BUILDING YOUR BRAND

FUCK REALTORS

WE'VE ALL BEEN WORKING ON OUR IDENTITIES OUR entire lives right? some more than others. I have certainly been creating a persona over the last 10 years. I had a somewhat different one before that, I guess. How much does what we "do" end up being what we "are" is a difficult question, for me anyway...I have been involved in using my "personality" as my career in many ways for many years now. It's only been in the last few that I have genuinely realized and accepted that. I am good at making people feel good. really good actually. that gets me in trouble in relationships beyond the counter. I sell well. I show well. the fucky part is that it's easy for others to place what they need for themselves upon me. i translate those needs back to people and it makes them feel like they are cared for, listened to and in the end, understood. I think this is true anyway.  

what do i get from this. well, i feel good about making others feel good. I get off on it. a lot really. especially if it's entirely in my hands...i'm ruined  for working for the "man" now because  I refuse to play that game anymore. it's not real. there is no man. only people working towards a common goal and many times that is simply a time line. a start and a finish together. in between that time we hopefully have a "good" time and we enjoy it's spent-ness. it can be more and loftier ideals can be attached but in the end, bosses are just people that got involved earlier, paid into the system in some way, and really the only defining factor is that they fucking buy into that they are above everyone else. hopefully that just means that they have the keys to the place. they might get paid more but generally that means that they are saddled with the responsibility of someone else fucking up . I don't want to get into "bad bosses" right now. that's a whole chapter, shit, maybe that's the book. an entire book based on how bad you could do it. the nuances of shitty management are infinite. 

so we build our brand. fucking up harms the brand, people don't trust shoes that fall apart right? WRONG bad example and a good point. fucking up big time harms the brand. you can't be known for being the guy that never shuts up in a conversation and expect people to want you at parties. I regularly hide from people in public that i don't want to engage with. I have plenty of project people that come to my house to suck me dry. i find that creative, witty, compassionate people intrigue me the most and i want to surround myself with people like that. I certainly know that i've lived a varied and intriguing life to some people and this is certainly where my identity and my "careers" OVERLAP. i am thinking it might seem to some that working in a grocery store is light years from being a mortician or running a restaurant but really, I am not doing anything different at all. in the end, it's just us being us doing a thing. the real and hopefully different aspect is that we have learned and grown over the years to be better and better at being ourselves, and therefor better at the Jobs we have to do. REALLY HOPEFULLY we learn so much about ourselves we get to a point that there is no "work"...literally maybe but mostly metaphysically. I am getting closer to attaining this i think. i've been very privileged to start seeing this notion. (realtors will never understand this idea because they are broken souls sent to earth from hell only to be surprised that when they die they will awaken in hell to be realtors selling property to other realtors in hell.) I think i first tasted the sauce of "anti-work" (i don't have a good name for it yet, I used to think it was zen but i don't care for that word any longer i guess) i was a dishwasher at a fancy italian restaurant. fuck, that's a whole post really, i learned a lot from that job. I realized that if the dishes were steady and i could concentrate only on each dish as it came through me and not focus on anything else but that dish...i could manipulate time. music from a

cassette on the boombox and weed helped but in the end even those things had to be pushed out of focus in order to make time move faster. It could very easily go slower. anything going on outside of the shift could easily stretch an hour into many more...having your mind right for any endeavor is definitely a key to success. bad attitudes kill the mind and are contagious infections. time is our most precious commodity. wasting it on negativity just compounds the negativity or sadness. 

another thing about realtors...not really, but kind of. it needs to be pointed out that life isn't fair and people are stupid. many times people are stupid because they are flawed from trauma they are not dealing with adequately. that's another post but we can touch on it here. some people continually fuck up their brand and get away with it. there are assholes out there that continually shit on people and people keep coming back for more. this can be as little as being annoying and getting a pass or all the way to being a fucking cosby. somehow, some folks can keep their brand shiny despite being a very terrible product. we had a fucking president pull this shit off. now, it's important to understand who keeps coming back to keep the brand legitimate. i think that it's mostly people who are too scared to look at the damage a flawed product gives to them, it's easier to trudge on and keep the blinders on than it is to see things for what they truly are. change is hard man, it's also the only thing we have in life that is pretty consistent. fear of change fuels bad brands. people stick with what they want/know sometimes even though they haven't been getting what they want/know for a long time. needs are met but needs are valueless. who wants a red delicious apple when you can get a pink lady? life is as fair as you believe in the concept. i think fair is where you see the pig races or maybe what you pay a bus driver. 

the real trip then might be to be as comfortable as you can, in any moment. not wishing for anything to be nearer, or farther, or better. or worse? I just know that i'm trying to learn how to be better at not being shitty to myself about it all. 

I refuse to "work" these days. I go to a job but I am working for myself. I am building a brand that says:  

1. this guy probably won't put up with shit that isn't real 

2. he actually seems to care about me based on a very short interaction that by all practical purposes may have been the most genuine moment I have had all day with my fellow humans. 

3. becaUSE I TRUST HIM for some reason? BECAUSE HE LOOKS ME IN THE EYE! 

4. HE COULD BE THE DEVIL. MAYBE i LIKE THE DEVIL MORE THAN I THOUGHT? and I am the devil! if i chose to be evil i'd be damn good at it. i don't think the devil has anything to do with being evil. manipulating people for personal gain doesn't have to hurt the other person and its a natural process for growth and development. fucking someone over to best them or swindle them or emotionally damage them is evil. i don't want your soul (i don't think we have them but...) i want you to be happy! 

5. I HOPE HE ISN'T LIKE THESE VANS SHOES I BOUGHT LAST MONTH...I TRUSTED VANS, THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HOLD UP. WHAT HAPPENED TO VANS? 

vans might be a bad example they have some very quality lines out right now. let's not shit on vans. the only examples i can come up with right now are local restaurants and beers and i don't consume either of those things currently. Star wars? starwars used to be cool...oh fuck, the simpsons is probably a good example. they should have shot that horse a long time ago. that also reminds me that the new rick and morty should be up today. now that's a great brand!