Author: Henry Murphy

This concept is still crazy to me yet makes so much sense. The principles from “the richest man in Babylon” still reign true today. Please allow me to be straightforward before I begin.

I read this book years ago, but I am just now applying the principles. It takes a conscious effort to undo bad habits.

I believe that every entrepreneur especially should apply this principle. If you are of the Christian faith, then you understand giving 10% of your income to God. If we are honest and unaware of that, most people will begin to pay their bills. 

I believe in giving back to God for allowing us to create wealth. I personally give to my church because I know where the finances are going and what they do for kingdom work. We also give in other ways that do the same. I didn’t always do this, but God began to make my heart tender. 

I was on a trip to Ohio, and I started reading this book. I was like, “Wow, I should be paying myself, huh?” It made perfect sense and I knew that I should try to apply it right then. I honestly tried it and used the money almost weeks after I applied the principle. I begin to realize that this is a healthy habit that I was not used to. 

I recently started paying myself again. It is not an easy principle because it is foreign, but it is necessary. This money can be used for so many things, including eventually investing in stocks and bonds, and buying real estate, just to name a few.

This kind of brings us to a new perspective. Now, we give 80% of our money to pay our bills and other debts that we may have. This means that we need to look at our lifestyle closely to make sure that we are not living over our means. I can tell you right now that this is a hard reality to bear. We are all used to spending money how we want to and usually without thinking.

My dad taught me how to play basketball at a young age. He started me out with this  game called “ around the world”. The object of this game was to be able to shoot the basketball from anywhere on the basketball court.

You start out on the outside of the cylinder of the rim. You only get to move to the next spot if you hit the shot. By the time you were finished with one game, you may have been on that court for over two hours. There were some days that I might have put up over 500 shots. 

This is my approach to life and entrepreneurship. Sometimes the deterring factor of making that shot was my arch, sometimes it was the position of  my feet. The more I played the more I  had to tweak my shot. But I got better and better. 

This is the takeaway, go all in with what you are doing. Take your time, pivot when you have to. But keep putting up shots.

can’t begin to express to you the importance of surrounding yourself with solid people. Solomon said, “Surround yourself, my wise counsel.” Negative energy is such a poison.

Have you ever truly watched a creator create? There are times I walk in on my barber when he is not talking, and I watch him when he is cutting someone’s hair. You can see the love and passion in his eyes, and his work shows it. One day, I heard him talk about things that he wanted to do as a barber–goals that I have never seen anyone dream of. As soon as the words left his mouth, you could feel the tension in the air. There was a discussion towards him because of his ambition and it was automatically clouded with negative energy.

We never talked about it, but I witnessed it. Months later, my barber got his own suite. He had obviously had enough of the negative energy at the barbershop. Some of the things that he was talking about, like selling his own products, showed up in the suite. I was super excited for him. He also talked about things as an entrepreneur, like charging premium prices for a haircut. At first, I thought, “Hold on now, this involves me.” 

The crazy thing is, no one can deny his work or his respect of time. I have yet to see anyone stay on schedule like he does, week in and week out. I happily pay $45 for haircuts every single week. I believe that this subject would be a great chapter for a book because I can go on and on about keeping dream killers out of your circle. Let me end like this: be conscious of the people you keep around you.

One of my friends, Emmanuel “Da’ Truth” Lambert, who has been a rapper for a while now, said a line that I love dearly, “Now is time for application like the iPhone.”

When he spoke these lines, he was referring to principles in the Christian faith. He was telling us to be doers of what we read and hear. 

I think the same can be said about entrepreneurship. How many of us read blogs, listen to podcasts, and watch Instagram Live or YouTube Live, every single week? Oh, let’s not forget books. We consume a ton of information every single day. 

I have a question, though. How much work are we putting in to apply what we’ve watched, read, or heard?

Knowledge is good, and understanding it is even better. There is nothing greater than applying what you know and understand. I don’t care how simple the principle is, if you never put it to work then you will never know its worth. Don’t wait another day; start now.

I love Facebook memories for this one reason. It shows me pictures from 2012. It’s when I first started the brand and some of the things that I was doing. It made me remember things that I totally forgot about.

When you make a certain amount of money, and the business is doing well. It’s easy to forget about how you started. The memories reminded me of the foundation that I’ve built with the brand from the beginning.

This is important for two reasons. One, is that I can teach others how to build a brand from the ground up. Secondly, I can build another brand similar with the same concept that I used to build the first brand.

People will always tell you that it’s easy to build something, but that’s not true. It takes perseverance, hard work, and trial and error. But, the good news is that it’s attainable. I have been in Los Angeles, California for one year. I can see the opportunity on how to build my active brand from the ground up.

I would not talk about the details here on how I plan to do it, but I will share at a later time. I am excited about the possibilities of what I can do, and you should too. Now, go and build something great.

I am an advocate for self-education. I was never that guy who was made for traditional school. However, I do think that school has its place. Teaching in institutions–apart from specifics like counseling, or being a doctor or a dentist–is pretty broad.

I think the social aspect and showing up on time is very important, along with other things. As the world changes so quickly, self-education gets more and more important. You must ask yourself, what do I want to learn? Who do I want to be? 

Once you have answered those questions, then see who is doing it well and learn from them. You also have the opportunity to make things better and be innovative. 

I am currently learning about real estate and stocks. There’s so much information out there that it can be overwhelming sometimes. But I get the opportunity to soak up information from people who look like me and talk like me. This concept has been a game changer. 

This is why a guy named Wall Street Trapper can teach me about stocks. He was a former inmate who, upon his release, started applying the principles he learned. He has taught me many concepts, from understanding graphs, growth stocks, value stocks, ETF stocks, and so much more.

I believe so much in self-knowledge that I purposely made my podcast short segments. The reason for this is because of the way I learned. I personally tap out after 30 minutes, and it’s hard for me to retain information past that point. My goal is to connect with people who learn like me. Remember, as you learn, give back.

Their was a cook out on the south side of Chicago. It was an amazing get together. Good food, good music and laughter. The men was gathered on one side and the women on the other side of the yard.

There was a guy name Gerald who started to speak about being married and never once cheated on his wife. The guys around him marveled. As soon as he finished speaking, one of the women passed by the guys. She was beautiful to the eyes. Gerald looked at her not once, but three times. It was obvious he was lusting at this point.

He immediately remembered the scripture about if you lust for a woman in your heart that you already committed adultery. He humbled himself and repented.

Humility is one of those things that escapes us everyday and we have to be intentional about being humble.

As his popularity grew, his influence grew and so did his team. Promoters started booking him across the country, and he was selling out shows. He use to seek God about every decision, but that behavior started to fade. He started taking opinions from the experts in the industry.

He started to talk about his big plans. He would say” I’m going to do this and do that and we will run the numbers up””! He was immediately convicted and remembered this scripture. If God’s will, we would do this or do that. He remembered
his life was a vapor and every breath is the grace of God.

He repented! Humility is not natural for us and we have to be intentional about being humble.

It was this guy who was a street performer. He had dreams to do big things in life. He submitted his artistry to God and trusted him to provide. The more he showed up the more people came out to see him. His talent was something to be admired.

As his popularity grew, his influence grew and so did his team. Promoters started booking him across the country, and he was selling out shows. He use to seek God about every decision, but that behavior started to fade. He started taking opinions from the experts in the industry.

He started to talk about his big plans. He would say” I’m going to do this and do that and we will run the numbers up””! He was immediately convicted and remembered this scripture. If God’s will, we would do this or do that. He remembered
his life was a vapor and every breath is the grace of God.

He repented! Humility is not natural for us and we have to be intentional about being humble.

No one owes you anything. The mindset that someone owes you something stops you from executing at a level in which you are capable of. Our mindset should be that we have 24 hours in a day just like everyone else. 

I believe it all starts with goalsetting. We also must ask ourselves, why? Why are we doing what we are doing? The reason the “why” is so important is because you have to believe it before you even get started. You have to see the end before you begin. People around you will think that you are out of your mind but that’s okay. Everyone will not see your vision at first. 

Now that you have the vision, and you recognize the “why,” now it’s time to go in. There will be days that you miss your goals, but the point is to be relentless in your pursuit. Once you begin to hit your goals, you’ll set your next set of goals a little higher. 

Kanye West said a line that I love to this day, “I was doing five beats every day for three summers; I deserve to do these numbers.” 

He was saying that he put the work in, and it must produce results. The reason he could say that is because he knew he was respecting every day that came along. He knew, in order to get to his goals, it would take constant dedication. 

This is what is called The Compound Effect or The Slight Edge. I don’t care who the competition is, if you are relentless, then you are a force to be reckoned with.

There is a lot more that I can write on this subject and honestly, it deserves to be put in a book as a chapter. The last thing I will say is this: get people around you who are like-minded.

It’s been over 10 years as an entrepreneur, and I hesitated to write this blog. The reason being is because I have so many goals that I have yet to accomplish. God has put so much in me that it gets overwhelming at times, and I am learning how to move with God and distinguish the seasons as I abide in Him more.

I am the happiest when I am creating. When I see an idea come to life from my head to graphics, and then on a T-shirt, then on to a model and then seeing it shipped out to a customer, it’s an amazing feeling. I honestly can get lost in that world and I think I did for quite a while. I could truly say that I was fulfilled with the things that I was doing. I ultimately knew the key to the fulfillment was that I was doing things that God wanted me to do with my life. 

I project things with my mind often. Let me explain; I can see us grow and move from building to building with more sales than ever before. I will say to myself, “If I was in a place 10 times bigger than this, would it fulfill me?” The answer is no. That, alone, could not fulfill me. It made me realize more and more that we need a why. 

Why am I doing this? The “why” is the answer to our fulfillment because achievement alone can never satisfy. Purpose must be at the forefront.