Culture Brews Success

This theme has been echoing in my thoughts frequently in recent days, but it’s always been at the heart of what I do. Something I continuously emphasize in my thoughts is my past in business. It’s not meant to brag, but establish the point that I managed 33 different businesses along the east coast, 31 of which I successfully turned around. I say all this to make the point, I was never a one hit wonder, and no matter where I went, I found success where others said it wasn’t possible. In the heart of this were 2 philosophies. The first philosophy was always to change the culture and mentality of failure, the second was “no excuses”.

I believed in no excuses because I worked in a company that brewed excuses for all their failures at the time, but then was in awe over the success I would have. The first store I operated, I was looked at a loser for the first six months, because I struggled to get the materials I felt I needed for success and there was a learning curve. Then came the week of the 4th of July 2004. They were running an aggressive promotion since sales fell dramatically during this week every year. I decided to go all in, and we had over 200 hours of overtime that week, in addition I would work over 80 hours myself. We doubled our sales from the previous year, and all of a sudden everyone was paying attention to the success “we” created in the store, under my leadership.

The following year they send me to another failing store, that they said could never do more than 8000 a week in sales. Within 4 months we were 100% positive for 8 weeks straight. In reality the store’s potential was just being ignored, between possible theft, absent and careless management, and a team of employees who didn’t care or give much effort, but instead accept the status quo of failure with their lack of leadership. I continued to bounce around, and every time I was challenged on something I wasn’t doing, I would figure out a way to make it happen, while complaining that I was being held to a different standard compared to everyone else.

I say this, because the supervisors who would criticize me, failed to do these same things during their career. This however was a blessing, because it always challenged me to be better and grow. Years later it’s allowed me the freedom to create my own business, and concept that has allowed me to step away from a corporate yes man environment, that the rest unfortunately are enslaved to in some capacity or another. Do not get me wrong, they all have good lives and success has been good to them in their own respect, but I have enjoyed a freedom and success that many are fascinated by. This is why I write today for the individual that wants to break away from the hamster wheel of life.

I share my business experience as an overall metaphor for life, and societies current struggles. Everyone is blaming each other for their individual failures. We can point to any news or political argument of our times and it’s always a lack of accountability for our individual actions and choices. In the end, our choices bring good or bad consequences that we ultimately have control over. The culture around us will lead us to a better or worst choice and consequence. My life for example when I was younger growing up in NYC, I was taught to be a victim, and lash out.

I felt there was no chance of hope or success for many reasons, they’re the same reasons we hear on tv daily. I finally realized I lived in a country that while some laws were silly, overall I had control over my personal destiny and path with God, so long as I chose to take that journey. This is something our founding fathers understood clearly. God, through the lens of Judeo Christian culture and values has a plan for us, but it’s for us to participate in this plan and not let a government dictate our lives. We individually make those choices so long as they don’t impose on others freedom and liberty.

As I began to understand this more clearly, I began to hold myself even more accountable for my choices. I realized through the words of the football player Ricky Williams, “the second you blame another for your problems, is the second you loose control of fixing them”. This is life in a nutshell. If the culture around you isn’t brewing success, then you need to figure out what changes “you” need to make in order to brew that success. As I listen to certain types of music for example that I loved when I was younger, I now hear nothing but degrading and negative thoughts, that led me down a path of misunderstanding and abuse of my freedom and liberty, which is endowed to us all through our free will and choices.

As a catholic, the sacrament of penance has been the greatest healer of my hurtful past, which has cleansed me of a culture and behavior that previously denied me of my destiny, dignity and greatest peace. It’s the only reason after so many years I have a thriving business that in year 2 already has me exceeding all my previous best years of income, it has me happily married with the woman I was destined to be with, and most of all with the child we were destined to have because I rejected the worlds ways of planning parenthood and marriage on my terms, and accepted God’s blessings, despite my skepticism. All this happened because I was open to objective truth, instead making excuses and avoiding it. Immigrants that come to our country understand this and taught me this. They don’t come as victims but instead seeking opportunity, because in reality it is here. This is the story of the Alchemist as well.

We all can be great, I plan to raise my child in a culture that teaches her she will be a result of her choices, and I will try my best to teach her a firm foundation that doesn’t shift with the sand or the winds, objective truth, verses the ever changing subjective. My favorite quote early in my path, inspired by Alexander Hamilton is “Stand for nothing, fall for anything.”