3 Leadership Principles of a Serial Entrepreneur

3 Leadership Principles of a Serial Entrepreneur

Sean: I mean, you’ve been struggling with this, being convicted by the government for, things that were influenced upon you when you were younger and you were just trying to get hustle in. But it, it was in the wrong crowd, wrong industry. What were some of the things that you learned about leading yourself during that entire ordeal, and congratulations on being pardoned?

You mentioned the pre-show, just last month, that’s a big deal. What are some things that you learned about yourself? What are some things that you learn on how to lead yourself better?

J Haleem: Well, I definitely learned that I am a miracle, you know, that’s why I was “looking at a miracle” because there are so many people that don’t come back from that, you know, a lot of people that get turned down from there, the amount of jobs that I’ve been turned down from.

You know, just go back to hustling. I was not bad at it. You know, I was actually good at it. I made a lot of money. I actually was a lot less confused. You know, I’ll be perfectly honest, but I did learn that I’m stronger. I did learn that I control it. I became all these things as a felon that before I became a felon, I became all this as a felon.

And it really dawned on me last month because people will ask me what did that mean to me? And I couldn’t answer that first, but as the days went by, I said, wow. Because, you know, I’m doing these types of things all the time, but I’m going to speak and engage and if people read my bio and I said, wow, all this stuff happened while I was a felon.

So I’m looking at other individuals who are like, I’m a felon. I can’t do anything. But all this stuff happened while I was a felon. I became a felon. Literally. I was convicted in my last year of college. So like most people would have quit and said, forget this, you know, but I didn’t. So I knew I had fought in me.

I knew, I lived to my core value, which is not to quit, which is my independence. I fight for that every day, you know, I’m still loyal. That’s why I’m doing what I’m talking about – my non-profit, I’m still a hundred percent loyal to myself to where I come from.

My book “you won’t starve, that’s what I created that for, because once I did, I won’t starve telling was about my story “you won’t starve” – it was me giving it back because I didn’t go the conventional route. I didn’t go and do it the way everybody else would have told you to do it. I ain’t even do it the way I told people to do it because I wish I had a job, that will make it a little bit easier.

I’m not, you know, and so I tell people you have a good job, keep the jobs, start the business on the side. And I believe in that, but because it’s rough, it’s very tough to do it the way I did it. You know, it takes a toll on you. You lose friends, you lose family members because they don’t understand what you’re going through.

And if you choose to continue going down that path, you’re going to be going about it alone. Sometimes even the person laying next to you in your bed, doesn’t get it because the vision wasn’t given to them, the vision was given to you. And so being a visionary is somewhat of a burden because when you get that vision, you kind of catapult it 10 years, 20 years in advance in your dream.

And then you come to you, right back where you were and you’re like, why did I even see that? And then, so now it’s about you walking down that path by yourself. If you don’t have people to believe in you, you still got to go. You still got, you know, more about the outside influence, nothing like that. I did that.

I’ve been the ridicule, I’ve gotten cars repossessed, and the almost got put out my house and things of that nature, and those same people who talked about me asks for money now. But I don’t put them on them like that, but its just, I don’t you know, make them feel bad about it. It’s just they remember, I remember too, you know, like, yeah, I was the first you wouldn’t take.

I saw this years ago, I was still, I’m not saying that it’s different than I said before. In my book “you won’t starve,” you can go on my YouTube page and find the stuff I’m talking about, “you want to starve” in 2013. Well, 2013 was one of the years where my own car was repossessed, so I was still talking about this stuff on YouTube, but it wasn’t until I came to a certain point in my life.

Sean: Hey Jay, one of the things that I’m wondering about is during that time, you mentioned that how you did it was rough and you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t recommend that for other people. Now I’m wondering if you had the chance to go about and do it all over again, like rewind a bit until when you were starting, what were some of the things that you would do differently as an entrepreneur?

J Haleem: Wow. Yeah, man. You know what? I would literally really study. I went off. I was just running. I just dove into it. Patience, that I tell everybody I didn’t have any patience when I was younger. You know, 15, 20 years ago I had no patience for anything. I wanted it right now. And now I’m just extremely patient.

You know, I can see the five-year plan down the line and I could see it developing. I get a chance to stop and smell the roses and I celebrate every win now even the small one. That’s what I would do differently is be patient. Like young J was not patient at all, you know, and I missed a lot of money, a lot of great scenarios because.

You know, I will pick up and just move to different locations, and start trying businesses in those places. I was just dealing with the devil and sitting down. It’s hard to grow when you’re not planting. So since I, once I got planted, I mean, so many things happened. I wasn’t a speaker before I got here.

So I came back down here. I wasn’t a trainer. I didn’t have any books. I wasn’t even a photographer. So, you know me giving almost 10 years to one location and sitting down, you know, God did so many amazing things through me. When you plant the seed, you have a lot of things to grow, you know? And I would never let the grass grow under my feet when I was younger. I was always on the move. So being patient is the thing that I would do differently. I was never patient.

Sean: That’s definitely one of the hallmarks of an entrepreneur as well. Patience is not really the strong suit in them. I know a lot of startup entrepreneurs, the founders themselves, I myself, is not, I don’t have that as a strong suit when it comes to working,

I’m not being patient when it comes to driving, people cut in front of me – I don’t mind. But when it comes to work being done, deadlines, I always try to squeeze it in. And I think it is the hallmark of a founder to be that impatient. And as you grow, as you learn, as you scale then we learn to be a little bit more patient because then we realize, “Oh, okay, my expectations are out of this world and I should lower that down, tone it down a bit.”

And well, yeah. So you mentioned that you’re – it’s, it’s rough, it’s rough going. You’re not gonna recommend that to other people. You’re going to recommend them to keep their jobs while doing things on the side and starting the businesses on the side.

I find that to be a little bit strange, although it is the safer route. It is a much safer route than jumping ship and going all-in with a business, which is far riskier. But on the other hand, you learn a lot when you do it that way when you jumped ship and just go all in, in the entrepreneurship route. And you’ve got a lot of energy as well to put in the business.

So what are some of the other things that for you, you would change, or you would not allow yourself to be doing when you were younger?

J Haleem: Well, you know, again, going back to that point about the job situation that teaches people about something called entrepreneurship as well.

And that’s because everybody doesn’t want to be an entrepreneur. Everybody’s not as equipped to be an entrepreneur. However, you can actually adapt to the entrepreneurial spirit. People are at jobs for the wrong reasons. And so I’m not saying be at the wrong job, I am not saying be at a job, that you’re miserable at or the job that you don’t like.

I like to talk to kids, especially right in high school, because you are still at that age where you know what you want to do, and right before the parents and right before the guy in the counselors and all these other people whose life has kicked them behind, you know, start raining on your parade.

I’m saying, go get your job for training purposes, so you can learn. Yeah. Most people go for jobs for the wrong purposes. People are going to jobs, “hey let me just make some money.” Okay well, you make $40,000 this year. You’re going to need more, next year, yeah after that most jobs aren’t giving you, you know, those raises that fast. And so you don’t go to the job for the money, you go to the job that has the training. Go to the job that has room for you to grow because of every new position, you learn.

Right, what you learn that when they’re done. If they’re training, you, they’re paying for it. I got coaching certification. I paid out of pocket. Would you somebody to work at a job, they pay up to $3,000, $5,000 for you to get the same certification. I’m in certification classes, I’m the only one. That’s not coming from a job, I paid out of pocket.

And so you, even out of this job at the five years, with five or six certifications, now you can go and consult. You know immediately getting five-figure checks, where I have to break my neck to do that. And luckily, being an entrepreneur, I’m not afraid to reinvest in myself now. I understand that’s one of the ways for you to grow faster, but a lot of people are not going to be that way.

And so if I had the opportunity to attack a job and say, okay, well, this job is going to pay for my coaching certificate. And my other coaching certificate, and then another coaching certificate. And then when I decide to leave, I got three coaching certifications where I can immediately go into five-figure checks. I don’t need another job.

You know, and then I can also use that job as a reference because now this is a major corporation and I’ve done coaching or training on this major level where the people in that community are going to respect it. And they’re immediately going to respect my resume. I’m building from scratch. So I went from coaching people for free for 100 bucks, 200 bucks.

It’s a good time for me to start getting $5,000 a month from somebody that’s a long time. And it took time for me to go ahead and reinvest myself and they could see letters behind my name or see that I have this certification, or I’m a part of this community before they say, okay, I’m gonna, you know, work with him.

So these are the things that I was able to see through hindsight. It would’ve made me go by quicker. So if you got love for people, you don’t want them, you won’t tell your kid to go through the same hurdles you went through. You know, so you’ll, I’m not saying don’t go to entrepreneurship and I’m going to just give you the easier route.

I’m not going to say you the route where you gotta jump over something and go through the bridge that shaky, you know, go through this way. You’re going to, I’m going to tell you the better route to go and do it to make it a little bit easier on you, so you can have a lot of that. So you can get to success a lot faster than I have.

Sean: That’s amazing. I don’t, I never saw it that way. I am a promoter of entrepreneurship here in – but yeah, good stuff. I mean, if you can get the certification for free, that’s a big deal. It is a bit painful, right? When you’re paying for the certification for yourself. I mean, now I’m a John Maxwell certified team member as well.

It’s was painful when I paid for that. I mean, it’s great that I’m certified, but it was, and getting it for free.

J Haleem: Let me tell you something. I’ve been in these certifications and I got people, I mean, I’ve been in every 15 of us and I’m the only one in the class. That’s a full-time entrepreneur. Everybody’s “I’m from this so-and-so LLC.” “I’m from this corporation. I’m from that corporation.”

That certification cost $3,500. They are paying for it. I was coming out of my pocket. I’m like, man, go get that, you know, get that real fast, then come back. You know? Cause I got love for my people. You come to my training. I’m not gonna tell you to go through the same hurdle that I did. I hate when people do that, like, you won’t even do that in traffic.

You would tell somebody immediately, somebody say, “Hey, how do I get there?” “Don’t go down that road cause its always blocked up by five o’clock” and then you’ll tell them the better way to get to a location. Right? So you’re not going to tell, why would tell them to do that a business? Tell them the better way to do it.

Sean: Yeah, for sure. For sure, but good stuff. I mean, for those of you listening here today, That’s how to do it. Reinvest in yourself. It is painful $3,500. That’s pretty much how much I paid for my John Maxwell certification as well. And, you know, once you get certified, that’s a big deal. You get access to all of this content and you get to learn a lot from whoever’s certifying you. Stuff that you don’t know, certification does mean something to a lot of people when you’re in that business.

It is painful though. And not a lot of people do it. I mean, 1 out of 15 J, that just shows you how much people reinvest in themselves. And for a lot of those 14 other people in your class, they probably didn’t even know or didn’t even want to be there. Right? So, you know, it’s just, it’s just strange. Yeah, yeah,

J Haleem: You’re absolutely right because I know people, I worked with retirees right now, people, baby boomers that are retiring, and they got a hundred thousand certifications, because they’ve been working in their jobs for 20 to 30 years. They don’t know what to do with it, but they don’t value it because they never paid for it. It was just, you know what? That was the, “oh, we have to go to a two-week training.”

And this is when they send them to Las Vegas or they send them to Los Angeles. So they send them somewhere else for a couple of weeks on a company dime. And they’re going through the training all week. This is their extra vacation. They don’t care, but they don’t realize they’re sitting on their six-figure salary with their certifications that they got all over those years.

So when they retire, they’ve been working for 30 years without someone telling them what to do. So now you got to come back to me, like me to tell you how to activate that certification and use it to your benefit.

Sean: It’s strange stuff, right? I mean, but that’s how the world works. Now I’m wondering you you’ve been leading for so long, not just other people, put yourself through all these years.

And you’ve gotten a lot of opposition. You face a lot of opposition. You mentioned earlier that you got people talking, talking differently, talking down at you’re – talking behind your back when you were starting up. I’m wondering with all that experience, you probably have a lot of principles, a lot of core values and you yourself mentioned about.

 You shared with, some of those core values earlier. I’m wondering now, what are, maybe your top three leadership principles that make your role, make you who you are, and make you successful as far as you’re concerned. Can you share that with us?

J Haleem: Well, for me, you know, definitely, authenticity is number one. Authenticity. You gotta be yourself. You know a lot of times, and again, I’ve been in a space where I wasn’t, because I was trying to fit in, in this space because again, in business, when you don’t have the upper hand, you kind of got your toe on the line until you do, or at least you get an even, or you want to even the playing field.

But sometimes you get comfortable in that space and then you lose yourself. You know, you’ve been playing that role so long. You think, you know,you’re at home in that space. So being authentic and remaining authentic, you’re actually helping out yourself, which is first, but also in the long run, you’re helping yourself as a leader.

Because somebody is looking for you, somebody’s looking for that in you so that they can have somebody to show them the way. And a lot of times you’d be surprised that somebody had come from where I come from, got a job, and they might not know that I understand their story. And they’re trying, and they’re struggling to fit in. They’re struggling to make it. And if I just showed a little bit of who I was, they’ll say, okay, well, if he can do it, I can do it. So number one for me is always about authenticity. You know, you definitely have to be authentic.

The integrity piece – your word is everything. You know, a lot of times even you in entrepreneurship, a lot of people think you got money, but you don’t. Just because you started a business, all you have is your word. You know, all you have is the fact that you are able to do everything you say you’re going to do, and the more that you, you know, keep your word. It’s definitely, you’re going to be great. You’ll be fine.

So just trying to be impeccable with your word, you know, something’s going to happen if you can do nothing about it, but if you can control it, be impeccable about your word, you know.

And then building relationships. Of course, you gotta be a great relationship builder to be a leader. Like you can’t be a leader if you don’t know how to, you know, bring people together. And so, you know, when the people, talk about me where I’m from, you know, I wanted it to be like I’m not a stranger to anybody. Oh, someone’s heard about J Haleem, especially if you’re talking about in the business spec spectrum, no matter what kind of business it is in my city, somebody knows who I am.

That means that I’ve made a nice dent in the area of building relationships so I can help individuals, because leadership, people are looking for you to be able to point them in the right direction, so if you don’t have a relationship, how can you do that?

Sean: Good stuff. And those are principles that you could use when you’re starting out as a business owner. So authenticity, integrity, and relationships. That’s really, really important stuff.