You can't knock the hustle....

You can’t knock the hustle

by T. Semakula

So, how is your hustle these days? Do you have one? Are you one of those folk who make excuses as to why you don’t have time to write that book, start that business, found that ministry, or follow through on the invention that you know could make life a whole lot easier? What’s holding you back? Why have you stalled or have you started and it seems like your hustle is moving slower than a snail with a broken leg. Usually, folk associate the word hustle with street hustlers who do whatever it takes to cop a dollar. However, the word hustle is associated with swift movement, abruptness, or motion. Motion takes someone or something to a selected goal, purpose, or destination. So, where is your hustle taking you?

Hustle up some faith. Folk who make excuses, lack faith. The children of Israel wandered around in the wilderness for four decades because they lacked the faith they needed to enter the Promised Land. After God parted the red sea, sent food from the sky, and guided them by a single star at night, they still weren’t convinced that they were God’s chosen people. They lacked the courage to overlook the giants that inhabited the land that was given to them by the Almighty.

So, what has the Almighty given you? Have you made excuses, complained, or flat out retreated to the humdrum life you have always had, even after God has sent you a vision that encompassed greatness? Have you lingered in poverty, settling for government subsidies and handouts, happy to just get by? Did you forget that we serve a mighty God who created the earth and composed the framework for our minds, which we have yet had the ability to completely use. Are you satisfied with your income and the state of your community, or have you moved out in search of a better horizon? Did the Almighty give you a cause, a ministry, or a business that could provide a better life for you, your family, and your community, and you lacked the faith to carry it out?

Hustle up some order. Along with dreams, visions, and ideas, comes guidelines, plans, and instructions. Folk without order are folk without success. I have sat in meetings with many wannabe socialprenuers, entrepreneurs, and community superstars. They are quick to share the vision that has filled their hearts, yet they are slow to provide a viable plan or framework that will take their vision into fruition. They are also hesitant about about investing in their visions. Investment is not just about money, but it also equates to time, energy, courage, knowledge, and passion. How can one build a house without a frame, an engine without its parts, an essay without a rough draft, a body without the skeleton?

Hustle up some focus. I have watched many well intentioned programs and visions get sidelined due to a lack of focus. What’s wrong with being criticized for having tunnel vision? What’s wrong with staying focused on a task until you reached a goal? Focus keeps us close to our goals. If we encounter a problem or obstacle on the way to our goal, our focus will help us overcome it with knowledge and diligence. Sometimes we have to say no to others in order to reach the goal that God intended for us. No means direction, not rejection, always remember that.

Hustle up some knowledge. I had a friend who told who me that she wanted to start her own business; I asked her if she liked to read books about business, or entrepreneurs. She told me that she didn’t like to read and that she didn’t like books. She has not started a business to this day. If you want to know how to be successful, wouldn’t you want to read about it? If you don’t know how to read, learn how to. Knowledge is power and the more that you know, the better off you will be. I gave myself my own personal MBA, by reading every single book I could get my hands on about business and entrepreneurship. Weekly, I read blogs and articles related to freelancing, blogging, and consulting. I will always be a student, even though I have a master’s degree. The world is growing and changing every day. New technologies are being introduced and folk are coming up with more efficient and productive ways to get things done. Successful entrepreneurs, ministers, and community folk are also avid learners.

You can’t knock the hustle. So, it’s time that you get your hustle on. Dust off that old business plan, sermon, or idea. Stop making excuses and take a break from your humdrum life. Stop living with regrets and stop waiting for the perfect time to get started. The time is now. Come out of the wilderness and get what was promised to you. I dare yah.

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The Tongue

The Tongue

by

t. semakula


The tongue sits in one’s mouth like a neglected apparatus; its goal is to create. There is much to say about the power of the tongue. The tongue holds soo much prowess. Think about this tongue of ours, something so small, so loose, and soo hidden. The Bible summarizes the tongue as a spark, or a catalyst that if used correctly creates an abundant life. However if it is wielded in the wrong direction, it can compose total destruction.



The tongue is soo powerful that if we are apt to speak death over ourselves, without fail, we will find ourselves void of oxygen. So why is it that very few folk heed to this bit of wisdom that graces the pages of the greatest book ever published? We speak so we are. We speak ourselves into poverty, divorce, depression, loneliness, black holes, etc. We blame our situation on outside circumstances and forget that our tongue has spat out most of our destiny.



God was the first example, as to the power of speech. As the boom of his voice formed the word light, the earth became exposed to the glorious sun, the tint of the stars , and the huge glow of the moon. We thank God everyday for the light as there is not much that can be achieved once the sun goes down. Without the light we find that darkness creates the balance between start and stop, activity and rest.



There is power in simplicity. The tongue is a simple tool that sits inside the cavity of the mouth; it sits in between two layers of teeth and is held back by our lips. James who was Jesus’s blood brother states… Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. The tongue is the rudder that stirs one’s life, it would be mindful for us to know that the tongue carries more weight than ten thousand stones and has more power than one thousand volts of electricity.



So what’s up with all this tongue talk, aren’t you an entrepreneur? Yes I am, but as one who finds herself motivating others, I feel that entrepreneurs’, socialpreneurs, ministers and revolutionaries, need to learn how to tame the tongue. How can one achieve a vision that has not been spoken? Can we speak ourselves into a vision, a business, into success? Yes we can, however we need to start with the correct tools in order to bring things into fruition. You can compose a solid business plan, proposal, or sermon, but it will all mean zilch, if you have not spoken these things into existence.



Let your tongue be the compass that leads you to success. Let it guide you to those high places that sit just a little beyond the clouds. Speak well of yourself and others. Speak to the air and tell it your dreams. Speak success to your failures and motion to those things that have stalled. Speak life to death and speak joy to pain. Speak abundance to poverty and speak salvation to the damned. Speak fairness to injustice and speak love to hate. Go ahead, speak. What did you say?

Young, Talented, and Broke..But Not For Long

Young, Gifted, and Broke ... (But not for long, the broke part that is)


By T. Semakula


(text in italics are compliments of Ms. Ariel Gore)


Ariel Gore hits the mark in her book titled How To Become A Famous Writer Before You Are Dead …You don't have time for rejection letter home improvement projects. You can't afford to sit Zazen while your cherished manuscript languishes in some nameless agent's slush pile. You got maybe a hundred years on this planet. Less if you smoke. And you want to be a lit star, man!

To be paid to write is like icing on a good knockout lemon punch cake. That's what most writers aspire to. We aspire to have money to pay our bills, to travel, to walk around New York City and not work around New York City. It's one thing when you work at McDonalds in Times Square, it's another when you are just piddling around after finishing off your novel and you just happen to have a taste for a nice Oreo Mc Flurry from the McDonalds that sits inside Times Square.

You'll need a bulletproof ego and a juicy humble core…I often think about the famous writer Zora Neale Hurston and how she used patrons to get her through her many creative pursuits. These patrons had taken an interest in her as a writer and researcher. She was able to secure an apartment here and there, a trip to Haiti to do some research on culture, and she traveled quite extensively. However Zora, who is considered one of the most brilliant and talented writers of our time, died alone in a small green house in Florida. Her unfinished and rejected manuscripts were burned along with a pile of her personal belongings in her front yard. The only thing that was left was a charred patch of grass and a woman whose bones were resting in an unmarked grave. It was apparent that the interest, that her patrons had in her, had evaporated. It took a decade and a half later after her death, for Alice Walker to pen the article in Ms. titled "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston."

When it comes to being paid for your art, some writers come from the good old school of hip hop- by any means necessary. Us folk, who were weaned on Tupac and Biggie Big, clung to the immortal words of Chuck D-Hip hop is the CNN for black folk. We formed our own networks, created our own means of communication, laid out our own cable wire via hip hop and street corner shout outs. Self –publishing, self promotion, making something out of nothing is the mantra that more writers are grabbing hold to.

Zora took the traditional route of sending out her work. She waited for folk to respond. She waited for folk to pay her in advance. She waited for folk to acknowledge her and keep her from obscurity. Sure, writers still take advantage of sending out their work blind with the SASE, but they are also learning how to promote and market their own work.

Most people would like to receive and smell the flowers that folk have brought for them while they are still alive. I am sure that Zora would have appreciated the much deserved respect and revenue that her creative ideas and pursuits have admonished. To be young, gifted, and broke is a punch in the face to any writer. It doesn't hold any ground as we enter the age of the internet, with advanced printing and media tools which are available to the emerging writer via their own personal computers and laptops. No more waiting for someone else to make it happen, sometimes you have to make it happen yourself!

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