My Business Started in a Las Vegas Nightclub....

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Size Chart

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Journal – Maxwell Murray

5 Lessons in 5 Days...

Endurance: “Those who can tolerate pain the most - the ones with the most endurance - give themselves the highest chance to win” - Pat Bet-David: Your Next 5 Moves Vision: Know who you are, what you want, how you will get there, and the price that requires. Happiness: “Happiness is the state when nothing is missing. When nothing is missing, your mind shuts down and stops running into the past or the future to regret something or to plan something” - Naval The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Smile: I read a chapter of Dale Carnegie - How to win Friends and Influence people He talked about the Power of the Smile So last week, I walked into Montgomery mall and decided to give it a try. Every single time I smiled at someone, they said hi…. Literally 4 people in a 2 minute span said hi to me, first… It is the cheapest yet most genuine thing that you can do. By smiling, you not only raise your own mood, you also spread that contagious energy to others. Stop avoiding eye contact with people, look at someone as they pass by, and smile - you never know how it can impact their day. Identity: “Our identity is wrapped up in… what we think others think about us” - Jay Shetty, How to Think like a Monk “The only way to build a meaningful life is to filter out that noise and look within” Have a great rest of your week! ps. I’ve been on a complete reading binge if you noticed… Here are the books in my current rotation: The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Think Like a Monk - Jay Shetty Your Next 5 Moves - Pat Bet-David The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson Chop Wood, Carry Water - Joshua Medcalf The Biography of Walt Disney - Neal Gabler What it Takes - Stephen Schwarzman 75 Hard - Andy Frisella Ikigai Relentless - Tim Grover

Journal – Maxwell Murray

How Do You Respond?

I’ve always thought that a person was defined by how they respond to failure. You just lost the championship game… And instead of keeping your head down, blaming others, and screaming “why me?” - You take responsibility for the outcome, learn from that moment, and dive back into the process to make sure that you are better prepared in the future. However, you can learn even more from how a person responds to success. The boxer that won his first title fight… Gets rich, famous, now sleeps in silk sheets, and walks around his mansion in slippers. They rest on their morals, celebrate the win, and lose the hunger to work and improve… Life is about how you respond… To winning, losing, rejection, or affirmation… The process remains the same… How you carry yourself into that next play is what truly defines you.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

I Am Starting A New Show...

I went to the library yesterday and picked up the book  - What It Takes by Stephen Schwarzman. Stephen is the Founder and President of Blackstone - one of the worlds largest private equity firms. You just can’t talk to people like this… But you can read their books and hopefully pull at least 1 thing from them. ------ This is a side note: I read Shut Up & Listen by Tilman Fertitta yesterday. Tilman is the owner of the Houston Rockets… It was such a fantastic book and you can tell he is a billionaire because he literally didn’t waste one word in the book. It was just 5 chapters of direct, straight forward business advice. ------- This week, I have been playing defense. My cash is tied up in inventory that hasn’t arrived yet so I have no money for ads. I got my first set of refunds and returns due to sizing issues… And last week was my worst sales week since the launch. So I went to the library to reset and find an idea… Every obstacle you encounter is a challenge that can make you even better. When sitting on High Inventory, Low Cash: How can I effectively move product? To drive more online sales with sizing concerns: How can I give enough information for people to buy with certainty? Finally - When you have to slow down the ads and are fully reliant on organic social: How can you drive even more traffic to your page & site?   When I got to the library I wrote out all my main 3 problems and 5 solutions that are going to solve them. I then put 3 books in front of me: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman What it Takes by Stephen Schwarzman   The Infinite Game taught me that it is more important to stay alive than to win a fight that has no definite ending. Essentially - slow down & make sure you can keep playing The Startup of You reminded me about getting rejected from that job at a vc firm in Chicago… Key - Become undeniable by building your own lead gen engine and audience. Afterwards - I opened What it Takes by Stephen Schwarzman I flipped through a few pages and found this gem…. He wrote “People in a tough spot will focus on their own problems when the answer may lie in solving others.” I had been flirting with the concept of introducing a second show since last week. I invited a bunch of entrepreneurs to my photoshoot to try to execute this and even filmed pieces of it over the weekend but I didn’t have any real footing or concept yet. My brand has never been about selling dress shirts and has always been about building a platform supporting and showcasing others…. I realized - if I want to sell my own products - why don’t I collaborate with other people and help them sell theirs. This led me to my second show… Obviously - I have Game of Power: my podcast. Which is a long form conversation that I absolutely love because I can contact people that I want to learn from and have an excuse to ask questions for over a hour. But I wanted something more short form, snackable, collaborative, and discovery based. It brought me back to my sunday nights back on IG Live… So with that being said - my new show is: ‘Power Players’ a 60 second product pitch directed at new customers that don’t know about your business. Shark Tank is geared towards investors: would you invest? I want this show to be - would you buy this? It is funny because I did something similar back when I was running FITS… The problem was - I was obligated to sell the products on my marketplace. Now, I have less skin in the game and no constraints on who can join the show. This should be pretty fun! If any of you know startup founders that have built a physical product, please send me their info, I would love to get them on the show!

Journal – Maxwell Murray

How To Build The Next Facebook When You Can't Code...

This mistake would have saved me 2 years as an entrepreneur…. When Rob and I came up with the idea of FITS back in our NYU Dorm room - we dreamed of a social commerce platform where people could create, post, buy, and sell clothes. In the beginning, we started to work on wireframes & thought that we needed a programmer to build the app. So that's what we did - we built out the look of the app with all of these feature ideas and tried to shop it around… A few months went by and I quickly realized that this was extremely impractical. To start a business - you can’t just have an idea and expect someone to build it for you… We all saw what happened with Facebook. So we decided to build a MVP… Using all 3rd party integrations, we successfully launched an online marketplace… Designers were able to list products directly on our store… They could receive payouts through the integration and we could receive our commission through stripe. Shoppers could easily navigate the platform and buy clothes from these emerging designers. We kept going - the next task was to build a freelance marketplace. This was my dream product… the future of work. Just like the other marketplace, we used all 3rd party integrations and successfully built out a working prototype. Long story short, we successfully executed 2 technical products without any technical expertise. However, this was a problem… First, we weren’t playing into our strengths. There were small flaws in the logistics that I always knew about but was in no place to be able to fix… We really needed to take what we had and build out a fully customized system but that would require massive investment, a tech team, and a lot of time. I tried to learn design on Figma, coding through codecademy, and figure out how we could get to the next level…. The issue was - this was an extreme waste of my time… As a founder, you have strengths and weaknesses. Many entrepreneurs spend too much time trying to improve on their weaknesses. I think this can be a massive waste of time. When it really came down to it - I WAS NOT A GOOD TECH FOUNDER. You may be thinking, “No sh*t Max”…. But I think that the strive for young entrepreneurs to build the next “Facebook” is a plague that clearly exists in our society. Instead of chasing that, I think it is very important to be realistic with your strengths and ask yourself “What can I be the best at?” And I never could have been the best tech founder but I can be the best consumer products founder and that has been my big realization over the past year…. You won’t be the next Zuck but maybe you can be the next Arnault.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

The Thirteen Necessary Virtues

This morning, I re-read some of: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. In the book, he listed his 13 necessary virtues that he wanted to focus and improve on in order to live a better life. I thought I’d do the same: Maxwell Murray - The 13 Necessary Virtues   1. Fearless: Leaning into uncomfortable situations. 2. Relentless: Resolution / Completing the task. Being a Cleaner. 3. Resilience: Profiting from failure. Continuing to fight. 4. Consistent: Showing up regardless. Daily high-value inputs. 5. Kindness: Providing Value. Being Considerate and Empathetic. 6. Industry: Constant Learning and Skill Stacking. 7. Frugality: Spending on Production > Consumption. 8. Patience: High-value inputs for Long time Horizon. 9. Positivity: Things happen for you not to you. Growth mindset. 10. Grit: Pain = Progress. “Beauty in the struggle, ugliness in the success”. 11. Discipline: Doing the thing, especially if you don’t want to. 12. Presence: Focused on The Now. Living not in the past or the future. 13. Creative: Executing Grand Vision. Make Ideas Inventions.   Another week, Another opportunity.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

What do you want?

What do you want? First - ask yourself what you don’t want. What don’t you want to become? What don’t you want to do? What is failure? The easiest way to have a clear vision is to have a clear anti-vision. A customer that I didn’t know bought my dress shirt the other day. This is my new favorite thing and when this happens - I want to really introduce them to my brand. I want them to know that the fundamental belief that we stand on is the they have the power to Make Ideas Inventions. That they are capable and can really make their dreams a reality… But what if you don’t know what the dream is? What if you don’t know what you want? So - I wrote him the note above. Understanding what you don’t want is the first step to knowing what you do want. Whether you are on the path already or not - the vision gets extremely blurry at times… You get lost, confused, and lose track of where you are headed. Every once in a while it is important to reset and crystalize your vision. So - along with The Practice Shirt - I also dropped a journal in his box. The journal is one of the most powerful things I have ever stumbled upon. I have been journaling pretty consistently since I started FITS in college back in 2021. I have 6 completed journals now - all from different parts in my journey. The start - being that undisciplined yet hungry kid… The middle - joining the 5am club, starting as a content creator, building different products, failing multiple times, and diving deep into darkness… I’ve documented the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I can say with real conviction that if I didn’t have a journal - there would be a high likelihood that I would have quit by now. The journal helps you crystalize your vision. It forces awareness of your fears, flaws, self-sabatoges, actions, victories, thoughts, and beliefs. It is the first step towards bringing an idea from your mind into the physical world. The accountability system that only you know and can continue to hold yourself to. I say all of this to say - you may not know what you want but you do know what you don’t want. Take out a journal and write that down. That will crystalize your vision. The Practice Shirt + Business Box I wish that I could give every customer a dress shirt with a book and a journal. However, it kills my margins. So I have an upsell that allows you to buy a business box with your shirt. I handpick a book for you and put any other supplies in there that can support you on your journey. If you want to make a change - tap the link below! Business Box Ps. Tomorrow I am shooting a big campaign in New York City… If you are interested in creating content together, please reach out!

Journal – Maxwell Murray

She curved you.... READ THIS.

Find those pockets of motivation… Maybe it’s the job that passed on you. The girl that curved you 2 years ago. The mf that hated on you and told you what you CAN’T do.   When you’re tired… When you’re sore… When you don’t feel like continuing…   Reach into that cookie jar. Pull those moments. Visualize how you felt when that happened. And go harder…   In 4th Grade - I played my first ever AAU game at the YMCA in Ellicott City. My friends and I had just came off of dominating rec basketball. And we needed to start playing against better competition. The thing is - this time, there was no box to save us. (In rec there is a box that the defense can’t cross… essentially making kids stay within the 3 point line to play defense)   The game that day was against the Maryland Sharks. I actually knew a couple of kids there from a basketball camp the last summer. It was the first time we could wear our nice Laurel Laker Uniforms… And we were ready to let them know there’s a new team coming up.   The game started, I got the ball, immediately picked up my back foot before dribbling, and was called with a travel… They came down, swung the ball, took a man straight off the dribble, and got an easy bucket. Then when we went to inbound the ball - they were right there, in a 1-2-2 full court press. The bain of my existence for the next 3 years.   I ended the game with 10 turnovers… Repeatedly got plucked. Got called with 3 travels. And we lost the game by 25.   This was my introduction to AAU basketball… And I promise - it only got worse. Some of the losses we took still haunt me to this day… You have to understand - kids are getting their soul taken out there on the court.   But it’s the pain - that forces you to push through fatigue in your ball handling drills. The 30 point losses - that makes you work extra hard in practice to perfect your press break. It’s getting your soul snatched on the court - that makes me as a 6th grader, wake my dad up at 6:30 am so that we could go on run. Growth doesn’t come from comfort - it comes from pushing through the pain that you endure because you are tapping into those pockets of motivation that are buried deep inside of your mind.   Just like Michael Jordan did in the playoffs… Pick a battle. Find anything that can motivate you to win… And go to war with that thing every single week.  

Journal – Maxwell Murray

*Intense* LIFE RESET: Finding Happiness, No Drinking, 50 day Challenge, Getting out of a slump...

I woke up confused… My body felt so heavy in the morning and I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was scared. Scared about the future. And scared about what I would be doing after graduating from NYU.   I felt like a failure. I wasn’t producing content anymore. I wasn’t motivated to work on my business.   But what is failure? I thought failure was me not running my business. It was not helping people through content or posts…   I thought that if I only created more and served the world, that the internal happiness would come back.   But, that's not how it works. One night I stumbled upon a video of JK Rolwing giving a speech at Harvard Commencement. She eco’d the worlds of plutarch when she said - “What you achieve inwardly, changes outer reality”.   And so - I knew that I needed a change. I sat down and wrote out a 50 day Challenge.   For the next 50 days, No more alcohol Morning Routine and Gym Complete 1 Assignment per day   Over the next 50 days, I started to find myself again… I launched season 2 of my podcast And began working on the dress shirt idea that I had for the last 2 months   I started to appreciate the small things. By showing up for myself, I started to feel happy again.   I no longer created to serve others, I only created to serve myself. The idea that I had was of - Practice A concept that there is no destination… There is only the journey of learning and growing.   I put all of that energy into creating my dress shirts. To not build something for the world, But to build something for me. A Dress Shirt for My Love of Business The kimono-cut for my Filipino roots. The name “Practice” as a reminder to fulfil my internal life instead of chasing outward satisfaction.   During this challenge, I learned that: The most important thing that you can do is show up for yourself. That there no finite game on the exterior that can satisfy your soul. And to never forget that “what you achieve inwardly, changes outer reality”

Journal – Maxwell Murray

F*ck Wednesday: Pt. 3

I was the type of guy that would say - ‘I’ll do that on Monday”. So Monday would come around and I'‘d jump out of bed, go to the gym, go to class, and handle my business. When Tuesday came around, I’d still be running that Monday high, and maybe even have my most productive day of the week. Then Wednesday came around and sh*t would hit the fan. I’d hit snooze for 2 hours straight…skip the gym, and miss class. My whole week would go downhill from there and the cycle would repeat. Eventually - I put my foot down and said “F*ck Wendesday” Every week I set out to go to war with Wednesday… I didn’t care what I did that entire week - the one thing I knew was that I was going to beat the shit out of Wednesday. Just like Michael Jordan did in the playoffs… Pick a battle, find whatever can motivate you to win, and go to war with that thing every single week. Let’s bet tf out of Wednesday!

Journal – Maxwell Murray

I ACCEPTED 75 HARD: DAY 14

“If you don’t sacrifice for your dreams, your dreams become the sacrifice” - anonymous 14 Days ago, I accepted 75 Hard. 75 Hard is a mental toughness challenge created by Andy Frisella. It had 5 main components: Exercise twice per day, for 45 minutes each time Stick to a diet (No Alcohol) Drink 1 Gallon of Water per day Read 10 pages per day Take a progress photo each day Why did I accept 75 hard? I accepted 75 hard because I will sacrifice anything in order to build a successful business. Robin Sharma introduced a concept called - ‘The 4 Interior Empires’   Mindset - Your Thoughts Healthset - Your Health Heartset - Your Feelings Soulset - Your Inner Peace   I believe that success is a state when your 4 interior empires are firing on all cylinders. When you have positive thoughts, good health, are in touch with your emotions, and when you know who you truly are.   By accepting 75 hard - I am setting out to strengthen these 4 interior empires, to win on the inside so that I can win on the outside. “What you achieve inwardly, changes outer reality” - Plutarch   Many of you know that I did a 50 day challenge in the beginning of this year. I quit alcohol, dedicated myself to my morning routine, and chose to truly take care of myself. It allowed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life: I started my dress shirt brand - Maxwell Murray I was in the best shape of my life I truly appreciated the small moments in life - that sip of coffee, those saturday mornings, and honestly - just a breath of fresh air. I wanted to get back to that.   So - 14 days into 75 Hard, What have I learned? Sacrifice - “The top 5% of people do what 95% of people won’t do” - Robin Sharma Many people have dreams of being a successful entrepreneur, world-class fashion designer, truly global artist, etc - however, simply wanting something means nothing. The question that one must ask themselves isn’t “What do I want?” - It is “What am I willing to struggle for?” You may want to have a successful business. But are you willing to lose money, eat sh*t for years, overcome failure after failure, and put everything that you physically have into something that may or may not work? “I wanted the reward and not the struggle. I wanted the result and not the process. I was in love with not the fight, but only the victory.” - Mark Manson 2. The Inner B*tch - If you don’t want to do it, do it. The hardest part about 75 hard isn’t the no alcohol - it’s by far, the two workouts. Working out once a day in the morning isn’t bad but putting on your shoes for that run in the nighttime - sucks. Your brain starts to go, your mind begins to talk, and make excuses. “The work quiets the mind” - MM. The energy that you put into not doing something, you can put into doing that thing. When you do it - your mind settles down. Now - there is a very important concept that I want to speak to you about below 👇🏾 The work kills the inner b*tch. That voice in your head that tells you everything you CAN’T do - is the inner b*tch. It will make up excuses, amplify your fears, and confirm your doubts. “I’m too tired… I don’t have enough…” - “The inner b*tch” The voice in your head that tells you how much of a f*cking BOSS you are - that’s inner advocate. “I’m meant to do this… I can take on anything life throws at me…” - “The inner advocate” Our job as humans is to hog tie the inner b*tch, put duck tape over its mouth, and throw it in the back of a trunk. Through work - we silence the inner b*tch and strengthen the inner advocate. You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Only if - you ride with the inner advocate. Let’s work.   3. Happiness - You are never going to be happy until you accept that you are already enough. There is nothing on the outside that is going to make you feel happy. The moment that you achieve a goal that you set out for yourself, you will fixate your mind on the next goal. It is as simple as that. “Success occurs in the privacy of the soul” - Rick Rubin. Example - I just crossed 3,000 Instagram followers. I started posting content in April of 2022 with 1,700 followers. It took me a year to reach 2,000 followers (early march). It took me till October to reach 3,000 followers, and by December 1 - I will probably hit 4,000. Reaching this goal made me feel nothing. It is the chase, that I live for. The 500 videos that I recorded, edited, and posted - that made me feel success. Not reaching any goal. I am 100% sure when I reach 10,000 → 20,000 → 100,000 - I will feel no different. Life is an infinite game, not a finite game. You cannot win the game of life. The goal of the game is to keep playing. If you don’t understand that success is where your feet are today - you will never be successful. Many people think - If I achieve x, then I will be happy. That’s not how life works. That is why the process is so important. Because it is the chase, the grind, the work - that makes you feel successful. Finally: “To do what you have never done, you must become who you’ve never been.” When I was at my lowest point in life - I drew a T-chart. On the left, I wrote down all of the labels that I no longer wanted to identify with. On the right, I wrote down all the labels that I did want to identify with. Then I killed who I was in order to become who I always wanted to be. When you change your identity, you change your habits, and your habits change your world.     I wish you all the best in your journey! Please reach out to me if you ever want to chat - I will always be here for you. I love yall - thank you so much!

Journal – Maxwell Murray

I almost quit fashion...

About a year ago, I felt defeated. I launched multiple products and services in fashion industry and none of them were working. I blamed everyone else - the industry, not raising enough money, and anyone else that I could point the finger to. I no longer loved running a fashion marketplace. It was draining and I wanted to do something else. I decided to quit fashion and start thinking about other business ideas.   Two Things Happened:   I sat down at my coffee shop and thought “what am I good at?” - “what do I actually know?” I realized that I had been in fashion since I was 16 years old. If there was anything that I knew - it was how to start a fashion brand. I realized that I could monetize that skill by bringing together everything that we had built at FITS for the last few years. The team, resources, and experience in building fashion brands. This led me to pivot the business into an agency - we then helped other people launch fashion brands. In 2 months, I made my first $12,000 doing this. I loved helping other people yet I still knew that something was missing… I sat down and wrote in my journal "- “what would I do if money didn’t exist?” The answer was clear “continue my podcast, write a book, and do that dress shirt idea that I came up with 2 months ago”. I thought to myself - “well I’m not a fashion designer…. or am I?” “Well I was when I was 16…” “I know how to start a brand… am I capable of designing a dress shirt? I’ve never done that before” “F*ck it - i’m pretty bored anyways… I’m 20 days into my 50 day challenge and it’s not like I can drink or anything anyways”.   In the next 2 months - I designed, developed, and produced a kimono-inspired dress shirt. It was the most me product I’ve ever made. Dress Shirts For My Love of Business Kimono/Barong Inspired - From My Filipino Roots Named “The Practice Shirt” - For My Past Life in Sport I wore my dress shirt to school and felt incredible knowing that this was something that I could sign my name on.   The lesson that I learned in this was - The importance of not digging up your seed. At 16, I planted a seed in fashion - I didn’t know it, but I did. From 19 - 21, I watered that seed everyday when building FITS. I saw no progress. NOTHING came out of the ground. But - nothing was supposed to yet. While I was freaking out about not seeing any green on the outside - roots were forming deep under the earth. I couldn’t see it yet - but digging up that seed would have removed the entire foundation that I had built for the past 7 years.   It is like the old gold digging story. When the one guy quit digging for gold & left the mine. Someone else came in & realized that the first guy was only 10 feet away from the gold… That was almost me.   I say this to you - DO NOT REMOVE YOUR SEED AND PLANT IT SOMEWHERE ELSE! Water your seed every single day. People will think you are crazy. You will think your crazy. Outright delusional at times. “Why don’t you go buy that tree and put it in your garden?” The tree that someone else planted and watered every single day until it blossomed… But you aren’t worried about that - you had a dream of having a full garden. A garden that you planted, you watered, and you believed in enough to bring it to life. No matter what happened - you kept going, kept watering that seed, and eventually - didn’t give af about what the outcome would be. Because you fell in love with gardening.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

You will never start a business unless...

You will never start a business unless you: Dream of a Product or Service Write it Down in a Journal Build the Idea you Wrote Sell it to Someone for Money Dream it. Write it. Build it. Sell it.  Know this:  Naming a business - isn't starting a business. Making a logo for a business - isn't starting a business. Creating an Instagram page for a business - isn't starting a business. Even building a product for a business - isn't starting a business. The moment that you sold your first product - you started a business.   Let's build businesses. 

Journal – Maxwell Murray

The 22-Year Old Designer ‘Revolutionizing’ Dress Shirts For a New Generation of Professionals

Maxwell Murray wants you to dress for success, but also look and feel good while doing it   By: Sasha Wayman While most 22-year-olds are just settling into adulthood (you know, renting their first apartment, navigating treacherous dating waters, nearing the precipice of an inevitable quarter life crisis- that sort of thing) Maxwell Murray is already well-situated into his third business. Upon meeting me on a sunny morning in the East Village, the Baltimore-native came adorned in his very own Practice Shirt, a modern and culturally rich rendition of the time-honored dress shirt. Retailing for $128 dollars, the Practice Shirt is comfortable, classic, and above all youthful. While Murray describes his approach to business as “childlike,” there’s nothing immature about this ambitious Gen Zer. Taking notes from his early days as a student athlete, Murray approaches fashion just as he approaches business: head first.   The fashion industry is saturated with flamboyant designs made for virality, so… why dress shirts? I really like dress shirts, and I saw a problem with them. I felt like dress shirts were stiff, uncomfortable, and a little too overly formal. So I wanted to make something business casual, yet versatile that you could wear under a suit, with some jeans, to work, or on a date. I'm not really trying to build a streetwear brand, but I am trying to build a workwear brand. So for me it's just about doing something that is very me, and putting it out like that more so than thinking about where fashion is or where fashion is going.   Tell me how your identity was utilized to shape The Practice Shirt into a modern rendition of the basic dress shirt. Whether that's my dad being Black and my mom being from the Philippines, or me growing up as an athlete, or identifying as an entrepreneur, I feel like every part of my being is in this collection. I was very inspired by kimonos, and I wanted my dress shirts to resemble a piece of that. I felt like removing the normal fold-over collar was a big change that catapulted everything else. I wanted that to play a role in everything I'm creating.   So, who is The Practice Shirt for? Honestly, I made it for me. The white dress shirt is a staple for every business wardrobe, man or woman, and I wanted to do the white dress shirt to the best of my ability. My fundamental belief is that if you have an idea, you can make it happen. So this is for anyone just making things happen and breathing life into the world.    What’s it like navigating the business world as a twenty-something? I have this childlike wonder when it comes to business. One of the hardest parts of creating anything, whether that's a business or a brand, is just starting — you have to almost be delusional. If I knew how challenging it was to navigate the fashion industry before we started, if I had been in the fashion industry for ten years, I probably would have never done it. When you have that innocence towards the fact that you don't really care if you fail, then you don't care if you move fast and break things.   You’re just starting out, but do you have any tips on being a successful entrepreneur? Your habits make a difference. All these little habits end up being what you do. You don't have to be a super straight arrow all the time. But there's something about the person who has built the right habits and can keep the vices to a low minimum. The more skills I build, the more I bring to the table. And, in a business sense, the more value I add to the marketplace. Business is a team sport. It's my job to gain as many skills as possible so that I can help the team win. You just have to practice. 

Journal – Maxwell Murray

The Only Way is Through

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” - Milton Berle   We do not live in a fair world. We are not all born equal. We do not all start with the same opportunities and resources. That’s life.   Knowing that, we all have a choice to make. Are we going to let others gatekeep our success? Or are we going to create the life that we want to live in?   For too long, people had the power to gatekeep our success. Whether that is college apps, jobs, grants, investments, etc; we have had to ask others for an opportunity to get put on. Those days are over. You have the power to be so good at what you do that nobody can deny you success.   You do not need netflix to create a show. You do not need a record label to start your music career. You do not need ESPN to publicly talk about sports. You do not need an investment to be a CEO. You do not need a publisher to write a book. You do not need an opportunity, you can build the door.   Unleash your power. Be the person that you wish to see in this world. Create the life that you want to live in. And punch above your weight. You are so capable. You can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. You are special. You are the only person on this earth with your talent and skill set. You are unique. Your challenges, failures, and setbacks have only made you into the person that you are today. A world-changer and perhaps, even a history-maker.   You are too powerful to leave opportunity up to chance. Build the door.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

14 Notes To Self

1. Provide Value 2. Brand > Sales 3. Document > Create 4. Tell People About Your Stuff 5. Be Patient 6. Practice 7. Show Love 8. Track Stats 9. Do The Dirty Work 10. Workout 11. Wake Up Early 12. Pushups 13. Be Kind 14. Set The Standard

Journal – Maxwell Murray

The One Secret To Success

When I received my acceptance letter from NYU, I was shocked. Maryland, Fordham, UChicago, and a few other schools had just rejected me. I never knew that I was capable of getting into a good school without playing basketball. Just like everyone around me, I was convinced that it was luck. But it happened.   At first, it was overwhelming academically. It seemed like all of these private school kids knew so much more than me. Nobody looked like me or came from where I’m from. I felt really out of place and wondered if I was truly meant to be here.   Then I realized that I was here for a reason. I started a business at 16. I got excellent grades while playing varsity basketball. And most importantly: I applied to the school.   "You can’t win the lottery if you don’t play” - MM Reach out to that CEO Apply for that dream job Post that youtube video Start your own business Create something amazing.   You never know where that can take you. When something fortunate comes your way, a lot of people will call it luck. You will be one of them. But it happened, and anything can happen if you take action. Luck Rewards Action

Journal – Maxwell Murray

How to Develop a Fashion Collection in 30 Days!

Watch Full Process   Cut and Sew vs Wholesale Blanks: When developing a fashion collection, designers can choose Blanks or Cut and Sew. Wholesale purchasing of blanks is the simple route. Already established cuts and styles of clothes are available to the public for purchase. Then, designers can print their logos, designs, or other graphics onto the blanks. Cut and sew is the trademark “designer” way to produce clothing. It is called cut and sew because fabric is cut out to resemble the shape of a pattern. That cut up fabric is then sewn together to construct the garment. Cut and sew is for designers who want to develop their own signature look and shape of their garment. The truth about cut and sew vs. wholesale blanks is that it all depends on what type of project you are venturing into. If you are just trying to mass produce t-shirts with nice graphics, using blanks makes sense because it’s cheaper. It is important to think about what product you are trying to develop, how much you are willing to spend, and the overall vision for your business. Developing a Collection   5 Step Process To Develop a Cut and Sew Collection:   Step 1: Choosing Fabrics   Once I decided to start a dress shirt brand, I immediately started sourcing fabrics. This is where everything starts and was the foundation for the garment that I was trying to produce. At first, I found corduroy and cotton from the fabric store and sampled them. They were both too heavy so I needed to find something a bit lighter. Luckily, I discovered a featherwale corduroy that I absolutely fell in love with. Finding Fabrics Developing a Sample   Step 2: Pattern Making A pattern is a template used to create the shape and structure of a garment. Patterns are used to ensure that each piece of a garment fits together correctly and that the finished product is the desired shape and size. Developing a signature look and fit for my dress shirts was the most important part. I wanted to create something that looked completely different than anything else on the market. I am half filipino and was extremely inspired by kimonos and barongs. So I decided to go with a slightly oversized look with a chinese collar. My Inspiration / Plan Developing a Pattern   Step 3: Muslin / Fit Sample   Since a pattern is a piece of paper, a muslin is a great way to see how your garment is going to fit. A muslin is a piece of cotton that you can use as a fit sample for your garments. This helps you save money, fabric, and make quick adjustments. I tried on my muslin and immediately made a few revisions. I took in the chest and width of the elbow. I extended the length of the sleeve and torso. Muslin Correction   Step 4: Trim Trim refers to buttons, zippers, or any materials that you add to the base of your garment. To develop my sample, I needed to find 11 buttons that go well with the fabric that I was using. This was a pretty fun process. Buttons   Step 5: Samples Now, you are ready for your samples. All you have to do is bring your fabrics, pattern, and trim to a sample maker and they will handle the rest. For my dress shirts, I needed to supply 2 yards of fabric and 11 buttons. My first sample came back and I loved the fit but the corduroy was super heavy. I then took the cotton to the manufacturer for a second sample. A few days later, a mentor of mine threw me a gem by directing me towards a fabric wholesaler in the garment district. I found a featherwale corduroy, fell in love, and immediately took it to the manufacturer to get sampled. Final Samples Dress Shirt Reveal   Next Steps: Pattern Grading: All you have to do is develop 1 size and then get a pattern grader to scale out the additional sizes. Bulk Fabric & Trim Order: I am only starting with 100 dress shirts so I had to buy 180 yards of fabric and 1,100 buttons. Full Production: Recently, I put down a deposit for my full cut and sew collection. We are looking to drop the Practice Shirts in early May. Designers: If you are looking to develop your own cut and sew fashion collection, we have everything that you need at FITS. We can help you develop your collection by sourcing your fabrics, making your patterns, muslins, and final samples. After development, we can manufacture your full batch as well. Free Consultation   To watch the full development & production process: Instagram - maxwellmurray3 Tik Tok - maxwellmurray3 If you have any questions, feel free to reach out! Good luck :)

Journal – Maxwell Murray

The REAL Tea is Presence

The real tea is presence. More than ever, our minds are fixated on the future. Lusting the next step that zips us towards our dream outcome.  The next step after college. The next job. The next book. The next product or service that can bring our business to the next level.  It is not easy to quiet the mind. To tell the ego to stop fixating on what it can’t control. And so we think, contemplating the different paths that will lead us to the promise land.  One way forward is to be where your feet are. To surrender the outcome and play present. Instead of planning and strategizing, maybe it would be useful to reflect and look around.  “Nothing will ever happen in the future; it will happen in the Now.” Relax and breathe. Silence the mind with a sip of tea. Tell the ego that the path is under your feet. And that all this sh*t that we lust is not that deep. 

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Monday Motivation: The Next Step

“Everyone must choose 1 of 2 pains: The pain of discipline or The pain of regret.” When I started my journey as an entrepreneur, I was undisciplined and inconsistent. I worked when I felt like it, went to the gym when I felt like it, and relaxed when I felt like it. At the time, I was an immature kid with big dreams and no execution. My roommate was the most disciplined person that I knew. He would handle his business regardless of how he felt and I looked up to him because of that. He inspired me to take that next step by forcing me to come to the gym with him. Throughout the next year, going to the gym completely revolutionized my life. It became a keystone habit that changed all of my other habits. Over the next year and a half, I launched 3 businesses, started documenting my life on social media, and became the person that I always wanted to be. Yesterday, when I went to the gym with him for the first time since last summer, I was the disciplined and consistent person that I always dreamed of. Dreams are delusion without Sacrifice. Sacrifice starts with: Building Good Habits Removing Addictions Practicing Delayed Gratification Most importantly: Showing up for yourself, regardless of how you feel. Remember: “The top 5% do, what 95% of people won’t do.” - Robin Sharma   I want to continue this talk about sacrifice in a business context. In business, I have learned that it is better to do the things you don’t want to do, than the things that you do want to do. Let me explain: Things I want to do: Marketing: Recording and Posting Content Sales Calls: Trying to close new clients Build Products: Creating Cool Sh*t Playing Offense: Attacking the market Things I do not want to do: Marketing: Editing Videos Sales: Prospecting and Dm’ing 50+ people / day Finance: Budgeting to make sure we have runway to stay alive Playing Defense: Putting out fires and solving problems The things at the top are results from the things at the bottom. When planning out my calendar, the actions at the bottom will get me to where I need to go. Not the fun and pretty things at the top.   Podcast Rec: Alex Hormozi on The Diary of a CEO The Diary of a CEO hosted by Steven Bartlett is one of my favorite podcasts in the world. Steven is a successful black entrepreneur that took his social media marketing agency public at $500+ million. He has had great guests recently from Richard Branson to Cole Sprouse. Today, he aired an episode with Alex Hormozi. Hormozi is a successful entrepreneur that has been all over my social media feed for the past year. He gives extremely digestible business advice based on what he has done and accomplished in the past. If you are building any time of service business, his book $100m Offers is absolutely life changing. He presented an equation to provide your customers the most value possible. Here is a video of me explaining the value equation: Watch $100m Offers by Alex Hormozi Brand Update: Yesterday, I revealed the final sample for my dress shirts. Here is the video: Watch Next, I have to put in my full production order. I recently purchased 180 yards of the featherwale corduroy fabric that I am using. I still need to buy 1,100 buttons (each shirt requires 11 buttons) and then we are good to go. A few recent developments: Branding Moodboard Fit Sample Corrections Revealing My Brand Name I hope you all have a great week! “Top producers make it a habit to do the high-value activities that average ones don’t feel like doing - even when they, too, don’t feel like doing them.” - Robin Sharma

Journal – Maxwell Murray

F*ck Wednesdays: Part 2

A year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled “F*ck Wednesdays”. At the time of the post, I had bad habits and was not consistent at all. I think that it is important to pick and choose battles to take on throughout the week that can keep you going. For the past year, my battle has been against Wednesday’s and I have been kicking it’s a**.   On the topic of Consistency: I interviewed over 50 people in the past year and the common denominator in most of the interviews was the importance of Consistency. A few things that have helped me become the disciplined and consistent person that I have always dreamed of are: Waking up at the same time every day Going to the gym Really, it is having a set Morning Routine. A morning routine is a consistent task that you can complete every single day. It gives you time to work on yourself before worrying about anything or anyone else. The same way basketball players have a free throw routine, a morning routine for creators and entrepreneurs is truly a game changer. Book Recommendation: The 5am Club by Robin Sharma Here is a video on how this book has impacted my life.     An entrepreneur that I have been watching a lot lately is Bedros Keuilian. He has an incredibly powerful message that we can all benefit from. Check out episode 1 of his latest podcast. You will not regret it.    Brand Update: I am naming my dress shirt brand: Maxwell Murray. Name Reveal Developing a Collection My Plan / Muslin Follow along for the sample reveal at the end of the week!   Have a great rest of your week!  

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Monday Motivation: Be a Revolutionary

When you’re a Revolutionary: You can be a fashion designer, musician, youtuber, podcast host, author, video editor, and CEO at the same time because you start with purpose.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Self-Awareness

I watched one of Gary Vee's posts and he talked about pointing your thumb instead of your pointer finger. When you take whatever is going on in the world around you and assess your circumstances, before anything else, point your thumb. I was nominated a team captain for my junior year basketball season. The year before I started on varsity but was really limited in what I could do on the court and as a 15 year old, didn't really have an ability to speak up to my older teammates. My junior year was the first time in high school where it was really my team. I think that one important thing to always know is that you practice how you play. During this season in practice, I was extremely immature. I would talk excessive amounts of trash, slap a teammate after hitting a 3 in his face, and conduct myself in an erratic manner. As a result of that my teammates did the same exact thing. Joked around in practice, left early after practice, and flat out didn't take excellence very seriously. We failed that year as a team and our season actually ended with me sprinting for a late close out and chipping the shooter, sending him to the line for game winning free throws. The next season, I was locked tf in. I set the tone by sacrificing my numbers for the better of the team. Junior year I averaged 9.4ppg and with two new transfers, I knew that I would have to be way more of a facilitator. Each time we ran sprints, I was first or second. I would run next to the big men and force them to keep up. We took every practice seriously and stayed hours after practice to keep shooting and working out. As a leader, I became a lion and our teams culture resembled that. One game we were playing the second worst team in the county. It was kinda far out and none of us were excited to play since we had a huge game later that week. I remember turning up the aux and clapping crazy. Everyone followed, we hit the court and were screaming during warmups. It intimidated the living shit out of the other team. First play we ran a backdoor for a lob and I threw it up and bang! We beat them by 40. My team went 19-2 that year and even though we lost early in the playoffs, I felt like my team resembled my drive and personality. I was willing to die on that. Running a company is a big switch up for me. There isn't practice and there isn't any real games. I felt like for a little while as a team, we were going through the motions. My team has my friends in it and I remember even sipping on a beer during one of our meetings. I am obsessed with FITS and trying to get it off the ground. However, I felt like myself and my team wasn't performing the way I thought we should. Instead of pointing the finger, I pointed the thumb. It made me think about junior year and how I was acting in practice. One thing about me is that I would rather die than fail. In order to get to the next level, I had to show my team that they are lead by a lion and not a sheep. I started waking up at 6am every single day. Making numerous instagram, blog posts, tweets, youtube videos, tik toks. I obsessed over building product and finally took the create idea and made it into a reality. I realized that as the CEO nobody is going to work more than me. Therefore, I have to set the bar so fucking high that people are sprinting and jumping to touch it. Self-awareness is everything. You have got to understand why you didn't perform the way you wanted to. Instead of looking around and waiting for other shit to happen, you have got to set the mf tone every single day. What am I doing wrong? What can I do better? I remember when we first started, everybody wanted to know exactly what their role was. I gave them titles and explained what I wanted out of them. However, I didn't write it down. Therefore, there is way too much room for interpretation. People may be stepping on other people's toes, or might not know what they should do on a daily basis. Instead of blaming them for that, I realized that it was completely my fault. I wrote down full job descriptions with one common goal, list of expectations, metrics, their process, and an example of their daily week. I feel like in order to accomplish anything, it takes you understanding that you came up short. I set out a 3 part strategy for our business. In order to succeed we have to do x,y, and z. However, I can't say that and expect other people to come up and execute. I need to incorporate all aspects of x,y, and z into my life and show how its done. Shane texted me yesterday and said "If I can't believe this is the way 100% then I need to change what I'm doing". Life is about self-awareness and execution. Everything is in your control and in order to get to that next level you have to carry yourself to that standard.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Confidence

Are we naturally confident? Or is confidence built? What makes a person confident? Yesterday, I posted a clip on Instagram from my recent podcast episode talking about how basketball is life. I often look to basketball whenever I am navigating through different decisions or self-reflecting. As a basketball player confidence in your ability is everything in order to perform at a high level. One thing I love about basketball is how fast a player can go from being confident to not confident. We hit a 3 from the corner on one possession and the next possession we are eager to shoot the ball again. At the same time if we airballed our last shot, when we get open for another look, maybe we hesitate. A key thing as a basketball player is accepting failure and practicing short term memory loss. If we don't forget about our failures during the game, we can't continue to perform at a high level and help out our team. I don't think that being confident is a thing that we either are or are not. Confidence is a consistent battle that you are going to continue to face no matter what you are pursuing or going through. I believe that there are two types of confidence: Long term confidence and short term confidence. One question that you can ask yourself is what I am confident in? We all want to be successful and it takes a lot of confidence in yourself to be able to a point where you consider yourself successful. But, what does being successful even mean? To me, being successful means waking up and spending your day however you would like. In the long term, I am extremely confident that I am going to be successful because I know that I am in control over my definition of success. To answer my question before, I think that confidence can be a natural thing because everyday I am extremely confident that I will wake up tomorrow. Today, no matter if you make good decisions or bad decisions, your track record for coming out alive is undefeated. Therefore, naturally we have to be confident in the fact that everything happens for a reason and in the long term we are going to be okay. Short term confidence is something that is built. Our actions throughout the day are directly dictating how confident we are. Think about basketball for example, if we made our last shot, we are more confident to take our next shot. I think that you built short term confidence by taking on hard tasks and checking off those boxes. For example, today is Wednesday and I wrote about how hard it is for me to wake up on Wednesdays and have a good day. When my alarm sounded, I could have either gone back to bed or got out of bed and started my day. When I got out of bed, I checked off the first box of the day. Next, I had to decide to either go to the gym or not go to the gym. When I went to the gym and completed my workout, that was another box checked. As the day goes on if I continue to check boxes that are important to me, that is the same as making shots throughout a game. I am more confident in my ability to hit my next shot. However, days where I face those same tasks and do not check those boxes, I am naturally less confident. It is like missing a shot and hesitating on your next attempt. Just like in basketball, short term memory loss is everything and we can't let one failure in the day carry over through the rest of our day. Therefore, if you woke up today and maybe didn't check off that box, well you still have a lot of other boxes you can check off the rest of your day. Therefore, forget about it and move on. Like I said before, made shots= confidence, missed shots = hesitation. The best thing about life is that we are in control over whether or not we shoot in the first place and in life unlike basketball, we are actually in control over whether or not we make or miss the shot. Therefore, today go out there and average 20 and see how you feel. To conclude, long term confidence is a necessity and is something that hopefully we all have naturally. If we aren't naturally confident in the long term, then we have to practice short term confidence by consistently shooting and making shots. The more shots we make, the more confident we will be in our ability, and the more likely we are to be naturally confident in our future.

Journal – Maxwell Murray

You Faked Your Pushups

I started playing football at the age of 5.  I have two older half brothers that are 7 and 9 years older than me and I remember going to all of their games growing up. Every other week they would come stay with us and we would play kickoff football from couch to couch in the basement. I was like 4 and so they would both go on their knees, throw the ball to me on the other side and I would have to get past them and score by making it to the other couch.  They used to kill me. There was something called high-low, where Marcus would go for my legs and Myles would go for my head and I would literally just get flipped over and destroyed. I remember falling on my neck and shoulders, being in pain, and crying. But I loved every single moment of it.  Growing up Sunday football was such a big deal for my family. We had this 3 TV setup in the basement where we could watch the Eagles on the big screen, game mix or another game on the left, and redzone on the right. I fucking loved football and I loved the Eagles even more. One Sunday night, Marcus dressed me in his full Silver Spring Saints uniform and pads. I was obsessed with football and was finally old enough to play. My first football game ever was against the Ellicott City Patriots on a gray Saturday morning. The Patriots kicked the ball off and it was finally my time to shine. We ended up losing the game and afterwards I was distraught and crying my eyes out. Not because we lost but because I only played the league minimum, 7 plays.   I got into the car after the game with my parents and was crying and complaining about my lack of playing time. Why wouldn't the coach give me a chance? Why me? Why this, Why that? My dad turned around and looked at me dead in the face and said "You faked your push-ups in practice". That day in the car, instead of coddling me, my dad was on my ass. "How do you expect to play if you are faking your push-ups in practice".   It is so easy to fake your push-ups in practice when the coach can't see you. However, who are you cheating? The coach or yourself? See, I was so busy faking my push-ups because they were hard and they hurt, that I didn't think about why I needed to do them in order to get stronger so I can hit this running back on the jet sweep. If you fake your push-ups that running back is hitting you on that jet sweep.   All of us have crazy dreams that we so desperately want to accomplish. We often think about the end goal or end person that we want to become. However, in order to get there you have to become better and stronger every single day. Especially (I will say it again), Especially when you are all by yourself and nobody is looking. If I go on the street today and ask 100 people if they are working hard to accomplish their goals, all 100 of them are going to say yes. Of course, we want other people to think that we are getting stronger and better everyday.   But, today I want you to think to yourself: Am I really getting stronger? Or am I faking my push-ups?

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Fear

Fear is the number 1 deterrent of success. The best artist, musician, fashion designer, or entrepreneur can be out there right now with amazing ideas in their head, but never live up to it, only because of fear. I am terrified of my dreams. I wish at times, I didn’t obsess over accomplishing my mission and being the person that I want to be. I am scared that I will never live up to the dreams that rotate over and over again in my mind. For the longest time, fear prevented me from accomplishing and impacting the world in the way that I so deeply aspired. For the first 12 months of building FITS, I did it in complete silence. Kept it a secret from the world and was reluctant to tell anyone about my ideas. When I look back at it, I was scared of 1) being embarrassed 2) getting my idea taken. Due to this, I with held my work from the world and tried to wait for the perfect finished product to finally showcase. During this time, I recorded numerous podcast episodes about my journey. Episodes that will never come out (only because we didn’t know about mic covers) but those episodes, I never thought about putting out at the time. I always wanted to submerge myself in the social media game and spread my message to more people but I was scared that my business wasn’t developed enough. How can you make entrepreneurship content without being one of the best entrepreneurs out yet? I would always tell myself that when x happens, I will do y. However, looking back, it was just fear. Fear of judgement. Fear of failure. Fear of myself and my own ambitions. Rob’s tagline is “Fortune Favors The Fearless”. To flip the switch and truly become fearless, you have to make 2 bold decisions. 1) You have to actually acknowledge that you want it 2) You have to be relentless in your pursuit to get it What do you really want? Who do you really aspire to become? The truth about these two questions is the the hardest possible answer. The answer that you can barely even tell someone because they will look at you crazy is normally the right answer. Once you find the answers to those questions, you probably will be looking up at something that you think is completely unattainable. That is when you have to make one of two decisions. Am I going to accept the fact that this is a dream that I want to pursue? Or am I going to fold on this? If the answer is that you want it, the next step is starting. This day in age, we glorify famous people and overnight successes. This is because we open our phones, go on social media, and see people that have a lot of money or a lot of followers on Instagram. We see them living it up and smiling and talking about how you two can accomplish big things if you work hard. If there was a video that could teach you the key to success and everybody in the world can sit there, watch it, and become successful as a result. We would all be mad at words within that video. I sit around and watch motivational videos all the time, thinking that I am going to learn something new or learn some type of secret to success. The reason why we would be mad at these videos is because everyone says the same thing: work hard and be relentless. Being relentless is not fucking easy. I question my entire life and think that everything I am doing is complete ass, at least once a week. I started my business and thought after a few posts it would just blow up and everybody would love the product that I built for them. However, what we fail to realise is that the best things in life are results of the hardest possible journey. What is the most challenging way to get to where I want to go? What are the things that 95% of people do not do? What ideas do I have that seem so hard that it makes me scared to even try? The truth is that we have got to accept the fact that we want something and stop at nothing to get there. Being relentless means being obsessively consistent. It means that no matter how tough things get, no matter how much you fail, you keep going and stay on the path that you set out for yourself. When I decided to truly start building out FITS and start really posting on social media. I told myself that there are people that I want to impact. People that I think could benefit greatly by hearing my message. People that I need to learn from. People out there that together, we could build something that apart wouldn’t be possible. I told myself that I want to be the 50th President of the United States. I can’t believe that I just wrote that. I am scared to tell anyone because I know they would be like yea, ard. But the truth is, that is my number 1 goal. That is the dream in my head that I so deeply want to silence. Truth be told, it just keeps coming up in my mind, so much that I can’t do anything but plot out my next 20 years to be able to make that happen. Dame Dash said “People would traditionally think I was crazy, they all did. Unless you have a dream that people think are crazy then your dream is wack. I dream big bro and everybody around me that dreams big, that I have taught to dream big, you are reading about them in Forbes”. Fear is motherfucker. Fear prevents people from being successful. So decide, am I scared of this dream? Do I actually want it or not? Then be relentless in your pursuit of that dream. You can’t be the top designer out if you only have 1 or 3 collections out. You can’t be the best musician if you only have 4 singles out. You can’t be an entrepreneur if you don’t obsess over your business for the next 10 years. And you will never be the President of the United States, if you don’t try. S/o Rob: Fortune Favors The Fearless

Journal – Maxwell Murray

Happiness

I am sitting here on my rooftop looking at the New York City skyline. I see 57th street with these huge skyscrapers that people live actually live in. I’ve been in a few of those buildings over the last few years and have seen people actually live in these huge boxes in the sky. 3 years ago, I came to New York because growing up my mom and I would watch million dollar listings. When I first got to the city, I would go around and stare at every building. I romanticised my life, living there, and calling a place like that my home base. I wanted to make a lot of money. When I first moved here, I studied finance because of how much they got paid out of school. I would look through salaries from Goldman, JP Morgan, and McKinsey & Co. Wow $150,000 a year after a bonus hits sounds pretty great to me. A few months ago, I was in org comm and we had to pick slips of paper out of a hat and give a speech on whatever it said. My slip of paper said “Why do you do what you do?”. I stood infront of my class, took a deep breath, and said “I am here to do 3 things”. First, I am a public school student. I feel like when I first got here at NYU, I was behind. It felt like people always knew things that I just straight up didn’t. I believe that there are two things inherently wrong with public school. 1) If we are good students, we aren’t prepared for college. 2) If we aren’t good students, we aren’t prepared for life. I think that we sit in this grey area right in between where they tell us that we need college but don’t truly prepare us for college. On the other side, college is a lick and for people that aren’t good at school, they aren’t prepared to take on life right out of high school. We sit in that school for 7 hours a day and it truly feels like a passage of time. Therefore, my first inspiration is to find ways to better educate my community. Second, the racial wealth gap in America is so ridiculous that when I said it to my class, they were in disbelief. The median white family has a household income of about $188,000 and the median black family has a household income of $24,000. This is a result of years of oppression, slavery, Jim Crow, and prevention from education and housing. I am disgusted by this stat and want to find any way to help change this. I am an entrepreneur because I want to build businesses that can uplift my community financially. Business inspires me because companies like uber can connect so many drivers with opportunities to put food on the table for their family. Therefore, the second thing that I am relentlessly pursuing is uplifting the black community financially through business. Third, I look around and don’t see anyone in this class that looks like me.I have a hard time finding inspirations and people that are in positions that give me the confidence that I can do or be that. I want to show the younger kids behind me that their dreams and aspirations are tangible. Someone from their school, city, and state that looks like them, made it. I want to show them what it looks like to create real change by being relentless with a pen and a notebook. I want them to believe that they can accomplish everything that they set their mind too. I think about quitting entrepreneurship sometimes and using this stern diploma to get myself a nice comfy job. But the truth is that’s cap. I don’t. That’s not my path at all. That doesn’t abide by my ambitions and doesn’t relate to the change that I want to create in this world. I started this piece by talking about million dollar listings New York. For the last 3 years, I have been inside too many million dollar cribs. I look at the people that live in them and see how comfortable they look. Then I think about where I live, in the East Village with my two roommates. I look at my bed, desk, chair, and whiteboard. I have a couch, a tv in the living room and I think to myself, I don’t really need much more. Yea, I’d love to live in a nicer spot, a million dollar listing. But I know the people that do. I think to myself are they happier than me just because they live here? Almost every time the answer is no. If they are happier it's for a different reason. So I sit here on my roof right this second, look at billionaires row from a distance, write this blog post, and think that I will be there one day. However, that isn’t going to make me happier then I am right now, it is only going to be a reward for change that I have made in this world. I will be happy when I build a school, have people making upwards of $3,000 a month on FITS Create, and when I am able to show the kids behind me the true power that they have with their two hands. Actually... (I actually wrote that above) I am happy right now, I built the Power Struggle Movement, an online school for creators that teaches Crypto, Entrepreneurship, and Creative Arts. I didn't even know it was a school until I wrote about wanting to build a school. I am building a platform that empowers creators. I feel guilty that my product doesn't help people as much as I want to yet but the people that we are working with give me life and confidence to relentlessly stay on this path. At this point if I quit, I am quitting on them. Finally, I am showing people from back home that you can make it all the way to NYC, go to a big school like NYU, but still say fuck the easy life and take a path that has a huge change of failure and a tiny chance of success. I know this blog post is just heavily about me. However, I hope that you can realize that happiness isn't some tangible thing that comes when you reach a certain point. As long as you are doing something that makes you happy and fulfils your dreams: you are living a great life :) My happiness comes from solving problems.