Justin Dawkins

Updates from October, 2009

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  Boondock Saints II? Where have I been?

  Justin 4:25 pm on October 25, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: boondock saints, boondock saints II, Demand, Movies

  Now I know the first one was full of violence, as will the second, but this is one of my favorite movies of all time! I’ve waited 10 years to hear something, and while on Facebook, I ran across the Boondock Saints II Fan Page! My jaw hit the floor so I continued to see what the movies about and found the trailer. Now I don’t know about you, but I have to find a way to get this film to Atlanta OR get me to LA! One or the other!

  Here’s the trailer. What do you think? As good as the first?

  Also you can demand it here: http://bit.ly/boondocksii-demand

 

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  The sky fell and now we have to clean up!

  Justin 2:31 am on September 24, 2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: atlanta, atlanta-flood-relief, flood, hopeatl.com, how to help, relief

  Most of you who know me, know that I am a man of few words unless I want to talk about something near and dear. Well today you all get to read me go on and on about how we need continue to give and support those affected by the recent weather in Atlanta.

  Actually… I’ve changed my mind. I was going to take the time to dig deep and express my deepest thoughts but I’ll keep it short so that I can do more and say less.

  Just in case you missed it, our city is hurting right now and the media and news outlets just don’t do it enough justice. The images you see are merely glimpses into what people are experiencing. Remember that water is real… this is not a movie! The simple truth is we need to do more. I know we’re all busy but that doesn’t relieve us of our responsibilities as neighbors, Atlantans, Americans,and Christians. A good friend of mine, Jasmine Bacon, said something that made me think while we were talking about donating. After making mention to the fact that very few people have responded to emails and text she said; “Well tell them to look at the news all day like I did and it’ll get a reaction out of them!” My initial thoughts were yea that’s true, but then I asked myself does it really take the news to get people to react? Are we programmed to shake our heads at the screen and then go on with our lives? People have lost EVERYTHING! These are not damp floors, we’re talking water levels that would completely cover most of us if we were standing straight up. Now no offense to Jasmine and the first part of her message, because there is some truth in that, but I would like to believe in the second part of Jasmine’s message where she said; “It just hit too close to home for me!” Now that’s real, and that is what should fuel us. I mean think about it. Some of us live less than 10 miles away (and work even less) from some of the most devastated areas. If the wind was blowing just a few miles per hour in our direction, it could be us standing in need.

  So for those of you who have given your time and money, on behalf of all Atlantans I want to say THANK YOU!! But guess what you can do one more very simple thing. Tell someone else about how much OUR city needs us and get them to respond too!

  For those of you who haven’t had the time or taken the time, I just ask that you do something… anything. Below are some really easy ways to help and remember it’s not all about quantity (when it comes to time and money). Help out for a few hours after work or donate 5 or 10 dollars… the point is do something!

  For those of you who want to donate money, know that Social Saints has set up fund (via Paypal) and you have our commitment to making sure 100% of the proceeds to those in need. No middle man, no bureaucracy. We will take the money, buy supplies or gift cards and get them to those in need. Period.

  http://socialsaints.org/give/atlanta-relief/

  You may also check out http://www.hopeatl.com/ for additional ways to donate your time and resources to those who NEED you to respond. As it say in the title of HopeATL.com It’s REALLY BAD!!!

  Ok this turned out longer than I really want but I want to thank you for reading and responding to this! Remember to forward this to friends and post this to your wall! I love and appreciate you for taking the time to read this now… Let’s RESPOND and answer the call!

  -Justin
  P.S. If you have questions feel free to call or email me directly.
  email: give@socialsaints.org
  call: 404-425-9968.
  You can also follow us on Twitter for additional updates and information (http://twitter.com/socialsaints. We’ll share the information we receive as we get it!

  Also If you think home owners insurance and the Red Cross can handle it all… you’re wrong.

 
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  Stress: How I view and manage the ups and downs

  Justin 10:42 am on July 28, 2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: blessings, faith, stress

  I’ll keep this brief so that you may carry on with your day but I want to share with you a particular perspective of mine, in hopes that it may help you manage your stress level a little better.

  Let’s face it, stress is an everyday part of life and to be honest some types of stress can be good for you. Sometimes stress (good stress called eustress) can lead to innovation, radical improvements in productivity and even a better perspective on things. What I’ve come to realize, personally, is that I can have all of those things without necessarily having the physical burden put on my body. I won’t turn this into a health seminar but stress has been linked to all kinds of health problems, and according to Dr. Michael Roizen (yes he was on Oprah) can add years to your “real age” (the age in which your mind and body operates at – not your calendar age).

  So you’re thinking just get to it already Justin… you said you weren’t going to make this long! Well you’re right so here you go.

  My View of Stress

  To me stress is a distraction. Stress is one of the many obstacles that we receive into our lives and we just kinda deal with as best we can. For a long time I felt that way but I realized that my mind and body was paying the price for something that I often times don’t have control of. Like many, stress leads to several thing including; lack of mental and physical rest, poor eating habits, and a very poor attitude. With so many “negatives” and too few “positives” I decided to pray a little more and do something about it. With that intitiave and insight from God I figured out that stress, for me, is merely another form of shallow faith. “How so?” you may ask. Well if I am to believe that God can and will handle it all then what am I really doing when I “stress out!” Well for me stressing out equates to wasted time, and being an entrepreneur wasted time equals wasted productivity (and money) further pushing my mind and body into a vicious cycle! So, since I’ve pretty much concluded that stress equals wasted time… I’ve simply decided to stop wasting my time and continue to keep my eyes fixed on God’s kingdom. You may be thinking that’s a fairly shallow explanation but the truth is… that’s it! If you disagree here’s an additional way of looking at it. As a believer, allowing stress to consume you does 4 things;

  1. Erodes the connection between you and our Father
  2. Distracts you long enough to miss God’s next blessing and opportunity
  3. Prohibits you from being completely faithful
  4. Causes harm to your physical temple.

  I don’t know about you but #2 alone is enough for me to stay focused and to worry less. I absolutely hate feeling like I missed something. Anyway what are you thoughts? How do you manage stress? Let’s come up with a plan to maintain our focus and keep our minds, bodies, and spirits free and clear.

 
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  What I WILL NOT do regarding the 2008 election.

  Justin 11:48 am on November 6, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: birthday (2), Justin Dawkins, my birthday (2), obama (2), president-elect

  On the morning of my 26th birthday I’ve come across some fairly disturbing instances of people, even friends, ruling out President-Elect Obama before he even gets started. This is somewhat troubling so I decided that I would say a few things, something I rarely do in detail.

  Before I get started I would like to take a moment to thank all of my peers for voting and stating your position. It is our responsibility to help define our future, instead of sitting back and allowing our elders to be the only voice heard. Furthermore, I want to say that I do not intend to offend anyone and if I do, I’m sorry. This will not be a long note and I will not fill it with fluff and meaningless information, so here we go. The following is a list(short list) of the things I won’t do regarding the recent outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

  1. I WILL NOT boast and brag. Though there is an extraordinary amount of pride and triumph that fills my spirit (feelings for my parents and grandparents that I can’t even describe) because Obama’s victory, it is not my responsibility to run around as if I am any better than the next person. Yes African-Americans/Black People often times start in a hole, and once again, we have proven that kicking us, beating us, and even killing us is/was not enough to kill the spirit as strong as ours. Period.

  2. I WILL NOT argue with McCain supports about the negative impact they believe President-Elect Obama will have on our economy, education system, energy policies, foreign policies, or any other issues. At this point we all, especially Christians, should CONTINUE to pray for our leadership regardless of their color. Furthermore we should all stay centered and work to find ways to make our local communities, including our families and homes, safer, smarter, more accountable and more politically sound. Period.

  3. I WILL NOT let you take my joy. I am proud that for the 3rd presidential election I have been a part of, I can stand up and say that my choice actually won (I would continue to vote regardless of the outcome, so do not be discouraged if your candidate didn’t win). My first voting experience was not a pleasant one, and the second wasn’t any better, so I will not let ANYONE take this moment away from me. If you try, I WILL take it personal. Period.

  4. Finally, I WILL NOT be satisfied. For African Americans and Blacks, Barack Obama’s election is not the finish line, rather a milestone. I will admit that this a huge milestone, but not the last. With that said I will say this. As a black man I will continue to hold ALL men responsible for their actions, and for black men you officially have NO excuses. Let’s focus on supporting one another,investing in one another, including Obama, and work to get our families, homes, and communities back in order. Obama can’t do it alone. Period.

  I could go on, and on, but I just wanted to take a moment to define my intentions so that I can set the record straight and establish a line of expectation. With the line now drawn, I’ll say these final words. If; I ignore you when you attempt to argue, defend my joy when you attempt to take it, continue to support my friends, neighbors and family in the failures and success or shake my head in disappointment when you(Men of ANY color) let our families, neighborhoods or communities down, know this. You have been told. This election means more to this country than many can fathom, and the major issues that plague our country right now, have NOTHING to do with color. We are all citizens of this country and WE should stand up and act like it, and it all starts with self. Period.

  Be blessed, I love you, and thanks for tuning in.

  In other news, this is the best birthday I’ve ever had, because I’ve been blessed to experience it with you in my life.

  -Justin

 
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  Follow through, it's your best strategy

  Justin 11:07 pm on June 9, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: life, meaning, purpose, significance

  Hello all,

  I just wanted to share something with you, as you make that transition from “Job A” to “Job B,” or move into a relationship where you feel equal and treated as part of whole. This was written by a good friend of mine, who wanted to share a few words about relationships, purpose and the pursuit of your passion. Read on and tell me what you think.

  In life, business and relationships your greatest asset is vision.

  Your biggest liability is Doubt.

  Doubt is conquered by taking the steps that your vision has brought you to.
  Many times I’ve felt like being busy was the most important things to do and the key to success.

  Conversations would begin with the question “what’s up man? What’s going on?”

  And I would always answer, “man staying busy just making it happen”. I thought that’s what made a person successful. One day I asked myself the question, “what is it to be busy if you’re not working toward your purpose?” I knew then that being consumed with the “hustler” mentality was not bringing me personal fulfillment, which is true success. All it did was earn the validation that I sought from my peers. Many times people can be so busy performing for the world that they don’t take the time to see the vision that God has deposited into their spirit. Success in relationships, business, life etc. can be simple. Seek the vision, sketch the blueprint and follow through. I use to always hear wealthy men say “the key to a great business is a great business plan.” Your vision is that business plan; use it. Faith is your strongest tool and “follow through” is the best strategy.

  -L. Norsworthy

  What do you think? Are you implementing your business plan with the right tools, are you executing your divine strategy?

 
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  My Promise to Black History Month

  Justin 12:01 am on February 1, 2008 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Black History, Black History Vow, legacy, recommitment to history, Vow

  Dear Black History Month,

  Please listen, as I have a few things to say. I know that we have done you little justice, and to be honest we have fallen short of your expectation, and have even questioned your purpose. We have degraded ourselves, and abandoned our beliefs. We have made attempts to make ourselves better, but the truth is we have created more ways to poison ourselves than to uplift ourselves. Furthermore, we are poisoning our communities and have left little for those that will come after us. I am sorry, but I would like to take this opportunity to recommit myself to you, and my community.

  I promise to search for my identity that was stripped away hundreds of years ago. I promise to dismiss the stereotypes that have precluded me, and rise up beyond the voids of yesteryear. I promise to not allow the gap between my elders and my generation to increase. I promise to not settle for what society deems to be the path of a black man. I promise to respect; myself, black women, my elders, and my community. I promise to embrace Black History Month, and to use it as an opportunity to learn more about my heritage, my history, my beliefs, my identity and the legacy you left me, so long ago. To Black History Month and those that came before me, this is my vow to you.

  Love,
  Justin Dawkins

 
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  UPDATED: Black People Don't Read

  Justin 10:26 pm on October 29, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Black People (2), people, Reading (2), Technology (2), web 2.0

  As you may recall, I recently wrote a post about the observation that black people don’t read and unfortunately, to some degree it’s true. Though I remain optimistic about this observation, and would hope that this will change, I must admit that I didn’t necessarily supply a solution. Well have no fear, a solution is here. A friend of mine sent me a link to a pretty cool website and to be honest, I think it is a great tool to use for someone looking to make reading a more social event. Shelfari.com is a website that allows you to share books that you have enjoyed reading with others, particularly your friends or people within your network. The other cool thing is that it allows you to recommend books to your friends, which brings the traditional “book club” element online. Of course the service allow you to search by author, ISBN, or subject, but you can also search for subject matter in a huge tag cloud which are very useful and creative web 2.0 element. This cloud also allows you to see what other people find interesting and maybe spark you interest enough to see what all the fuss is about. My initial reaction is this service is great and hopefully will be the start of something bigger. Of course this is just my opinion, why don’t you check it out, and come back and tell me what you think.

  -Justin

 
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  Black People Don't Read! - Sad but true? :-(

  Justin 8:10 pm on October 23, 2007 | 12 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Black People (2), Education, History, Not Reading, Reading (2)

  Family,

  Despite the fact that this information came to me in an email forward, I feel that it is incredibly important to share an article I received in my email today. The information below is a small writing from Dee Lee, a Caucasian woman, who shared and expressed her view of Black People/African Americans. The information below is an observation read on the radio by DJ Dee Lee, a black radio personality. I previously stated that this was stated on the air by a Caucasian woman and that was in error, and I should have researched the information a little bit more before posting. My apologizes to Ms. Dee Lee.

  Be warned that this is a very broad generalization, and that this is not my personal opinion. I just decided to share because, I believe that there is some truth in what she is saying. Take a read and tell me what you think. Is it true? Do black people only think of themselves? Do we avoid reading?

  THEY ARE STILL OUR SLAVES We can continue to reap profits from the Blacks without the effort of physical slavery Look at the current methods of containment that they use on themselves: IGNORANCE, GREED, and SELFISHNESS.

  Their IGNORANCE is the primary weapon of containment. A great man once said, ‘The best way to hide something from Black people is to put it in a book.’ We now live in the Information Age. They have gained the opportunity to read any book on any subject through the efforts of their fight for freedom, yet they refuse to read. There are numerous books readily available at Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com, not to mention their own Black Bookstores that provide solid blueprints to reach economic equality (which should have been their fight all along), but few read consistently, if at all.

  GREED is another powerful weapon of containment. Blacks, since the abolition of slavery, have had large amounts of money at their disposal. Last year they spent 10 billion dollars during Christmas, out of their 450 billion dollars in total yearly income (2.22%).

  Any of us can use them as our target market, for any business venture we care to dream up, no matter how outlandish, they will buy into it. Being primarily a consumer people, they function totally by greed. They continually want more, with little thought for saving or investing. They would rather buy some new sneaker than invest in starting a business. Some even neglect their children to have the latest Tommy or FUBU, And they still think that having a Mercedes, and a big house gives them ‘Status’ or that they have achieved their Dream.

  They are fools! The vast majority of their people are still in poverty because their greed holds them back from collectively making better communities. With the help of BET, and the rest of their black media that often broadcasts destructive images into their own homes, we will continue to see huge profits like those of Tommy and Nike. (Tommy Hilfiger has even jeered them, saying he doesn’t want their money, and look at how the fools spend more with him than ever before!). They’ll continue to show off to each other while we build solid communities with the profits from our businesses that we market to them.

  SELFISHNESS, ingrained in their minds through slavery, is one of the major ways we can continue to contain them. One of their own, Dubois said that there was an innate division in their culture. A ‘Talented Tenth’ he called it. He was correct in his deduction that there are segments of their culture that has achieved some ‘form’ of success. However, that segment missed the fullness of his work. They didn’t read that the ‘Talented Tenth’ was then responsible to aid The Non-Talented Ninety Percent in achieving a better life. Instead, that segment has created another class, a Buppie class that looks down on their people or aids them in a condescending manner. They will never achieve what we have. Their selfishness does not allow them to be able to work together on any project or endeavor of substance. When they do get tog ether, their selfishness lets their egos get in the way of their goal Their so-called help organizations seem to only want to promote their name without making any real change in their community.

  They are content to sit in conferences and conventions in our hotels, and talk about what they will do, while they award plaques to the best speakers, not to the best doers. Is there no end to their selfishness? They steadfastly refuse to see that TOGETHER EACH ACHIEVES MORE (TEAM) They do not understand that they are no better than each other because of what they own, as a matter of fact, most of those Buppies are but one or two pay checks away from poverty. All of which is under the control of our pens in our offices and our rooms.

  Yes, we will continue to contain them as long as they refuse to read, continue to buy anything they want, and keep thinking they are ‘helping’ their communities by paying dues to organizations which do little other than hold lavish conventions in our hotels. By the way, don’t worry about any of them reading this letter, remember, ‘THEY DON’T READ!!!!

  I will share my personal opinion shortly, but I wanted to get this up quickly so that we could all read it and gain our own perspectives on the issue.

  Love and Peace,
  Justin

 
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  Working Fifteen Hour Days

  Justin 9:16 am on October 16, 2007 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: friends and family, Self Awareness, time is money

  Well I can honestly say that I never thought I would see the day when I worked a 15 hour day. Well at least not for anyone besides myself. The truth is though you don’t notice the time, when you actually enjoy what you are doing. I can honestly say that I enjoy what I do. It’s 70% tactical and 20% strategic but it’s cool nonetheless (The other 10% percent is made of up by the administrative and operational task of the company… of course). But the recent 15 hour work days did allow me to take a step back, tonight and ask myself, “Why do I work so hard?” Am I just not working any smarter, or am I just that too committed to my job. Well I can honestly say it’s none of the above. It’s actually just maintaining a consistent level of work effort. The same level of energy that I have always put into the work I do. I have always considered myself a hard working person and though I am often in need of sleep, I don’t regret the long hours. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in giving my life to any company, but I believe that the occasional 10+ hour day opens your mind up to exploration. An opportunity to sit back and realize whether or not you like what you are doing. If you hate every minute you work past 8-9 hours, then it’s a possibility that you don’t really like the career path you have chosen. The fact of the matter is I do and that’s why I work so hard. Now my question to you is this. Why is that Americans find themselves reaching so far pass their capacity for work happiness, that friends, family and responsibilities often take the back seat? Why do you work so hard, but know you aren’t happy in you current place? Just a few words to think about, and believe me I’m stepping off the soap box, I just thought I would ask. Feel free to comment and I look forward to talking with you soon.

  -Justin

 
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  Oh My....

  Justin 6:52 pm on April 16, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Ok so I know it has been a while but I have two serious things to talk about. One is the latest news from Iran and what our government’s intentions may be. Two is the closing of one my favorite restaraunt (In Atlanta). 3:45pm –> I’ll check back in later this evening!