When you are successful, you will fail. And let’s not fetishize it, deny it, or try to whitewash it. The ghost of failure haunts me every day. And he doesn’t look anything like the grim reaper. In fact, it’s a she. And she’s hot. I envision her to look like Raquel Welch. She whispers in my ear, she wakes me up at night, she joins me on a morning...Learn More

You know how when you write a check, there’s that digital bar code at the bottom? If you lick your thumb and smudge that bar code, the check has to be processed manually, which buys you another thirty days before the banks cash it. This way, the banks are unable to process the check automatically, and they have to reprocess it in the old-fashioned...Learn More

I focused on the sexier stuff, prepping my plan for Bivins. I tried to get a sit-down, but apparently his office ran through his aunt, a super nice lady who told me to “put down what you want in paper, dear,” and that she’d set up something. So I waited I heard about the geographic ground zero of emerging hip-hop: an event called the Lyricist...Learn More

Business trauma can make you panic. You feel like you’re lost in the woods, hungry, alone, and your iPhone doesn’t have any service. So how do you get out of the woods? I’m no Smokey the Bear, but I follow the principles of smoked-out ODB, who proclaims "C.H.I.L.L. G" —a survival guide for both outdoor and corporate meltdowns "C" is for---CALM THE...Learn More

The battle with Bloomberg was my gateway drug. I wanted another hit. A bigger hit. Seth and I both craved another splash in the media, and we wanted to do it on a grander scale “You should tag Mount Rushmore!” Seth suggested “The White House!” “The New York Stock Exchange?” We hired a blue-chip film, TV, video, and commercial production company...Learn More