iChing While You Bling

I firmly believe in having and maintaining good karma.

"Now don't you understand Universal Law?
What you throw back comes back to you star.
Never underestimate those who you scar.
Cause karma, karma, karma comes back to you hard"
- "Lost Ones", Lauryn Hill

When you are self-employed there will come that time in every entrepreneur's life that you will have to chase a check or two, deal with a non-paying client or compromise your strategy to secure that project, but in the end if you can keep your integrity and grace, you will find success and happiness. Some tips on keeping your karma clean and yourself on point:

1. Always have a contract.
2. Never take things personally (if you do be prepared to walk away from the deal).
3. Although you may be tied to an idea emotionally don't expect anyone else to be. It's all about $$$ out there. So make your idea stick by having a great game plan that includes a stream of revenue. If it's rejected, rework it and try it again... and again.
4. Workout and/ or take up a hobby (this will prevent you from taking out your frustration across the jaw of some unsuspecting but probably well deserved associate).
5. Make an I'm Gon' Kick Your A*S mixtape or playlist and play it every time you feel you are about to lose your cool. Should always be played while working-out and should include the following songs: Mama Said Knock You Out - LL Cool J, Fight The Power- Public Enemy, Survivor- Destiny's Child, We R In Need Of A Musical Revolution - Esthero (props to Couch Sessions), Baby I'm A Star - Prince, Stand - Donnie McClurkin and Fighter - Christina Aguilera.
6. Burn some incense and pray for wisdom, insight and patience for yourself and your adversaries and... then write the name of any hater on a piece of paper, sprinkle it w/ white juju dust and rip it into seven pieces.. okay I'm just kidding. Jokes, man. Jokes.

So I made it to Gracie Mansion on Wednesday, but never made it inside because all festivities were held in Bloomberg's backyard. Ossie Davis was honored and Harry Belafonte accepted on his behalf and Phylicia Rashad was inducted into the Nat'l Black Hall of Fame. She just brims with grace, integrity and sophistication. Too bad folks could not give her or anyone for that matter the respect they deserved. Folks were just too busy eating the barbecued chicken, black-eyed peas and watermelon talking and jabbering throughout the awards presentation. But it was pretty cool to see so many Harlem folks network with each other on such beautiful grounds.

Now that we've iChinged, the latest in iPoding.

Wooden iPods are so beautiful. How can I get one?

iShuffle too big for you minimalists heads... well now there's the iFlea (from Spine Mag)!

Of course, Hustle and Flow gots to pimp the iPod too!