Last year I read 2 books about making a living online no matter where you are in the world. They were called “Laptop Millionaire” and “Click Millionaire”. “Laptop” follow the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” type of book. Starts with the author and his mentor “The Laptop Millionaire” who taught him to make a living with his laptop and precedes to teach you the same. “Click” on the other hand was more on “The Four Hour Work Week” format but they both share similar answers to the same question. How do I make a living from working from my laptop.

There’s several different ways to do so. If you ever read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, you know the way to continue making money without working is to create a passive income. There’s several ways to earn passive income, just depends which one works for you. If you’re a blogger, you create passive income by including ads on your videos and articles. If you’re a musician, you earn a passive income with your music, collecting royalties by selling it online through iTunes, amazon and other online retailers. If you’re a filmmaker, you create your own films, web series or produce other video content (like Tutorials, courses and seminars) and sell or stream them on Amazon, Itunes, Vimeo, Udemy, Sellfy or even collecting ad revenue showing it for free on youtube.  If you’re a designer, you freelance your services on 99 Designs or freelancing through Fiverr.com.

Another way to earn a passive income is from Private labeling. Tai Lopez recently discussed it on his podcast and youtube and you don’t have to sign up for his program to get started (most of the stuff he teach you could learn reading books on your own and practicing it yourself, promise you’ll be spending the same amount of money.. Tai is a real good marketer but the stuff he teaches can literally be found anywhere online). This video literally has everything you need to know to get started (if you already understand trademarks, copyrights, getting an LLC, etc).

It’s not hard to make money online but it won’t happen over night. It takes a while to get started but after you lay down the ground work and establish a brand and keep building your assets until you earn more passive income then you do with your day job!

Early this year, I watched Gary Vee on social media talking about the 2017 Challenge. He said with the amount of items you have at home that you no longer use, or the cheap things you could buy at thrift shops, flea markets, garage sales and dollar tree, you could flip online on Ebay. I wanted to focus on it but with me running Natural Gifts (my cold pressed juice and fruit infused alkaline water company), producing and shooting web series & other online content and developing my next film and books, I really couldn’t focus on traveling around looking for things to flip (I did attempt to flip the MC Donald's Pillows I got from uber but that didn't go far)but then this week I saw something that made me do back flips. This guy didn’t travel to different garage sales and flee markets. He went to his nearest Walmart, Target and Toy’s R Us and flip those exact items on Amazon.

Ryan Grant turned a lucrative side-hustle of flipping Hot wheels and other purchases into a full-time job, and you could too! All you need is a cell phone and the amazon seller app. Just walk into a store, scan a few items. If its cheaper there then it is on Amazon, buy it! Then go home and sell it on amazon and you’ll be able to make 2 to 3 dollars on each item you buy. Maybe more! So what do yall think? Will you take the challenge?

So Im in this program called “Jamaica FEAST” and its teaching us how to start and manage our food business. One of our “homework” was to look up trends that are going on in the food business. One thing that came up quickly was food trucks! They are the fastest-growing business in the food service industry. In 2012, food truck revenue was $650 million, however that number grew since then. Today, food truck revenue has hit Marvel Avengers Numbers. Im talking about Fast and the furious numbers. $2.7 billion!!!

As a first-time entrepreneur, a food truck sounds much more affordable option than an actual restaurant. For less than $100,000, I can launch a food truck business that can make anywhere between $250,000 to $500,000. Another reason its so attractive is because of its Flexibility, diversity and communication as well as the the ability to quickly and easily test new concepts, menu items and recipes. and I can also cater to various tastes in different locations. Check out this infograph I found on entreprenuer.com

So it’s official. Trump is our president. People are worried that he’s going to fail America the way he fails at business. Though he is successful, he has a few hit and miss. Here are the top 16 Donald Trump Business Fails.

Trump: The Game is a board game named after American businessman Donald Trump. Milton Bradley Company initially released the game in 1989, although it sold poorly, with only 800,000 copies sold out of an expected two million. Following the success of Trump's 2004 reality television series, The Apprentice, Parker Brothers re-released Trump: The Game later that year.


Donald Trump received offers from four toy companies that were interested in releasing a Trump-branded game. Trump chose Milton Bradley Company, which he called "the Rolls-Royce of game companies."Parker Brothers declined an offer to produce the game. Jeffrey Breslow pitched the game to Trump in his office at Trump Tower in New York. As Breslow explained the concept, Trump interrupted to say, "I like it — what's next?" After negotiations, Trump: The Game was unveiled during an event on February 7, 1989

Trump: The Game is played with three to four players, who must buy and sell various properties in an attempt to make money. The winner is the player who has the most money at the end of the game, after all properties have been purchased. In the 1989 version, the board consists of eight properties and six different spaces, while the 2004 version consists of seven properties and five spaces. The game features a total of eight different types of cards, including five profit cards. Trump said at the event that his undisclosed percentage of the game's revenue would be donated to charities that benefited cerebral palsy and AIDS research, as well as help for homeless people. Milton Bradley executives, who had worked with Trump for more than a year on the game, were surprised as they had not been aware of Trump's charitable intentions. The game was patterned after Monopoly, and based on Trump's career and his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal. Trump, who received input in developing the game with Milton Bradley game specialists, said, "I didn't want a game based solely on chance. I wanted a game based on talent. And I wanted to teach people if they have business instincts. It's great if they can learn that from a game instead of having to go out and lose your shirt.” Trump also said, "I really like the game. It's much more sophisticated than Monopoly, which I've played all my life."George Ditomassi, the president of Milton Bradley at the time, declined to specify how much money the company paid Trump to name the game after him, although Ditomassi estimated that the game's donated proceeds would total $20 million.

Trump: The Game was launched in May 1989, with the tagline, "It's not whether you win or lose, it's whether you win!" Trump appeared in a television commercial for the game. Trump and Milton Bradley hoped the game would sell two million copies, although the game ultimately sold poorly. By August 1990, Trump acknowledged that the game may have been too complicated. Trump said the game had sold 800,000 units.

​Mother Jones magazine, which wrote that Monopoly was a superior game, gave a negative review of the 2004 version, calling it, "Cramped and short-lived—it's the Trump Shuttle of board games. This is a great game if you don't have very many friends." The magazine wrote that "the game's flaws—its erratic nature, its contradictions, its singular obsession with the rapid accumulation of wealth for the purpose of acquiring luxury real estate and firing people—are also Trump's flaws," while also noting that Trump "basically took Monopoly money, stuck his face on it, and added a bunch of zeroes." Christopher Chabris of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the 1989 version was "surprisingly fun to play, as long as you don't mind seeing the candidate's face on $100 million bills and moving a T-shaped pawn around a black-and-gold board." However, Chabris felt that there were better business-themed board games available such as Power Grid. Business Insider called the 1989 version "bizarre." Ben Guarino of Inverse wrote, "The game is designed to simulate what it's like to be rich. In a very specific, very Trumpian way, it succeeds


Ditomassi said about the game's failure, "The game was just nailed to the shelf." Ditomassi felt that one reason for the game's poor sales was that customers were unaware of its revenue being partially donated to charity: "They felt perhaps this was going to be something that a millionaire would make some money on." The game's television commercial was changed to include a new voice-over which stated: "Mr. Trump's proceeds from Trump: The Game will be donated to charity." However, sales of the game failed to increase. It was also believed that sales suffered because the game was misleadingly marketed as a Monopoly knockoff. Analysts also believed that the public had grown tired of Trump. Orbanes said that games such as Trump: The Game "were too heavily involved with what appeared to be high-level finance. That's too intimidating to most people. In May 1991, Trump won a lawsuit brought against him by Stuart Ross, a Manhattan attorney who said he had been hired to serve as an agent in licensing the game. Ross said he had suggested the idea of a board game to Trump, and that he was promised 25 percent of the game's royalties. Ross had sought $200,000 in the lawsuit. Trump had testified that he never made a contract with Ross, and that the game's royalties – $866,800 – had already been donated to charity after being deposited with the Donald J. Trump Foundation, although he did not provide records to prove his claim. In June 2016, during Trump's presidential campaign, The Huffington Post reported that Trump's claim of donating the board game's revenue to charity could not be substantiated. Trump, The Trump Organization, and Hasbro declined to comment. As of 2016, the game is considered a collector's item.​

I love steak. I know I should eat red meat but turkey doesn’t taste as good a beef (Im actually eating a burger as Im writing this), so when I heard the Trumpster had his own brand of steaks, I had to look it up! Trump Steaks is a brand of steaks owned by Donald Trump that launched in 2007 and were initially sold at The Sharper Image and QVC. Trump was featured on the June 2007 issue of the Sharper Image magazine to promote his then-new brand of steaks, which were billed as the "world's greatest". Prices of the four packages of Trump Steaks varied from $199 to $999. The steaks were USDA Angus certified, and were supplied by Buckhead Beef. Trump Steaks were only sold at The Sharper Image for two months before being discontinued. According to the company's CEO, Jerry W. Levin, the product was largely unsuccessful, Levin also claims that the advertisements featuring Trump's photo attracted customers to buy other products at the store. The Trump Steaks trademark was canceled in December 2014 according to a trademark search through the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  As of April 2016, the steaks can no longer be purchased in store, however, they can still be purchased at Trump's various properties. Trump did have an eponymous steak line, sold via Sharper Image. The company's website notes, however: "Unfortunately, Trump Steaks are no longer available, but their legacy endures."

A search for "Trump" on QVC's website finds various Melania Trump jewelry products, a line of Trump mattresses and one entry for Trump Steaks. But they're not actual steaks; they're "Certified Angus Beef Steakburgers" and QVC notes, "We're sorry, this item is not available at this time." A reporter present at Trump's press conference notes that the steaks on the table were not actually a Trump brand, but appear, ironically, to have come from a company named "Bush Brothers."

Now, I’ve only been a fashonista for 5 years but I can spot good clothing when I see it. I know how to look great and how to look generic and this next thing on our list is generic with a capital G. The Donald J. Trump Collection is a line of men's dress shirts, suits, ties and accessories, all of which have been made by factories overseas, where labor costs are a fraction of what it would cost in the U.S.

Trump cut a deal with the global apparel giant PVH to manufacture his clothes in 2004. And ever since the Donald J. Trump Collection has been produced by factories in Central America and Asia, then shipped to the U.S. for sale in stores and online. Scott Nova, an executive director of Worker Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights group that investigates the garment industry, says there is one reason clothes are made overseas: cheap labor. "If a company were committed to producing clothing in the U.S., they could find a way," Nova said, but he added, "The competition is to find the lowest wages you can possibly get." Shipping documents obtained by CNN show that in 2014 Trump shirts were shipped to the U.S. from a factory in Honduras, where nationally the average factory worker earns about $1.30 an hour. Even that hourly wage may have been too high for Trump's licensed manufacturer. The Honduran factory's contract ended in 2015.

That same year, shipping forms obtained by CNN show Trump shirts were being manufactured and shipped from Bangladesh, where the average factory worker makes just 33 cents an hour, according to Nova. CNN cannot determine if the people making Trump's clothing were paid a different amount or the conditions they were working under.

Bangladesh "has the lowest wages and the worst and most unsafe working conditions of any major apparel exporting country," Nova said. Trump's clothing line has fallen on hard times since his comments concerning Mexicans and Muslims in the early primaries led to retail giant Macy's dropping the Trump clothing line. And Trump's manufacturer, PVH, has said it is phasing out its licensing agreement with Trump.


But you can still find Donald J.Trump signature brand clothes on the internet, though apparently at drastically reduced prices. Sizes and colors were extremely limited, suggesting the Trump clothing brand is at the end of its line. But the Trump campaign refused to directly answer if Trump's clothing business is shutting down.

Im big on education. I always tell my friends if you can look up porn on the web, you can look up how to learn new skills. Now some people learn better with books, some better with video tutorials. Others need someone to be with then to coach them every step of the way. There’s nothing wrong with that but if you dont do your homework before hand, you can really get schooled! Trump University LLC (formerly the Trump Wealth Institute; later named Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC) was an American for-profit education company that ran a real estate training program from 2005 until 2010. (A separate organization, Trump Institute, was licensed by Trump University but not owned by the Trump Organization.) Michael Sexton created a business plan for a real-estate training program and presented it to Donald Trump looking to pay Trump a flat fee for the use of his name. Trump instead decided he wanted to be the principal owner.

Donald Trump owned 93% of the company. On May 23, 2005, Trump University formally launched its education program. At the opening presentation, Trump said: "If I had a choice of making lots of money or imparting lots of knowledge, I think I'd be as happy to impart knowledge as to make money". The company's original business plan focused on online education, but quickly expanded to include live, in-person instruction as well. The focus of the instruction was real estate investing, with Trump claiming in advertisements, "I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you. "Typically the instruction began with an introductory seminar in rented space such as a hotel ballroom. At the introductory seminar, students were urged to sign up for additional classes, ranging from $1495 seminars to a $35,000 "Gold Elite" program. Records produced indicate 7611 tickets in total were sold to customers attending courses. Approximately 6000 of these tickets were for a $1,500 3-day course and 1000 tickets were for silver, gold or elite mentored courses ranging in price from $10,000 to $35,000. Trump claimed that students gave 98% favorable reviews to the program. But according to some former students, Trump University employees pressured students to offer favorable reviews, told them they had to fill out the forms in order to obtain graduation certificates, and did not undertake procedures often used to ensure that surveys were filled out objectively.

In an infomercial, Trump said he "handpicked" Trump University's instructors. He testified in a 2012 deposition, however, that he never selected the instructors for the program.  According to Michael Sexton, Trump signed off on the school's advertisements. For a time in 2008 it used the name Trump Wealth Institute. In June 2010, "Trump University" changed its name to "The Trump Entrepreneur Initiative." It largely ceased operations in 2010.


The Trump Institute was a separate business. It was licensed by Trump University, but Trump University did not own any part of it. It was owned and operated by Irene and Mike Milin of Boca Raton, Florida. It offered real estate seminars from 2006 to 2009, at which point the licensing agreement expired and was not renewed. Trump himself was not involved in the operation of the Trump Institute, but he recorded a broadcast infomercial promoting it.


After multiple lawsuits, it is now defunct. It was founded by Donald Trump and his associates, Michael Sexton and Jonathan Spitalny, in 2004. The company offered courses in real estate, asset management, entrepreneurship, and wealth creation.
The organization was not an accredited university or college. It did not confer college credit, grant degrees, or grade its students.[4] In 2011, the company became the subject of an inquiry by the New York Attorney General's office for illegal business practices that resulted in a lawsuit filed in 2013.


Trump University was also the subject of two class action lawsuits in federal court. The lawsuits centered around allegations that Trump University defrauded its students by using misleading marketing practices and engaging in aggressive sales tactics.


Trump settled all three lawsuits in November 2016, after being elected to the presidency, for a total of $25 million

Now I love smelling good. I remember when I was working at Books A Million I would put on this Coconut Pineapple Lotion from Bath and Bodyworks  and this one girl would just smell me up and down. I think thats how I got her number (I would like to think it was because I had game and not just because I smelled good) but since then I was always concious about how I smelled. From Playboy’s New York cologne to Axe Body Spray, I’ve been searching for my scent. Trump has produced several lines of fragrances, including Donald Trump, The Fragrance; Success; and Empire. Trump's first eau de Cologne—Donald Trump, The Fragrance Experience—was produced in partnership with Estée Lauder.


Success was a men's fragrance from Macy's, and was a collaboration between The Trump Organization and Five Star Fragrance Company. This fragrance was launched in March 2012. The scents include blends of fresh juniper and iced red currant, hints of coriander, a mix of frozen ginger, fresh bamboo leaves and geranium, a combination of rich vetiver, tonka bean, birchwood and musk. Im not a fan of musk. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, Success smelled like "soap" and was "reminiscent of a fashion magazine that contains too many perfume ads."

I love magazines, so much I created my own. Something about a lifestyle presented in colorful images and powerful articles. Who wouldn’t want their own magazine. There was a magazine called The Jewel of Palm Beach published by the Palm Beach Media Group that is described as "the exclusive publication of Donald J. Trump's spectacular Mar-a-Lago Club" and other Trump properties.


Trump does not appear to own the publisher, and the magazine only comes out on an annual basis.There was a Trump magazine, which went out of circulation in 2009. The New York Daily News reported:


"The last iteration of the luxury lifestyle mag reached a circulation of 100,000 and sold for $5.95 before it flopped. Issues are nowhere to be found online and hardcopies are likely a rare collector's item."

Remember Soul Plane? As bad as the film did in theaters, I always appreciated the images of seeing someone start an airlines (I love airplanes). Before I heard Trump talking about Mexicans, Muslims and grabbing women by the kitty, I thought it was cool he had a plane with his name on it. 


"Back in 1989, Trump pounced at the chance to buy the troubled Eastern Air Lines shuttle service for $365 million. He put the Trump name on the planes, dressed them up inside — and waited for business to boom. It didn't. But the business took on too much debt and eventually defaulted. It was sold to USAir." I guess he didn’t learn from Howard Hughes mistakes.

Besides playing in gym or playing video games, I’ve never been a racing guy. Never watched Nascar. Didn’t even have hot wheels. Only thing that caught my eye were the brands on the car. Donald saw something in it I didn’t.


The race was originally sponsored by Donald Trump and known as the "Tour de Trump" in 1989 and 1990. The idea for the race was conceived by CBS Sports reporter John Tesh, who had covered the 1987 Tour de France and on his return suggested holding a race in the United States to the basketball commentator and entrepreneur Billy Packer. Packer originally planned to call the race the Tour de Jersey. He approached representatives of casinos in Atlantic City for sponsorship, and Trump offered to be the race's primary sponsor and Packer's business partner in the venture. It was Packer who suggested the Tour de Trump name. After two editions, Trump withdrew his sponsorship of the race due to his business's financial problems. According to Packer, reflecting on the event in 2016, he and Trump "parted as good business friends", although he also explained that Trump's personality and celebrity, as well as the scandals surrounding Trump's marriage and business affairs, distracted from the event and annoyed European riders in the race.

Trump Vodka was an American brand of vodka produced by The Trump Organization at the behest of its owner Donald Trump. The brand was launched in the United States in 2005. In 2005, Drinks Americas signed with Donald Trump to promote a new brand of vodka which became known as Trump Vodka. The brand was launched with the slogan "Success Distilled", with Trump predicting it would outsell Grey Goose vodka. He also said that when mixed with tonic, which he referred to as a "Trump & Tonic" (T&T), it would become the most drunk cocktail in the United States. In 2007, Drinks Americas signed a deal to export 50,000 cases of Trump Vodka annually to Russia. It ceased production under the Trump name in 2011 when it failed to meet the required threshold for distribution. Another reason was because Trump himself is a non-drinker and never drank Trump Vodka, as he blamed alcohol for the death of his brother Fred Trump, Jr. Drinks Americas also had problems producing it because the glass used in the bottles and the gold leaf labels were expensive and the company could not afford to produce them in large numbersHowever, it is still sold in Israel, especially around the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Trump declared of the winery, "I own it 100 percent, no mortgage, no debt."
The winery's website says something different: "Trump Winery is a registered trade name of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC, which is not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates." Trump, who is a teetotaler, also used to sell Trump Vodka, although that venture has also been discontinued. A review described the vodka's taste this way: "Vodka from The Donald. Nosings reveal dry, earthy scents of grain, paraffin, kid leather, jasmine, flowers, moss and soot. Palate entry displays far better than average grain focus and viscosity; at midpalate, the taste profile turns off-dry, intensely breakfast cereal-like and biscuity. Finishes oily/creamy and snack cracker-like."

The Trump Taj Mahal is a closed casino and hotel on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States, owned by Trump Entertainment Resorts, a subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises. The casino was inaugurated by its then-owner Donald Trump in 1990, and was built at a total cost of nearly one billion dollars. Restaurants at the Taj include Dynasty, Il Mulino New York, Moon at Dynasty, Robert's Steakhouse, and Hard Rock Cafe. It was also the home of Scores, the country's first in-casino strip club. The Taj Mahal came to the brink of closure in 2014 as its parent company went through bankruptcy, but ultimately remained open under the new ownership of Icahn Enterprises. On August 3, 2016, it was announced that the Trump Taj Mahal would close after Labor Day. It closed at 5:59 AM on October 10, 2016 for repairs.

Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico was a failed luxury condominium-hotel resort to be located at Punta Bandera in the Playas de Tijuana borough of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, approximately 16 kilometers (9.9 mi) from the San Ysidro border crossing. It was initially announced in 2006 as a joint venture between the Trump Organization and Los Angeles-based real estate development company Irongate. Investors were led to believe that Trump CEO Donald J. Trump was supervising the project, however he was just licensing his name for the development (and subsequently also sued the company).

TD Trump Deutschland AG (German for "TD Trump Germany AG") was a venture by Donald Trump planning to trade and build skyscrapers in Germany. In a cooperation with Marseille-Kliniken Hamburg The Trump Organisation agreed in August 2000 to found the TD Trump Deutschland AG with a common capital stock amount of 4 million Euro, shared likewise into 2 million by each one. Plans by the venture included Millennium Tower (Frankfurt), Alexanderplatz (Berlin) or Pragsattel (Stuttgart) for the construction of a 55-story building of 220 m height (would have been the highest building in south Germany) at an estimated 250 million Euro investment amount, by the name Trump Tower. Plans by architect Peter Paul Schweger for the project were presented in October 2001. In January 2003 the city of Stuttgart finally refused the permission to build the tower due to seeing problems unsolved sourcing the needed amount of money. The company was dissolved in April 2005

Trump International Golf Club Puerto Rico was own by developer Empresas Diaz, the club uses the Trump name under a licensing agreement. Donald Trump does not own the club. combines a PGA Tour Golf Course, incomparable luxury residences, a magnificent beach club, an invigorating spa, complete land and water recreation, and superb cuisine, all in one place, embraced by the most exotic landscape under the Caribbean Sun. It closed in july 2015.


"We merely licensed our name for a fee and have nothing to do with the ownership, development or entity," Eric Trump, executive vice president of The Trump Organization and son of Donald Trump, said in a statement.

You can keep saying he’s not your president but thats like standing in Disney world and screaming you’re going to ignore every Disney character and the whole Disney experience. We live in America. He’s the American President. If you are an American, he’s your president. You may not like him, he may not like you but it is what it is. Stop depending on the government and focus on building your community. Build a business. Practice group economics. Protect your own community. Become Self sufficient. Study history and look at the future and prepare for the worst.

I love reading. Im a major book worm. The thing I love the most about reading, is that if you find the right book you can learn 20-50 years of knowledge and begin studying/practicing it within hours. Fiction books are great but if a book can tell me how I can pay my bills, reach my goals and help the world at the same times, then by all means Im spending any quiet moment I get to reading.

I got some reviews for some of the business books I've been reading lately, but what about you? What books are you reading?

​Addiction is a global epidemic – but particularly in the United States. According to the U.S. News & World Report, “40 million Americans, age 12 and over, meet the clinical criteria for addiction involving nicotine, alcohol or other drugs.”


Micheal T. White of Louisville, KY – just so happens to be one of those 40 million addicts. I use the word “happens” because although he has been clean for over 20 years – technically he will always be an addict, who must fight the urge to use, for the rest of his life.


White confesses that he took his first drink of alcohol around nine years-old. He was a curious kid who would sometimes sneak a drink of the liquor from the household supply when he was lucky enough to run across a bottle.


Micheal T. White
He began drinking liquor more often during his teenage years and at some point added marijuana into the mix. By age 20, White was a full-blown alcoholic and started to dabble into the dark world of crack cocaine.

Over the next ten years he would spiral down a destructive path that would lead to several arrests – and prison terms in two states. Although most of White’s criminal charges were for minor theft and drug possession – his future looked bleak, due to his decisions primarily being influenced by his addictions.

“Once you cross the lines of addiction, you’ll pretend like other things are important but if you can’t love yourself, you really can’t love anybody else… And I was at the point where I couldn’t love nobody. – Micheal White

Like many addicts, White would straddle the fence between addiction and sobriety. He was a father that wanted to be there for his children but he wasn’t mentally strong enough to kick his habits. This resulted in many failed inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation attempts.

“An addiction is odd… You can want to get sober but you can’t because you just don’t know how and your spirit is dead… With Most addicts, their spirit is just dead… So I was spiritually dead.” – Micheal White

White’s addictions would come to a head one holiday season – forcing him to look his demons directly in the eye. He was seven years behind on his child support and his daughter’s mother promised to take him to child support court if he didn’t take his daughter Christmas shopping.

It was a Friday evening and White had just gotten paid. He was supposed to pick up his 10 year-old daughter the following morning and take her to pick up her Christmas layaway.

“I promised myself that I was going to do right… I told myself that I was just going to drink a beer but it didn’t work… So I ended up on crack and spent all the money… I ended up stealing all night to get high.” – Micheal White

It was now Saturday morning and White had yet to get any sleep. Fearful of going back to jail for child support – he decided to pawn all of his valuable possessions so that he could pick up his daughter’s Christmas layaway.

Believing that he had everything worked out – he picked his daughter up and headed to Toys R Us. Once the layaway was taken care of – they headed to McDonald’s to get her a Happy Meal.

Suffering from heavy addiction, White couldn’t enjoy the company of his daughter without getting high. He had a half-pint of liquor and a crack pipe in his pocket. He would repeatedly leave his daughter sitting alone at their table – making trips to McDonald’s restroom – to feed his addiction.

The trips became so regular that his daughter looked at him with disgust and asked why he was going to the restroom so often. Being powerless over his addictions made White hate himself even more. Not being able to look his daughter in the face any longer – he rushed to take her back to her mother’s home.

White’s addictions had caused him to become a burden to his entire family. His mother didn’t want him around anymore because he had stolen from her so many times. Regardless, after taking his daughter home, he snuck in his mother’s basement and began finishing off the crack and liquor that he had left in his pocket.

The basement was quiet and he could hear his mother and sister upstairs talking about how crazy and pathetic he was. He had recently stolen money and cigarettes from his mother’s cigarette case as well as pawned his younger sister’s class ring. Mike White had hit rock bottom.

“I didn’t care about other people and I wanted to die… I got on my knees and asked God to help me and since that day I’ve never been incarcerated again… I’ve been on a mission since then.” – Micheal White

White checked himself into the Talbot House addiction rehabilitation facility in Louisville, KY in December of 1995, and began taking things one day at a time. He had been in rehab many times before but something was different this time. This time he had the faith of God instilled in him as well as the will to live.

In 2000, after five years of sobriety, White started the furnace and air conditioning filter company, America’s Finest Filters (AFF), from the bedroom of his home. Today the company employs 21 people and operates out of a 48,000 sq ft. facility. The annual sales for AFF are well into the millions.

AFF Ribbon cutting

AFF provides air filter service for hundreds of buildings across the Ohio Valley region. AFF is also an authorized distributor for many filter manufacturers and sells filters locally, nationally and internationally.

Never forgetting his roots, White co-founded a Sober Living Home called, Our Father’s House, with another recovering addict, Darryl Wells in 2003. The recovery centers began with two small buildings holding 10-12 men, but have now grown to seven buildings that house 74 men.

Our father's House

The main office for Our Father’s House is located at 2310 W. Jefferson St. in Louisville, KY and the campus expands over that entire city block. The 16 week program is broken up into stages that are designed to transform recovering addicts back into productive members of society.

Residents begin their recovery at the main house. The next stage transitions them to the outer houses, which eventually leads to the campus apartments, if no violations occur. All residents are required to work and attend classes while participating in the program.

The recovery program used is called Recovery Dynamics from the Kelly Foundation. Our Father’s House doesn’t only focus on rehabilitation but it also provides men with a curriculum to change their habits and way of thinking. Meditation and Criminal Thinking are a few of the courses implemented into the recovery program.


Jeffry Lape – Asst. Program Director at Our Father’s House
White is very hands-on with the recovery program. His air filter business, AFF, employs several recovering addicts that have gained sobriety through Our Father’s House. AFF is also the primary financial sponsor of the recovery center.

“I got sober December 16th of 1995… I had to go through a lot to get there, but that’s the whole reason that I do anything that we do… It ensures my sobriety… It helps me stay sober. So the more I help other people – the more I stay sober – and the more I hold people accountable for helping other people.” – Micheal White

Addiction recovery isn’t the only type of mentoring that exists in White’s life. He also routinely visits inmates in prisons and provides them with hope, encouragement and guidance to help them make better decisions in their lives.

Micheal White is truly one of Louisville’s Guardian Angels
​
This blog is originally from 
http://urbanmaxx.com/2016/08/03/louisville-man-kicks-10-year-crack-habit-now-owns-a-multi-million-dollar-business/

A lot of times in life, we're focus on our goal but then something comes up. Maybe it's a money issue or someone who needs physical or emotional support but usually a friend, a family member, a parent, lover, child or someone connected to us come to us with something that takes us away from our goal for a few seconds. Sometimes it drags on for days, maybe weeks. By the time we take care of that, a new problem arise. Now here comes some overdue bills, then you get more stress coming from work and before you know it, you lose track of your goals and it seems too far of a reach to accomplish... but we all have 24 hours in a day. If we didn't focus on our problems so much, we could actually focus on the solutions. We can manage our time better, manage our money better and prepare for things better. It's easy to get distracted but whats more painful? The problems that are usually temporally or the feeling of regret of not completing your goals? Here's a trick I learn. It's called the Pomodoro Technique.

It's a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks.

There are five basic steps to implementing the technique:

Decide on the task to be done
Set your timer to your set minutes (traditionally 25)
Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an x[where?]
Take a short break (3–5 minutes)

After four pomodoros, take a longer break (15–30 minutes)

In the planning phase, write things down in a "To Do Today" list. This enables you to estimate the effort tasks require. As pomodoros are completed, they are checked, adding to a sense of accomplishment and you look back for subsequent self-observation and improvement.

Most things I need to do I realize only takes me 5 minutes to do now if I don't try to multitask all my problems at one time. Five minutes and Im out. If you need help buying or selling real estate, call Daivd and he'll make sure its no longer a distraction to your goals.

David Campbell
516-924-5787
Licensed Agent At Emerald City Realty

Giving Up Means You Never Wanted It Bad Enough​
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Maybe you might feel a little lost right now, maybe you don't know what your path in life is yet. Maybe you hate your job, maybe you're still in school and still changing majors. We all get confused what we want in life at times. Sometimes we know what we want but don't know how to get it. When you feel like giving up, look back at how far you've come. Be strong. Stay on your path and never stop going. Call me to achieve your dreams of buying or selling a home today.

David Campbell
516-924-5787
Licensed Real Estate Agent from Emerald City