the Summer Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money Mo Problems” took over the radio waves sometime shortly thereafter the rapper’s death. The music video took over MTV, BET, and any other TV station that played such. And I remember being perplexed by the title…

But he unknowingly took his war elsewhere, unsanctioned. — Sometime around 2009, I had just gone through a terrible, nasty, scratch-and-claw breakup, as a stupid twenty-something-year-old kid. I got a check for $1,200 the same day my girlfriend of 4 years to that very day sent me an inbox on Myspace, stating she could no longer do it, it…

There is no one story to the opioid epidemic, but this is mine. — I remember being maybe 12, which would have made it the year 1999. The same year the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma started truly cashing in on their newly developed drug Oxycontin, and advertising it as “believed to be less addictive than other opioids like it”. …

I hope it helps someone, selfishly even if it’s only me. — I’m tired. Exhausted, even. Mentally, physically, spiritually emotionally creatively, professionally, and financially, drained. Worst yet I’m tired of this being my norm. I’m tired of talking about mental health — mine and yours, to be honest. That’s not why I got into this, it’s where I landed. …

And not just for me, but for all of us as a human collective. — I’m a pessimist Stuck in an optimist’s body. A negative mind with a faithfully positive heart and pure soul. But at the end of the day, I’m a realist and a keen observer. I’ve watched things of all sorts, things of vastly great importance to all of us, get exponentially…