dtmoore's Blog

The next morning we got up very early, around 4:00 am. We got the kids up, there was running heated water, and got them ready for school. We made breakfast, packed all of our belongings, cleaned up everything we used, so as to not leave at race of our being there and left to drop the kids off at school. The church that put us up for the previous weekend also paid for a self storage space for us. The truck was still parked in front of the house we were evicted from, and we were still not sure of how to get throw the week as far as living conditions went. My wife is from <st1:city w:st="on">New Orleans, and in the back of my mind, somewhere I was tossing around the idea that at the end of the week, when Christmas break starts, we will need to leave and go to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">New Orleans to my mother-in-law's home. I knew she wouldn't mind, I loved my mother-in-law, and she loved me, so it was not a question as to whether or not we would be welcomed. Nevertheless, I didn't mention this to my wife yet. Well that day was filled with us looking for some assistance to obtain a home for rent or an apartment, or at worse a shelter for families, which are rare and difficult to find especially for the area we lived in. Well there was no progress in the area of assistance and it was time to pick the kids up from school, and so we did. We picked them up and went back to the abandoned house, but this time to find the doors locked. It wasn't abandoned after all, but was being renovated to be rented out, we learned later. This entire time we told the kids that there was an issue with a gas leak in the house we moved out of, and of course they never saw our things on the side of the road as a result of our being evicted. Anyway there we were, sitting in our 1998, Mitsubishi Mirage, which was given to my wife Kaye, as a gift from her grandfather long before we were together, not sure of where to go or what to do with no food, and no money. I agonized for a short while over this problem, for about 20 minuets that is, but then I was determined to get us shelter. I drove us back to the hotel that the church had put us up in and went in and explained that we needed to get our room again, they asked if this will be under the same name and card, used from the weekend, and I said, yes! What I didn't know was that the church that helped us used that hotel all the time, and that sometimes families will be sent back for an extended stay, and the hotel was used to those occurrences. Well just PRAISE GOD, for that, because that night, we had shelter with no questions asked. I called my mother, and being quite embarrassed, I asked if she could help us by paying for our stay in that hotel for the next 4 days, I explained our situation, and she did indeed help. I was very thankful, not feeling that her help was owed to me at all. After getting the kids settled Kaye and I went to the old house and got the U-Haul truck, she followed me as I drove it to the self-storage facility. She left me there with instructions to pick me up at 12:00 am midnight, at which time the gates to the facility were locked, and would re-open at 7:00 am. I got as much of our things unloaded as possible, and then parked the truck right outside of the gate with the other U-haul trucks, with our things locked and secure inside the truck. This was my routine for the next four days, Kaye would drop me off after we took the kids to school, and pick me up at midnight, I'd be prepared with my lunch packed, and a determined attitude. I told my wife we would go to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">New Orleans for the holiday, but I didn't tell her that I had the idea for us to live there for a while, I felt I could break that news to her after we arrived there. The last night of our stay in the hotel, Friday night, I was exhausted; I had been working 17 hour days trying to unload the truck by myself. This was the largest truck that U-Haul carries, packed to capacity from our 3-story rental home, Which a lot of those items came from the home I left several months earlier before moving in with Kaye and her 3 sons, as we had not yet gotten married. Well it started snowing that night in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia, December 2003, and I was delirious, Kaye was at the self storage with me that night staying warm in the car, as I tried to get the last of our things unloaded. The management was very gracious allowing me to occupy the truck for four days, and not charging anything additional for it primarily because there was no request for that size truck by any of their customers. That night however, I was going past the 12 midnight limit, and the owner came over and let me know that he would trust me to lock the gate when I left. I thanked him and continued to work, my wife insisted that I get in the car and warm up, and drink some water, for I was dehydrated. Kaye got out of the car with me and helped me with the last of the things on the truck, without her being there I would have passed out. We finished, I locked the gate, and drove back to the hotel. The next day was Saturday, and I got up early before checkout, and went to the self-storage and made sure everything was locked up properly, seeing that I was delirious the night before, and to pack the car with our cloths, and what wouldn't fit I had to leave. I had to sit on the trunk of the car and hop up and down several time to get the trunk to close and lock. As I drove back to the hotel for checkout I contemplated on how I would get gas money to travel from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Georgia to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">New Orleans, a 400-mile trip, which I new could be done on 2 tanks of gas. I already had a half tank, so $20 would definitely get us there. We didn't have any friends, they were all in the church we once belonged to, way in south Georgia, and they didn't approve of Kaye and I being together, and if they knew we were married, it would be frowned upon. So I got my family, packed them in the car, checked out of the hotel and started driving, I went to a local grocery store and went in, picked up some food items for the road, and then did the unthinkable, I wrote a check for the food and requested cash back in the amount of $20, I didn't think it would work, I had no money in my account, but I was desperate. The check went through to my amazement. I don't know if it would be considered a blessing for someone to be thankful for the success of a "not-right" thing to do, but I was, and we were on our way to New Orleans, with food and gas money.

So you have awoken to the Matrix? Wonderful! Everyday thousands of people all over America are waking up from the corporate nightmare realizing that quality of life is something that has to take a back seat to job security, and the affront of company loyalty. Those that are reaching for something more are reaching for the exploding home based business industry. Unfortunately there are the vultures that show up with a scheme, and a scam, from so called "home based business opportunities" to blatant MLM and sales reps. Know this for a fact, you will be involved in sales when you are running your own business, but that doesn't mean you have to be in the sales business! Most "business opportunities" are no more that someone else's idea for which they need sales reps. Now this sales rep thing can get interesting as far as perks, commissions, vacations and the like go but beware of settling for a goal for which you did not initially set out to be sidetracked into.

In my attempt to be fair, (since I am completely not a fan of 98% of "sales rep opportunities" out there), I must say that if you have only a job / career from which you are earning an income, a few (and I mean three or less) of these opportunities could be legit opportunities that will allow you to work from home. There must be however a concerted effort on your part to generate additional "ACTIVE" income opposed to passive income, such as a mutual fund, (day trading is of course active income, or loss thereof) or a downline in an MLM, and if a home based business is your desired goal then you will be interested in the list below. If you were a fighter jet pilot flying some of the latest military aircraft you would no doubt have a transitional period which would include a change of perspective, habit, and motive if you were to now enter into the commercial pilot arena; Now carrying hundreds of passengers, caring for their safety first, and following a flight path that may become mundane if not viewed as a commercial pilot instead of a fighter jet pilot. Get my drift?

The same applies for you as you move from corporate America minded, to personal company minded, it's no small transition, which is my segway into the first hurdle to overcome;

1. Eliminating the SPF (Single Point of Failure): What is a SPF? You may ask. Well as a technology engineer among other talents, I have and do design enterprise level networks for some of the most well know companies in the world, and the first thing any good network design will include is the removal of any single points of failure; for instance, let's say you were checking your email with Yahoo for example, and there was a construction company digging, outside of Yahoo's Atlanta datacenter, and they (the construction company) accidently cut the circuit (the AT&T provided high speed data line), which allows Yahoo's customers to check their email, and access Yahoo's website, and all of a sudden you were no longer able to send or receive mail. Well let's also say that you're depended on your Yahoo email account as your business email account and all of your customers communicated with you via this email account; you would probably be very upset due to the halt in communication. Understanding that these types of "fiber cut's" can cause an "outage" that could last for hours. What did Yahoo do wrong? Why are you suffering because of this outage? What could they have done to insure that you wouldn't go through this episode? They could have and should have eliminated their single point of failure! By the way, I assure you that Yahoo, one of the most premier web portal sites on the Internet has eliminated any possible single points of failure, because their business depends on it; but let's continue with our example; They should have had multiple circuits for the customers to have continual, uninterrupted access to their website, and their email accounts; and if an outage occurred, you the customer would not even be aware that there was an issue at all. Let's apply this example of a SPF to your income; if you are unable to continue with your career, at your present employer, or any employer, and travel outside of your home was out of the question, would this be the beginning of the end of your ability to generate revenue? Don't include your spouse's income unless they are self-employed, and if they are not self-employed it just means that there are two single points of failure instead of one. My reasoning for this statement is simple; if both of your jobs were to be eliminated there would be a lapse in income however short. So what does one do when one or both incomes suddenly or not so suddenly stop? Well there are plenty of options as we all know, but wouldn't it have been easier if the income from your employer was removed as a single point for failure in the first place? The answer is YES! Well how exactly do I remove this single point of failure? How do I start? You may ask. Arrrggg! There's the rub! Chapter 2 of "Starting Your Business the Write Way" will answer this question, or just some research, well a lot of research into the matter which will include planning, skills assessment, a viable income generation vehicle, focus, and the willingness to learn to juggle by controlling every event of every day in your life. But so as to not leave you completely hanging, redundancy eliminates a SPF, and true redundancy in the realm of revenue is revenue that you control, not a second job, or even a sales rep position / "business opportunity" for which you have no real control or say so in the company's internal operation. Stay tuned for the second hurdle in this article, "Corporate Paralysis". <o:p>

I remember it like it was yesterday, I woke to a strange sound like someone was knocking with a tool of some sort out side of the house. My wife was gone running errands that morning, so I knew it wasn't her. All of a sudden, the electricity came on, that's when I knew that it was either an angle, or this means trouble. Our electricity had been off for more than a month, our propane was out, and the water had been off for about 3 weeks. I would get up every morning around 4:00 am armed with 20 or more empty 1 gallon plastic water bottles, and travel by car about 1 mile or so to the main highway where all of the restaurants were lined along that highway. I would go to a different restaurant each morning, as long as the restaurant was closed, and fill my water bottles up with the water spicket from that restaurant. It was very cold outside during that time, and I would go back home after filling those bottles and pour that water into a very large (gumbo) pot, light the kerosene heater and place that pot on the heater and in about 2 hours, the water would be hot enough to get the kids cleaned up for school. During that time we would try to finish homework with the kids while there was still daylight, and lit candles which we ate by, mostly sandwiches. Anyway, There was a knock on the door that morning, more of a banging than a knock. I went to the door, and to my dismay there stood the landlord with a motley looking crew. Just as I was asking him what he wanted, the sheriffs deputy drove up. We were being evicted. We just paid our rent (by a real life miracle), 2 weeks earlier. We went to court for an eviction hearing, and with no defense except to comply with moving out (it was the second week in December), and just as the judge was going to drop the gavel, a gentleman in the back of the courtroom stood up, and declared to the judge that he would pay our rent. It was an awesome experience. Anyway our rent was paid! But the landlord lied to the court after the rent was paid and said that we refused to sign the lease, when he actually didn't send the lease to us to be signed. I showed the receipt of payment to the sheriff's deputy, and he commented that if he knew that this was a bogus request he could have delayed it until after Christmas, but it was too late. At that point I watched in horror as our things, clothes, pots, dishes, books, everything we owned was placed on the side of the road, a house full of our possessions'. Just then my wife drove up, and it was all I could do not to fall apart as she screamed, and cried with all her might. That was worse than watching our things being placed on the side of the road. The kids would be out of school in 3 hours, they usually road the school bus home. The sheriff's deputies were both very sympathetic and said they were going to call on some churches in the area to try and get us some help. After all of our things were put out of that house, one of the deputies let us know that a church would pay to put us up at a local hotel for the weekend, it was Friday. My wife went and got the hotel room, and then went and got the kids out of school early, all three boys were in elementary school at the time. I took our last $100 and got the biggest U-Haul truck I could find and started loading our things. A very nice family stopped to help my wife and I, and 4 hours later we were finished and headed back to the hotel room, where we left the kids. We had to leave the truck in front of the house, we didn't have gas to drive it to and fro. We tried to sort things out over that weekend, but when Monday morning came we had to leave, it was the last week of school before Christmas vacation. Well Monday, we took the kids to school, and tried to figure out what to do, but 4 hours later we picked them up. That cold, cold night, we slept in an abandoned house that had the electricity and heat working. It was clean, and we even cooked that night. It was God's blessing. Stay tuned for part II.

Things will not stay the same!

What things? You may ask. What are you getting at? You may say. Let me make some statements of observation First African Americans have an unexplainable, undeniable, collective gift and ability to tap into somewhat of a super-ability to master, and dominate what we can understand, both individually and collectively. Take for example the athletic entertainment arena; There have been many good athletes from different cultures in many different sports, and even a few great athletes from those groups, but there is no other ethnic group that not only have created, (YES CREATED), so many great athletes as far as in number would go, but none that have so completely dominated a sport as the African American athlete. We understand sports! We get it!, We master and then dominate!

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What about the music industry? Hip Hop. What other music genre has been so widely accepted, but not just accepted, embraced and claimed, by every culture imaginable, as their very own that can even come close to Hip Hop? Let me answer for you. None! Ok so what's my point and what does it have to do with the topic? Stay with me for a few more minuets.

There is something that is being done as a part of our culture, everyday, in most of the African American communities, and homes that somehow nurture the possibility of superstarism in our youth. Something that we do, something that we say over, and over. Something that is demonstrated by parents, teachers, relatives, friends, but all within our communities and our homes. Something so powerful, that an African American kid can have a dream that is based in a realistic possibility that they can become a professional athlete. I hope we discover what is that "something we do" that is nurturing our young athletes and musicians before "They" do, otherwise, it will be packaged and sold back to us at Wal-Mart! And sadly, we'd buy it as if it were going to somehow run out, completely forgetting that this "Something" was generated, and created by us, in the first place!

Our days as the leading consumer are numbered! Thank God! Our days are numbered because we are waking-up to another ability, we are beginning to understand, economics! My earlier statement that;

We African Americans possess a collective gift and ability to tap into somewhat of a super-ability to master, and dominate what we can understand, both individually and collectively, will also be true in this arena, a collective mind set to expect quality from our purchases, to refrain from purchases that are not supporting our beliefs, our kids, our jobs, our businesses, our communities. To save and invest more than we spend, encouraging the young folks to take the $5000 plus dollars they intend on spending on some Doves (rims) to put on their cars, and rather place it in the stock market, options, treasury bills, real estate, county tax sales, neighborhood stores; clothing, convenience and gas station stores, international trade, online auctions, manufacturing of an invention, and the list goes on. Can someone really do all that with $5000? You damn right you can and more. Knowledge (of the what, when, where, how, and why) is power, and power controls Markets! Money markets, textile markets, real estate markets, etc. There is power in (united) numbers! Lets not allow class-ism to separate our race and culture, lets take the responsibility to teach and train each other, and ourselves by keeping up going out (to the book stores, and libraries) and ever increasing our knowledge base. While our days of the number one consumer are numbered, our days of an economic force and powerhouse are just beginning.

God Bless,

See you at the Top!

Dwayne T. Moore

CEO Citi Business Group, LLC

What makes a successful entrepreneur? Is it choosing the right business or the right opportunity at the right time? Maybe you just have to be a certain type of person that can make a business work.

In my many years of business, I've made quite a few observations, and my abiding philosophy is that Entrepreneurship is a creative combination of desire, creativity, drive, chance (risk), spirituality, servitude, fortune and misfortune, self-actuation, and love.

This bouquet of tangible and intangible attributes all come from within the person. In other words, as unique as each person is, so are the reasons that a business venture works or doesn't work, and a business large or small takes on the personality and characteristics of it's founder(s). Nevertheless, perseverance, and confidence are always present where there is success, and fear is nowhere to be found, at least not when it could have done the most damage, which is during the action stages of a new business venture. What do you say?