He then went on to be heavily involved in the development with turntable.fm and pinterest.

And NOW… he launched his own product and company named Gumroad. His service allows you to create unique links which allows you to sell digital products online.

All this before he can legally buy himself a beer.

Listen to the interview and you quickly realize that he is not your typical 19 year old.

I am a marketer and a minimalist.

In fact I became a minimalist to become a marketer.

I had to adopt a minimalist philosophy if I could ever seriously consider becoming my own boss and starting my own company.

If I had not removed all excess from my life I would have continued working at my management job.

And although I enjoyed working with the people at my job, it took away valuable time with my daughters in a very critical time of their childhood.

By the time I quit my job I had a reliable Honda Civic that was paid off.

My rent was reasonable and my other monthly expenses were as low as I could get them. SUPER LOW!

I stopped buying unnecessary things, even those that I loved.

In return I got back my sanity and my time. I started to appreciate my life and those around me much more than ever before.

Minimalism During the Holidays

These are very tough times in our world and our country. Very tough. Just turn on your television for examples.

People are having to do more with less while every government entity is reaching in their pockets to tax them more to fill the gap in their own budgets.

Add on to that inflation making everything more expensive and their dollars being able to buy less and it makes my heart sink for some families.

Then we arrive to this time of the year where excess is everywhere. People will take on more debt to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas and bury themselves even deeper in a hole. (People are already camping out 5 days before Black Friday at Best Buy)

A hole that is already 6 feet deep for some.

This is capitalism. This is what makes America beautiful.

I am all for people spending money and paying taxes to keep our country going.

But at what cost? 

When will we have enough junk?

When will we stop spending money on the newest gadget that we will likely not be using in a years time?

When will we start appreciating the people in our lives and cherish the time that we have with them?

I used to hate working during the holidays  at the grocery stores.

People are the meanest and rudest during this time of the year which really had me confused when I was a young lad.

It didn’t make sense to me back then, but it makes sense now.

They want to be you. They admire you and you are the model for adulthood in their lives.

At times I have been floored by the truth in the above statement which I see with my own daughters.

Some of us have heard the age old statement “Do as I say and not as I do” and know that it is a pile of crap.

Even if it is us saying it to our children.

This “phenomena” can be seen everywhere. It is part of the reason that many kids follow their parents footsteps in their career choices.

I am old enough to now have seen the children of sports stars beginning to come up in the ranks of the same profession as their parents.

Whatever is important to you will be important to them. Even it is the most insignificant of things. Typically in the most perceived insignificant things.

Let take a trip to my hood…

I was raised in Oak Cliff and love the area and the people. It is known for many things and unfortunately has a bad reputation as a terrible place to live. Not true, but thats a topic for another blog post.

In that part of town there is a large amount of people that put a great deal of self worth in their shoes/sneakers.

Jordans. Nikes. Polos. And whatever brand is hot right now.

I still remember some people would wait outside of Foot Locker to pick up the latest release of the Jordans. Sometimes it would mean skipping school.

This is still somewhat true today. Only now those kids are adults and they have kids that are always wearing the flyest gear.

Their kids can recite to you the release date and color schemes of the shoes. Why? Is this truly important?

To them it is. To their parents it is and has been.

Now, let’s come back to the future…

I appreciate and respect this phenomena. Regardless I am still floored when my daughters say or do something that I absolutely never considered was important to them.

They, like all children, are incredibly observant and pick up on the most subtle behaviors we as parents have.

Our speech patterns are mimicked. Our posture. Our sense of humor. Our expressions. Our attitude.

Even the way we handle ourselves and manage problems. This one is a killer for some of us as parents.

But don’t take my word for it. I just pretend to know what I am talking about.

Take a self evaluation. Ask your peers and family how they truly see you and think of you.

After doing this take a look at your child. Your teenager.

We need to be more accountable for the children we are raising.

Yes I know they are being influenced by peer pressure at school. But what is our influence at home?

Be the image of what you want your children to become

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.” ∼ Albert Einstein

I posted this on my Facebook wall today and didn’t realize how much it would play out in my mind today. I have known this to be true for quite some time, but some days it truly makes more sense.

Mr. Einstein tells us here to match the energy of the reality we want. But on the flip side of that equation you also have the negative energy some people put out into the world.

We’ve all heard the quote “Misery likes company”

It’s quite true.

It is  amazing to me how similar energies find each other almost like magnets. HUGE MAGNETS!

How can bitter angry people find each other in a crowded room of upbeat unicorn loving people?

But this must be said as well…. positivity loves company too, but that one doesn’t get near as much publicity. Unhappy people seem to make more noise.

So I ask you: What’s your frequency?

Although my parents did the best they could, they weren’t the ones that fed this to me. But I did believe it.

An extension of that is believing that I can change things about myself that I didn’t like.

So when I first came across the idea that doing anything for only 20-30 can create a new habit I naturally was a believer. What sucks is that you need to start over if you break the streak. Oh boy!

I speak about it in the video for a bit, but imagine being able to create a new positive habit every month.

A new ritual. A new way of being. A new of thinking.

So here’s a little challenge (should you choose to accept)

Take a personal inventory of habits that you are not happy with. Or write a list of activities that you want to make a daily habit.

Start on one today. Not next Monday. Not when it is convenient.

I have found that life is pretty damn inconvenient. So the excuses will immediately populate your mind. Trust me, I have them too.

No need to share them with me. I don’t care for them. I have plenty of my own thank you very much.

Single mother? 5 jobs? No money? No time?

Try something new today… making no room for excuses.

None.

Ask yourself what needs to happen to make this new habit a reality. Tell the world you are doing it. Go on facebook and post about your new crazy idea. Use the social peer pressure. Use facebook for something new and unique. Leverage it.

My New Habit?

Running. I need to run and build my endurance. I play way too many things that require endurance and frankly I hate the sight of being out of breath after I run one block.

Unacceptable. So today I am on day two. I had a great excuse to stay in bed. It was so comfortable and I went to sleep late last night. I basically threw myself off the bed. Tomorrow…. day 3!

I am an observer. I watch and learn. As parents we all want to give our children the best that we can. We want them to better than we have done in this life. At least this has been my experience with all the parents I have met.

I regularly meet amazing people that want to learn a new skill and will hear things in which they recall other instances where they failed.

And when I people take action they will typically say something in the opposite sense. They recall instances where they did a great job and reinforces a positive decision.

Watch the video and hear my little story.

Share your thoughts. Pass it along.

I didn’t truly know that I was illegal until I was a teenager and then was scared to walk in the street because I may “get caught”.

To this day I still have this small fear that I may get caught up in something and be sent back to Mexico where I will be laughed at for being a fake Mexican. Although today I am now a permanent resident and have permission to occupy space in the good ol’ U.S. of A.

I married white woman from Ohio several years ago and now am father to a pair of amazing mixed young ladies(thank goodness for great genes). Or are they mixed.

(Maybe they just are human beings. Damn! I already lost my focus. )

American Citizen Coming Real Soon

I once was really militant as a kid about maintaining my Mexican pride and not becoming an American citizen.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still a very proud Mexican (and have it inked on my body), but the fact is that “Mexico” has never done anything for me. Not the government.

The people? Well that is another matter. I love my culture. My people. Our food. And just so you know, I also still celebrate Cinco the Mayo. (The fight for independence is a theme throughtout history and many nations and their people)

But why was I holding on so strongly to being Mexican in that sense.

My parents risked their lives to bring my family here and truthfully despite all the wrongs that the US has committed and many points in history, I am American. My daughters are American.

Many brave men and women of many nationalities have fought and given their lives to give us the opportunity to be spoiled.

There is a multitude of people that are still dying to come to the America at this precise moment. And there are still many brave men and women that are fighting for us today. I will save my conspiracy theories for another day.

I see the 4th of July as day to honor those who have risked their lives to fight for our civil rights and those of others. I SALUTE YOU!

America is a country of immigrants built by immigrants. We are all mixed.

Every one of us, although some of us pretend we are not. I find that so cute (and silly)

I have worked and hustled to meet people in the community that could show me what needs to be done.

One of my big questions had been just exactly could I contribute. What do I have to offer? At this point it isn’t money. At least not yet.(I have a dream to have a Teevee Scholarship… more on that in the future)

I have mentored and contributed my time in the community with a couple of young men in Oak Cliff with LULAC which I have written about in the past.

Through that I was asked to meet with a young man that needed some web help named Raul Magdaleno. At the time I had no idea who he was but was told he was a passionate man with a big dream.

I went on to help and since then identified several things.

One of these things is  that what I do for a living is a great way to help my community and help non-profit groups that need more exposure. This may be through web design or SEO work to get them in front of more people.

With Raul Magdaleno I was able to help him in a campaign to help him win MillerCoors Lider of the Year. I was part of an awesome committee that helped him win the title and a good money prize. This money he immediately donated to Parent’s Step Ahead in Dallas.

I was then asked to help in another endeavor to help him win One Man Dallas competition. Unfortunately my role was very very small, but he won this as well.The man is simply amazing and inspirational.

This past weekend he held an event in which I was asked to be a judge for the Hispanic College Fund at SMU Meadows Building. It was a 4 day event where high school kids come together with other high schoolers and are mentored and walked through a ton of activities that allow them to bond and see a glimpse of the future.

My role was on day 3 where a talent show was held. Talent was obvious. It was a shame that they could not all win the scholarship. They were all winners. This led me to a conclusion.

The future may seem very dim. The next generation gets hammered a lot. But I am here to tell you that the future is bright. These young men and women are amazing and breathtaking.

We need to shut up and recognize that they will not BE US! Thank goodness I say. They have another mind set that will be critical to fix the mess me are handing them. They will need all their creativity and flexibility to make sense of it all.

Thank you Raul Magdaleno and the Hispanic College Fund for allowing me the opportunity to see this in first person. Thank you to the kids that made me feel at home.

It is a more appealing way to present and keep the audience engaged in my presentations.

This is a very simple first attempt and excited at the elements I will be able to add to my presentation in very unique ways.