“Who could reach us? Only God could teleport this type of freedom
God, my confession is yours, but
Who am I if I don't go to war?
There's opportunity when living with loss
I discover myself when I fall short
Raise my hands to a fallen sky, I fantasize
Me jumping planets immortalized, I correspond
Three angels watching me all the time
Put my children to sleep, with a prayer, then close my eyes
Definition of peace
Tell me who gon' stop me? I come from love
And still cover my heart, then open me up
Remember when, picked up a pen, lyrics that I could trust
Timid soul, stare in the mirror, asking where I was from
Often, I know this type of power is gon' cost
But I live in circadian rhythms of a shooting star
The mannerisms of Raphael, I can heal and give you art
But the industry's cooked, as I pick the carcass apart”-Kendrick Lamar “616 in LA”
I was recently on a podcast where I was asked about my business and how I operate a business with such a strong sense of Social Justice and political discourse. I think the answer to that is quite a simple one.
It takes an extreme amount of reflection and understanding of self. It requires an understanding of where your moral and ethical values reside.
It requires digging deeply into those core values and figuring out whether you’re standing on business or allowing business to stand on you.
What do I mean by all of this?
Imma put y’all up on game real quick. This ain’t an easy path to walk. The path that’s been set for us is defined by the systems that we have been born into.
If we reflect deeply, we will understand that this system is the same system that made it possible for millions of humans to be kidnapped and trafficked around the world by European settler colonizers. This system that we have all been born into is a system that created space for people to set their humanity aside, define other humans as animals and livestock, all for profits.
In the world of business nothing has really changed. We’re all wallowing in the mud and filth of the aftermath of this system. We’ve all been born into it and have wallowed in it for so long that we don’t even realize we’re in it anymore. When we think we’ve shed the filth of it all by simply not purchasing one thing, we’ll find that another thing is wrapped up in the mud.
We hear rappers say “I got it out the mud” to suggest that the wealth that they’ve acquired has been obtained through this filth of where we are raised. Some would simply take it as getting something from nothing. I think it is an accurate picture of the lives of so many people who look like all of us who reside in the mud of this system we’re all inextricably tied to.
Within this mud, we’re amongst the pigs like Orwell’s Animal Farm. No matter how much we try and dress it up and put lipstick on it, it’s the same old Napoleon, gaslighting us into accepting our place on the farm, in mud… working and toiling, while they all take the house and enjoy the spoils.
See, it all starts as a great idea to get free.
Your business started as a move towards freedom.
But before you know it, we find ourselves behaving just like the farmer we shook our shackles off of.
Why is this?
Because we didn’t shake the system and simply adopted the same behaviors. We say to ourselves:
“This is how business is done.”
“This is how I should market.”
“This is how I should operate because my revenue depends on it.”
“Who could reach us? Only God could teleport this type of freedom
God, my confession is yours, but
Who am I if I don't go to war?
There's opportunity when living with loss
We get into a position where we fear loss of income, loss of followers, etc and that’s completely understandable. We are so tied to our bottom line that we slowly build constraints that limit our ability to achieve the freedom we initially left to create.
What good is being free if you can’t free others? There are often opportunities to be found in what we may see as loss.
In the Matrix when Neo was offered the Blue or Red pill, he was being offered an opportunity to be free outside of the Matrix. He left the comforts of the Matrix, which was pacifying the minds of humanity. It wasn’t an easy place to be. As a matter of fact, as we found out in the film, one of his allies sold him out like a Judas. He sold him out because he wanted to return to the Matrix and be pacified while his life’s energy was being sucked from him. He sold his comrades out for comforts like many of today’s celebrities, musicians, as well as influencers and business owners do.
But in the end Neo stood strong and persevered by finding the power within himself that was there all along.
What good is being a small business owner if we simply behave like big corporations and put profits over people?
Of course, earning a living makes the choices we choose as business owners a challenge, but I have faith that there are people who are looking for substance and deeper connection. I also know that I’m damn good at what I do, and that what I provide as a coach is unmatched. Furthermore, I know that I could leave this earth tomorrow, and if I do my children will know exactly what I stood for.
Raise my hands to a fallen sky, I fantasize
Me jumping planets immortalized, I correspond
Three angels watching me all the time
Put my children to sleep, with a prayer, then close my eyes
Definition of peace
Many people have told me that my business would suffer, because I post the things that I do. I’ve been told that I should remain quiet so I could grow more “following” like others, who grow big followings without saying anything in order to sell more. I’ve been told that I’m just confusing people, because they come to me for mobility and get this other stuff.
I challenge that with the idea that Mobility Training is inherently the idea of expanding capacity and range, then strengthening that capacity and range.
I challenge that with the idea that expansion of range of motion and thought go hand in hand. A yogi friend told me years ago as we sat up late one night at his flat in Kuala Lumpur back in the early 2000’s, that expanding our physical flexibility and having mental flexibility are closely tied. Back then I called bullshit, but today I have moved towards this idea, if for nothing else but metaphor and analogy sake.
If we stick to the traditional models of thought, the traditional models of training, or the traditional models of conducting business, we are refusing to allow room for other potential methods and approaches.
We do it the way we do it, because we’ve been convinced there’s only one way.
We do it the way we do it, because others are doing it that way.
We do it the way we do it, because we place monetary gain before all else.
Money is our baseline for success. It is the bottom of our pyramid as opposed to being the top. In reality, at our foundation should be what we do, how we do it and what we stand for.
We are the global majority. We should not wait until we’re wealthy to want to care about humanity while the wealthy corporate giants tell us everyday that, “they don’t really care about us” #MichaelJackson
We can listen to Kanye and say “Nah nah nah nah, wait till I get my money right. Then you can’t tell me nothing right”, but by that time it’ll likely too late.
Instead I reflect on the words from Kendrick and when it comes to my perspective on conducting business, I act now and place my love for humanity’s health inside everything that I do.
Tell me who gon' stop me? I come from love
And still cover my heart, then open me up
Remember when, picked up a pen, lyrics that I could trust
Timid soul, stare in the mirror, asking where I was from
Often, I know this type of power is gon' cost
But I live in circadian rhythms of a shooting star
The mannerisms of Raphael, I can heal and give you art
But the industry's cooked, as I pick the carcass apart”