Well, as you know and we have talked about for several weeks, the waiting game is hard and long.  But every once in a while you see light at the end of the tunnel and you know it is that dreaded word…hope.  As my friend Red said in Shawshank Redemption, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of all things”.  In this case hope was turned into a cruel joke.

We were so close and we did not get it, but then we knew that it was not going to be easy.  I told my partners that as an entrepreneur you know there is a ledge and a cliff with a long way down.  You know you walk every day toward that cliff, and you know that you are moving closer to that free fall.  You also know, that it will get worse before it gets better and you have to be brave enough to allow your teeth to get kicked in and your hopes to be tested.

As we walk to the ledge we have to realize that there will be more hopes and teeth-clashing before the inevitable happens, you either go off the cliff or you manage, just like in the movies, to hold on and survive.  As dramatic as it seems, it is a cruel and real exercise. Your faith will be tested and so will your confidence.  I am prepared to go blindly into the cliff if I have to before I give up on anything.

Part of being an entrepreneur is developing thick skin; well, we are going to need it.  Let’s keep it positive and let’s continue on this adventure together.

Keep Calm and Stay Humble

As most of you know, the holidays are relax time for most of us. Then like magic, one day we realize that the goofing off is over and we switch up the “get-your-butt-to-work button” and all of a sudden we are running at high rates of speed. What an emotional shocker!

I need to share with you that this week has been extremely busy and I am so glad that tomorrow is Thursday because I am drained! It has been non-stop for 3 days and I expect a busy one tomorrow as well. The life of an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs and I am very proud of my partners, because they have taken the heat like true champs and are smiling and enthusiastic. We are starting to close deals quickly already and I am excited to see what every day brings!

I have not had a lot of time for my kids and not a lot of time for my wife. We are both adjusting to our new activities and living broke. It is not as bad as you would think when there is a common understanding of why we are doing this. I think it takes an exceptional person to sacrifice all the material things to see their loved ones happy, and I truly felt all entrepreneurs needs a balance loved one in their lives. I know I am lucky enough to share my life with my wife and partner.

I invite you to share your adventures with you loved ones. They truly love you for who you are and not what you have . It is how you live in adversity that your kids will remember the most. I was touched this week by the tribute Stuart Scott’s daughter paid to their father who fought cancer. According to them, he beat cancer because he lived a full life and on how he faced cancer. Great teaching from a father who is about to depart. I think similarly for challenges, whether you win big, small or lose, you have to play the game with ethics, passion and a whole lotta love!

Keep calm and stay humble!

Wow, what a year! 2015 will certainly go down as a memorable year. There were many great experiences and there were some awful ones. It was filled with hard work and then hard rest, then some hard work again. It was full of surprises and events that blew my mind away. Luckily, it was full of family moments, good and bad, and as well as some sad news.

Hispanic Trade, LLC got started in 2015 and it was a year of planning and strategy. As I said before, I will not run my company as a one-man show, I will run it as a serious business where people work and make a living off of it. We will run this company with all the bells and whistles of a regular company. I don’t care if I make money or not, I really care about proving a point, which is people are valuable, they are not assets, they are our partners who are making our business run. As an entrepreneur you might have the ideas, but there are people who carry them out with you or for you, and they are not pawns in a game of chess. They are the fingers of the hand which moves the pieces, which are the resources and the assets your company has.

I left a good company and a job I highly valued, along with people who treated me very well. I did not leave the company because I did not think I could not help the company grow or make money, I left my precious employees, all of them, because I thought that I was not able to help them anymore, and when that happens, then it is time to go.

Now I am here, and I have to put my money where my mouth is. I am having my employees become partners and I WILL share the wealth. I expect to hit big in less then 6 months or go broke trying. There will be no medium ground on this, trust me. I fully believe that empowered employees who have a stake in the company will give it there all for the company. If I am wrong, well, then I guess I am wrong and committed a grave error. If I am right, then it is well worth it.

You should go out and do something you believe in. You will feel great about yourself and you will be proud of your actions. I know I am and I encourage you to live dangerously. You don’t have to go to my extremes, but satisfaction will get to you at any level. Make this your 2016 resolution!

Keep calm and stay humble

As I am patiently waiting for deals to finalize, I continue to be positive and optimist on the development of this project. The real culprit in many failures is sometimes the lack of patience, and we have discussed this topic on several occasions. Waiting, as was said last week is part of the adventure and it is a great time to do clean up and focus on new business. While deals may take a few days to materialize, other deals will take months to do so, and you need to make sure you are ready, willing and able to take them once ready. This requires a lot of precise planning and an unmistakable knack for the dramatic.

As far as deals go, when you smell a deal is coming close to closing, you have to make sure you can sustain the positive and negative consequences of the completion of the deal. Whether you are getting a new product line or if you are closing out one, this will require communication to partners, employees, customers, vendors and in some cases even competitors.

Take for example if you are representing line A, which is an established line of widgets. These widgets are known in a regional part of the country or state. You then decide that you want to bring in a line which competes with widgets as well, but it is not their primary business. There has to be a point in time, where you disclose to the widget manufacturer that you are working with the other manufacturer. If this manufacturer has a problem with you carrying that line, he will be sure to tell you, but you have to let them know. It may also be in a contract somewhere…

Maybe there is a situation where when you close a deal, you will be much more efficient, but your headcount will be dramatically reduced as a result of this new alliance. Well the most respectful thing is to let people know, with plenty of time that deal might be happening and that it would be best if they started looking for other opportunities as they will not be part of the future plans. It might not be a popular move or something that you take joy in doing, but it still has to be done and if you respect the people that you work with, it better be done with grace and sensitivity. People don’t want this type of news, but they would rather hear it in a sincere and truthful way, instead of a profit based justification in a memo

Whatever you choose to do when finalizing deals, think that that is the end of the negotiation and the beginning of life with a new partner. Many parties will be affected, for good or bad, just make sure never to lose your cool and footing. Remember that the life of an entrepreneur is filled with ups and downs, but emotions have to be kept at ground level always.

Keep calm and stay humble.

As a holiday season is upon us, you can imagine business takes a small bit of a downturn. People are on vacation, people are busy, retailers are going crazy, and people are just basically putting everything off till next year. As an entrepreneur, we have discussed in previous postings, that patience is a virtue, and this is no exception.

The holidays are a time to be enjoyed by most of us. For some people it is very hard because it has been a hard year, or maybe the holidays bring back sad memories. Last time I checked, we are old emotional and social human beings, so it is natural that we will react differently to varied events.

So, while we wait for the holidays to pass us, we are waiting creatively and preparing diligently for January 2016. To be honest, we realized quickly that our breakthrough months would be the first quarter of next year, and that’s OK. We have plenty of things to do and we are extremely busy thankfully. Not making much money but certainly preparing our business to have a solid infrastructure, and that is a wonderful investment to make.

Any good business strategy will include the waiting game. So far we are still preparing our chips, setting up the board and figuring out who’s going to roll the die first. So we will enjoy the holidays and we will enjoy our business. I suggest you do the same !

I was talking to a friend today and asking him if he ever noticed that one of our old customers was very similar in personality to a person who we know. He replied he had not noticed it but he completely agreed that Greed was the main characteristic that defined both of these people.

I sure hope I never come to a point in life when Greed overtakes the most cherished of our actions which is generosity or un-selfishness. I have always considered myself as a noble person, both in spirit and in material things. It would be, not only embarrassing but contradictory to my morals, to cherish in excess more than what is needed. Nothing wrong with making a good living, wanting to make more money, wanting to save and build assets, but I do certainly something wrong with having avarice blind you silly and expose your nature to your peers.

Those of you that know me, if I ever become this, please feel free to tell me and gladly call me out on it. I promise I will not get upset or mad, but I will probably be ashamed of my actions and thank you. I have always enjoyed sharing the material things that God had given me. I have always enjoyed sharing a good time with people, even if I do not know them. I have never enjoyed having a lot of anything in material terms. It scares me to be honest.

Deserving, earning, making, gaining, creating, accumulating, winning, are all words that deal with acquisition of goods or fortune. Maybe we should treat those words more in the context of character and make real sure that we do not confuse them with being a good person. These words will never characterize a good parent, a good husband, a real friend or a king employer. They usually do the opposite. So in essence, for those in Greed, it forces them to want more, and for the ones who are on the other side, that they punish with their actions to gain their insatiable appetite.

As entrepreneurs, we have also social responsibility. To out employees, to our communities, to our suppliers and customers and yes, to our families. But our Greed can define the future of those we are supposed to serve, and mark them in a horrible way. Look at Mark Z from Facebook and his announcement today. This guy is young, has changed the world and is willing to put up instead of falling victim to Greed. Maybe he knows, the world will be a better place, if it starts changing with each of our actions. I believed that too. Good for him and his family. Certainly Greed has failed to possess him like so many others.

Keep Calm and Stay Humble