Just a quick update. Last night was great, show was near sold out and the bar killed it. So of course I got to bed at 5am. But I made $200 bartending. It's a bit ridiculous how much you can make slinging drinks. It can be very busy, but it's never necessarily hard work and to get a $1 tip for serving a beer is almost bit silly. But not really, remember to keep doing it! Some day I may have kids to feed!
Meant to get a lot of work done today but we had some problems with our orders this week. One of my distributors couldn't deliver 7 kegs of my best selling beer till yesterday. The order never came so I had to go pick it up today. Moving kegs is never fun, especially after you've done 50 push ups. Speaking of which...
This push up thing is hard! I had to bust out a exercise mat so I could do wrist push ups in addition to finger push ups so I could finish my 50 in 5 minutes. Still have a 100 to do!
Not happy to see all this snow, always cuts down on business. Definitely will hurt us tonight.
Off to the bar to sling drinks and work on my hearing loss problem.
Getting in shape is probably the easiest and cheapest item on my list so I'll start there. I don't have a whole lot of time to work out or the cash to fork over for a gym so I'll start with 150 finger and/or wrist push ups a day and add exercises as I revise my schedule (next posting). The goal will be to make it to 400 a day at a time.
I'll start off by taking 5 minutes 3 times a day and doing ten push ups a minute. When that gets to easy I'll do 20 a minute, then 30, etc till I just do a 100 straight and don't take breaks. I'll post a video on April 1st of how many I'll be able to do in a row. I can do 30ish straight right now, we'll see if I can do a 100 by April 1st.
Strong hands and wrist are important part of jujutsu. The good thing about all these push ups is not only am I strengthening my upper body but I'll be developing strength and flexibility in my wrist and hands too for jujutsu.
So that's it for now, I've got a lot of work to today but either tonight or tomorrow I'll throw up my new day to day schedule to maximize efficiency.
-Damon
It's been a hectic week. I worked till 4am Tuesday, didn't get to bed till 5am and woke up at 10 and was back at the bar at 1030 and remained there till 330 receiving orders. Hit the bank after that and was back at 630 to open the bar. Wrapped up my night at 3am. Had to take care of a few things today but was able to take the night off and spend it with the lady.
It's a bit depressing thinking that this is how my life is going to be for the next 5-10 years. Working 50-60 hour weeks, taking care of things as they come up and only really getting time to breath when business is slow.
I've come to realize a large part of being happy with life is realizing what you want out of life and working toward achieving it. I've found out what I want, I just haven't done anything to achieve it. The reason I started the blog was track my progress toward my goals.
So what do I want? As I've mentioned previously I want to live on or near a beach, with a nice chunk of land (Between 1 and 5 acres) in a nice warm climate. Besides that I want:
- The house I live in to be of my own design
- A dojo on my land
- To be the best martial artist I can be
- To be healthy and in great shape
- Learn Japanese (I studied for 3 years in college) and go take a trip there for at least a month
- To be financially stable without having to work so much as to prevent me from doing anything on the above list
- Complete this list in 4 years, I'll be 30 years old.
So I'd like to be able to have the money to be able to buy the land, build a house I designed, and train/workout for 4-6 hours a day. Right now I'm working 50 hours a week keeping my bar in business. To get to the point where I can make the money I need to make everything happen is going to take a lot of work and creativity. Fortunately for me there are 168 hours in a week and even after I take out the 50 hours of work a week and 40 hours of sleep I still have 78 hours a week to eat, walk my dogs, spend time with my girlfriend, train, and make my fortune.
If I'm going to make this happen I'm going to have to budget my time like crazy, make a hell of a lot more money then I'm doing now and save every cent possible. I've got a plan and I'm going to work on implementing it bit by bit starting tomorrow.
Did I mention to complete this list I have to pay off my business first, a 300 capacity music venue that hasn't had a profitable year it's first 3 years of operation?
Making the impossible possible, starting tomorrow morning.
The glorious life of a bar owner. Home at 430, bed by 5, at club by ten to receive orders and then bartending at 7. And repeat. No worries though I'll get a night off come Monday.
Since the dawn of time man has gazed at cool looking rocks and said "wow that's a cool looking rock." Many times these cool looking rocks were used for various cool things. Sharp rocks were used to stab and cut people. Eventually they were even put on arrows. Other rocks were used to throw at people. Many rocks were used to build houses and lawn ornaments. It's common knowledge among archaeologist, that the first garden gnomes were very cool naturally occurring rocks that ancient people thought looked like tiny people with big white beards, red hats, and sunny dispositions.
The most special of the rocks were the crystals, because they were shiny.
The ancient people soon realized that shiny object cure disease. According to Dr. Olga Rodriguez Rasmussen ofhealingcrystals.com:
"Crystals, gems and stones, have a long documented history of use in healing work in practically every culture and religious tradition since the dawn of time..."
Most historians point to heavy crystal use in ancient medicine to explain the high life expectancy, low disease rate, and almost non-existent infant mortality rate that most people enjoyed before the introduction of modern medicine.
Since the introduction of science, pushed on the masses by evil, greedy capitalist trying to sell us soulless plaster garden gnomes the use of cool rocks in our everyday life has decline dramatically. While cool rocks are still collected and used by holistic healers, hippies, and small children, things like bullets, steel, and vaccines have filled the space once occupied by a much more green and natural material.
However not all is lost. Check out the Mega Crystals of Naica Mines. This recently discovered crystal palace built by the ancients has crystals 36ft long and weighing 55 tons. It is said by this one person that there should be enough crystals within the Nacia Mines to cure all disease and power future holistic space ships across the galaxy on a mission to spread peace, love, and proper respect for cool looking rocks.
Disclaimer: This is a satirical article. If you don't find it funny there are 3 possible reasons:
1.) You train at a dojo like this
2.) You don't train at all
3.) I'm not at all funny (most likely)
So anyhoo....
How to Open a Dojo and Make Cash Doing it
There is no denying times are tough. With unemployment around 10% and quickly approaching the 30% mark we saw in the depression it’s quite clear we very well may be standing in bread lines for hours on end so that we can make sandwich’s with meat from our butchered dogs and topped off with the leather from our boots. As someone with small, skinny dogs and smelly feet the near future looks very grim. Times are indeed tough, but not hopeless thanks to martial arts.
A popular saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, karate chop them in half and scare the crap out of life!” Or something like that. Many times in life we are faced with adversity and the dojo provide not only an escape but also the tools to defeat adversity. In times of economic strife, this should not be different. Using a proper marketing plan, martial arts can prove to be quite the profitable endeavor.
Using martial arts for economic benefit is not a new concept. Musashi is quoted as saying:
“The field of martial arts is particularly rife with flamboyant swordsmanship, with commercial popularization and profiteering on the part of both those who teach the science and those who study it. The result of this must be, as someone said, that “amateuristic martial arts are a source of serious wounds.”
So it’s nothing new. And don’t worry about that part about “serious wounds.” They were using swords, which can be quick sharp. Plus you’re not an amateur – you’ll be fine. Now to move on, the first and best way to make money with martial arts: creating your own style.
At first this may seem like a daunting task but really it’s not so bad. All you need is a few years of experience in one style, little cross training here and there, and a kanji dictionary so you can make a cool name. Remember today’s current buzzwords like “combat”, “ultimate”, and “mixed”. It’s important to realize that today people want down and dirty Bourne Identitystyle martial arts, something that they can immediately see as effective and don’t have to do too many times before it seems like it works. Like punching and tackling people. 90 degree pivots not so much… although there is small market for that. But we’re trying to catch Moby Dick here, not the Little Mermaid. So pick a name using the above guidelines.
Now that you’ve got the name it’s time to create your style. This usually takes years and years but there are shortcuts. A good rule of thumb is to take all the stuff you’re good at out of what style you study and pick up a few tricks from whatever cross training you do and mash it together. In your brochure describe this process as “extracting the relevant parts of (whatever) and blending with the deadly power of (whatever & whatever).” Shore up any lack in cross training by watching martial arts movies – Bruce Lee for philsophy and little Chuck Norris here and there but no Walker, Texas Ranger. Also stay away from Jackie Chan; it’s just too showy. Instead bone up on the aforementioned Bourne movies and anything with Tony Jaa.
To measure the progress of students studying your newly christened style you’ll need a system of promotions. Start by making yourself a 15th degree black belt. Many degrees of black are important so that you can keep promoting people to various degrees every year or few months. There should be many degrees before black as well. A few basic colors, patterns (camouflage is good for the more military minded) and a number of stripes per basic color will do. With just 5 colors and 3 stripes a color you’ve got 15 promotions, and that’s before they test for shodan. And with a little testing/promotion fee per promotion we’re talking a fair amount of money.
Finally you need a place to train. The dojo much like the style needs a cool name. Again buzz words. A good example would be to call your place Ultimate Fight Club. Notice the use of “Ultimate” and “Fight Club”. The initials for the place are U.F.C. By using a word that denotes “best” and invoking the memories of a kick ass, testosterone filled dude movie, and topping it off with an awesome acronym you’ve got a whip cream topped pumpkin pie of a marketing tool. And everybody loves pie. Remember the amenities too. Gourmet coffee, internet access, maybe an arcade game (Should be a fighting game). Today’s best sports stadiums aren’t just a field and seats. Put that little extra into your presentation.
So in conclusion, we all love martial arts. Most of us like money too. So why not combine the two? Like putting a Twinkie in a deep grease fryer the process may be disgusting, the results unhealthy, you can’t deny how delicious it taste. Now if you’ll excuse I’m off to open my new dojo – The Matrix Masters Academy. M.M.A. for short.
I tend not to eat breakfast but I'm trying to change that. I suppose it's more of brunch when you wake up at 11am. That probably needs to change too if I'm going to make it. But don't be too hard on me, I work will 3am!
Part of of working to make my millions also means doing what I can to save as much as possible. Food is a great place to start. I won't be as fanatical as these people who were able to eat for a dollar a day, but I'm going to cap myself off at $5. Considering I eat out 5-6 times for around $10 a month I'm saving at least 50 bucks a month, so $600 a year. Today's breakfast consist of celery with peanut butter an apple and clementine. Would have been oatmeal too but I was in bit of hurry to get to the bar to do inventory and didn't want to spare the 3 minutes to make it. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up at 1030 so I have time to "cook" my oatmeal. Oh the sacrifice. Maybe I should go down to at least $3 a day for food. What do you think?
So you got dreams of making it big playing music? Or maybe just having fun with some friends? Well if you've got a band and want to play a better stage than the slightly elevated floor near the bathroom at some dive bar listen up!
As a venue owner I can tell you that if you've never played at my venue or any other actual venue, it's going to be tough to get into my place. I need to know that your going to bring a crowd so unless you have a proven draw in town your not getting a good night right off the bat. You may swear up and down that you'll sell the place out, but if I had a dollar for every time a band promised me that, I'd be on the patio of my dream house staring at the beach thinking about the good old days when I owned a music venue. You may worthly of playing in front of a few hundred people, you may have a few hundred people who swear they'll come pay a cover and see you, but most likely when you first start, you ain't going to draw shit. It takes a while to build a good crowd and before you play at my place, your going to have to build at least a little following before I even consider letting you open for free for a band.
So first off, if you're a local band look up all the open mics and play them. Pick a few and invite all your friends. Make sure to use facebook, myspace, twitter, etc to get the word out. Call and text your friends, beg and plead for them to come see you. A crowd attracts a crowd, and you got to cheat a bit sometimes to get things going. The good thing about open mic events are there usually are a few people/bands just like you there who did the same thing so hopefully you can steal a few of their fans/sympathetic friends. At the very least you can meet other aspiring musicians. Networking, as with any profession is key.
House Parties are another good way to play for a bunch of people. Just don't get whoever owns the house in trouble with a noise violation.
Play your bars, your open mics, house parties, etc. Your not going to make much money, but hopefully it's a lot of fun.
Once you built up a bit of a crowd it's time to try to book at a venue. One of the easiest ways to get in, is to look at the venue's event calendar and try to find a band that plays in the same/similar genre and see if you can get an opening gig for them. Again you probably aren't going to get paid. But you are getting your foot in the door. You can contact the venue about this but sometimes it's a bit easier to contact the band and ask if you can open for them for free. Either way you'll be opening for free but it's a great chance to get in front of people who've never heard of you.
Another approach (which doesn't necessarily have to be a seperate approach) is to try to play an off night. Sundays through Tuesday is always hard to book and if someone wants to play for whatever they can make at the door, it's usually better then not being open. This is where those bands you met along the way are important, you'll want to present the venue with a lineup, "So we'll headline and ____ and ___ will open for us." This is especially important if you can only play an hour set. If you've got 3 hours of music an opener would still be good but not absolutely necessary.
Go in and meet the owner or booking agent. Get a business card and make sure send a few emails, make a few calls. Be careful not to annoy the shit out of them but make sure they don't forget about you. Case in point a band came in few weeks ago after emailing us a few times to get a show booked. We kicked around the idea and decided against it. A week later when the band came in we hadn't booked a show yet for that date which was fast approaching and after speaking to the band in person we decided to give them the date. Being persistent paid off.
(Just because I forgot to mention earlier, make sure to book 4-6 weeks out whenever possible to promote. Speaking of which....)
PROMOTE PROMOTE PROMOTE! Now is your chance, make a decent showing and you can move on to bigger nights or at least a good opening spot. Promote hard and make sure to use all the free advertising you can get such as facebook and myspace. Many papers like the local Fort Collins Coloradoan have a free event submission page online. As mentioned earlier hit up your friends and their friends. And harasses the hell out of them, send a few text messages day of show and send an email reminder. Let them know they're not really your friend if they won't pay a $3 cover to watch you play and you'll hate them and their mother if they don't show up.
So that's it. If after working your ass off you still can't get a gig there is always the option of renting the venue. You'll pay the venue to play but you'll keep a 100% of the door, so hopefully you'll recover your cost and then some. Also if you actually do pack the place you probably won't have to rent the room or at least get it discounted next time you come through.
For the longest time I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life. I could do anything, it's just a matter of finding something worth committing too. So while I was just kind of wandering around trying to figure things out I bought a club to keep me busy. Well for more then that but sometimes I think I got the place because I had nothing better to do. Hodi's is a great place though and there is a lot of potential, so much so I can't stand to see the place fail. But it's not quite where I want to be for the rest of my life.
It was at Hodi's however that I figured it out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want to find a relatively quite beach with a .5-1 acre lot somewhere where it's warm all year round and build a nice little house and with a dojo and train all day. I'll take breaks to lounge on the beach, eat cookies, and practice making babies with the lady.
A blog seems like a good way to record my progress every day toward that goal.
Now it probably seems pretty crazy to do this and do it in 4 years. But by age 25 I had bought by first club and somehow after losing it I was able to come up with $75,000 in two weeks via two new partners, and prevent it from being sold to some creepy lady from New York. After taking a club that was failing for 3 years straight, and saving it when I don't even have $500 in my bank account and turning it around all before my 26th birthday I get to thinking, "What can't I do?" Don't take it as me being cocky...I just think I can go anything. So here goes, by age 30 house on the beach warm beautiful place with a dojo in backyard....Starting.....now!
So I very unwisely took some time after my booking meeting today to relax and play some ps3. Just picked up a pretty awesome game Demon's Soul. The review was right - this game is hard as hell. It's going to take a while to beat. A few people online have said it took them about 50 hours. 50 hours seems like a long time till you consider another great RPG, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Having played a bit of it back when I had my Xbox 360 I believe it when the review stated the game contained 200 hrs of game play. Thats a lot of slaying evil and questing for the thieves guild. If you started playing January 1st and played for an hour a day you'd be done on July 19th. I already feel bad spending time playing video games when I've got work to do, a house to clean, a girl to spend time with, etc. So I got thinking what could I accomplish if I spent an hour a day for 7 months working on something?
I came up with this list.
1.) Learn to teach Yoga
2.) Learn Chinese
3.) Watch the original Star Wars Trilogy 33 times
4.) Watch all 3 extended versions of the Lord of Rings 17.5 times
5.) Bake 100 chocolate cakes
6.) Do 12,000 pushups if you averaged 1 push up a minute
7.) Do 24,000 push ups if you averaged 2 push ups a minute
8.) Walk approximately 600 miles
I could go on an on. Point being you can do a lot of productive shit other then spending 200 hours in front of the TV. Notice however that missing from the list is the ability to be a level 100 mage with a flaming death sword or the ability to throw chi balls. Maybe if you listened this guy you could, but I kind of doubt it.
