25 January 2010

Good Thoughts To Remember

I received this friendly note in an e-mail today & thought I would share it with you!

Law of the Garbage Truck

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call ...

"The Law of the Garbage Truck."


He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally.

Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so ... Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

21 January 2010

Some Advice for Those Preparing to Enter the Job Market.

Many of you should gearing up to graduate in a few months, and I just thought I'd reach out to you to offer some friendly advice.

What comes with graduating will be your journey into the job market. With so many people linked up to these social networking outlets, one of the things that many employers and their Human Resources departments are doing is checking people's MySpace & Facebook pages to see how candidates let their hair down on their own time. This has come to cost quite a few people some good paying jobs over the past couple years.

I am certain that many of you have had a great college experience - based on some of your party pics where it would appear the bottles were overflowing - and any given day could have been Halloween, but the last thing you need is to have some HR rep shredding your resume & your future because of some fun you had in the past.

I'm not saying that you can't have the fun you want to have now. I'm not saying you can't record it so you can look back on it years from now - even to show your kids that you weren't always the stuffy-butt they think you are now that you know better. What I am saying is that you should not give any one any reason to put unnecessary stumbling blocks in your path. As a matter of fact, if you lose out on a job in part because of some of the pictures in your MySpace & Facebook pages ... the person really at fault is the person who put them there. Even if someone "tags" you in a picture, if you "remove" that tag, that pic can never be posted again under your name.

As you begin to enter the so-called "real world," now is the time to start thinking 2-3 steps ahead! It's better to be able to say "I'm glad I did" instead of having to say "I wish I woulda'."

17 January 2010

HRJRs 2010 Definitions of Success #'s 001 & 002


Brand New Year ... Same Old "Bubble Busters!"




This video was actually made at the end of 2009, but hey ... Better a lil' late than never! This video explains how the Law of Attraction (aka "The Secret") is used in the "HRJR" philosophy.

15 January 2010

A Word to High School & College Students

Anything worth having in life is not going to come easy - and it's not supposed to. You can’t possibly appreciate something that you did not have to endure some kind of struggle or sacrifice for. Success in life comes from fighting and overcoming your obstacles.

Speaking of enduring and crosses to bear, if you’ll indulge me, allow me to share a little bit of my history with you. I am not a college graduate. I left Rutgers University at the end of `89; joining the Air Force in `90, and serving in Desert Storm in `91. After coming back home, I went back to Rutgers in `91, but left school again in `94 to pursue a career in Law Enforcement. A goal I didn’t achieve until 2000.

Now, let’s talk about those six years between `94 and 2000. I was a flashlight carrying rent-a-cop guarding everything from malls, car dealership parking lots, and once ... I was even assigned to guard a hole in a wall at a construction site.

I managed a karate school for most of `96, but wound up having to quit that job because my car got totaled in a crash & I couldn’t get out there anymore. I tried temp-work in an office for about three months ... that didn’t pan out. I collected unemployment for about 6 months before landing another Loss Prevention job at TJ Maxx locking up shoplifters and cashiers hooking up their friends.

In `98 I got a job at Old Navy doing the same thing, which I held for another year and a half before finally getting hired by my home city’s police department. After two years of chasing crack-heads, Bloods and Crips – thanks to networking with a good brother, I was able to join an agency that has allowed me to provide a very good living for my family & I. In 2006, I created "HRJR Enterprises" and began my career as a motivational speaker & author. In each career; which I refer to as my "vocation" (Law Enforcement), and my "passion" (speaking, writing & coaching), I have been able to positively impact a lot of people.

SO ... I have no regrets about the decisions I have made because they have brought me to where I am today. However, at the same time, I do with the utmost sincerity, acknowledge many of the options and perhaps even easier traveling that I forfeited by leaving school. With that said ... I urge all of you Undergrad brothers & sisters to stay your behinds in school until you graduate!However, if you’ve got a particular passion ... if you have the grit, the determination and the drive to put in the extra work necessary to succeed – the extra work that you will have to put in by not having the options afforded a college graduate, God bless you, but take it from me ... that path is going to be a long and bumpy one.

On the other hand...

Don’t get it twisted ... that college degree you earn does not provide you with any guarantees ... it provides you with options. That piece of paper may get your foot in the door, but you’re going to have to put in work to prove yourself worthy of being – and staying in the room ... especially if that “room” you’re striving to be in is the boardroom!

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that piece of paper makes you any better than those in this world who may not have had your options and advantages. Both success and failure come in varying degrees, but those degrees – be they scarce or in abundance – all come down from God, and as I always love to say, “God don’t like ugly & karma is a mean S.O.B.!”

Let me stress this point ... a college degree does not guarantee you will be successful. The work you put in and the service you provide will be the determining factors of your success.

So let’s talk about this college degree many of you are working towards.
What are you going to do with that degree?

• Are you going to become just another employee – another spoke in the wheel, or are you going to become a boss – a decision maker?

• Are you going to become a bourgeoisie elitist, or will you provide some kind of service to your community?

• Will you determine what the worth of your degree is going to be by your actions and the example you present yourself as, or are you going to walk off of your campus and out into the real world thinking that because you have that degree, you have somehow attained a “golden ticket?”

I don’t mean to bust your bubble – but then again – perhaps I do. If you think you’re going to walk off of your campus and go off into the real world thinking you’ve got it made in the shade, and that you’re going to get scooped up by some Fortune 500 company making $80K/yr, allow me to share with you the first thing you must come to terms with ... In today’s economy, you’ll be blessed if you can find a job making $30K/yr.

You will have people tell you time and again how hard the real world is outside of the hallowed halls of academia, and you will look at them and nod and say you understand, but sometimes the only way to learn is by personal experience ... So I can see you nodding; but trust me, I do not share this with you for your agreement. I share this with you because although life has been good - very good - to me; and as much as I have prospered, I often find myself imagining how well I could have done had I stayed in school.

God Bless,
H.

11 January 2010

Boot Camp Motivation #6


"All it takes to be able to do anything a million & one times is for you to just do it once. The impossible is only impossible because you haven't stepped up to make it possible. Obstacles are placed before you not to keep you from your goal, but to strengthen you so that by the time you reach the final battle just prior to achieving your goal you are fit for the fight and ripe for the victory."

HSRjr.

10 January 2010

I'm Just Saying ... This is Gonna be a Great Year!

This past weekend I had the privilege of being a guest panel speaker on a NY local cable talk show called "I'm Just Saying" hosted by an extraordinary woman, Cathleen Williams. We met via Facebook (cuz you guys know that's where I do a lot of my "agressive networking"), and when she invited me to her show informing me that the topic was going to be "Who's Educating Black Boys in America?" there was no way I could be any place else! We learned some very disturbing facts about how many young black men are not graduating from high school & discussed what we can do "as a village" to get our young men back on track!



Let me just say that I got so much out of this trip that "thank you" doesn't scratch the surface of the joy I have in my heart. I met & networked with a wonderful group of brothers and sisters all committed to empowering our people in general, and our children - specifically - our young men in particular. I met fathers of daughters & mothers of sons, and all of us shared valid concerns for their futures. One brother, Dr. Naquaan Muhammad (seated directly in front of me) said, "I have daughters, & I have to make sure that the men I have to someday hand them over to, can do a better job of taking care of them than I did!"

Between the brothers & sisters in the audience and those of us who were on the stage (we did 3 tapings) we created quite a buzz amongst ourselves. However, I left there with a little something extra. The entire experience lit a fire in my heart and under my bottom! Have you ever been around a group of people who just made you take a look at yourself and say, "DAMN! I gotta step my game up!" Well, that was what was going on in my head the whole time.

Don't get it twisted, I held my own, and there was nothing but love and mutual respect throughout the place - but when you have that kind of internal dialogue; when you're surrounded by people who motivate you to raise your personal standards of excellence, those are the people you need to get around and stay around! Sometimes we get so comfortable and complacent with our little group of friends that we fail to see the box we're locking ourselves into. However, this past weekend I walked into a studio full of strangers; met a lot of new friends, and walked out with an extended family of brothers and sisters.

I'm starting the year off wonderfully. This is going to be a break out year for HRJR Enterprises. Books are selling, and the "Make It Happen!" CD is starting to take off. We're looking to both conduct and participate in a few tele-seminars and perhaps even a live one or two! Peronsally, I have a trip planned to meet world- reknowned success coach, Jack Canfield in Boston in the spring, and another "promo" trip to Los Angeles is in the works for the fall.

I'm Just Saying ... this is gonna' be a great year!

03 January 2010

3 Jan 2009 ... Today's Thought

"This is the day that the Lord has made but whatever kind of day it turns out to be has nothing to do with the Lord & everything to do with you. To put a situation in God's hands is but a figure of speech. To truly put it in God's hands means to allow His hands to WORK through yours. Success in life is merely a reflection of heaven on earth. Does it matter how good your casket looks if you're the one inside?"

HSRjr.