June 5th, 2017 The man who sleeps on the floor can never fall out of bed

     In one of my last days at work, I heard a great philosophy quote from a TV show. The quote was, The man who sleeps on the floor can't fall out of bed. Sounds like a dumb quote but it actually means a whole lot to me. Just so you know, this quote came from the show Martin. So like always let's dive in.

     Like any other philosophy quote, we can't fully understand the quote by just reading it. The way I translate the idea of sleeping on the floor as hitting rock bottom. If you are sleeping on the floor in modern day it likely means that you can not afford to sleep in a bed. The second part of the quote essentially means to me, once you're at your lowest you can't go any lower. All of the little things that we used to stress about, no longer affect us the same way. Why you might ask, well it's because you have bigger things to worry about.

     What kind of Books by Josh post oils this be if I didn't relate this quote to myself or someone I know. I've theoretically slept on the floor and let me tell you it's hard. There's no guarantee of rising back up by doing the same things as you previously did. You are forced to shift your focus onto solving the biggest problem of the bunch. You obtain a drive that no one can put out. You stop stressing falling out of bed, basically things that used to get you riled up. In my case when I quit my job as a manager to pursue my own endeavors I stop worrying about all of my friends' problems. I used to always take their problems as my own. This was great for them but bad for my productivity. When I was "sleeping on the floor" I had to focus on getting my butt off the floor. I focused soo much on writing my book that I didn't answer my phone for anyone while I was writing. By the way, I was writing for 16hrs straight each day.

     Why is it that we wait until we hit rock bottom to stop stressing the little things? I'm seriously asking here because it's mind boggling how we worry about the little things that are unimportant. Why should we worry about the NBA finals, whoever wins will not affect us in any real way? Unless you are an owner of the team or work for the organization, then don't focus on it. Focus on making sure that you never have to sleep on the floor. It shouldn't take hitting that point to motivate you to only focus on the things you can control. Like I said, I was the same way. The only reason that I changed was because I no longer had a guaranteed source of income. That forced me to bring out my best, this is something that is pretty simple to explain. If I didn't hustle, then I didn't eat. At the time of writing this post, I have walked away from my current job in sales. Why you might be asking, well for that answer you have to stay tuned for the next episode of The Books by Josh Show. If you enjoyed this post feel free to let me know. So like always, I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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May 6th 2017, Why do I Plateau?

   After recording last week's podcast. A thought was stuck in my head. The thought was, what do you do after you hit your goal. The story about hitting my bench press goal really made me think, because once I hit my goal, I stopped. That was the end of it. Once I hit my goal I plateaued. The same can be said about my other endeavors, such as writing. After publishing my first book my writing stopped, I have three other books on the back burner yet I'm not putting in the right effort. Since I'm working a regular job I haven't been posting blog posts as much. So why is it that my growth stops whenever I obtain my goal? Let's find out.

   As a child did you ever beat a game or finish a large puzzle never to touch it again? I know for a fact that I have done this numerous times. Back when I was in junior high-school, I used to compete in math tournaments. My goal was to become the district champion and after four years I was able to achieve it. I was also able to defend my title the following year. After becoming the district champion, I no longer had the same drive. When it came time for the city championship, I was no longer hungry for victory. I had become comfortable being a big fish in a small pond. Think about how great success feels and now think of how bad failure feels. Who in their right mind would want to feel terrible right after being on top of the world. Thinking back on my life thus far reveals other instances of me giving up after obtaining my goal. After winning a poetry contest in highschool, I never wrote another poem. Other than fear there is another bigger reason, I got comfortable

   Think about it how many times do we refuse to do something just because it would make us feel uncomfortable. Do you know how many people I know who hate their job yet they will never look for another one. The reason why is because they are comfortable. They know how to coast through work by doing the bare minimum. The same can be said about me, especially in my younger years. I remember having a 90 average for my freshman year of high school yet by the time I graduated it had dropped to a 75. I achieved my goal of getting into a prestigious school, yet I decided that was all. I had become comfortable and that ended up costing me.

   That's all in the past, let's talk about my recent achievement of publishing my first book. When I finally published it, I felt like I was on top of the world. So if I felt like this after finishing it why haven't I finished a second book? The real answer is because the work behind the book. I remember working 16hr shifts in order to finish it, that's not something I am able to do. I know that it's an excuse, and I need to get past the excuses. So in order to do that I contacted a few people and told them the topics of the three books on the back burner and now I clearly know which one to work on. I need to maximize my efforts and put my stranuous commute to good use. I want to have this book published before the end of the summer. This way I can work on having at least 3 books published in 2017.

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4-30-17 From Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens via Walking

Got invited to walk from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Queens. All of this walking for food. Was it worth it? Watch to find out.
 

April 18th, 2016 From the Hospital to Sushi

April 10th 2017, One Decision Could Change Your Life

   The topic of today's post is common knowledge but many people fail to realize the importance of their decisions. Like many of my posts, this post was inspired by recent events in my life. So let's dive into this 

   While I was at work the other day, a couple of young kids came in and stole some devices. They only stole two device but the face value of the stolen goods makes it a felony. Two kids still in high school have already messed up their future for what, a cheap thrill. I never understood the reason why people shoplift. The day before the robbery I saw a man stealing candy from a variety store. The man who was stealing candy, appeared to be in his mid to late forties. Then today I had a man in his early thirties trying to commit fraud at my job.

   I know that every makes a couple of bad decisions in life but to do crimes that could result in jail time, come on. There are also people who make good decisions that change their lives. An example is me walking away from my job just so that I could focus on myself. This is a short post and I just wanted to point out the obvious. The real reason I wrote this short post is because seeing the two kids throw their futures away. The only thing that I want people to do, is to think about the consequences of their actions. So I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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April 4th 2017, Things every Home Office needs

 Over the past couple of months, I have been trying to set up a home office. I searched all over the internet to find out essential items that every home office needs but I never found a list that satisfied all of my needs. This post is just me listing off what tools I use in my home office, including  the apps and services I use.

Technology 

Computer - Every home office needs at least one computer. I know many people might say you can do all your work from a tablet such as an IPad, but hear me out. I have 4 ta let's and they can not replash a laptop or work computer, I am writing this exact part of this post on an Android Tablet and I hate it. Multitasking is limited and Microsoft Office is missing many key functions. A dedicated computer will allow you to multitask and get jobs done quicker. For my main office computer, I use a custom built of. This PC is what I use to render my videos, record my podcast and write. I also have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 that I use when I'm out on the field. I recommend a desktop because you can use multiple displays at once. I have three displays attached to my PC and have a virtual desktop which allows me to have a total of 6 different screens. This is why I said a tablet could never replace a actual computer.

Smartphone -  If you are running a home office in 2017 you need to have a smartphone. It's up to you if you want to have a separate business phone number. The real reason you need to have a smartphone in any home office is because of applications. These applications can be anything from an email application to a social media application. The internet has changed the way we connect with people and a smartphone is the best way to stay connected. My phone allows me to easily see all information regarding Books By Josh  with a simple tap.

Printer - You never know when you need to print out a document.

Office Supplies 

Post It notes -  I know that we live in the digital age and we all use apps like Evernote and Google Keep, but every office needs post it notes. The great thing about post it notes is that you can place them all around the office. When you see them stuck to something, it makes you want to read it. I personally use Google Keep but I don't always read the notes on there. That's why I stick my post it notes to my computer monitor.

White board - I use my white board to plan out projects and to draw graphs. The white board is very important in my business because it allows me to set up a story board.

Stapler - Self explanatory

Folders - Need to stay organized

Hanging Folders - So I can file my folders away in my file cabinet.

Pens - You always need to have a pen nearby. I always have a pen in my pocket and have over 3 boxes of pens in my office.

Notepad/Legal pad - Sometimes you need to write down important information. You can always lose a post it note but losing a legal pad is harder.

Business Cards -  I ordered my cards from Vistaprint. If you have a business, then tell people about it and what better way then giving them a business card.

Furniture

Chair - Yes a chair is required but it's all based on your personal preference. Just make sure your chair is comfortable because you will be spending most of your time in it.

Desk - No need to get fancy here, pick a desk or table that works for you. I personally use a 6 foot table from Home Depot. It's not the fanciest desk but it works for me. A normal desk wouldn't be able to hold my three monitors, desktop, 5 external hard drives and three routers.

File Cabinet - Like I stated earlier, you have to stay organized. I purchased mine from Walmart and it only cost about forty dollars. It also has three draws which allows me to store everything in it.

Safe - It's always good to have one of these. You can keep all your important documents in here such as your tax id.

Bookshelf - I have one of these in my office because of all the books that I read. If you are an entrepreneur, then you might have a decent library. So use this bookshelf to hold all of your study material.

Services

Domain - Before you can star your own website or get a professional email, you need to get yourself a domain. I purchased my domain through Godaddy and have used them for all of domain purchases for over five years.

Website - This is a must for any business no matter what you do. We live in a digital age and when you want to open up a business bank account they ask for a business website. You can always setup a wordpress site but I personally use Squarespace for my site. I'm happy with Squarespace because they make setting up a website easy.

Email - Since you have a domain and website setup so you now need an email. If you are dealing with clients I would recommend that you use a professional email. With certain Squarespace plans, emails are provided and Godaddy also provides email services. I personally use G Suite for my email becuase it also comes with 30gb of drive access and a google voice number.

Business Line - You can use your personal cellphone for this but as I mentioned earlier you can use google voice for a business line. By using Google Voice I can answer calls on any phone that has my google voice connected to it.

Internet - You need internet, plain and simple. If you set it up under your Tax ID expect to pay a bit more.

Bank Account -  If your business generates income then you want to have a separate account. 

Accounting Software - I personally use Quickbooks Online to handle my expenses. If you are running a business with a Tax ID then you have to make sure all of your expenses are in order. Your accountant will thank you.

Payment Merchant/Checkout - If you are selling items then you will need a way to process the payment. I use PayPal for all of my merchant needs. The reason why I use Paypal for my merchant services is because many people have Paypal and they accept all cards and they don't charge that much.

   This blog post took me a lot longer than usual and I do apologize for that. Since I have started working again I find that I have to learn to manage my time better. I am not sponsored by any of the merchants or services mentioned above. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to let me know in the comment section below. Like always, I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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March 15th 2017, Short Review on Your One Word by Evan Carmichael

   A couple of weeks ago I was shocked to find out that a YouTuber that I am subscribed to had recently published a book. The YouTuber is Evan Carmichael and he provides great videos for entrepreneurs. His videos range from motivational videos to videos about the top ten rules for success of famous entrepreneurs. If you want to check out his channel, you can click here. The reason that I decided to purchase the book is because Evan's videos have helped me through a lot. I was honestly not expecting much from the book but it surpassed my expectations. As I progressed through the book I found myself loving it more and more. So lets dive into my review of the book.

   The subtitle of the book is "The Powerful Secret To Creating A Business And Life that Matter." This is a book that was written for entrepreneurs. The book is written to serve as a blueprint to guide the average entrepreneur to success. The first part of the book is titled Core and it is the most important part of the book (in my honest opinion). Throughout this portion of the book Evan teaches us how to find our ONE word, his one word is #Believe. The reason why I said that this portion of the book is important because your entire business revolves around your one word. In the few chapters that make up the core portion of the book, we are introduced to many successful entrepreneurs who have found their one word and incorporated it into their business. Throughout the entire book we are given knowledge from these entrepreneurs. these entrepreneurs have businesses that range from tens of thousands of dollars in revenue to millions of dollars in revenue. Other than just helping us find our one word Evan touches on core selling. Core selling is selling based on your one word aka the core of your business. Core selling lets you connect to customers on a deeper level.

   Part two of the book is titled Campaign and the title once again is simple and straight to the point. The first half of this part is about how to test the waters with your one word. Sounds simple but the way he explains it makes it practical. Another great thing in the first half of this portion is the piece on motivation. Motivation is important because life is not always sunshine and rainbows and Evan teaches the importance of motivation. The second half of this portion of the book is called The Planning Checklist. Just like the name suggests, it's literally a checklist. The only thing that separates this checklist from your grocery list is the content of the list. This list has every step needed to change your business from mediocre to extraordinary. Your type of business might not require all of the items on the checklist but I can guarantee it needs a couple of the items. The important takeaway of this part of the book for me was the fan base. Because my business is content creation it relies on a loyal fan base. I will definitely apply this portion of the book into my day to day operation.

   The last part of the book is titled Company. The final part of the book is about building a team and a company. This part of the book didn't apply directly to me because I am not in that position as of yet. The first half of this portion covers everything from hiring the right people to firing people. Most entrepreneurs were employees before so the information in this chapter is very helpful in teaching the basics of managing a team. The second half of the final portion of the book is Operations and its straightforward. The chapter goes over the day to day of running a business. It touches on everything from client management to mentors. Anything that you need to run a business is in this part of the book I especially loved the part on mentors and advisers. Like I said in the beginning Evan's YouTube channel has many video on successful entrepreneur's top ten keys to success. But Evan also has the mentor me playlist, with both of these playlist even the Average Joe can get successful people to mentor them.

   If you want to purchase a copy of this book feel free to click here. I highly recommend this book to any entrepreneur. Doesn't matter how far along you are in your journey because this book covers many topics. Feel free to comment down below about your favorite part of this post. If you would like to support the site in anyway please check out the links posted below. Like Always I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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March 11th 2017, 27 Degrees isn't enough to stop me 3-11-17

   Follow me as I take you through a day in my shoes.

March 7th 2017, My take on the famous Confucius teaching on Personal Excellence

   I've had this philosophy quote sitting in my list of blog topics for a while. The reason why I wrote this quote down in my list of possible topics is because of what it represents. Personal excellence is something that I want to achieve. I believe that we should all strive for personal excellence. So without further delay, let's dive into this quote.

   Some readers might not know the definition of the term personal excellence is. This term is really old yet it is not found in any dictionary. To find the definition we must break the term down and define its parts. The first part of the term is personal,  the definition of this word according to dictionary.com is... relating to, or coming as from a particular person; individual; private. The second part of the term is excellence, the definition of this word according to dictionary.com is... the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence.  By using the definition of it's parts we can define personal excellence as being the best at being ourselves. Sounds confusing doesn't it? In layman's terms it basically means doing your best no matter what the cost. As you can now probably see, this is something that is very important.

   This teaching from Confucius breaks down the three pillars that are essential in achieving personal excellence.  The three pillars are your willpower, your goals and your motivation.The will to win is your willpower, this plays an important role in defining us. Behind every person's success is a bunch of failures that they overcame. The game that we call life is the hardest game that we will ever play. Life hits hard but can you get up after being hit? Will power is essentially our ability to tough it through the hard times of life. The reason will power is so important in personal excellence is because it teaches us the price of success. Our will power helps us make it through what I like to call the grind phase. The grind phase is the part in your life when you are trying something new and giving it your all yet nothing seems to go your way. This phase of your life and or business is frustrating and many people quit because of it. Just so that a person can join a fraternity, the pledges must survive hell week. Many of the pledges drop out but those who see it through the end, reap all of the rewards.

   The next part of the teaching talks about our desire to succeed, which can be translated as our goals. The reason why it can be translated as our goals is because goals are our desires. Without goals we have no reason to try our very best. I remember one goal I had as a kid, my goal was to buy a game-boy color with my own money. Sounds like a small goal to you but for a nine year old it was like buying my first car. I saved every little dollar that I had, I didn't even buy ice cream from the ice cream truck. The sacrifices i made for my goal back then were not having the latest transformer toy and not buying junk food. It might sound funny to you, as I type this blog post I'm looking at my magenta game-boy color which I bough in 1998. Instead of going into great detail of goal setting, let me direct you to a previous post in which I covered the subject, here.

   The final pillar of personal excellence is the urge to reach or full potential, this is our motivation. A synonym for urge is encourage and motivation encourages us to succeed. One of the things I learned in network marketing was the power of positivity and motivation. Whenever I went to a big network marketing event they were constantly talking about our internal battery. This internal battery was a representation of our motivation levels, the purpose of the events was to recharge our batteries. Before you say that this is just some spiel that network marketing companies made up, just listen. "People often say that Motivation doesn't last. Well neither does bathing- that's why we recommend doing it daily" - Zig Ziglar. Motivation is important because it brings positivity into our lives. The world is filled with lots of negativity and the negativity constantly sucks the positivity from you little by little until you have run out of positivity. Why does the world suck out our positivity, it's because misery loves company. Like I said when talking about willpower, your life can get real bad before success. That is why you need motivation, you need it to lift you up in your time of need. If you want to listen to a powerful story that will help motivate you click here.

   Hopefully my break down of Confucius' teaching on personal excellence have helped you in some way. Feel free to comment down below about your favorite part of this post. If you would like to support the site in anyway please check out the links posted below. Like Always I'll catch you guys in the next one.

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February 8th, 2017 Short Review of The Midas Touch by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki

   A couple of weeks ago, I decided to stop at Barnes and Noble at Union Square. I had just walked from the Barclay Center in Brooklyn all the way to 14th street in Manhattan. The Barnes and Noble was meant to serve as a pit stop but it turned into a mini shopping adventure. I don't usually purchase physical books at full price but this time I made an exception. It was the last copy on the shelf and the title spoke to me Midas Touch, Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich and Why Most Don't.  The book is a little over two hundred pages spread out over five chapters. Since the books only has five chapters I will review each chapter rather than the whole book.

   The reason the book only has five chapters is because a hand only has five fingers. Once all five "fingers" are achieved, then the reader will then have the Midas Touch. The first finger is the thumb which is the Strength of Character. One of the first things that I noticed while reading, was that each chapter is broken down into three parts. The first part is Robert Kiyosaki speaking on the subject the second part is Donald Trump speaking about on the subject and the final part is a wrap up. In Robert's half of this chapter he details how one appearance on Oprah changed his life. In one hour he had sold over a million copies of his book and now everyone was calling him and overnight success. Robert then told stories of his unsuccessful business ventures and how he stuck to his guns through the tough times. In Donald's portion of this chapter he speaks of bad luck that has riddled many of his real estate deals. The key theme in this chapter is, the life of an entrepreneur is not an easy life. There will be many failures but as long as you tough it through, you will be rewarded.

   The second chapter is the index finger which is named FOCUS. In my opinion, this chapter is probably the best chapter out of the whole book. Robert's story of military helicopter training really hit home, if he lost focus for even a second then he would have lost his life. In this chapter they use FOCUS as an acronym for Follow One Course Until Successful. Even after obtaining success, you must not lose FOCUS. In Donald's portion he tell his tale of almost losing it all. When I say it all I'm talking about his entire fortune, he lost almost everything in the early 90s. In his portion he states that he lost FOCUS and he was off at fashion shows rather than managing his company. This chapter has lots of diagrams depicting the cash-flow quadrant and the eight elements of business. It's hard for me to convey how great this chapter was without spoiling some of the stories that the authors use.

   The third chapter is the middle finger which is named Brand. The chapter begins with Robert telling a story about his purchase of a fake Rolex. It might not seem like a big deal but his "rich" dad explains the power of a Brand. This portion of the book speaks on how brands are worth more than their assets, one example the book uses is Coke a Cola. The name Coke a Cola is worth more than all the processing plants that it owns. For Donald's portion he talks about his own brand, Trump. The trump brand stands for elegance and class but it was not built in a day. Donald speaks in this chapter about how he had to disassociate the Trump brand from affordable housing to high class housing in Manhattan. The main takeaway from this chapter is a Brand is more than a name, it is ultimately what our business is. If we do not have a Brand then we will be long forgotten.

   The fourth chapter is the ring finger which stands for Relations. This part of the book is about partnerships, Robert goes into detail about his bad partners in his Velcro wallet business. Robert's relationship with bad partners cost him millions of dollars. Robert's section also has some key nuggets on lessons he learned from previous relationships. Donald's part in this chapter highlights how to form deals rather than partnerships. In his section he also touches upon how to manage a team of people.

   The final chapter is the pinky finger which stands for the little things that matter. As the title of the finger suggests, this chapter is about not forgetting the little things. In Robert's portion he tells stories of some entrepreneurs in his life, that are stuck in the S quadrant rather than the B quadrant. The problem with these entrepreneurs, is that they are focusing on the wrong things. The key talking point in this chapter is focusing on right things. In Donald's portion, he speaks about the glass he used for Trump Tower. Even his own father did not see the purpose of glass on the outside of the tower. When Trump Tower opened it was met with positive reviews because of the glass. This chapter is a great wrap up chapter.

   So that's it for my review for the book Midas Touch. Let me know what you thought of it in the comments bellow. Feel free to take out my own book right here

January 27th, 2017 Answering a couple of questions after publishing my first book

   I decided to make a video answering some of the questions posed to me by reader of this site. I decided to do a video post rather than a written post, because I wanted to convey my answers as best as I could. 

January 25th, 2017 Short Review of How To Win At The Sport Of Business by Mark Cuban

   This book help change the way I look at business. This book is not written as a traditional book, it is a collection of Mr. Cuban's blog posts. For those of you who are not familiar with Mr. Cuban, he is an entrepreneur who is currently worth 3.3 billion dollars. If you want to learn from some one successful why not a billionaire?

   The book starts off with Mark describing his dream of owning his own business. He then describes working for numerous companies and hating each one. Mark then talks about his journey to Dallas, Texas. Just like Anna Kendrick, Mark Cuban traveled to another state without money or a job; all he had was a dream. Mark found a job selling computer software in Texas, but he had no prior knowledge of computer or computer software. The book then shows that Mark learned all of his knowledge of computers and their software by reading manuals in his down time. This part of the book demonstrates how powerful reading is because the knowledge that Mark gained from the manuals transferred over to his first business venture.

   The book touches upon the topic of having the edge quite often. I feel that Mr. Cuban hits the nail with his tips. If you fail to keep up with the trends you are bound to be left behind. If some of the big businesses of the past followed these points, then they might still be here today. Mark states that there is always someone out there who is trying to one up your business and it is our job to never let that happen. For anyone saying that this is not true, let's take a look at the biggest social networks in the past decade. One of the first big social networking sites was called Sconex, which was put out of business by Myspace. Myspace was the biggest social networking site until Facebook entered the picture. There have many sites that have attempted to dethrone Facebook, but none have been successful yet. One of the reason why Facebook is still on top is due to the fact that they are staying ahead of the curb. They own the popular messaging service Whatsapp and even own the virtual reality company Oculus.

   The book is not all green pastures, the book also touches on some bad luck that Mark had experienced. One stroke of bad luck is when one of Mark's employees cleaned out the business' entire bank account. How would you feel, if all the money you worked hard to earn was stolen from you. Mark used this as a learning experience and worked twice as hard to make it all back. The book is amazing for those thinking about starting their own business. The reason why because it touches on the concept of sweat equity. Sweat equity is a business term for the long hours of work that you put into your business. Not every business is started with large amounts of capital but all successful businesses have an abundant amount of sweat equity. Another reason why this book is great for those starting out in the world of business is because it talks about raising capital.

   All in all this book is a short read but the pages are filled with knowledge. Mark Cuban does a wonderful job of illustrating the hardships of running your own business. He also does a wonderful job of showing the rewards of running a successful business. This book is written to give us nuggets of Mark's knowledge and also motivate us. Mark says in the book many times "You only have to be right once." This saying is true because when asked about his failures Thomas Edison said something really similar; "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Two successful men with the similar ideology, coincidence? I think not!

     If you enjoyed this post feel free to let me know in the comments below. Fell free to follow in any of the links bellow

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January 19th, 2017 My Book is live and free tomorrow only https://goo.gl/svfX66

            Yes, the title above is entirely true. I actually finished writing my book last week and decided to keep it a secret. The reason that I released the book in secrecy was to see how it would do with minimal promotion. Since this is my first published book, I am still learning about self-promotion. So tomorrow on Friday the 20th, the book will be free on Amazon.

            I wrote this book to help bring the joy of reading to the younger generation. I grew up reading mystery novels such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew. The book Private Eye is a modern take on the classic Hardy Boys style. This book was written as the first book in the Jason Streak series. I want to write at least three more books for the series.

            I have received messages from readers of the site asking how much work is required to write a book. Writing a book requires a tremendous amount of work and discipline. The discipline is the most important part because it is hard to sit in front of a computer for eight hours and stay productive. Some days I sat in front of Microsoft Word for sixteen hours and only accomplished two pages. If you want to write a book, then I say go for it.

            I am already working on my next book, Phone Call. It’s named like this because it’s a story about how one simple phone call can change your life. The story follows the main character in his journey to adulthood. In the beginning of the book the main character receives a call that his ex-girlfriend has passed away and left him something in her will. The only problem is she left him a daughter that he never knew he had. If I can continue to work on it full time then it should be released by May.

            The reason I am talking about my accomplishment of writing a book is to inspire you guys. Publishing a book was always a dream of mine, so if I could accomplish my dream so can you. The process was not easy, but at the end of the day, it was truly worth it. So like always, I’ll catch you guys in the next one.

December 29th, 2016 Year End Recap

   As the year comes to a close, I wanted to reflect back on some of the key moments of 2016. Since I have not posted a video in a while, I decided to make it into a video.

December 28, 2016 Short Review of Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

   This is one of the books that I have recently picked up. As I have stated many times previously, I love reading biographies of famous people. One of my goals is to have a biography one day and for someone to read it and decide to give it a review. For those of you who would like to take a look at the book here is a link to Scrappy Little Nobody.

   I know the first question that you are asking yourself right now, "Why did Josh chose to read this book?" The answer to that the question is quite simple, I was browsing for some books to read when I saw it on the front page of the google play books store. Since I have been traveling to Manhattan more frequently, I needed something to occupy my time on the train. I'm not a big fan of playing games on my phone, it is often a waste of our most precious resource, time. The day I looked at my phone was a week after the release of the book, so it was being heavily advertised on the google play book store. For those of you who live in NYC know how cramped the trains are during rush hour, so I decided to read the eBook version of the book. The book exceeded my expectations and was pretty good. So lets begin my short review of the book.

   Anna Kendrick is not considered an A list actress but she has been in showbiz for most of her life. The book starts off with her telling a story from when she was younger, but from the first couple of paragraphs you can tell that it is well written. The words flow very well and make it seem as if you are having a conversation with Ms. Kendrick. On the second page of the introduction the reader is greeted with some profanity, this may be a turn off for some readers (I could care less). The use of slight profanity in my opinion, makes the writer seem more genuine and down to earth. Throughout the pages of the book, we the reader learn that Ms. Kendrick was essentially the weird kid. She talks about her being shorter than the other girls, being a late bloomer and having hard to manage hair. This look actually helped her during her years of Broadway. The thing I really loved about the book was it showed the life of an actor behind the scenes. From losing money while working on Broadway to what happens after someone wins an award. By reading this book I gained a better understanding of actors as a whole. Most people see an actor and say to themselves "That person had connections or they just got lucky." This book shows the fear that most actors possess, the fear that their current casting will be their last.

   It is pretty hard to review a book without giving spoilers, I hope you enjoyed this review. This is my first book review on this site and I will be doing many more. If any of you do chose to pick up this book, be sure to let me know your thoughts on it. I'll catch you guys in the next one.

December 27th, 2016 What I have been up to

   I haven't posted on here in a while, but don't worry I'm back for good.

   Just last week I did some freelance in the place I used to work. Man do I NOT regret my decision for leaving. The experience I had working there last Friday was horrible. I remember when I used to love going in to work, I wasn't tap dancing to work but I was happy to be at work. The reason why the day dragged on was because the core values had changed. Back when I was working there and managing the store, I made it my duty to make sure every customer was happy and their issues were always resolved. The new owners' core values are about maximizing profits no matter what. I know right now some of you reading this are saying to yourself "But Josh, business is about making money. If there is no money then the business can not keep its door open". It is true that businesses need money to survive but not at the expense of the customers. Throughout the day I noticed that the customer's experience was highly degraded because of price hikes and no one to one time. I understand maximizing profit but for something that was previously sold at $40 should not be sold at $80 when it clearly does not have the features or build quality of items at that price point. When I say one to one time I am talking about dealing with a cashier I am talking about Red Carpet Service. This is something I learned back in 2008, you have to treat the person in front of you as if they are the most important customer in the world. This means making sure that they have no questions about the product or service. This is how you maintain a good relationship with customers, just by seeing me a customer came in and bought me lunch.  This might be just me preaching to the choir, but without a loyal customer base, businesses can not succeed. So after working that day, I have vowed to never work there under the new owners, no matter what they want to pay me.

   Other than doing that day of freelance, I have been working on getting back in shape. I know lots of people say that they want to get in shape so I actually made a workout plan. I might not look like it now but I used to workout like a madman. Throughout the years I picked up knowledge of the human body and learned workouts that give great results. This plan is not that easy and some of my fit friends had trouble keeping up with it. Heck even I can't do some of the things on it, it is more of a road map with recommended exercises. If you would like to download it, here is a link to the workout

   Another thing that I have been doing while I have been away from this site, is simply taking out my camera. I have a DSLR and I have been messing around with it, sounds like I'm wasting time. Well yes and no, I will try my best to use it to record videos for my YouTube channel. Using this I will be able to bring better quality videos to you my viewers. Other than making videos, I was contemplating selling stock images. At the end of it I love taking photos, even though not that many people will see them.

   The main thing that I have been doing during my time away from the site is reading. This in my opinion is the most valuable use of my time these past couple of weeks. Remember the books that I read are for the most part non fiction books. Reading books is one of the cheapest ways of learning something. I am not talking about picking up one of those for Dummies books (if these books work for you great, not really my cup of tea). I absolutely love reading biographies of successful people, heck I have Kevin Smith's biography in my list of approved books. By reading biographies you get to learn that your heroes are normal people like you and I. You also get to learn certain mistakes that they have made and how to avoid them. When most of us get out of school we stop learning. Hey Mark Cuban didn't know anything about software when he was selling it. No one taught him about it so he read every computer software he could get his hands on. The knowledge he gained from those manuals helped him launch his company MicroSolutions, which he later sold for a total of six million dollars. 

   There are many other things that I have been doing during the time of my last post to now. I chose to talk about these activities because I feel that you the readers can learn from these topics. I have also changed the books that I am currently reading and recommended book list. I'll catch you guys in the next post.