Welcome to Inglewood

Welcome to Inglewood, the home of Champions, Erick Simpson and Randy’s Doughnuts. Airports are very inspirational places, everywhere you turn there is a hot new self-help book. In a way it fits because you do not want to stick a bunch of angry suicidal people on a plane after losing their luggage and putting them through more lines than a Disney ride. Every corner store has a rack of books that just scream: “Hey you, yeah, you loser.. thats on the road away from the family all the time. Yes, you. Come get this book, feel better about what you do.”

But I get my inspiration from dealing with people. Sometimes its arrogant (“Thank god I’m not you”) and sometimes it’s wishful thinking (“Damn, how come I can’t do that?”); So today I offer you this inspirational story of always be trying.

I was running late for my flight earlier this morning and on my way to LAX I stopped at a Mobil gas station so Enterprise doesn’t have a pre-filled Chapter 11 bankruptcy form when I drop off the car with no gas in it. It’s dark, just after 5 AM and I am really not paying attention to much other than making the flight. I look over to the locked convenience store and see a guy buying a 40. Ok, so it may have been a Red Bull, who knows, but a 40 oz of Red Stripe beer just fits the time, place and location, so for the sake of the story go with me.

The guy gets his stuff, walks up to me and starts saying:

Guy: Would you mind helping out a homeless man?

Now by the looks of things this guy doesn’t look homeless but he sure sounds/moves like one. Oh well.

Vlad: Sorry man, I never have cash on the road. But have a good day.

Now here is your bit of inspirational zen for the day. The guy pulls his sleeve up to show off more bling and gold than you’d even seen on a rapper. Must have had at least 20–30 grand around his wrist. He flashes a smile and says:

Guy: Hey, gotta keep on trying.

And the entreprenurial lesson of the day is no matter how good things may seem you have to keep on trying and keep on building. The guy walked away from me, got into his BMW and drove off.

On a flip side, pimpin’ isn’t for SMB either. Samsung gets “Pimp Of The Week” award for taking the everyday item a busy business traveler needs and turning it into advertising. A Google model if you will. They provide free power under the “Samsung Mobile Charging Station” up to 2 AMPs per socket (we won’t even give you that kind of juice in our data center) and as you’re plugging your stuff up you get to see the latest cell phone, plan, and features.

Pimp on Samsung. The picture itself was snapped with a Samsung Blackjack so… Samsung… Send bother a check already. Hey, gotta keep on trying.