There's 5th-wheel grease on my hijab.

Grandbaby was born less than 45 min ago. My daughter called to let me know they are both OK. 🎉🫂

As soon as reliable income comes in regularly, I want to shut down my website(s), LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X. Maybe even my Substack. I'm over it all.

I paid my rent for next month. In Bitcoin. 🎉 I'm glad the tech is available that enabled that ability (Strike Wallet). I didn't want to spend any of it, but I had to, and I'm glad I could.

I just left Andrew Tate’s The Real World after being there for almost two years. I’m not sure how I feel. Kind of freeing, kind of sad. Released.

Writing by hand effectively is vital to learning, communication, and being able to think and analyze for yourself. It's something I cannot get enough of. I write by hand when: - Researching at the computer - Detailing dates, times, locations, and odd observations in log books - Creating "morning pages" - Brainstorming - I need to vent - I'm thinking of missed loved ones and missed connections - I trace the Arabic letters of the Quran - Keeping key reminders during presentations - Making a list of things I must do the next day Writing by hand is your connection. Without it, life begins to fall apart. https://glassalmanac.com/generation-z-is-losing-a-skill-weve-had-for-5500-years-40-are-losing-the-ability-to-communicate-effectively/

In theory, yes. I have my CDL-A now, so I'm qualified to drive an 18-wheeler and other large vehicles. I'm currently in the process of onboarding with a trucking company, however, I am not officially "hired" yet, so I'm not an employee. This means I still do not have paying work. If I get a paying technical writing job this week, I'm going to take it as it's going to pay 2-3x the amount of what trucking driving will pay me as a new truck driver. But, that hasn't happened yet either. The trucking company could also finish their hiring process in the next few days and I could be off with a mentor in a truck for 4-6 weeks for training too. Everything is up in the air. I have a tiny bit more investments I can cash in to help pay the bills, after that? I have to sell the van. I even applied to drive the garbage trucks and they turned me down. LOL. And I'm sitting here thinking about all my social media "stuff." Once I start driving truck, if that happens, then I won't need all my websites or social media platforms. That's kind of a relief in some ways. We'll see what happens.

I love that idea. 😀

Driving a semi truck is somehow starting to bring back some of my creativity. Maybe it's because the enormity of the job is crushing unnecessary noise and I can finally hear myself again.

My experiences and point of view after having been inside (and leaving) Andrew Tate's The Real World for the last two years.

** LONG REPLY ** The platform itself is amazing. The education for each business model (campus) is hyper focused and thorough. They don't allow people who don't make money to teach. It's really one of the best places I've ever seen to learn business, work ethic, and discipline. The methods are always up-to-date. The marketing and the promises are true on the surface, but it's the undercurrent of what's required to reach your monetary goals is pretty much brutal. And the pace never lets up. The amount of work required only increases and there's no true way of getting around it. You will eventually need a team, but you must be able to pay them. They also teach you to do all the work yourself FIRST so you understand what's truly involved to properly guide (or fire) the team. The marketing messages on some things are very true on the surface and on other things, I think they were grand experiments. For example, I want to say about 1 1/2-2 years ago, there was the promise of something called the TRW coin. For members, it was going to be an investment into The Real World university, the platform itself. For what you're getting for the value, if you're paying for any kind of business school out of pocket -- this this the far better value. Education is incumbent upon all and for me, this is what I could get behind -- making this education more available. Hands down. But most people cannot keep up the pace or do what's really required to be "successful" under their definitions. For members, there was also supposed to be income attached to the TRW coin. A lot of income. I was a small fish compared to others and may not have received a very big piece or very many shares (coins), but it would have been enough to give me some financial breathing room, right? But it still hasn't come. Having worked for digital identity companies and blockchain companies, I understand what's involved to get a coin approved and through all the regulatory agencies, etc. So some of the delay for the first year or so was understandable. During this time, some of the messaging inside the campuses started changing. I know many people, especially some younger people today, do not have the attention span or retentions spans of anything greater than a gnat. So they may not remember or care about those changes, but I'm 49. I'm Generation X. I remember stuff. When I first started, the marketing messages were "Show up for six months and your life can change completely!!!!" About a year in, the messaging started changing to "There's no guarantee of when you'll get rich. Success takes as long as it takes." And this last month (2 years in), "If you can't show up every day for 2 years, you'll never make it!!!" Huh? Looking back, I was doing the work of a team BEFORE I joined The Real World. I needed a team back then (I was so overworked, I couldn't see that back then). But I didn't have any money to pay a team, so that's a no go. So I kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and pushing, and pushing, like they teach you. And I started to hit a burnout wall like I did with my job previously, and I couldn't allow myself to run head first back into some of the health conditions that previous burn out (for years) has caused. And I had been pushing for 2 years BEFORE I joined. Here's what they tell you vs. what I believe: Them: You that you are 100% responsible for your success. Me: I'm responsible for turning to Allah and trusting Him completely at all times. My risq is written. I'm not working to earn my risq. I'm working to get myself aligned with the door it's standing behind. Them: Failure is your fault. Me: To a degree, that is very true. There is always MORE work I could have done, but could I have in reality? Not the way it is set up. Real life doesn't work like that. No matter which you slice it, it doesn't. Them: You dictate how your life goes, not the other way around. Me: When you have LOTS of cash coming in all the time (and most of these people have TEAMS to help them) it's easy to say that because you can throw $$ at an issue and help it go away. Outside of this, there are things that you cannot control that you must deal with. That's not your failure; those are your obligations. Part of the way through things, I noticed some of the methodologies changing. I joined, in part, to learn about methodologies I couldn't find anywhere else on the internet for free. In one campus, I learned that you can do the methods they prescribe (and they do work up unto a certain point), but then if they don't work for you, the remedy is: "You must test what works for you in your market. Test DMs, cold emails, reach out more..." Ok. I waited another 6-8 months and saw this messaging repeatedly. Basically, here's the ACTUAL formula to your business success: 1. Improve yourself in every way possible: Physically lose weight, get into shape, stop doing bad habits. Learn to speak better. Read more. Educate yourself. Surround yourself with good people. Increase your skills (which they teach). You must always be working on each of these areas, almost daily. 2. Keep up with the work and assignments in the campuses. They are self-paced, however, the "implementation" tasks may take you 5 minutes or 30 days depending on what it is. If you slow down, now you're behind. Even if you catch up, it snowballs. 3. Do the methodologies as they teach. Now here's what they DON'T come right out and tell you: --- If it doesn't work: 1. Test and experiment with your banner, website, landing page copy, video editing, cold messages, the type of prospects you're targeting, etc. Test everything. (Do you know how LONG all of that takes with little-to-no results when you can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong?) Basically: Keep guessing until you get it right. (That's what I was doing before I joined. Things came full circle.) 2. Maximize your output. Not getting enough clients? 10-100x your outreach. (Ok. It's a numbers game. Cool. If you've ever been self-employed before, you know this, but this was not the advice I was expecting to get on this issue since that's common knowledge in some circles.) To do all of these things takes an extraordinary amount of time. Extraordinary! AI only helps you if you don't give two hair rat's behinds about quality. As a writer, I still must proofread and edit everything it produces and it clogged up me at that juncture. Creative decisions must still be made. If my name is on it, I want it to reflect accurately with the right tone, messaging, etc. If you have a full-time job? If you don't sleep, you could make it work, but they teach you that you must keep up on your health. My health won't let me continue to do mentally intensive anything at a balls-to-the-wall pace for another 2 full years, when I've already keep this pace for the last 4. (Full-time work + side hustle.) Was it a complete waste of time? No. -I got better at negotiating. -I got better at speaking to my value when it came to closing clients. -I got better at making videos and finding a way to edit them in a way that works for me. -I increased my stress tolerance to a point (but not enough to continue the brute for efforts this requires). -I get way more done when I choose to than I ever have in my life. -I got better at AI everything. -In some situations, I can now "command a presence." I rarely use this new skill. For men, it's helpful. For women, it must be used strategically in business or it backfires. -I've gotten much better at not allowing people to waste my time. As a Muslim, I've come to need a more Allah-focused teaching and alignment when it comes to business. This experience taught me what I needed to protect my energy, to learn deeply about risq and what is written in Islam. I wanted to line up what I was learning with what is OK with Allah or not and when and how to use these things. Do I believe I am capable of more? Yes. Could I have done more? Yes. Do I accept responsibility for my failure? To a point. Does any of this change the math behind monthly expenses, rent being due, being out of work, or the need to cut all expenses? No. And that means that the monthly cost for The Real World also had to also stop. As for the TRW coin, if it ever arrives -- I know one of the promises Andrew made was that he would personally fund the coin with XX amount of millions each month so that the income for the students can keep flowing. That's great. What's not so great, is that over time, I've come to understand that there's a high chance that those personal funds may be coming from business ventures that are still in play (casinos?) and I wouldn't feel comfortable taking that income from a coin funded by that source. Now, that is PURELY MY OWN SPECULATION. I CANNOT SAY FOR SURE if that is true or not. But I've been Muslim now for almost 3 years. Almost the same amount of time as Andrew. Since then, I've seen how I've grown and changed in Islam and how Andrew (at least on the outside) has not. Andrew is smart enough (he is!) to have ended some of his obligations with some of his businesses (even if he had to run the contracts out to honor the contracts he has before becoming Muslim) but then NOT renew those business contracts and at the very least, not in the same capacity. Again, this is my speculation, but as a business-minded person and as a Muslim, this is how I would have handled some of those things. My gut instinct, my intuition based on some of the things I've seen lately, tell me that, this is not the case. But again, that is my own speculation. My personal feeling is back away from it all at this time, especially since I cannot afford the expense right now. There are multiple halal business models inside of The Real World. None of them are "Allah focused", but they are halal models. Surely, he could diversify in a more halal direction with is personal businesses (and maybe he is?). I also did not appreciate speaking honestly inside the campuses regarding certain struggles with this workload, not being able to pay bills, etc., and have many (not all) of the people inside those chats basically just tell you what a lazy, POS you are. Seriously, I was well over that. I knew the marketing, the messaging, the "rah-rah" motivational messages, and the talking points (do more work, test, increase your outreach.) My life does not line up with how they teach you to be monetarily successful. I tried to make it, but it didn't work. At some point, I had to stop beating my head against a wall and then mentally punishing myself for wanting to end the pain that that was causing me. I do not speak for Andrew or The Real World in any official capacity. These statements are only my personal experiences and observations. Allah is the source of all knowledge, including business models and He alone is the source of all open and closed doors when it comes to getting a person their risq. I am grateful to Allah and I am grateful He is allowing me to grow in Islam. That is the most important part of all of this. Now, I get to look forward to the next phase of my life.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/ftWgTHBft7gOI/giphy.gif?cid=4ea4f8d5lo4ussvi3lazttbt9c34efavy6bcwkdjqjbykv50&ep=v1_gifs_search&rid=giphy.gif&ct=g Education. Learning new skills, but if you can't make it all work in your situation, then 👆.

It's an online business education platform with a variety of business models to learn. It's primarily targeted at younger male adults but they allow teenagers in if they have their parent's permission. Women can and do join as well. There are several active women in the groups and campuses. It's all very hyper focused on what works with making money in today's world, but it's not without its caveats. You can learn business and business models from the ground up with no experience and without learning all the other stuff a typical college degree might require of you. But again, there's a bunch of "catches" and it's not all sunshine and roses. There's also no guarantee that you'll actually make money.

I was looking at those again the other day. I still haven't gotten one..