Game of Grow

What I Learned As The Son of Immigrants - Episode 2

02.27.2019 - By Muoyo OkomePlay

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Welcome back! Episode 2! We made it… You are now listening to the Game of Grow Podcast and I’m your host, Muoyo Okome. Episode 2 of the most dangerous business podcast in the universe. It doesn’t matter where you start or where you are right now. Where are you trying to go? Who do need to become? What price are you willing to pay to get there? Are you willing to take that challenge and grow? Review of the Day Before we dive into today’s topic, let’s tackle a little thing I like to call the review of the day. This is going to be a brief segment where I grab one of the recent reviews I like and feature it on the podcast, as a little way of saying thank you, because listen, we are underdogs here in the podcasting world. We don’t have huge budgets or influencer marketing like some of these other shows. This is grassroots. We sink or swim based on the actions of you, our community. You taking that minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, to subscribe and review the show and getting others to buy in and do the same is the only way we can hope to compete and get our message out. So listen to this review I got… even before we officially launched (I’d given a sneak peek to just a few people… and guess what… they did the right thing and got back to me…. Here we go) And this is exactly what keeps me going. I don’t make money on this show, so your feedback is the only KPI I’ve got... your feedback is life. If you are getting value, and better yet if you are getting results, then this podcast is doing it’s job and I’m happy. If not, I have no idea what we’re doing here at all. Let’s all go home… So here’s the review from Shirley: “it was an EXTREMELY real powerful intro...  it was authentic, it was simple, I made sure to listen on my drive to compare the experience with my other audiobooks and podcasts and it was really great quality... I like the message mostly because u said u weren’t an EXPERT! I find too much of that and that really resonated with me... you shared where u want to go, no hidden agenda... very REAL! This is NEEDED..” That was Shirley…. Shoutout to you Shirley… Really appreciate you. So go ahead and subscribe and leave a rating & review on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play… wherever you happen to be listening and perhaps I’ll be featuring you next! On This Episode... On this episode…. I guess we’re still getting to know each other, so I want to share a bit about my family and what makes me who I am. We’ll be discussing the lessons I learned as the son of immigrants, how they’ve helped me in business and life, and more importantly, how they can hopefully help you. And I stillll want to hear more about you, so make sure you use those communication channels that have been provided on gameofgrow.com and hit me. We also have the Game of Grow Community, which you can find on Facebook, so make sure you search for that and take advantage. And I should also point out now, that yes, this is a business and entrepreneurship podcast, but the messages we talk about here are not limited to entrepreneurs alone. Whether or not you own a business or even want to in the future, if you are striving to grow and have more success in your life, this show absolutely applies to you as well Today’s Topic So without further ado... Today, we’re going to talk about what I learned from being the son of immigrants, and how you can apply that to your life and your business… cool? And real quick since we are on the topic of family, big shoutout to my younger brother who I neglected to mention on our introductory episode of the podcast… (we don’t edit) He’s studying to be a doctor. Super proud… And although it’s kind of a stereotype for African kids to be pushed to be doctors, lawyers, or engineers, there was no sort of pressure like that from my parents… shoutout to them… this is legitimately what he is passionate about doing and I wish him nothing but the best So with that, let’s get right into it... 1981 they touched down in JFK airport. Two suitcases. One bad check. Somebody had decided to pay my dad for his car with a bad check. This was a so called “friend of the family”. So at the time,  we're living in a small apartment in Brooklyn New York... probably an illegal apartment, but you know I had one of the best childhoods, even though it was difficult for my parents. And I wouldn't say that I got everything I wanted. For example I never had pair of Jordan sneakers. Grew up in Brooklyn never had Jordans... but I always had everything I needed. I was extremely provided for. So in this household we had the education, we had the hard work, we had the athletics... But more than anything, what I learned from my parents was resourcefulness. You don't complain, you make the best of what you have and you just try to be extremely resourceful and make it happen… and that's what they did. So I recall an instance that really drilled this don't complain thing home... We went to Nigeria. I was still a young kid. We flew to Nigeria every so often… So getting off the plane in lagos, we're walking to the car and I'm rushed by a bunch of kids who were touching my arms, grabbing on my clothing, and asking what I can give them... and the reason why was because clearly I was from America and they perceived that I had something that they did not… And as we're making our way through Lagos… keep in mind not everyone in Nigeria lives in poverty... I don't want you to think that, but many people do...  and this was my first exposure to it on that level... And I'm seeing these scenes, experiencing these experiences, and seeing the way that people perceive me and it just really hit home that a lot of the things that I thought to that point where problems were not problems. And as I'm returning home, my young mind is reflecting on this and it really stuck with me and I just thought... man these things are not problems and I'm just not going to complain. And matter of fact, I don't need to go to Nigeria to find poverty or or hardship, I can find it right here in the US, and many countries around the world... Watching the news will tell you that much. And so I resolved that I was not going to complain. I was gonna try to make the best of what I had and I'll be extremely resourceful. And those habits and those traits have really played themselves out very well and benefited me throughout my life. The gratitude thing… it’s so huge. Even to this day, I wake up each morning, and think about 3… well, at least 3 things I am grateful for. I used to actually take time and write them down in a physical journal with pen and paper, which is cool and impactful for its own reasons, but now I just visualize, and it still works very well… And one thing I’ll tell you… and this is not just woo woo, fluffy shit, this is real shit… Putting that gratitude in motion from the start of your day helps to put you in a positive mind frame, which makes it much easier to operate and tends to make you a lot more productive, or at least it does for me. So even on my worst days, when I wake up in a mood feeling like nothing is going right… believe me, i experience those often… at the very least I can think to myself yo… I woke up today and that is amazing. I have my health, I have my legs… I can go to the bathroom and turn on water and it runs… amazing. I can afford food. I have a roof over my head. A lot of this may sound cliche, but if you think about it, it’s real shit. And a lot of the time, we don’t appreciate some of the most amazing things until we lose a friend, or take a hit to our health, or miss a check… etc… Anyway, I'm not here to preach, but practicing gratitude is amazing. Give it a try for 3 weeks and hit me up to let me know your results. @gameofgrow everywhere… Game of Grow Community on Facebook, gameofgrow.com… you know where to find me Moving on... So in terms of the resourcefulness aspect, one really concrete example I'll give you people ask me all the time... Hey I want to become an entrepreneur. I want to go full time… How do I get funding? How do I find investors? Well I'll tell you, I invested in myself, and this all came about because of resourcefulness. Now, when I got my first job out of business school, this was my first time making over six figures… making a hundred thousand dollars, which was amazing to me. Some of you might be saying, wow, that’s a solid salary… that’s good money. Some of you might be saying, well, that’s not a lot of all Well to me, it was A LOT OF MONEY. I had never seen more in my life. And rather than step up my my cost of living, step of my standard of living, get a really fly apartment like many of my peers I decided to keep it, you know, decent, but basic (people who are close to me still make fun of me for this apartment). I lived in a simple nice townhouse, old townhouse… and I was spending a lot less for this apartment than many of my peers… and there were certainly some sacrifices that came with that. I’m not saying there weren’t... But what this allowed me to do was to put away money every month which allow me just a lot more freedom when things got difficult at my job and I knew that I needed to leave and do something different I had the money to invest in online courses that we're going to help my mind, help my mindset help, my skills help me to advance myself. I had the money to invest in my business before my businesses had the revenue that would invest back into themselves so things got difficult, and sometimes things sucked, but I was still grateful um for the check the job was giving me. I thanked God for that every single week, and I really tried to not complain, and instead just stay focused on solutions. At that last job I had, on every Friday I would say, “I have no idea what we are doing around here or how we even make money around here… I don’t really like it around here…. but thank God for this check!” haha… Because I knew they were investing in my future business, which was huge. In each and every situation I’m faced with, if I don’t like what’s going on, rather than fix my mouth to complain I try to figure out what can I do about it and if I don't want to do something about it, then I gotta let it go. So I really want to thank my immigrant parents for teaching me how to be grateful, how to be resourceful, how to have grit, and how to just make things happen. (and maybe this is how other parents operate too… I have no idea… I can only speak from my experience) So those are some of the biggest lessons my parents taught me…. There are many, trust me. No short supply. What's the biggest lesson that you've learned from your parents? Make sure to sign up for the mailing list at gameofgrow.com If and only if you received great value from this episode, I ask that you pay the fee… which is, in addition to you subscribing and leaving a review (the single biggest thing you can do to say thanks, and help us to reach more people), for each episode you get value from, please bring me back one person, show them how to subscribe for the show, let them know what we do here and what we’re about, etc, etc… Sound fair?? Question of the Day Oh, and of course the question of the day…. What’s the most valuable thing you learned from your parents? And our bonus question: What are 3 things you are grateful for? You know how to reach me, so reach out and let me know… The Fee This episode was sponsored by you, so IF AND ONLY IF YOU GOT VALUE, make sure you pay that fee and bring me back one like minded person who you know would enjoy this content… If you didn’t… this doesn’t apply to you. You can give me the middle finger and keep it moving. You don’t have to do anything. But if you got value, bring me back one person back for each episode where that’s true… I’m not talking 5 people, 10 people, 20 people… I mean I won’t be mad, but the fee is just one. I’m nothing if not FAIR! Right?? Alright… Enough of this tomfoolery…. And with that, I’ll see you guys back here real soon on the Game of Grow Podcast. For everything else: sign up for the mailing list, join the Game of Grow Facebook Community, connect with us on social, send me an email… check out gameofgrow.com, and it’s all right there… Remember…It’s not about where you start. It’s about where you want to go, who you want to become and the price you’re willing to pay to get there. DJ drop that beat and take us out...   This episode is sponsored by my first book, "The 7 Steps to App Success".  12 million downloads, 8 years of grinding, 7 months of writing & editing, and thousands of dollars of my own money later, it’s finally here…. And you can get it for wayyyy less. Head to appmagic.co/book and pick up your digital copy, in its 108 pages of glory.   Stay connected with the movement: Join the Facebook Community: gameofgrow.com/community Instagram: instagram.com/gameofgrow Facebook:facebook.com/gameofgrow Twitter: twitter.com/gameofgrow LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/muoyo To sign up for our weekly email updates visit us at gameofgrow.com

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