OK so I’ve disappeared into thin air since my last post in July.
I was on my Kendrick Lamar sh*t , out in the world living life, being present and taking in experiences, since that’s what drives these posts after all.
See Josh Lamar in Ghana below.
But where have I actually been?
I was in the EU gallivanting around for 17 days, and since getting back I thought to myself…. “Should I be that person that writes about their travels in a cliche way?”
You’re damn right I should…like a cliche travel vlog (pictured below).
This is Satire
Trip Summary
Ok this won’t be a “ComE eXplOre EuRopE WiTh mE” *in my best valley girl voice* type post.
This trip was split into three parts: A boys trip, a family wedding, and solo travel.
I’ll save my third-eye/Buddha enlightenment reflection and what I learned for the next post, but to the recap we go
Part 1 – The Boys Trip (Atlanta –> London –> Paris –> Barcelona –> Madrid)
As seen above, we bounced around a lot on the first half of this trip. Me and the boys (Royce, Korbin, and Steven) spent two days in London, Paris, Barcelona, and then Madrid.
What we did in these cities had to be some of the most efficient tourism of all time.
In 10 days we speed ran every major landmark you can think of, had some damn good experiences, and ate some great food.
Partying was also involved (s/o to my local friend Zaid for showing us around Madrid, and hooking us up with a section and bottles in the club — maybe a bit too many lol).
See the places in the EU speed run below:
We walked over 100 miles in 10 days.
Since we’re food heads and not gatekeepers, the best spots that we ate at in every city is below:
Best Food Spot By Location Linked (if you get nothing else out of this post):
Overall Recap: A hell of a time with the fellas exploring, eating, learning and partying through great EU cities.
Part 2 – Family Wedding (Florence, IT)
This was change of pace.
I went from history lessons and The Hangover with the boys, to a wholesome family celebration. S/o to my cousin and cousin-in-law on marriage!
Yeah, this was the best wedding I’ve ever been to.
10/10 down to the last detail, and the pinpoint focus that was put into it makes sense since my cousin is a project manager by trade.
The wedding was at a villa in the Tuscan hills. Everyone had their own suites, and a specific note from the bride and groom upon arrival. That’s just a small example of what kind of wedding it was.
It was their dream and we were all living in it.
Recap: A beautiful/breath taking/well-planned wedding. Celebration, great vibes and less drinking from me here as I didn’t want to appear as a degenerate around family.
Part 3 – Solo Travel (Netherlands –> London)
The final act of this trip.
I was solo.
No family, no friends.
In a foreign land. Left alone…to die.
Jk, I just decided to take three extra days on the trip to go explore some cities by myself (2 in Amsterdam, 1 in London).
It was a chance to intentionally get lost. Wander around Amsterdam and Brixton in London. Exploring history and spending time with own thoughts with no true destination in mind(which I realize I hadn’t done for a while).
Overall Recap: Went to a new country by myself. I was left with time to think, reflect, and have an mini-existential crisis.
Then back to the states I went. But since being back I had a mini-existential crisis.
More on this in the next post.
Bonus Footage of Korbin and Royce Climbing up the Sacre-Coeur below:
….or it’s just me starting a travel blog, which is special of course!
*Hold for applause*
We’ll call this Chapter 1 of many, because I love to travel, and I am normally up to some shenanigans when I do (especially with friends).
I figured I’d start this series because I normally tell everyone who is interested enough to ask, “What the hell did you do in ____?” or “Oh, how was traveling to ____?”. And people seem to enjoy my travel stories enough to listen for 10 minutes, so why not have a place all my friends can read about it?
So… Here. We. Go.
The Wild Hog Boys Take On Asheville
The perk of working for a company that makes motorcycles?
You get to rent out motorcycles.
and when you have co-worker friends that are just as adventurous as you?
You get to take road trips with your friends on bikes.
The boys in question: Me, Bobby, and Korbin.
The destination: Asheville, North Carolina.
The Ride Up
Since it would be a 3 hour ride, we decided to get up stupid early and meet up at Bobby’s place at 5:30 AM. We did a pre-ride check, talked about route details, then we were off.
For context, Bobby and I are newer riders, and Korbin has been riding for about 8 years. So riding on the highway for multiple hours was going to be new experience for me and for Bobby both with alot of learning opportunities along the way.
A crucial lesson I learned: Future is a terrible roadtrip artist. Especially when he’s in your earsfor longg periods of time because you’re on a bike and you can’t skip a song while riding – sorry Freebandz.
We took GA State Route 74 that had us go from north GA straight into NC and rode under the speed limit the whoooole time 🙂 .
Being the young pup rider I was (which I am no longer, after this damn trip I feel like a vet 😤), I was taking it all in on the way up. The sights, the winding roads, and the long straightaways that felt like they belonged to us.
This is how I looked:
There’s something about being on open roads, surrounded by nature, with the adrenaline rush of going 75+ mph on two wheels as wind hits your body.
As we went up, we would change who was in lead, middle, and caboose.
We quickly found out that putting us in different spots led to different, let’s say…situations.
Here’s the rankings of our formations:
Bobby first, Josh second, then Korbin = GREAT formation and pacing (we would get complements from military groups)
Bobby, Korbin, then Josh = Same as above.
Korbin, Josh, then Bobby = Josh would egg Korbin on to speed up and Bobby would get left wayyy behind.
Josh in lead = doesn’t matter who was behind him EXTREMELY separated group as Josh would leave everyone else behind (1.7/10 formation and pacing)
As you can see, my pacing awareness wasn’t the best lol. So the first two orders listed above were best, and would actually come in clutch for dicey situations later on this trip (more on that in a few).
We left Georgia at 5:30 AM but didn’t get up to Asheville until 11 AM (definitely not record time), as we had to stop at many different points because of: #1. gas and #2. group separation (that I might have or might not have played a part in).
Asheville
I’ll give a brief summary here of the city and our time there.
Hot. Great mountain views. Hippy dippy. Nice people. Good food at a spot called Jerusalem Cafe. Hilly city. Walking around hilly city. Hot.
Caught some cool pics right out side of downtown, then we headed back to GA.
The Trip Back
Part of me would love to say the ride back to GA was smooth, but IT WAS ANYTHING BUT.
*Ahem* so let me explain.
So, as we’re heading back on our bikes to go home, taking the fast — and more boring I-85 south — way, I’m greeted by a text in my headphones an hour into the ride:
*in Siri’s voice* “From your girlfriend: ‘Careful driving back! There’s a storm! and a cloud with lightning emoji“
Since we were doing 70+ mph on the highway at the moment, I motioned over to Korbin and Bobby to get off at the next exit.
We pulled off by a abandoned convenience store about 15 minutes from the Georgia state line, and I broke the news about the text I got. So we came up with a gameplan of what to do if sh*t got real with the weather on the way back.
The plan was to have a crisis/ABORT MISSION signal that Korbin would throw up at the front of the pack that looked like this:
🙅🏽♂️
And hopped back on our bikes and we were on our way…
Spoiler – sh*t got real.
We crossed over in to Georgia from South Carolina, and looking behind us there was sun and nice looking clouds while ahead of us it was BLACK.
Not a Actual Pic, but this is how it looked
When I saw this I said to myself “Oh……my…….God”, then hoped for the best. The sky looked like Zeus was about settle a personal beef with us.
5 minutes later, all hell broke lose.
First came the rain, coming down at a force that I felt it stinging my legs through my jeans. Then came the wind….lord the wind.
The first gust pushed all three of us 12 FEET HORIZONTALLY on the highway while other cars were around us. Scary stuff.
As mentioned earlier, our crisis signal was 🙅🏽♂️
🙅🏽♂️ = TAKE THE NEXT IMMEDIATE EXIT and we will wait out the rain under shelter.
When the first gust of wind hit and we were getting dumped on, I was ready for the 🙅🏽♂,️ so we could pull over and wait the rain out. As were getting close to the next exit with Korbin at the front of the pack, the exit came….and the exit went.
We rode past it, and no 🙅🏽♂️ was thrown up.
“Ohhhhh boy…”
At that point, the thought crossed my mind was that this could be it for me, and if so, my life was pretty dope and this was at least a cool way to go.
Much better than going out sad by catching a terrible asthma attack with no inhaler, or choking on a watermelon flavored hard candy at Thanksgiving (true childhood story – it felt like a pretty close call).
BUT THANK GOD, because that first gust of wind would be the worst, and though it was raining hard, it didn’t rain any harder for the rest of the ride.
One more gust of wind like that, and it might have been looking shaky for 1 of the 3 us (probably me since I’m the newest rider).
Side note – Have you ever been slowly entirely soaked before? No? Well that’s exactly what happened to me. First it started in my shoes, lower legs and arms. With the water slowly soaking into my clothes at my extremities, then working its way to the center of my body, with my drawls being last. All I could do was sit there and felt it happen. Fun experience.
After what was 30 to 45 minutes riding in the rain, but felt like easily over an hour, the rain slowed and we pulled into to a gas station to collect ourselves.
We had one of those “Yo did that just happen?” moments and processed what happened 30 mins ago when we all thought it was over for us.
Korbin said that in the 8 years he’s been riding that was one of the worst storms he’s ridden in. Aaand of course we talked about that 🙅🏽♂️ not being put up (which in the end turned out to be fine for all of us)…but in the moment me and Bobby were mentally like “Yooooo….uhhhhhh”. We laughed about it after the fact, but we sure as hell WEREN’T laughing 30 mins before.
From there, we pulled off and kept going back to Atl. The last last leg of the drive was MUCH better then the one before. The rain calmed all the way down and Zeus’ beef with us was settled. It was another 45 minutes, and we were back.
We were tired, soaked, and hungry but happy to be back. It felt like two days had passed since we left that morning.
In terms of my motorcycle experience, I was fundamentally a different person since leaving that morning. It felt like I had done all day bootcamp advanced rider course (which is what it basically was). I was happy though, I learned a lot about riding and myself.
I went home hopped in the shower, ate, went to bed and thought to myself “Lord Jesus what a day”.
I told Korbin that we’ll have to run it back, but going a longer distance in a different direction to somewhere like Texas. He’s game. Let’s get it 🤠.
More adventure blogs to come in the future.
Some some things learned/life reminders from the trip:
Nature is beautiful
Nature is also no damn joke, we are infinitesimally small compared to its sheer force power
Storms come and pass not just in nature, but in life as well
You create bonds others people when you make it through turbulent times together.
The world is a cool place, stepping our of your bubble and talking to people is important.
So my girlfriend was getting on me the other day for using Google Maps — a life saver, really — to get back home, when I have literally driven the streets that I was about drive in Atlanta more times than I can think of.
Her?? Questioning my navigating abilities??
Yeah ooook.
So I took on the challenge and turned off the GPS off (it was like maybe a 10 minute drive with less than 7 turns), but I’m ashamed to admit that for brief moment when I put the car in drive…
I felt lost. Naked even.
In that moment, I came to the realization that as many times as I’ve driven in Atl, I have ALWAYS had my GPS on to get places.
But hear me out! My justification is that Atl traffic is gonna be Atl traffic, and at any moment a huge accident could happen between me and the spot that I’m trying to get to. So I don’t wanna get caught up by a road shutdown and have my 15 min drive — because everything in Atl is 15 min drive away — turn into a 40 min drive.
In reality though, that’s not true. If I really wanted to, I could just check my maps before I go somewhere to make sure that I-285 didn’t catastrophically blow up, then head to wherever I’m going.
But using GPS feels efficient, and it lets me not really think or pay too much attention to my navigation when I drive. Apple Maps tells me to go, and I follow. I’m not present, nor do I actually learn about my environment, streets, and all the possible ways to get to the same spot.
But what other costs does GPS convenience come with?
Shamefully, I think that if I was more than 20 mins driving time away from home and I didn’t have access to GPS, it would take me some concerningly serious time to find out how to get back. (it might not be too bueno for me if my phone dies and I’m up in North GA somewhere)
So why do I mention my atrocious navigation abilities? Because I think about how this relates to AI when it comes to our thinking and writing.
AI is everywhere.
Businesses are using AI, I’m learning how to use AI (which this post was not, btw), you’re probably learning how to use AI, and kids are growing up with AI.
(I legit watched a kid shout out ChatGPT for helping her pass through high school in her speech at my brothers graduation ceremony – it was comedy to see the teachers reactions).
Word on the street is that there are people out here using ChatGPT like a magic conch (read: genie lantern). Like the wake up in the morning and asking GPT, “should I drink water?”, type of use.
Ok — maybe not that bad, but people are using it for simple, common sense choices that a person could (and should) make for themselves with a shred of internal reasoning.
People are also using it to generate essays, write emails, and send any type of message out to people, without putting any thought or effort into the communication itself that’s generated. Which makes me curious about how our relationship with AI will develop in the future.
Don’t get me wrong, AI is an extremely useful tool (I use it almost everyday to help me get stuff done) but what happens if people completely outsource their writing and their deductive reasoning to a Large Language Model (LLM)?
Reasoning and decision making becomes a muscle that atrophies, and skill that we’ll no longer use.
Then what happens when multiple generations that grow up with outsourced decision making, momentarily —or permanently— no longer have access to said agent that helps them with their choices?
Will we flail around like fishes out of the sea dying to be thrown back in? idk
It will be interesting to see how my generation (Gen Z) and the ones to come will grow with AI as a part of everyday life.
Hopefully as their collaborator, and not as their end-all be-all.
A young and hungry Thunder vs. hot Pacers squad are going to duke it out to be league champs.
Meme culture would say it’s a free throw merchant/aura led Thunder vs. the Haliban led Pacers.
This match-up is going to be GREAT for basketball purists.
The arguably (and statistically) #1 defensive team in the league against one of the best offenses in the league since the playoffs started.
A lot evenly distributed scoring and a fast paced matchup = a lot of team (read: fundamental and efficient) basketball. This will be a great match up for kids to watch who are learning the game and how “play the right way”👴🏽.
But this is a problem for the league’s popularity and pockets?
It’s going to be great evenly distributed team basketball…who are also two small market teams.
Great basketball, bad for ratings (but not really.)
Ratings wise here’s the summary: the Oklahoma City and Indianapolis combined have 1.9M TV households, while New York alone has 7.6M (because eyeballs watching the games + ads = $$$).
So there will be fewer viewers watching this finals match up than if there was a Thunder vs Knicks match up? Yes.
Does this affect the NBA’s money? Not really.
The NBA’s TV deal is locked in with ESPN and ABC for the next 11 years at a whopping $76 billion (yes, with a “B”). Which means that the NBA gets this money from these platforms regardless of the finals match up .
It could be a Charlotte vs Sacramento match-up and it wouldn’t matter—the money is locked in.
The main thing that will be affected is how much businesses are willing to pay to advertise during the finals because the price for these ads spots are floating and not locked in. For reference, the average cost of a 30 second commercial in the 2018 NBA finals was 700k, so we’ll see how much this number changes this year.
So yes, there might be less people watching the Finals but the NBA’s money is relatively OK.
To me it’s a win overall. A multi billion dollar company takes a small hit in revenue and the fans get to watch good basketball, how it’s supposed to be played 👴🏽.
As an adult I’m realizing that no one has it all figured out.
As a kid, I saw many of the main adults in my life as my heroes.
I looked up to them as these all-knowing pillars and sages who lives were a culmination of deeply calculated moves and intent. They didn’t really feel things like insecurity or doubt because they had it all together.
That’s changed now.
I see the adults in my life differently. They aren’t the unflawed, could-never-do-wrong people that I once thought they were.
They’re human.
And part of being human in making choices without certainty, feeling doubt, insecurity, and winging it when your kid — that won’t stop eating — asks for dinner that night and you’re too tired to cook after a long day at work (a kid’s gotta eat mom). These humans also feel scared and make mistakes too.
And yeah, for some of these adults, looking at some of their choices in retrospect do I slightly judge at times and think they could have made some differently?
Sure.
But though the reverence that I used to have for many of these adults in my life is gone, it’s been replaced by something else…
Admiration.
Admiration for being scared and making bold choices anyway—because that’s courage.
Admiration for being knocked down in life and getting back up—because that’s resilience.
Admiration for owning up to mistakes—because that’s accountability.
So thank you to the adult role models who showed (and are still showing) me how to live with the imperfections that we all undoubtedly have as human beings.
But they say as you keep going and as you keep creating there will be trends that emerge.
Trends that will reveal the true nature of who you are and your style, passions, etc.
Because imagine that your creative work, like this one for me, is a data point.
Of course I’m not robotically like — [Mechanical Voice] “THIS IS CRE-ATIVE EX-PERI-MENT #626.” — Then proceed to type this out.
Nah.
This is a small act of creativity, of expression, that’s genuine and will accumulate over time if I am consistent with it. But knowing that it’s experimental takes of the pressure off, so when I hit publish I’m not sweating bullets hoping for this to get 1,000,000 views.
Could it lead to something bigger? …Maybe.
Am I pressed for it to? That’s what I am working on not being.
Pressed about the outcome.
This is a rep and a data point.
And if this is cringe that’s OK, I have to trust that the averages will balance out with the next thing that I make.
Two MVPs battle it out in the playoffs in the WCF semis. The last time two finalist MVP candidates have gone at it in the playoffs was 2017, when the Thunder played the Rockets (Russell Westbrook won).
The MVP is normally announced by now, the last time it announced this late by the league (outside of the NBA award show experiment from ’17-’19 was in 1998 (per the Athletic).
But why the late announcement while the two MVPs are still going at it?
For that exact reason — the two MVPs are in the heat of battle. Let them lead their teams as they battle it out, so even the typically impartial NBA fans buy into the argument why either the Canadian aura king or the Serbian Machine is the real MVP.
Tension + high level basketball = Views
Views + anticipation of the MVP = Good Ratings
Good Ratings = Business is Boomin’ for the League
Something tells me that whoever wins it though, the other half of the NBA fanbase will say the loser was robbed.
How it goes sometimes, but glad to have a good series.
If you’re like me, you’ve been mentally wrestling with the idea of wanting to start a blog or social page. But in your head are thinking things like, “Who the hell will care? I’m late to the game.”
“Someone starting a social page or creating content creation in the big 25?? Yeah, why bother?”
“There are way too many social media pages, shows, and content that people are consuming. Why would anyone care about what I’m up to or what I post?” – My Skeptical Thoughts
Shoot, I’m fatigued with all of the content that exists out there.
After thinking about this some more though, I actually see some pretty good reasons why some should hop on a social platform as a creator. Even with how over saturated it can feel at times.
They Have Something That They Want To Say
This reason is probably the most straightforward of all my reasons.
Most of these people who know about the internet, Substack, Instagram, and Twitter (X)—especially X—and who have something to say are probably already on these apps and are posting away, telling the world or their two followers anything and everything that they think.
From the opinions on the Warriors game the other day (Steph’s 56 truly was incredible), to politics, to the sandwich that they ate for lunch. These people are posting everything—and maybe too much.
I’m not talking to those people; they already got it.
I’m talking to people who are on the fence about hopping online and who do have something to say.
They tell everyone around them in the real world what they think and have either funny, informed, or well-thought-out comments or opinions about topics.
Think about writers and creators like Jack Raines, Deante Kyle, or even Andrew Huberman, who started the #1 health podcast in the world and makes over $1.5 million dollars a year to talk about his passion.
Having something to say is a great reason why someone should start posting (as long as it doesn’t actively harm others).
They Are Postingfor Intrinsic Reasons
See how I just wowed you with the amount of money Andrew Huberman made from his podcast?
Yeah, posting for intrinsic reasons is the complete opposite of that.
If there were no money involved, or if you made a fraction of what you thought you were going to make creating content, would you still do it?
And I get it. For obvious reasons, the path of making content looks sexy.
The fame, the lifestyle, the attention… then the money, ohhhh the money.
The dollar, the bones, dead presidents, the racks, the quid (shout out to my UK readers).
The top one percent of people who make content out there are making absolute BANK.
So who could blame someone for wanting to start a content page to get rich when Kai Cenat makes more money monthly than a yearly salary of seven surgeons combined?
BUT—there’s a pretty good chance that if you get into creating content solely for the money or attention, you might not be doing it for too long.
Yeah, you want to be a famous YouTuber or blogger, but what about all the months—and for some, years—where there’s not too much dough rolling in from the content and you have less than 1,000 views per blog post? (Me rn.)
Would you still want to keep going then? What’s going to drive you through this external reward desert?
It’s the intrinsic rewards.
Starting the blog page about movies because you love movies, making the YT video with your friends because it was damn fun to record a funny video with your friends, or reviewing restaurants because, yes, some of your friends might jokingly call you a big back, but you just really have a passion for food.
Intrinsic motivation = doing it because you enjoy it, rather than for external rewards.
And hey, you could do things for reasons that are both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated.
So at least if you didn’t end up on Oprah, ESPN, or get your own Netflix special, you would have still had fun or felt like you grew in the process.
They Want to Connect With Others Over a Passion or Hobby
Another great reason to start content creation is to be able to connect with others.
“…somebody is interested in everything, anything you can be interested in, you will find others will“—Alan Watts
If you’re into something niche like collecting Powerbands or SLAM magazines, there used to be a time where you used to have to go out and very intentionally find this community of people who also liked what you liked in the real world, if you ever found them at all.
Those days are no longer.
An Instagram page about the Knicks (no matter how delusional you might be), a Substack page about the analytics behind F1 Racing, or a post and profile on any other basically any other social app can connect from your home in San Bernardino, CA, and to someone in Nairobi, Kenya, who also likes F1 and the Knicks and grow a relationship with them.
Easier connections allow us to more easily create relationships. Shared interests and relationships can create communities.
Communities around passions or even social causes can foster happiness and even positive social change.
Plus, the longest study on happiness done at Harvard shows the biggest factor in people living happy lives is the number of meaningful relationships they have. So why not create some with the supercomputer that most of us have access to?
They Want to Help People
Lastly, this is my favorite.
I think that having a social presence is one of the most effective ways to positively change the lives of others.
Creating content on the Knicks and connecting with other Knick fans online, who you actually become friends with, can give you a feeling of comradery.
Starting a blog on climate change can make others more aware and informed about what is going on in the world.
Making independent films online can make someone feel heard or resonate with the story that you are telling.
Starting a content page for a business that helps others can increase the business’ awareness and therefore allow it to help even more people than it did before.
The point is that this thing called the internet can be used to create entertainment and content that connects with others or might help them in their lives. But someone has to make this content…
They’re some of the greatest of all time to play this game.
And they are also the top 3 richest NBA players to ever play the game of basketball.
Top NBA Net Worth List
Michael Jordan Net Worth – $3.5B
Magic Johnson Net Worth – $1.6B
Lebron James Net Worth – $1.2 B
So if we know the top 3, then who is the 4th?
4. ?????
It’s Junior Bridgeman. This guy.
No, it’s not Shaq (though he has a net worth of over $400M and franchises over 17 Auntie Anne’s, 9 Papa Johns, and is on just about every commercial).
Its Junior Bridgeman with an estimated net worth of over $600M.
For perspective, if you were to spend $10,000 a day — and make no extra income for the rest of your life —the money would last you about 164 years.
Whois Junior Bridgeman?
Now you might be wondering who this is because—unless you really, really know your ball—you probably don’t have a clue.
He played most of his career with the Milwaukee Bucks in the 70s and the 80s (his career spanned from 1975-1986), meaning that he played with Hall of Fame guys like Alex English and Sidney Moncrief.
Throughout his Bucks career, he almost exclusively came off the bench (played in 711 games, started in 105) but averaged 13.6 pts, 3.5 reb, and 2.6 ast. Which are good numbers for someone coming off of the bench and playing half of his career without a 3-point line.
When his career was over, he got his #2 jersey retired by the Bucks.
Though he had a good career, in his 12 seasons he only made about $2.95M dollars total, which is 1.8% of what he is worth today after adjusting for inflation.
He wasn’t a celebrity in a whole bunch of adds for Icy Hot, Gold Bond, and the General Car Insurance. Nor did he have his own sneaker line while playing.
So how did he make all his money?
Wendy’s.
When the Wealth Really Started – Getting Buckets to Bagging Fries
Junior grossed most of his wealth outside basketball after he was done playing. However, the seed for his money tree was planted during his career.
During the off seasons of his playing days, Junior worked a multitude of different jobs (he also went law school for 4 summers but never obtained his degree). He knew that his playing days were numbered and he wanted to have income post career.
One of the jobs that he took was working at Wendy’s.
Of the different jobs he had, he said the main reason why he stuck with working at Wendy’s outside of basketball is “I figured I’d hire somebody to run it. I believed they could make money for me while Ifigured out what to do in life after basketball.”
He wanted to be a franchisee.
After he retired in 86′, he had a offer from the Milwaukee Bucks to be their assistant general manager for $50,000 a year, and as good as that sounded at the time, he wanted to test his abilities at entrepreneurship.
So he started up his ownership with a few Wendy’s stores as a franchisee.
Unfortunately in this time period, most black franchisees were given franchises in lower economic areas. Thus, making these chains tougher to manage and eventually turn a profit.
For reference, the percentage franchisees in the US today who are black is about 3%. So as you can imagine, that number was much lower in the late 80’s
Junior focused on making the Wendy’s that he owned as good as they could possibly be, but made it an emphasis to focus on the community that they served.
In the early days he had 5 Wendy’s in the inner city of Milwaukee.
At the time Milwaukee had a law that if you received a traffic violation, you were taken straight to jail. No warning, no fine, no ticket — straight to jail.
Most of the people who taken to jail in the inner city were —you guessed it — minorities, and Junior and his Wendy’s took the initiative to bail them out.
This one of the many ways that Junior aided the community in which his Wendy’s operated.
He wanted to show the people that he and his Wendy’s stores cared about the community. So with good management of his Wendy’s, and showing the community that he cared, the amount of stores that he owned grew and grew.
Junior would eventually own over 500 Wendy’s restaurants, becoming the largest Wendy’s franchisee ever.
This how he generated the vast majority of his wealth that he has today.
Which he has used to purchase a minority share in the Milwaukee Bucks franchise as of Sept 24th, 2024.
It’s something that I’m struggling with right now.
Shutting out the noise.
There are so many pings, rings, apps, music, and TV shows going on that I can easily forget about what matters. “What was I trying to do two minutes ago before I went down this Instagram rabbit hole?”
It’s much easier to succumb to the distraction of the rabbit hole of YouTube reels—though 520 Podcast puts out hilarious shorts—than to get to important things that I could be doing for the day.
There’s nothing wrong with entertainment, great TV shows, movies, and video games. It just becomes a problem when it used more as a distraction from the important stuff in your life than as a form of natural relaxation.
There are multiple tools that I can think of that can probably help me through this like:
Someideasandgame 