GIVE AND TAKE:

 I have the most wonderful experience in working with homeless teens and I am blown away by their mentality and ways of doing things. Their ways of life leaves me with my mouth open and crossed eyed. They are the produce of not being raised in a respectable way. Most are the produce of parents that are unstable and cracked out 80's babies.

I was chatting with a group of teens and they were teaching me about the streets. The language of the streets. The survival of the streets and how they expect things to be given to them.

They asked me about my life as a teen and I told them about me working at age 15. One of the teen said "man, you crazy. I would have been in the mall shopping for shoes and jeans". I asked how he would pay for those things without a job? He looked at me and said " what I don't get from other people, I will steal it".

That scared me in a mental sense because that is how he was raised and that is his hustle.  He do things in exchange for things. I have always understood that you have to give something to get something in a moral sense. Not taking a risk or using your body or others to get that which you desire.

Yes, back in my teens and early twenties I did do things...sexual things to get what I wanted but I was professional with my hustle. I did it in a way that made the person want to give it to me. I worked for it. I spent time with it, sort of put something down on it. I kept the fire burning and in return, the person thanked me or rewarded me with those things I wanted...until I grew up mentally and put myself in check.

Now, in order to get something you have to give something. Just like in negotiations. I will give you this if you give me that. When I began the purchase my first home I put out so much money and did not see nothing. I had to pay for a credit report, home inspection, termite inspection, earnest money, a down payment to take it off the market, closing cost and so forth and so on. I was broke when I opened the doors of my new home....but I was happy because I got what I wanted.

It's that way in any relationship that you develop. Friendship, intimacy, family....whatever the case may be. You have to work at it and on it daily...24/7. It has to be nurtured. It has to be told that you still care. It has to be maintained. And you expect that from the other end as well.

Give me what I want and I will give you what you need. I have always been that way. I will never ask you for something that I am not willing to give. So, if I ask you for anything just remember I am going to give you something greater than what I asked for.