Dream It. See It. Be It. PART 2: My Story

Dream It

At a young age, I had a passion for drawing and painting. I DREAMED of growing up to be a visual artist. I also dreamed of being rich.

My parents, who only wanted the best for me, told me that “artists don’t make a lot of money until after their dead.”

I was stubborn and majored in Art anyway.

It seemed they were right, because I was broke.

I hustled and worked odd jobs to make ends meet.

Back then, I didn’t SEE anyone around me achieving success in my field.

At one point, I was taking out the trash at a grimy strip club. The only people I saw making big money were the pimps and the drug dealers.

I started using my artistic talent to design flyers for the club, but I knew God had bigger plans for me.

One night on the way to the club, I was carjacked at gunpoint. I took that as a sign to turn my life around, so I did.
Soon after that, I landed a real job at a newspaper. I also landed big clients like Tyler Perry, and my work appeared on Oprah and 60 minutes.

My girlfriend and I scraped together $700 and started stuff4GREEKS, a website selling custom Greek gear for fraternities and sororities across the country.

Then we took the profits from that, bought a building in West Midtown Atlanta, and opened our first retail store, Zeus’ Closet.

See It

A few years later, my college buddy, Scott, heard about our budding business and invited me to apply for EO – Entrepreneurs’ Organization. But back then, our business didn’t meet the minimum requirement of earning at least $1 million per year.

But since I knew Scott, and met other people who were members of EO, I knew it was possible for my business to grow to the same level, and beyond!

I surrounded myself with people earning $1 million, $10 million, even over $100 million in their businesses every year. I could now SEE the path more clearly than ever before.

stuff4GREEKS has grown to become one of the top websites in the world for fraternity and sorority merchandise.

Zeus’ Closet now has multiple store locations, with plans to expand through franchising.

I get to be an artist everyday. Each jacket, each shirt, each accessory is like a blank canvas, where we bring people’s visions to life! I’ve trained a team of other artists to design in my style, or even better.

Be It

A few years after joining EO, I was elected President of the Atlanta chapter.

Every time my business wins an award, or gets published in the newspaper, I’m reminded that I finally BECAME that which I once DREAMED about…but I had to SEE it first.

Now, I mentor other entrepreneurs, to help them grow personally and professionally.

I’ve spoken on conference stages across the world.

I’m now a global leader in EO, which has about 14,000 members in 62 different countries.

I help others SEE the possibilities, so they too can BE that which they DREAM.

Because if a starving artist like me can do it, you can do it too.