If You Want Something, Go Get It. Period

“You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.”

The Pursuit Of Happyness

This post can also be listened to!
Narrated by Marcus A.

Growing up in an urban area with no real guidance, I had to teach myself a few things when I became a young adult. I noticed I wasn’t the only one struggling; so many people didn’t know. A lot of young men my age were selling drugs, doing illegal things, or just stuck doing whatever to get by. That was never something I thought was an option. I was curious, dedicated, and tech-savvy. There’s something I could do with what I’m naturally good at, I thought.

My first step was to decide to do something. That seems like a simple decision, but it’s a hurdle that some overlook. I decided to make things official for me, so I went to a vocational school for computer repair. To keep it a hundred, I was in my mid to late teens, and my mother gave me an ultimatum: I was either going to go back to school or get my GED. Like I said previously, I disliked school. I would always get sick and when I came back I had to do these thick work packages just to catch up. I never understood how they expected me to complete them when I wasn’t there to learn how to do them; I figured there wasn’t much more they could do. I completed them, but I missed so many days that I had to repeat the grade. The choice was easy, vocational school, it is.

Within three months of being there, I received my GED. It was challenging, but I studied night and day. I knew it was only one part of my purpose of being there. Next was getting my A+ certification; it was a two-part test with a total of 180 questions. It was time-sensitive and like a learner permit test, if you get too many wrong the test stops you. Every question holds weight and not all were simple multiple-choice ones, but I was prepared. I knew I could do it, but I was nervous as I knew some of my classmates failed it and left without it. I managed to pass both parts on my first try. The reality was that it wasn’t by chance that I passed them. I believed in myself and studied for it. That was probably the proudest day of my life. I couldn’t have done it as swiftly as I did without my instructors; they believed in me and every student they taught. This period away from my family felt like it took forever. I missed my family, plus I had my first girlfriend at home. My time away was hard for both of us; our relationship crumbled.

Shortly after I got home, I got my Network+ certification from self-studying. I was convinced that my career was in the I.T field. I also started taking Computer Science classes at the University of the District of Columbia. Things were starting to look bright for me. I made a resume and put it on every site I could think of, and responded to Craigslist’s offerings. I got set up for a lot of interviews and answered everything flawlessly, to only get a couple of callbacks and the pay was terrible. I must have forgotten. I was young, black, and had dreadlocks. I started doing phone and computer repair services and made decent money far beyond what I would’ve made with those companies. That put me in a place where I could move freely. I realized the odds may have been against me, but if I keep pushing, I could take it far.

When I first started, I didn’t realize how quick the tech repair market was. Fixing software-related issues was mostly all profit. It was the hardware repair portion that was inconsistent. I soon noticed that this is a market you have to always be ready and available for. I could order items on demand, but when it comes to tech repair, people generally want it done that day and would rather pay slightly more for the convenience than wait a few days for the parts to arrive. I felt that was the proper way. I decided to buy common parts to have on hand, but most of it ended up as paperweight as new became tech available. Being with a company probably wouldn’t have been much of a problem for me, but being independent was costly. Back to the whiteboard, I thought.

Now, this sounds simple and like something anyone would tell you, but the meaning is real. We tend to discredit things we hear often as we don’t see it in ourselves. Looking back at my story, I put this in action. I thought about some things and I did it. I didn’t think I could do it before I did it, but I did. I put my mind to it and I succeeded. This is just one example for me and I plan on sharing more, but it’s beyond me.

I can tell you about hundreds of people that believed in themselves, but I have one person that I’m sure most know about: Willard Smith. Most people recognize Will Smith as a movie star, but he started as a rapper. If it wasn’t for rap, Will wouldn’t be who he is today. Will was an attention seeker in his school. You know, one of the ones that’s loud and had to make his presence known. He was good at free-styling to the point he made a name for himself in his town. He was known as the Fresh Prince. Acknowledging his skills, his friend Judy would always invite him to parties because he would usually be the life of it.

One day, he found out that Judy was hosting a party, and he wasn’t invited. She decided to get someone else to get the party vibing. Will decided to show up and outdo whoever Judy thought was better than him. It turned out the guy that was supposed to perform never showed up, but his DJ did. His DJ was known as DJ Jazzy Jeff. Will thought Jeff’s style was bland and thought to himself, “if this joker was the best in his city, he felt bad for Philly”. Will was just hating. He ended up working with Jeff that night for the sake of the party and together they complemented each other well.

Will and Jeff would work around the clock religiously on their craft. After school, he would go straight to Jeff’s place. They made a name for themselves as a duo, doing block parties, birthday parties, fundraisers, proms, pretty much any event they could, to get their names known. Jeff DJing got realized and was asked to enter The Battle For World Supremacy, which is a competition for DJs. Back then, DJs were bigger than MCs, rap wasn’t as developed. Jeff came with his A-game. His scratching was immaculate; He won that event.

Up until that day, Will never really saw his raps as more than just a hobby. His college plans changed, and he focused more on his passion. The duo then created a mixtape called “Rock the House” and passed them out from the trunk of his car. Saying they stepped their game up would be an understatement. They created their first song called “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble”.

Will’s parents weren’t happy about his college decision and gave him an ultimatum. He had one year to do something musical or he would have to put rapping on the back burner to focus on college. Around that same time, the duo song “Girls Ain’t Nothing but Trouble” made it to the #1 spot on his favorite local radio station and continued to gain traction at other radio stations in big cities, like New York. The duo worked on an album and started touring. The song eventually went gold and sold over 500K copies.

They kept up with their momentum and created a second album labeled “He’s The DJ I’m The Rapper”. The album went platinum, selling over 3 million copies. The first single on the song called “Parents Just Don’t Understand” won the first Grammy ever given to a rapper; it was for best rapper performance. At 20 years old, Will and Jeff were world-famous entertainers, Grammy winners, and millionaires.

After this album, Will would shortly lose all this money by developing bad habits and getting distracted from his craft. The duo created another album, but it flopped. Will would eventually recover from that and star in his own TV sitcom produced by Quincy Jones called “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. Jeff was featured in some episodes; he was famous for getting thrown out by Philip Banks, played by James Avery. Throughout Will’s career, up until this point, he has been nominated 183 times for various musical and acting awards and won 73 of them.