Pay The Iron Price (Get Off My Lawn Part I)

So, I have a confession to make to you all.
I have joined the madness....I now play World of Warcraft.
Hey, before you mock me (as I have done COUNTLESS others), have you played it? NO? Then how about you run your mouth elsewhere, because you're speaking out of ignorance. I understand, believe me. I used to do the same thing, just ask my other half.
Then, very recently, I decided to create a character and try the game. My logic was sound: My S.O. loves WoW. I wanted to have something that we could do together! If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em!
Then the unexpected happened. I found out it was fun. Before you could say "Lok'tar Ogar", I had not one, but TWO characters.....DragonsTears (a Level 38 Blood Elf Hunter) and GrollGmar (My level 35 Orc Warlock) and I'm having a grand ole time, questing, running through dungeons, and exploring this super-amazing world, that so far, I have not found the edges of. Really, I must give the fine folks at Blizzard a lot of credit for the detail and depth.
You're probably wondering why this is relevant and why I'm not just hiding my shame at becoming the WoW nerd that I have mocked for more than 10 yrs now. Funny you should ask.

I was running around Orgrimmar (the main city for The Horde) (I KNOW...me? Dark side? whoda thunk it?!), when this level 99 Blood Elf approached me and reared the horse he was riding. I did the same and laughed (you can make them actually laugh out loud!), then his horse sprouted wings and flew up in the air.......and I reared mine again from the ground. I didn't laugh that time, but he did. What a jerk. You see, my Hunter is not Level 60 or higher yet, so while I am able to have a mount, I can not yet have one that flies.
A moment later, he lit back to the ground and said in in-game text "Follow me, we're gonna get you leveled up to 60 so you can fly". I thought, huh! Cool!! He's gonna help me run through some quests and dungeons, so I can level up faster! How nice, right? We were off like a light-switch, and before you know it, we had entered Ragefire Chasm (the dungeon under the city). "Follow me," my new friend yelled, and off we ran.....he much faster than I. But, everywhere, instead of enemies to fight, there were dead enemy bodies. Then I saw my friend up ahead. As he would run up to these level 14 enemies, his level 99 Elf simply waved it's hand, and enemies just kinda fell dead.
BORING! I said "Stop". He stopped running forward, and I said "This isn't how I want to level up. I want to EARN it! But, thank you anyhow" He simply disappeared and left me in the dungeon alone. What's the point of playing the game, if you're not gonna, you know, PLAY it? This is why cheat codes make no sense to me. Where's the fun in that? I digress. I texted Jennifer about the incident, and she said "That's what people do. Level up fast so they can get end-game content and go on raids".
Really?

It got me to thinking about a whole generation of people who just want everything handed to them. They don't want to have to work for it. Just give me my reward, and let me be on my way. Granted, NOT ALL of you are like that, and thank you for being the exception, and thanks to your parents for raising you better! But somehow, I buy into my Dad's lectures about working hard for what you want. There is such a feeling of satisfaction from doing something and accomplishing it through hard work and dedication. I have never had life handed to me. I've had crap handed to me. I've been SPOON-FED heartache and misery! But all the positives in my life, I have worked hard and long for. And at the end of the day, I have the love of a beautiful woman, the respect of my children, the joy of grandchildren, and more stories to share, than I can shake a stick at. I could go on and on about kids who have things handed to them, and don't care for what they get. It has no value, because they didn't bleed, sweat, or cry, to get it.
It's sad to me. Call me old, call me crazy, call me the Get Off My Lawn Guy! But, i'm sad that mine was the last generation to be able to play outside until the streetlights come on, without my parents freaking out and worrying that I had been kidnapped. Of course, my parents would both say "Let them take you! They would only get you in the light and let you go". Thanks Mom and Dad. My self-image has never been the same! haha!
Anyhow, my own children will tell you, that I am full of that same crap that my father was. I have tried my best to give them a solid moral compass, and protect them from the harm of this world, while NOT shielding them from the realities. I have tried my best to make MEN out of my two sons. I think I've done a pretty good job of it.
Know why?
I WORKED for it.
I appreciate that reward.

End of Rant....for now

"THAT THING" (Get Off My Lawn Part II)

“That Thing”


Yes, That Thing. You have it, or you don’t.  It’s that passion, that drive that presses you forward, beyond obstacles, in the face of fear. Fear of death, or worse, fear of public failure.  That “Devil may care” attitude.  Do you have it? The only thing that propels you forward or stops you from success, is “That Thing”.  It works no matter if you believe in it or not.  That’s the first Natural Law.  I am absolutely the WRONG person to tell “I always wanted to *XYZ*”, because my first response will be “No, you didn’t.  You never wanted it, or you would be doing it.  You might have thought it sounded like fun, or sounded like a good idea, but you didn’t WANT it.”

As you get to know me, you’ll hear me repeat a (paraphrased) quote from Sir Mixalot (Anthony Ray), “There are two types of people in the world. Those who look for ways to succeed, and those who look for excuses NOT to”.  Listen to me…you are ONE or you are THE OTHER. There is no in between.

Don’t tell me you can’t, because I’ll call you full of shit.  My father didn’t raise, and my drill sergeants didn’t train a “yes-man”.  You say you cant? Really?  I have former soldiers who lost both legs in combat to IEDs.  They didn’t stop and wallow in what they “couldn’t” do.  They pressed forward.  They did the physical rehabilitation, they got the prosthetics, and now they walk, and even RUN, some of them.  I trained a paraplegic in Tae Kwon Do/Chung Do Kwan. He is now a 3rd Dan (Black belt).  Don’t tell me you can’t.  Don’t tell me you “always wanted to”. I’m uninterested in hearing it.

Example 1) - I was 7  years old, and my father was a singer in a local band, and he played his guitar in the living room at home often.  I told him “I want to learn to play guitar like you, daddy”.  For my 8th birthday, he gave me a guitar and a chord chart and gave me the ONLY music lesson I have ever had in my now 44 years.  That lesson was a simple sentence.

“If you want to learn, you’ll learn”.

I now play guitar, bass, keyboard, saxophone, trumpet, violin, flute, theremin, mountain dulcimer, harmonica, and I have been lead singing in both Hard Rock and R&B bands since I was 13 yrs old.  I have never taken any other music lesson, than the one my father gave me that day.  “If you want to learn, you’ll learn”.  I have “That Thing”.  Do you?

Example 2)  A young man  asked me a while back “Can you teach ME how to be a bodyguard?”. This guy was 6’4”, and a good 375 lbs.  He would be ideal club security.  That’s not the same thing.  Being a bouncer is very different from doing close-protection.  I answered him, “I can teach you the skills.  I can teach you self-defense, ground fighting, how to do threat-assessment as you enter a room, and how to identify all points of egress.  I can teach you how to watch body-language, how to tell if you’re going to be able to use diplomacy to cool a situation, or if it’s going to get physical.  I can teach you to disarm a threat, how to safely extricate yourself and your client from a situation, or a closed in spot.  I can teach you how to drive defensively, and what answers to give in court, when you have to defend your actions or driving. I can teach you those skills.  What I can NOT give you, is ‘That Thing’.  That thing that makes you fully and completely willing and prepared to jump in front of a bullet, for another person, for a dollar.  You HAVE that, or you do NOT”.  It’s “That Thing”.

It makes or breaks the strongest, tallest, hardest of men.  It makes successes stories in the least likely of places and people. It takes the simple and makes it extraordinary.

Example 3) - Professionalism says not to say the name, but there is a particular rock band that is WILDLY successful, for 40 years now.  They are NOT talented musicians. Their music is sub-par at best.  But they’re AMAZING SHOWMEN, and their leader is a GENIUS of marketing!  That is the element of their success. That is “That Thing”.

Do you have it????

Extraordinary Thinking

  I want you to see what happens when you stop letting people tell you what you can't do.  Who am I? I'm some 1983 breakdancer from a little town in the north part of San Diego County, now grown and transplanted to the Midwest. And if I had kept that mentality, it would have been a shameful waste of talent and ability.  I could have continued to work at LCI or any number of other places that are here. After all, this is the RV manufacturing capitol of the WORLD!  At my last job, I used to joke with my coworkers when they would complain about work. I would say to them "HEY! As long as Jason Lippert gets to buy that new yacht this year, then I'm happy! That's what we do this for! Keep your heads up, lads!!" And we would all laugh (I was going to tag Jason in this, because I actually respect him in spite of my joke, but it wont let me).

I had a thought just the other day. I NEVER cared for Kanye West until today. It occurred to me that the problem with Kanye, the problem with ME, the problem Mr. Lippert, the problem with so many that I associate with is this.....we're extraordinary people. Of COURSE ordinary people don't understand us. They only know how to think ordinary thoughts. They are too busy reading the numbers, when we're talking in COLORS. Local brains simply can NOT think globally. The opposite is also true. Those of us who are extraordinary can't wrap our heads around ordinary thinking. Listen, I'm not bragging when I call myself extraordinary. I am acknowledging who I am, and frankly, some of you need to acknowledge this same thing about yourselves. Stop feeling bad when you're not understood. Recognize that you're dealing with average people, and they can only see through average eyes. If they dislike you, it's actually their unhappiness with their own choice to not live up to their potential. They're scared of their dreams, so they don't like seeing you reach out for yours. Now, if you allow them to stop you, then it still comes back to YOU have a problem, no one else.  I am learning that even when my loved ones, family members, etc. don't understand my methods or reasoning, it's because they're not supposed to. They're average, everyday people with average, everyday thoughts. 
My mother said to me not long ago "You're coming off like a conceited ass, lately", because I posted on Facebook that the reason I work 70-80 hrs a week, the reason that I am getting an average of 4 hrs of sleep every day, is because one must pay the cost to be the boss.  I will rest down the road, but for now, I have to keep on this grind, to get where I want to go and be successful.  I replied to my mom "I'm baffled that you of all people, only got THAT out of what I said.  YOU'RE the one that instilled in me that you have to work hard to get what you want. That is the whole message".  The problem is, my mother worked hard her entire life...for another man's dollar.  I loved working at Lippert, because they showed incredible care for their employees, and they earned my respect for that. But the fact is, as long as I was there, I was earning another man's dollar. Sorry, I need to earn my own, until someone else is earning my dollars for me, and *I* can get this year's newest yacht.
I asked one of my mentors in the music industry "do I sound like I'm getting a big head?" His answer was "No.... you sound like you took off the bib. When you were a baby in this industry, you were SUPPOSED to sound like a baby.  But you're an 'adult' in the music industry now, and you're thinking and speaking like one. You don't sound conceited. You sound mature".  I'll never forget the day I learned a valuable lesson in the industry.  Grandmaster Dee (DJ for legendary rap group Whodini) invited me to go with him to the Zulu Nation Anniversary Party. I was to meet him there at 7.  Well, the line for the party stretched about 4 blocks, and so I got in line.  About 7:30pm, my cell rang. It was Dee. "Where are you?". I said "I'm holding a spot in line for us". He said "I'm at the door. Get up here" and hung up.  So, I walked up to the several blocks to the door and there was GMD.  He said "We do not wait in lines!". He then went to the person doing the guest check in and said "Grandmaster Dee of Whodini". The check in person looked and said "I'm sorry, you're not on this list" to which he replied "Then write it in. Grandmaster Dee plus one" looked at me and said "Come on" and turned and walked in the door without so much as waiting for a reply. In we went. No line, no list, no nothing. Dee explained it to me very simple. "We're NOT THEM! THEY wait in line, THEY buy tickets, all that. We MAKE this music. How do we look waiting to get in?".  Another conversation that I had recently was after the event I put together for Kangol Kid's baby-shower.  What was said to me after the rather successful event was, "Your days of ratty t-shirts and blue jeans are over.  You can no longer leave your house looking like anything less than who you are.  You represent names like Chuck D, Kangol Kid, Daddy-O, and many more. You can't look like crap, because you then make them look like crap and no one will take you seriously."  That is why if I so much as run to the grocery, my jeans and shirt are pressed, my hair is styled, my face is shaved and I look good.  I've lost 70 lbs and quit smoking. I look good, feel good, smell good, and guess what, kids? My thoughts are now healthy, along with the rest of me.


Know this about me.  I'm not meant to be ordinary. I'm not an average person. Yes, I put on my pants one leg at a time like everyone else, but i'll be damned if I'm going to not chase (I started to say "dreams") the reality of who I am, just because someone else is scared to chase theirs.


"Who do you think  you ARE?!" you might be thinking.  I'm ME. I'm an extraordinary-thinking person, and I can't understand how YOU think, EITHER. Who do I think I AM? Here's a better question...why am I doing this and you're not?! No No No...I'm not saying that. You're thinking ordinary again. Stop it. Get outside of that box.  What I'm asking you is this....is what you're doing ALL you're worth? Look, if you're happy coming home from work covered in car grease and you just want to take a shower, eat dinner with your family, and watch a little TV before you go to bed, so you can get up tomorrow at 4am and get back under another car, then salut. I'm happy for you.  Continue with that average everyday life.  But don't hate me for not following suit.
Lastly, I'll repeat myself. If you disagree with me here, if you think "you're head is getting too big", I will simply smile at you. I get it. You don't understand, and you're not supposed to. But the extraordinary, above-average people who read this, will.

BECOME YOU