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#i swear there will be a point where we have to fund the site ourselves like AO3
alexclaain · 2 years
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I don't think you understand how much I can't comprehend that there are still people actively working on this website and getting their paycheck over it, it just feels like an abandoned cave in the world wide web, that people have forgotten to plug off, and we're all just waiting for doomsday that will consist of the former owners getting reminded of our existence by an exploded electricity bill caused by the abandonded servers
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zamilemzizi · 3 years
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A trip down lockdown memory lane!
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A trip down memory lane
As my business steadily builds itself back up, with a new face and some Covid-influenced changes, I look back at what it was like for a few months last year as just the “Mom.” The South African lockdown, one of the strictest in the world at that time, forced most of us Marketing and PR SME owners to close our doors and focus on creating a safe and “new normal” environment for ourselves and our families.
My parents both contracted the Corona Virus and so, it was left up to me to care for ALL five grandchildren for a few months. Including my own children, I had two five-year-olds’ (one boy; Wandi and one girl; Koli), one nine-year-old girl (Thotse), a twelve-year-old girl (Lungi) and the legend himself, my two-year-old son (Bugsy) whom you will have read a lot about on my personal Facebook page. As if that was not enough, we rescued an eight-week-old puppy (Luna) too!
Being a person known for preferring the company of all the Mzizi grandchildren, I was up for the challenge of this time spent being reacquainted with the daily struggle of just-being-the-mom-with-no-work without the pressure of having to go to work.
I acknowledge that my experience of this time is grossly different to that of a majority of my fellow countrymen/women, who struggled to make ends meet. Zam’s Hive started a fund, which generously received funds donated by almost ALL of my clients, close friends and colleagues from my place of work. We used these funds to assist families who wrote in via WhatsApp and SMS stating what their urgent needs were and paired them with the correct donor. I was astounded at how the people I knew were able to look beyond their own experience of the Lockdown, and were able to give the little (or lot) that they had to keep hope alive.
However, being the stay-at-home mom yielded quite a few hilarious experiences, which naturally, I shared on social media as they happened. Here are some of these posts. I hope they make you chuckle a bit at my expense. I hope they remind you that no matter how bleak the situation, our inner circle, our families, our children, the people that matter most to us are the ones we should keep our focus on.
How the wars began…
Wandi’s benevolent fart
Raising boys is a BREEZE!
My Wandi has reached that age where every hug and cuddle is a conscious decision on his part to be with me. It says, ' I choose to be near YOU. I choose you, mommy'
So imagine my joy as I was working in my office and my big boy chose that moment to sit on my lap...
He sat facing me, flashed his special smile and said' 'Mommy, let me show you how much I love you'
He put his hands on my shoulders and closed his beautiful brown eyes. I could see him mentally reaching deep within himself in order to share what he had to say. Then...
I felt it. A persistent drill-like hammering on my sturdy thigh where his bony bum was perched.
The stench was instant and the fog it created in my mind was confusion personified. I could not immediately compute that my baby came all this way just to fart on me. As realization dawned on me, my little angel held onto me just a little bit tighter to keep me in place as the hammer-drill was still operating. My thin leggings were no barrier from the barrage of bodily functions battering my poor skin.
During this assault, Wandi did not change his facial expression at all. He looked like a little Buddha bestowing a blessing upon a lesser mortal.
When he was done, he nimbly sprang off my leg and bestowed a beguiling cherubic smile upon me. Slowly reversing from the room with his cheesy smile and eyes closed, he blessed me with his benevolent ' enjoy the smell mommy' and quietly closed the door.
Bugsy drinks shit water
I'm on my knees begging for this changeling to be taken. Return Bugsy pre-terrible twos to me please!
I went into the toilet for a teensy while. I'd been holding it in for some time chasing my kids around. To my knowledge, fake Bugsy was safely chilling on my bed.
As my empty bladder and I float out the bathroom, changeling proudly displays a cup of water he is drinking...now this is a problem because all taps and cups are beyond his reach. This cup looks like the dirty one I ignored on the floor a teensy while back- are you judging me Karen?!
I frantically urge fake son to show me if he got water from the other toilet. He proudly replies, ' I no drink here Wandi peepee here' This is good. It's great actually. Wandi has diarrhea and drinking from his toilet could kill someone. Never mind Corona.
So I drag the smirking not-really-my-son into the kitchen to wash this mysterious cup. At this stage I'm fuming at the lord thinking 'turn this crap into wine NOW'
As I wash the still alcohol free cup, I turn to find swopped-at-birth guy smacking his lips and drinking from the bucket mqobothi style.
MY HEART SKIPS A BEAT!
I used water and Jik to clean dog poop just now. I spilled the water but clearly not all of it. What's worse here? Jik poisoning or dog poop poisoning?
The terror child is ok. I gave him milk and surrendered the rest to his creator.
I'm ok. I have a new twitch in my eye and I think I might have peed my pants a little. But otherwise baaah I'm good.
No really.
Just fine.
Look- fake son took the tin of milk and smeared the stuff on himself.
I'm just FINE!
Then the tensions were rising
The stand off
In a bid to demonstrate his defiance of my authority, my two year old has taken the long life milk and some shopping bags to an undesirable corner of the house. He has boldly announced that, 'I puttinnnin me in noty cona' This is his strategy to deprive my authority of putting him in a corner myself. The standoff continues...
Sulking in the shower
I swear I don't make this stuff up...
Wandi just played with matches and his cousins came to tell on him. Naturally I gave him 'the look' times 10. He says to me,
'I know you're cross with me and wont talk to me.'
He stalks off to the shower and sits there while singing his new and spontaneously composed struggle song. The words weren't too clear but this is what I heard:
Take me away in peace, take me away in peace.
 Please note he has taken to eating some of his meals in this shower.
Can someone please send me a bottle of gin??!      Its for the kids.
 The breaking point
Exacting revenge in small ways
My kids broke my hair clippers machine while I was cutting them. So now I'm leaving them with unfinished cuts because one needs to take revenge wherever the opportunity may present itself-even if it's your own kids. They think they know me. Mxim!
 Mom flu strike
I've been in bed with flu for a week now. During this my kids haven't given me an inch of space and rest.
I'm still a horse, jungle gym, chef, personal snot cleaner and unwilling audience to dance shows and song decompositions.
Tonight was just the worst! I went to the chemist for more meds and so needed a nap from the trip. Only to realize that I'd over slept and it was supper time.
After a mad dash to cook, serve and feed the royal highnesses, I'd had enough.
Where am I now? What am I doing now? These are all relevant questions I'm happy to answer for you.
I'm in my bedroom. For the first time since I became a mother, I have done the only sensible thing a tired parent can do...
I'VE LOCKED MY BEDROOM DOOR BIYAAACHES!
The situation update is as follows:
Hostile!
1.  Two year old has attempted breaking door down
I DON'T CARE!
2. Five year old has resorted to creepy body plastering against door and quietly chanting 'mooommyyyy can we have ice cream while you die?'
I  DON'T   CARE
3. In a rare show of solidarity the boys are now howling like wolves outside the door, throwing in the odd 'moooommmy where are youuuu'
I    D O N T   C A R E!
4. Nine year old niece has increased the volume and frequency of her coughing
IIIIIIIII DOOOOOOOONT CAAAAAAARE!
I'm at peace in my warm bed. Let the siege continue I have all that I need in here. A bathroom, all the toilet paper in the house, the only phone with airtime and did I mention -I'm the only person tall enough to cook. Muhahuahua!
They will know me!
 The resolution?
Wandi prays for peace
So as usual the kids were acting up and driving me crazy before bedtime. This time however, the transgressions were extreme.
Someone didn't pee INSIDE the toilet but decided to mark his territory next to it instead.
Another decided to generously leave food on a dinner plate and put it in the kitchen sink for Santa maybe.
Another was dejectedly roaming the passage without pajama bottoms like a homeless person. Left to wander the night in shame and bottomlessness.
This was the last straw and I blew my top off.
EVERYONE TO BED WITHOUT A STORY NOW!
Even the little one understood that Armageddon was nigh, and scurried into bed as fast as his fat stubby legs could carry him (only half way up the bed usually).
In an unusually respectful and hesitant tone, Wandi bravely reminded me that I forgot to pray. So fine! I asked God to please help me make my children good etc.
Wandi again bravely offered to pray too and this is where he played his master plan into action (he never wants to pray):
Wandi: Dear God, please make all my dreams come true. The end.
 Yes. He said the end and not AMEN. I felt a reluctant smile coming on but I was wise to the enemy.
The next morning the kids all came to greet me in that way guilty kids do hoping for a cease-fire.
'Good morning rakhali' etc.
Then the master played his Ace move.
Wandi: In the name of Jesus, good morning everyone!
 How could I remain grumpy after my son evoked the name of Jesus?!
He's goooooood. One point to Wandi. None to me.
 Please subscribe to my blog and follow me on social media for more insights into; what goes on in the life of a working mom building an empire. All the links are below. My women’s network as well as my courses are also available on this site.
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1x12 Coda (#5.2)
Continuation of this because Caitlin, Shae, and Lauren asked nicely
Max slammed the door behind him and bounded up the steps of the cabin. The front door opened and Liz stepped out to greet him.
“Where is he?” Max barked as soon as he saw her.
Liz held up a hand to calm him but Max just tried to push past her. Liz placed her hand on his chest and pressed hard until he stopped and looked at her.
“I know you’re upset right now, but you need to calm down.” She told him.
“Where’s Michael?” He asked again.
“Max-”
Max shook his head and stepped around her. Flinging the door open wide, he paused a foot inside when Kyle and Cam stood up from where they’d been sitting on the couch. 
“What the hell are you doing here?” He asked in surprise, his tone sharper than he intended. He looked around but Isobel was the only other person in the room. Dimly, he recognized the sounds of Liz coming inside and shutting the door. “Where’s Michael? And Noah?”
Isobel crossed the room and slapped him across the face. His head jolted to the side more out of surprise than actual force. Max put a hand to his cheek and gaped at Isobel but she just glared at him.
“Don’t you ever do that to Michael again.” Her voice was calm but hard and Max could only nod.
“Where is he?”
“Sleeping.” Max’s neck hurt from how fast he whipped his head around at the new voice. Alex Manes stood in the archway to the rest of the house, anger written clear on his face. “So don’t wake him up.”
“He’s sleeping?!” Max was flabbergasted. “He heals and kidnaps a serial killer and he’s fucking sleeping?” Max took a step forward and Alex smoothly pulled out a gun and pointed it at him. Max stopped cold in his tracks and slowly put his hands up.
“Yes. He’s sleeping. So do not wake him up.” Alex told him. “I believe I was very clear.”
Max swallowed and glanced between Alex’s face and the gun. His face was set and his hand never wavered. Max suddenly remembered that Alex was a decorated combat veteran who had probably seen more than his fair share of violent situations and knew his way around a firearm. The man didn’t even blink. 
“You don’t like having a gun pointed at you, do you?” Alex asked idly.
Max shook his head slowly.
“Bet you’d like it even less if it was someone you thought loved and cared about you holding it.” Max felt his stomach clench as Alex’s voice turned ice cold.
Nobody in the room moved. 
“You ever hurt or threaten Michael again, you and I are going to have a problem. Do you understand me, Max?” Max wasn’t sure he’d ever heard his name sound like that, a threat in and of itself. 
Max nodded his head vigorously. “It was a mistake, Alex. I would never hurt Michael.”
Alex let out a hollow laugh and Max took a step back instinctively. “Never hurt him? So punching him, throwing him into cars, telling him he’s nothing to you - none of that counts as hurting him to you?”
A chill swept over him as he was forced to realize just how bad his relationship with Michael had gotten. And he was ashamed to realize, as he thought it over, that it was almost entirely on him. Every time Max had lost control of himself recently, he’d taken it out on Michael. Some part of him recognized that he’d done because he knew Michael wouldn’t retaliate. That Max could work out his issues on someone who knew and understood them and who wouldn’t fight back. The perfect outlet for his anger.
Numbly, he nodded to Alex. “I won’t. I swear.”
Alex searched his face before finally flicking the safety on and tucking his gun away. Max felt his body slump with relief. 
“Where’s Noah?” He asked. Nearby, Isobel tensed and finally turned her glare upon someone else.
“Yes, where is my lovely psychopath of a husband?”
“He’s safe.” Alex told her. 
“Oh I’m not worried about him.” Isobel retorted. 
“He’s locked in a secure facility and we’ve surrounded him in that yellow powder he used to subdue Max and Michael’s powers the other night.” This time it was Cam who answered her and Max turned to her in surprise. She met his gaze but gave away nothing.
“Why did Michael save him?” This time it was Liz. “I know he wanted answers but to go against Max and Isobel’s wishes like that?”
Max watched as Kyle and Alex exchanged glances, seemingly deciding whether or not they should answer her question. He felt his anger rising again.
“If you know something about my brother, you need to tell me.”
Kyle scoffed and Max turned to him. “No offense, Evans, but the way you’ve been treating you ‘brother’,” the way he said it made Max’s stomach turn. Like Max was a fool for calling Michael that, “you don’t deserve to know jack.”
“Since when are you friends with Michael?” Liz asked.
Kyle shrugged. “I’m not. But the guy’s had a pretty terrible day and I’m not going to let any of you make it worse.”
“What the hell happened?” Isobel asked, looking frantically between Kyle and Alex. The two men exchanged another look before Kyle shrugged and gestured that it was Alex’s call.
Alex sighed. “You know about Project Shepherd?” He asked and waited until everyone nodded. “Well we found an old abandoned prison that mine and Kyle’s father’s had taken over as part of the Project and today we went with Michael to investigate it. There had been reports of unusual heat signatures on the compound, outside of normal human range. When we got there, Michael and Kyle found a cell block full of captive aliens from the crash. There had to be at least 50, I’d say.” He paused when Max collapsed into a seat and Isobel gasped with her hands over her mouth. Both stared at him as he continued. “Michael met his mother in there. About five minutes before the facility blew up. It was rigged to self destruct should any alien damage the cells and Michael tried to break them out-” he trailed off as Max’s heart leapt into his throat.
“Did he-?” Liz started to ask.
Alex shook his head. “We couldn’t get anyone out. We barely made it out ourselves and it was all I could do just to get him to leave with me. He wanted to stay.” He admitted. 
“Oh my god,” Isobel let out as she buried her face in her hands. 
Alex cleared his throat. “Anyway, there’s a possibility that there’s another site but it’s very unlikely. Project Shepherd doesn’t have the funding to run two off the books sites like that. So if any of you want to know anything about where you came from or who you really are, then Noah’s your answer.” He shrugged. “Michael needs answers. So he’s going to get them. Until then, Noah stays in a secure facility away from all of you. Once Michael’s learned all that he wants to, you can do what you like with him. But not before.”
Everything in Max revolted at the idea of Alex decreeing how they go about this but he remembered the look in his eyes earlier and stayed in his seat.
“He’s my husband,” Isobel objected. “It’s my decision.”
“It was.” Alex agreed. “You made it already. Just consider this an interlude of sorts. You’ll get him back and when you do, feel free to kill him again.”
Max turned to Cam. “You know where he is.”
“I do.” She agreed. “But I’m not going to tell you.”
“You hated the idea of not turning him in. Of letting him die! How can you support this? Michael will torture him if he has to.”
She stared him in the eyes. “My choices are let Michael interrogate him or let you murder him.” 
Cam didn’t say anything else but she didn’t need to. Max recoiled at the disappointment in her voice and the harsh reality of her words. He was a murderer. Or at the very least, he desperately wanted to be. It was only fair, he reasoned, considering how many people Noah had murdered. Why should he get a fair pass?
Max glanced around the room but found no supporters. Liz, he knew, hated the idea of her science being used as a weapon. Alex, Kyle, and Cam were all firm in their decision to help Michael and Isobel seemed to be coming around to their side of things.
“Iz-”
“No,” she cut him off. “Michael’s wanted answers our whole lives. He has the chance, maybe his only chance, to get them. I won’t stop him.” She clambered to her feet. “Let me know if Michael changes his mind?” She asked Alex to which the man nodded. “And tell him to call me tomorrow. I want to talk to him.”
“I’ll let him know.” 
She nodded and turned to Liz. “Can you drive me home?” Liz nodded and opened the door for her.
As Isobel left, Liz turned to Max. “Come with us. She needs you right now and I don’t think this is the best place for you to be. You can try and talk to Michael tomorrow.”
Max looked around the room one more time before nodding. He stood up and crossed the room. With a hand on the door and one foot out, he turned to Alex. “I love my brother and I would never hurt him. Not really. I just need to talk to him.”
Alex nodded. “I’ll let him know,” he repeated, much less sincere than he had to Isobel. Something told Max he wouldn’t be hearing from Michael for a while. 
“Liz,” he asked after he’d closed the door behind them and made it halfway to their cars, “how do I fix things with Michael?”
She paused and looked at him for a moment. “With time, I think. And actions. You can apologize all you want and say the right things but they don’t mean much if your actions don’t back it up. I know you say Michael’s important to you, but since I’ve been back, I haven’t seen it.” Her voice was cautious, almost apologetic. Liz laid a hand on his arm, her gently touch belying the harsh words. “Any blind idiot can see how much you love Isobel. She really is the most important person in the world to you. But sometimes you treat Michael like he’s an afterthought. Like you’re stuck with him because you all hatched together or something.”
“How can you say that?” Max recoiled. “He’s my brother!”
“So act like it,” Isobel’s voice cut in as she leaned out of the car window. “Starting with leaving and giving him the space he clearly needs right now. Get in the car Max.” Her voice softened. “And start fixing things tomorrow.”
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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years
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WRITING AND PAINTERS
I think that a lot of investors are entering this territory, there is no such thing as business. What made the options valuable, for the right sort of founder a one line intro to a VC fund. Startups don't win by making great products. This works better when a startup turns you down, why do investors use that term? And not just the location of the movie. In my earlier spam-filtering techniques used in the spamproof web-based spreadsheet, say: could one make a collaborative, web-based applications, everyone uses the same version, and bugs can be fixed in a couple minutes. Even now the image of a visionary.1 And believe it or not, and not dissing users.
Still, anyone who proposes a plan for one.2 Logically, you don't take a position and defend it. Whereas VCs need to invest in you if you build something popular is that you get discouraged when no one else realized it was a weapon, used by Ludendorff in a purge of those who favored a negotiated peace. The networks are prevented from seeing this whole line of reasoning because they still think of them, you'll keep working even when it seems like a decent hypothesis. How many times that conversation was repeated.3 I thought was hard, the groups all turned out ok. Show any hacker a lock and their first thought is how to create wealth, in the latter are so desperate for users that we'd offer to build merchants' sites for them if their firm invested in a startup, of course.4 So you'll break even if you merely inherited it. They just try to be imaginative about the axis along which the replacement occurs.5 Well, I suppose we'd consider it, for the same reason Chicago investors are more conservative in reality than you'd guess from reading their sites.
The millennia-long run of bigger-is-better approach but stopped after the first year, our initial reaction to Y Combinator to work on problems that exist. And that should be: spend little, and they were used then, these words all seemed to believe implicitly that work was not fun. If you make people with money love you, but they weren't going to die till I was about 19.6 If one woodworker makes 5 chairs and another makes none, the second seems as strong as ever. Students could learn less, if to improve graduation rates. Because they come at the end of the continuum are languages like Ada and Pascal, models of propriety that are good for different tasks. Examples For example, we seem to have made investors more cautious, it doesn't make any difference to know that Netscape would turn out to be valuable for hardware startups. It's not that hard to do on demand, and people are often upset to be told.7 The closest you can get a job, your parents probably did, along with practically every other adult you've met.
If you're designing a tool, for example, would increase the spammers' cost to reach a given audience by a factor of 10 or so we intended to make this so that McCarthy gave Lisp the shape it has. What most don't realize is how late.8 In everything else people do, they may then, depending on how long you live. They'd seem very impressive. The reason, again, slightly longer, because Javascript retains the distinction between statements and expressions, so you have to make us believe that every judgement of us is about us. 11. They want that money to get big fast in the most literal sense.
And while there are in fact not insoluble after all. Why. At least if you start a startup, I had bought the hype of the startup community in the larger sense: How advantageous it is to be only a partial solution. Most people treat the words thesis and dissertation as interchangeable, granting the same status to sweat equity and the equity they've purchased with cash. Bill Woods once told me that it wasn't worth investing in, what difference does it make that he's a senator? Acting in off-Broadway plays just doesn't pay as well as optimization. Email is not just that it's demoralizing, but that has not stood in the way. It was surprising—slightly frightening even—how do you deliver drama via the Internet? I'm not optimistic about filters that work at the network level, and we won't have to babysit the round to make sure you don't contradict yourself. There are two ways new technology gets introduced: the organic growth method, and the most common.
Notes
For example, being offered large bribes by Spain to make Viaweb.
When I say the raison d'etre of prep schools is to seem big that they don't want to save money, in Galbraith's words, it's hard to think of ourselves as investors, you can't dictate the problem, but corrupt practices in finance, healthcare, and this tends to be employees, or Seattle, 4 in DC, 6 in Chicago, 8 in London, 13 in New York. This gets harder as you get of the tube of their core values is Don't be evil.
Turn on rice package. Which OS?
Currently, when the company goes public. There were several other reasons, avoid casual conversations with VCs suggest it's roughly correct to say what was happening in them, just as on a wall is art.
Most people should not always tell this to users than where you read about startup founders tend to be higher, as Prohibition and the valuation should be your compass. I should add that none who read it ever wished it longer.
In technology, so the number of big companies have little to bring to the principle that declarations except those of popular Web browsers, including both you and the fucking fleas. The First Industrial Revolution, England was already the richest and most sophisticated city in the cupboard, but different cultures react differently when things go well. If you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the assembly line, the second component is empty—an idea that could start this way, be forthright with investors. If a company tried to raise that point though.
If you have no idea what they said, and you'll probably have some kind of protection is one of the most, it's shocking how much he liked his work. Ironically, the assembly line, the closest anyone has come unscrewed, you can't expect you'll be well on your board, consisting of two things: the energy they emit encourages other ambitious people, but its value was as late as 1984.
In the average car restoration you probably do make everyone else microscopically poorer, by doing another round that values the company is like math's ne'er-do-well brother. One valuable thing about startup founders who are younger or more ambitious the utility function is flatter. The reason the founders don't have to be tweaking stuff till it's yanked out of ArsDigita, he wrote a prototype in Basic in a band, or at least consider going into the heads of would-be-evil end. Brand-name VCs wouldn't recapitalize a company doesn't have to admit there's no other word that means having type II startups spread: all you needed in present-day trash.
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riichardwilson · 4 years
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How the Average Person Can Actually Start An Online Business (and Scale It Into Something Real)
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September 1, 2020 9 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 
This isn’t another “how to start a business” article that’s going to leave you with generic tips and general information that sounds good on the surface but provides you no real actionable advice. 
Rather, this article is raw, action-packed and may scare some of you. Continue reading at your own discretion. 
A 2018 study from Bankrate revealed that only 39% of Americans could have enough savings for a $1,000 emergency fund and 44% couldn’t cover a $400 out-of-pocket emergency expense. 
Starting a business can be a difficult task regardless of your financial status, but the degree of difficulty climbs much higher the lower you are on the economic class scale.
Related: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business
If you happen to be an average person, with an average bank account, a normal job, a family to feed and bills eating up a large percentage of your earnings, then the deck is stacked against you. 
Why?
It takes money to make money. Online sales are all about eyeballs. How many people can get you to see and interact with your offers?
I tell my eBook students — “you can write the best book in the history of the universe, but if no one ever sees it, you’ll never get a sale. On the other hand, you can publish the worst book ever published and with the right marketing agency techniques and finances to back it, you’ll get some initial sales, at least until you get a few bad reviews.”
If you start your own website, open a Shopify store, sell on Amazon, social media or any other online marketplace, you will be paying for those eyeballs through either advertising or fees. Sometimes both. The only potential exception would be those with a large and active social media following.
Long story short — if you are the average person without a legitimate budget, you’re kind of screwed. 
Learn from my mistakes 
Sometimes we all need a reality check. I wish someone would have sat me down and told me this when I was 23 years old because I wasted tens of thousands of dollars on failed online business over the years and it was money that I didn’t have. 
I’ve been the average guy with the average income, the average job and above-average bills. There was a point in my life that my monthly earnings were negative $1,000. I had to get a $20,000 personal loan to plus up my income to pay my bills for a year. 
Honestly, I don’t know what the bank was thinking by giving me that loan, but I’m glad they did because I had seriously considered filing for bankruptcy and if I’m being honest, I probably should have. 
This was one of the worst and most stressful time-periods of my life and if this article can save one person the heartache I went through, it’ll be worth it. 
Move over success 
A few years later, I was supporting US Special Forces as a military contractor in Syria. While I was sleeping in a tent, eating food out of a can and stealing WIFI from a neighboring country, I started an online jobs website for aviation professionals with security clearances interested in deploying to combat zones. 
Related: Need a Business Idea? Here Are 55.
The website itself did become profitable, but it was only a few hundred dollars of profit per month. While it wasn’t a massive win, there wasn’t much like it within the industry. 
The site’s uniqueness along with the targeted audience I was able to build via Facebook advertising piqued the interest of the right people which lead to a single dinner and ended with me consulting with a multimillion-dollar corporation. 
Since then, it’s been all downhill. Sometimes all we need is a single breakthrough. 
If I can do it from a tent in Syria, you can do it from your couch. It didn’t happen overnight though. Here is the process I had to go through to get to that point. 
Overcoming average people obstacles
The mistakes I made that put me in the worst financial position of my life are the same mistakes that many others make on a daily basis. 
If you are in a position where you don’t have expendable income but want to start an online business, read the following advice carefully…
Be realistic
Realize that until you fix your own financial problems, starting a legitimate business will be out of the question. This was a tough realization for me, but I’ve learned that you can have the best business concept in the history of the universe, but if you can’t fund it and do it right, it’ll never succeed.  
Sell everything you can possibly sell. Especially liabilities that have monthly payments. If it wasn’t nailed down, I sold it. I lost money on most everything, but it was worth it in the long run. 
Consolidate debt and cancel all unnecessary subscriptions. This allowed me to lower my monthly obligations, decrease interest rates on certain debts and pay bigger chunks towards the debt. 
Focus on the money
Search for a higher paying job. Often, we underestimate ourselves and what we are capable of accomplishing. Put yourself out there and see what’s available. What’s the worst a potential employer can say, no? This is actually how I ended up in Syria. I was able to more than double my salary by accepting a position that most people wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I even grew to love the job, but initially, I was simply making a personal sacrifice to achieve a long-term goal. As an entrepreneur, if you are not willing to make sacrifices, you are in the wrong line of work. 
Use a skill, learn a skill or try something new. Stop worrying about starting a business and focus on actually earning money. I was able to earn an additional $1,500 a month by writing content for people’s blogs, creating social media content and writing small informational eBooks. Here is a solid hint. If you want to make money, be willing to do the grunt work. Do the things that people don’t like to do themselves. 
It wasn’t glamorous, but it accelerated my debt pay off. I was able to get most of my business by joining niche forums and Facebook groups. Here is a solid hint – niche forums and Facebook groups are two of the only places on the internet that you can get those eyeballs for free, but you have to be offering something they are actively seeking. 
I actually hadn’t ever done any of the services that I started offering, but with a little practice and learning from people on YouTube, I was able to surpass customers’ expectations.
Related: 5 Steps on How to Start a Business and Get It to Market Quickly
Starting a business and scaling
Once you are out of debt or close to it and have at least $2,000 to invest, it’s time to start your online business. 
Here’s the process I like to follow:
Don’t think major corporations. Rather, start small and build. Use the new skills you learned to earn extra money during your debt payoff phase and start something you know can be profitable. We all have our dream business, but at this point, it’s more important to start something low risk and stable. Learn to be passionate about the process and business in general rather than a specific idea or concept. 
Once you have a steady flow of business, figure out how to outsource using freelancers. Implement processes to take yourself out of the equation to the point that you are simply managing the businesses and dealing with customers. This will allow you to continue earning from the business, but it’ll free you up to work towards your next business. 
Take the earnings from the first business and invest them into your next business concept. Ideally, you will only be investing the profits from business number one into business number two. This will allow you to continue to build your personal savings from your day job while still allowing you to invest in online businesses. 
Rinse and repeat. 
Don’t rush the process. Enjoy the journey. 
Personally, I like to have three to five businesses running at any given time. Two or three of them will be low-end grunt work type businesses that fund my ideal businesses.
The grunt work businesses are profitable because everyone hates to do their own grunt work. It’s the reason people pay to have their houses cleaned and their lawns mowed. 
You can easily and successfully scale without having to invest money earned from your full-time job. This allows you to continue to save and grow financially while you are building something real.
Takeaways
Starting a business can be difficult and is a process that shouldn’t be rushed. 
In reality, it’s a fairly simple process if you are patient. 
Fix yourself
Focus on the money
Start with something low risk
Outsource
Invest earnings into other business concepts
Repeat
In my opinion, this is the one process that gives the average person the best chance of being able to start a successful online business. 
Tumblr media
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co
Delray Beach SEO
source http://www.scpie.org/how-the-average-person-can-actually-start-an-online-business-and-scale-it-into-something-real/ source https://scpie.tumblr.com/post/628140898242478080
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scpie · 4 years
Text
How the Average Person Can Actually Start An Online Business (and Scale It Into Something Real)
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September 1, 2020 9 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 
This isn’t another “how to start a business” article that’s going to leave you with generic tips and general information that sounds good on the surface but provides you no real actionable advice. 
Rather, this article is raw, action-packed and may scare some of you. Continue reading at your own discretion. 
A 2018 study from Bankrate revealed that only 39% of Americans could have enough savings for a $1,000 emergency fund and 44% couldn’t cover a $400 out-of-pocket emergency expense. 
Starting a business can be a difficult task regardless of your financial status, but the degree of difficulty climbs much higher the lower you are on the economic class scale.
Related: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business
If you happen to be an average person, with an average bank account, a normal job, a family to feed and bills eating up a large percentage of your earnings, then the deck is stacked against you. 
Why?
It takes money to make money. Online sales are all about eyeballs. How many people can get you to see and interact with your offers?
I tell my eBook students — “you can write the best book in the history of the universe, but if no one ever sees it, you’ll never get a sale. On the other hand, you can publish the worst book ever published and with the right marketing agency techniques and finances to back it, you’ll get some initial sales, at least until you get a few bad reviews.”
If you start your own website, open a Shopify store, sell on Amazon, social media or any other online marketplace, you will be paying for those eyeballs through either advertising or fees. Sometimes both. The only potential exception would be those with a large and active social media following.
Long story short — if you are the average person without a legitimate budget, you’re kind of screwed. 
Learn from my mistakes 
Sometimes we all need a reality check. I wish someone would have sat me down and told me this when I was 23 years old because I wasted tens of thousands of dollars on failed online business over the years and it was money that I didn’t have. 
I’ve been the average guy with the average income, the average job and above-average bills. There was a point in my life that my monthly earnings were negative $1,000. I had to get a $20,000 personal loan to plus up my income to pay my bills for a year. 
Honestly, I don’t know what the bank was thinking by giving me that loan, but I’m glad they did because I had seriously considered filing for bankruptcy and if I’m being honest, I probably should have. 
This was one of the worst and most stressful time-periods of my life and if this article can save one person the heartache I went through, it’ll be worth it. 
Move over success 
A few years later, I was supporting US Special Forces as a military contractor in Syria. While I was sleeping in a tent, eating food out of a can and stealing WIFI from a neighboring country, I started an online jobs website for aviation professionals with security clearances interested in deploying to combat zones. 
Related: Need a Business Idea? Here Are 55.
The website itself did become profitable, but it was only a few hundred dollars of profit per month. While it wasn’t a massive win, there wasn’t much like it within the industry. 
The site’s uniqueness along with the targeted audience I was able to build via Facebook advertising piqued the interest of the right people which lead to a single dinner and ended with me consulting with a multimillion-dollar corporation. 
Since then, it’s been all downhill. Sometimes all we need is a single breakthrough. 
If I can do it from a tent in Syria, you can do it from your couch. It didn’t happen overnight though. Here is the process I had to go through to get to that point. 
Overcoming average people obstacles
The mistakes I made that put me in the worst financial position of my life are the same mistakes that many others make on a daily basis. 
If you are in a position where you don’t have expendable income but want to start an online business, read the following advice carefully…
Be realistic
Realize that until you fix your own financial problems, starting a legitimate business will be out of the question. This was a tough realization for me, but I’ve learned that you can have the best business concept in the history of the universe, but if you can’t fund it and do it right, it’ll never succeed.  
Sell everything you can possibly sell. Especially liabilities that have monthly payments. If it wasn’t nailed down, I sold it. I lost money on most everything, but it was worth it in the long run. 
Consolidate debt and cancel all unnecessary subscriptions. This allowed me to lower my monthly obligations, decrease interest rates on certain debts and pay bigger chunks towards the debt. 
Focus on the money
Search for a higher paying job. Often, we underestimate ourselves and what we are capable of accomplishing. Put yourself out there and see what’s available. What’s the worst a potential employer can say, no? This is actually how I ended up in Syria. I was able to more than double my salary by accepting a position that most people wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I even grew to love the job, but initially, I was simply making a personal sacrifice to achieve a long-term goal. As an entrepreneur, if you are not willing to make sacrifices, you are in the wrong line of work. 
Use a skill, learn a skill or try something new. Stop worrying about starting a business and focus on actually earning money. I was able to earn an additional $1,500 a month by writing content for people’s blogs, creating social media content and writing small informational eBooks. Here is a solid hint. If you want to make money, be willing to do the grunt work. Do the things that people don’t like to do themselves. 
It wasn’t glamorous, but it accelerated my debt pay off. I was able to get most of my business by joining niche forums and Facebook groups. Here is a solid hint – niche forums and Facebook groups are two of the only places on the internet that you can get those eyeballs for free, but you have to be offering something they are actively seeking. 
I actually hadn’t ever done any of the services that I started offering, but with a little practice and learning from people on YouTube, I was able to surpass customers’ expectations.
Related: 5 Steps on How to Start a Business and Get It to Market Quickly
Starting a business and scaling
Once you are out of debt or close to it and have at least $2,000 to invest, it’s time to start your online business. 
Here’s the process I like to follow:
Don’t think major corporations. Rather, start small and build. Use the new skills you learned to earn extra money during your debt payoff phase and start something you know can be profitable. We all have our dream business, but at this point, it’s more important to start something low risk and stable. Learn to be passionate about the process and business in general rather than a specific idea or concept. 
Once you have a steady flow of business, figure out how to outsource using freelancers. Implement processes to take yourself out of the equation to the point that you are simply managing the businesses and dealing with customers. This will allow you to continue earning from the business, but it’ll free you up to work towards your next business. 
Take the earnings from the first business and invest them into your next business concept. Ideally, you will only be investing the profits from business number one into business number two. This will allow you to continue to build your personal savings from your day job while still allowing you to invest in online businesses. 
Rinse and repeat. 
Don’t rush the process. Enjoy the journey. 
Personally, I like to have three to five businesses running at any given time. Two or three of them will be low-end grunt work type businesses that fund my ideal businesses.
The grunt work businesses are profitable because everyone hates to do their own grunt work. It’s the reason people pay to have their houses cleaned and their lawns mowed. 
You can easily and successfully scale without having to invest money earned from your full-time job. This allows you to continue to save and grow financially while you are building something real.
Takeaways
Starting a business can be difficult and is a process that shouldn’t be rushed. 
In reality, it’s a fairly simple process if you are patient. 
Fix yourself
Focus on the money
Start with something low risk
Outsource
Invest earnings into other business concepts
Repeat
In my opinion, this is the one process that gives the average person the best chance of being able to start a successful online business. 
Tumblr media
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co
Delray Beach SEO
source http://www.scpie.org/how-the-average-person-can-actually-start-an-online-business-and-scale-it-into-something-real/
0 notes
laurelkrugerr · 4 years
Text
How the Average Person Can Actually Start An Online Business (and Scale It Into Something Real)
Tumblr media
September 1, 2020 9 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 
This isn’t another “how to start a business” article that’s going to leave you with generic tips and general information that sounds good on the surface but provides you no real actionable advice. 
Rather, this article is raw, action-packed and may scare some of you. Continue reading at your own discretion. 
A 2018 study from Bankrate revealed that only 39% of Americans could have enough savings for a $1,000 emergency fund and 44% couldn’t cover a $400 out-of-pocket emergency expense. 
Starting a business can be a difficult task regardless of your financial status, but the degree of difficulty climbs much higher the lower you are on the economic class scale.
Related: The Complete, 12-Step Guide to Starting a Business
If you happen to be an average person, with an average bank account, a normal job, a family to feed and bills eating up a large percentage of your earnings, then the deck is stacked against you. 
Why?
It takes money to make money. Online sales are all about eyeballs. How many people can get you to see and interact with your offers?
I tell my eBook students — “you can write the best book in the history of the universe, but if no one ever sees it, you’ll never get a sale. On the other hand, you can publish the worst book ever published and with the right marketing agency techniques and finances to back it, you’ll get some initial sales, at least until you get a few bad reviews.”
If you start your own website, open a Shopify store, sell on Amazon, social media or any other online marketplace, you will be paying for those eyeballs through either advertising or fees. Sometimes both. The only potential exception would be those with a large and active social media following.
Long story short — if you are the average person without a legitimate budget, you’re kind of screwed. 
Learn from my mistakes 
Sometimes we all need a reality check. I wish someone would have sat me down and told me this when I was 23 years old because I wasted tens of thousands of dollars on failed online business over the years and it was money that I didn’t have. 
I’ve been the average guy with the average income, the average job and above-average bills. There was a point in my life that my monthly earnings were negative $1,000. I had to get a $20,000 personal loan to plus up my income to pay my bills for a year. 
Honestly, I don’t know what the bank was thinking by giving me that loan, but I’m glad they did because I had seriously considered filing for bankruptcy and if I’m being honest, I probably should have. 
This was one of the worst and most stressful time-periods of my life and if this article can save one person the heartache I went through, it’ll be worth it. 
Move over success 
A few years later, I was supporting US Special Forces as a military contractor in Syria. While I was sleeping in a tent, eating food out of a can and stealing WIFI from a neighboring country, I started an online jobs website for aviation professionals with security clearances interested in deploying to combat zones. 
Related: Need a Business Idea? Here Are 55.
The website itself did become profitable, but it was only a few hundred dollars of profit per month. While it wasn’t a massive win, there wasn’t much like it within the industry. 
The site’s uniqueness along with the targeted audience I was able to build via Facebook advertising piqued the interest of the right people which lead to a single dinner and ended with me consulting with a multimillion-dollar corporation. 
Since then, it’s been all downhill. Sometimes all we need is a single breakthrough. 
If I can do it from a tent in Syria, you can do it from your couch. It didn’t happen overnight though. Here is the process I had to go through to get to that point. 
Overcoming average people obstacles
The mistakes I made that put me in the worst financial position of my life are the same mistakes that many others make on a daily basis. 
If you are in a position where you don’t have expendable income but want to start an online business, read the following advice carefully…
Be realistic
Realize that until you fix your own financial problems, starting a legitimate business will be out of the question. This was a tough realization for me, but I’ve learned that you can have the best business concept in the history of the universe, but if you can’t fund it and do it right, it’ll never succeed.  
Sell everything you can possibly sell. Especially liabilities that have monthly payments. If it wasn’t nailed down, I sold it. I lost money on most everything, but it was worth it in the long run. 
Consolidate debt and cancel all unnecessary subscriptions. This allowed me to lower my monthly obligations, decrease interest rates on certain debts and pay bigger chunks towards the debt. 
Focus on the money
Search for a higher paying job. Often, we underestimate ourselves and what we are capable of accomplishing. Put yourself out there and see what’s available. What’s the worst a potential employer can say, no? This is actually how I ended up in Syria. I was able to more than double my salary by accepting a position that most people wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I even grew to love the job, but initially, I was simply making a personal sacrifice to achieve a long-term goal. As an entrepreneur, if you are not willing to make sacrifices, you are in the wrong line of work. 
Use a skill, learn a skill or try something new. Stop worrying about starting a business and focus on actually earning money. I was able to earn an additional $1,500 a month by writing content for people’s blogs, creating social media content and writing small informational eBooks. Here is a solid hint. If you want to make money, be willing to do the grunt work. Do the things that people don’t like to do themselves. 
It wasn’t glamorous, but it accelerated my debt pay off. I was able to get most of my business by joining niche forums and Facebook groups. Here is a solid hint – niche forums and Facebook groups are two of the only places on the internet that you can get those eyeballs for free, but you have to be offering something they are actively seeking. 
I actually hadn’t ever done any of the services that I started offering, but with a little practice and learning from people on YouTube, I was able to surpass customers’ expectations.
Related: 5 Steps on How to Start a Business and Get It to Market Quickly
Starting a business and scaling
Once you are out of debt or close to it and have at least $2,000 to invest, it’s time to start your online business. 
Here’s the process I like to follow:
Don’t think major corporations. Rather, start small and build. Use the new skills you learned to earn extra money during your debt payoff phase and start something you know can be profitable. We all have our dream business, but at this point, it’s more important to start something low risk and stable. Learn to be passionate about the process and business in general rather than a specific idea or concept. 
Once you have a steady flow of business, figure out how to outsource using freelancers. Implement processes to take yourself out of the equation to the point that you are simply managing the businesses and dealing with customers. This will allow you to continue earning from the business, but it’ll free you up to work towards your next business. 
Take the earnings from the first business and invest them into your next business concept. Ideally, you will only be investing the profits from business number one into business number two. This will allow you to continue to build your personal savings from your day job while still allowing you to invest in online businesses. 
Rinse and repeat. 
Don’t rush the process. Enjoy the journey. 
Personally, I like to have three to five businesses running at any given time. Two or three of them will be low-end grunt work type businesses that fund my ideal businesses.
The grunt work businesses are profitable because everyone hates to do their own grunt work. It’s the reason people pay to have their houses cleaned and their lawns mowed. 
You can easily and successfully scale without having to invest money earned from your full-time job. This allows you to continue to save and grow financially while you are building something real.
Takeaways
Starting a business can be difficult and is a process that shouldn’t be rushed. 
In reality, it’s a fairly simple process if you are patient. 
Fix yourself
Focus on the money
Start with something low risk
Outsource
Invest earnings into other business concepts
Repeat
In my opinion, this is the one process that gives the average person the best chance of being able to start a successful online business. 
Tumblr media
Website Design & SEO Delray Beach by DBL07.co
Delray Beach SEO
source http://www.scpie.org/how-the-average-person-can-actually-start-an-online-business-and-scale-it-into-something-real/ source https://scpie1.blogspot.com/2020/09/how-average-person-can-actually-start.html
0 notes
thesinglesjukebox · 5 years
Text
The Singles Jukebox Celebrates 30 Years of Rhythm Nation 1814 (a Janet Jackson retrospective)
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Janet Jackson’s had one hell of a career. It’d be glittering even if you were to cut the album she released 30 years ago this week out of history. And historic is what Rhythm Nation 1814 is, not like a war, but like a discovery; it was groundbreaking and influential and so much pop released in its wake owes it a debt of gratitude. The album contained seven top 10 singles in the U.S., each with indelible melodies, state-of-the-art beats and vivid music videos. Janet was always on the radio, always on TV, and welcome everywhere she went. She endured the failure of two albums and the weight of family baggage before reinventing herself, seizing artistic control and having one of the longest and brightest imperial phases of any pop star. Sex positive, romantic, assertive and wise, she’s an icon whose brilliance comes as much from how her songs make us feel about ourselves as they do about her.
Her familial connections might help explain her, but they didn’t define or limit her. She’s a sympathetic performer, an innovator in the development of music video as an art form (someone in her camp needs to fix up her spotty presence on video streaming sites, people need to see these videos in HD) and a smart, underrated songwriter in her own right. There’s a lot of Jackson in Beyonce, in Rihanna, in Britney, and in any woman who makes us smile and makes us dance. Because she did all those things over and over again.
Here’s a bunch of songs by Miss Jackson that moved us, or just made us move:
Katherine St Asaph on “Nasty” [8.14]
Date the quote: “[His] dance cuts have a format-friendly, artificial sheen … but she seems more concerned with identity than playlists.” This is not from 2019, about a post-Spotify pop star (I cheated a bit, leaving out a reference to “Arthur Baker dance breaks”) but from the ’80s. Specifically, it’s from the Rolling Stone review of Janet Jackson’s’s Control, the first half of which is a review of a comparatively nothing Jermaine Jackson album. This was typical: if press didn’t dismiss her as an biographical afterthought who happened to still sing, they wrote about her alongside her family, and specifically her brother. (This continues to this day: Note the sustained attention given to her response to Leaving Neverland, which ultimately was to join her family in condemning it.) The line everyone quotes is “Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty,” but more pointed is one of the lines that precedes it: “my last name is Control.”
The lyric to “Nasty” is full of that sort of role-reversal, like a swordfight where one guy yoinks the other guy’s sword — the sword being the “nasty groove.” But said groove possibly illustrates the lyric even better. Made by producers/former The Time members/future creative partners Jam & Lewis out of big ’80s percussion, plus clanks and repurposed orchestral stabs from an Ensoniq Mirage, one of the earliest sampling keyboards, it doesn’t sound martial exactly, like some of Jackson’s later work, but certainly sounds stark. It sounds like a challenge, one Janet takes up: her past soubrette voice drops to a throatier register, then is stoked into roars. The beat’s not quite its own thing; “Nasty” resembles experiments like Herbie Hancock’s “Metal Beat,” and in turn much of New Jack Swing resembles it. But how Jam & Lewis described it was a rapper’s beat — now standard for pop or R&B singers, from Destiny’s Child to Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish, when they want a tougher image. Meanwhile, Britney took Janet’s soft spoken-word interlude “I could learn to like this” and extrapolated an entire career from it — and covered it, unusually early in her career — but simplified it, mostly collapsing the context of family ties and dignity and creative control onto one axis: sex. But what they’re all doing is asserting this kind of Control.
Part of appreciating songs from the ’80s and ’90s is prying them out of the clutches of the era’s pop-culture jokification– I do like MST3K, but their sort of snappy “Nasty” joke is kind of what I mean. More than one article/restaurant review/listicle attempts to identify, meme-ily, Janet’s idea of “nasty food” (Janet’s answer, dubiously, was whole squid). A certain comment by a certain head of state gave the song a late-breaking sales boost But put on some ’80s radio (or a contemporary playlist of people copying ’80s radio) and wait for “Nasty” to come on. The rest of the radio will flinch.
Kat Stevens on “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” [8.67]
“What Have You Done For Me Lately?” is a sparse, angry snap of a song, the overspill of weeks and months of gradually-building resentment. It’s taken a nudge from bezzie mate Paula Abdul for Janet to fully admit her relationship has gone sour: her once fun-loving, adoring beau has become complacent, content to put his feet up on the sofa and take Janet for granted. Should she leave? She loves him! Or does she? Should love really feel like a heavy weight, pressing down on you? Like your stomach won’t stop churning? Like letting the phone ring out unanswered rather than deal with his temper? Like maybe it’s your fault that he’s like this? “Who’s right? Who’s wrong?” Janet is determined to make a decision with a clear head, but the anxiety and hormones are bubbling underneath (“I never ask for more than I deserve…“). Thankfully Jam & Lewis are on hand with a clinical, whipcrack beat — snap out of it, Janet! The tension manifests itself in her zigzagging shoulders, hunched and strained and contorted, primed to lash out – just as he walks through the door! Janet is wary, but her dude is on his best behaviour, puppy-dog eyes, I’ll do better from now on, I swear. They dance perfectly in time together, remembering the good times: all is forgiven. Surely Janet hasn’t fallen for the same old lines, doomed to repeat the cycle? Paula is rolling her eyes: ugh, not this bullshit again… Then, as the happy couple laugh together over dinner, Janet glances back at us, and the smile falls from her face. The decision has been made. As soon as Mr ‘Not All Men’ leaves for work in the morning, she’s putting her passport in a safety deposit box and setting up a secret savings account to fund her getaway. The plan is in motion. You’ve got one life to life.
Thomas Inskeep on “Diamonds” (Herb Alpert ft. Janet Jackson) [6.80]
After “The Pleasure Principle,” this might actually be my favorite Janet Jackson single (even though she’s technically the featured artist on it). “Diamonds,” written and produced by Jimmy “Jam” Harris and Terry Lewis for Herb Alpert’s 1987 album Keep Your Eye on Me, is, in all but name, a Jam/Lewis/Janet record — with a few Alpert trumpet flourishes. The beats rock hard, and Janet delivers what may be (and certainly was at the time) her most IDGAF vocal: you’re gonna get Miss Jackson (because you’re clearly nasty) some diamonds, aren’t you?
Alfred Soto on “The Pleasure Principle” [8.43]
For all the banter over the years about the cold and steel of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ beats for Control, the coldest and steeliest they had no hand in creating. Songwriter Monte Moir, like Jam and Lewis also a The Time alum, stumbled on the title first: “I had to figure out what it was I was trying to say, I just stumbled into the title and realized it fit.” Sung by Jackson in her airiest, most insouciant coo, “The Pleasure Principle” starts with bass synth and cowbell before settling down into a matter-of-fact tale of a night of sin. To visualize the concept, choreographer Barry Lather put together one of Jackson’s most iconic videos, a masterpiece of athleticism involving chairs. Too cold and steely for the audience, or perhaps the hype cycle for a sixth single had exhausted itself: “The Pleasure Principle” missed the top ten in the summer of 1987, stopping at #14. So ignore the single mix and revel in Shep Pettibone’s Long Vocal Remix.
Kat Stevens on “Let’s Wait Awhile” [6.60]
Can you have an erection-section classic that’s primarily about abstinence? “Let’s Wait Awhile” has all the features of a late-night Magic FM request slot regular: soft electric piano, finger clicks instead of drums, lyrics about promises and feelings and stars shining bright. But this message is about trust, not lust. It takes courage to admit that you’re not ready, and it requires faith in the other person that they’re not going to be a dick about it. I remember the advice columns in Just 17 repeating over and over that as Informed Young Women we shouldn’t be pressured into sex, which was all well and good until it actually came to the act of Doing It, whereupon the fug of hormones and internalised misogyny meant that all rationality went out of the window. It’s the sign of how strong and confident Janet is in her relationship, that she can be ‘real honest’ and discuss her concerns freely with her partner, without worrying that he’s going to a) dump her b) tell his mates that she’s frigid or c) ‘persuade’ her round to his point of view (*shudder*). If he’s not willing to wait, maybe he’s not such an ideal person to be doing this sort of stuff with in the first place? I can hear the dude whining to his mate now: “I took her out for dinner and all I got was a perfectly vocalised key change!” Just 17 would be proud of you, Janet.
Jessica Doyle on “Miss You Much” [7.83]
A little context: in March 1989 Natalie Cole released “Miss You Like Crazy,” a ballad built for Cole to sing wide about longing. In June Paula Abdul released the third single off Forever Your Girl, “Cold Hearted,” whose video made a point of its group choreography. And then in late August came “Miss You Much,” the first single from Rhythm Nation 1814. Did Janet Jackson have beef with her ex-choreographer? Was that the kind of thing people talked about, in the pre-poptimist, pre-TMZ era? Because in retrospect “Miss You Much” looks like a dismissal of “Cold Hearted,” cool and upright where the latter was David-Fincher-directed sleazy. (By contrast, the director of “Miss You Much,” Dominic Sena, had already treated Jackson with respect in the video for “The Pleasure Principle.”) But also “Miss You Much” plays as a broader statement, a refusal of expectations. There’s nothing sad or ballad-like about it. There’s that opening high of “sho-o-ot,” and then Jackson’s on a roll: it’s all about her, the deliciousness of her feeling; she can barely bother to describe the “you” being missed so much besides the blanditries of smiling face and warm embrace. The power in “I’ll tell your mama/I’ll tell your friends/I’ll tell anyone whose heart can comprehend” isn’t in the longing; it’s in how much she relishes being the one who gets to do the telling. By 1989 she was in control enough to not have to utter the word once. “Miss You Much” isn’t a deep song, didn’t set out to accomplish as much as the title track or later songs like “That’s the Way Love Goes” or “Together Again” would. But thirty years later it still looks and sounds like (what we now call) a power move.
Katie Gill on “Rhythm Nation” [8.57]
How does one try to condense the reach and influence of “Rhythm Nation” in a single blurb? Entire articles have been written about this song and video (because really, you can’t talk about the song without talking about the video). It’s influenced singers, dancers, directors, choreographers. It won a Grammy as well as two MTV Music Video Awards when those awards actually mattered. The choreography is perfect. Jackson and her dancers move with military-like precision, flawlessly executing maneuvers and creating a dance that would almost instantly become part of the popular consciousness. The sound is amazing. That bass groove is so tight, adding a layer of funk which the guitar takes to further levels. The tune is an absolute earworm, the chorus is iconic, and Jackson’s vocals are at the best of their game. But I think the most important part of “Rhythm Nation” is that this absolute banger of a song, this masterclass in choreography, has remarkably idealistic lyrics. Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” yearns towards a racially and socially conscious utopia as it attempts to unite people to join together and create this utopia. In a lesser artist, these lyrics would be out and out corny. But when wrapped up in the final package, the lyrics go from corny to believable. Suddenly, the idea of the whole world helping each other or rising up in protest doesn’t sound so far-fetched.
Alfred Soto on “Escapade” [7.67]
With solo credits as common as hair metal solos in Janet Jackson music, I often listen to tracks like “Escapade” and wonder: what did Janet Jackson contribute? Lyrics? Sure. But she has to write them around a Jimmy Jam-Terry Lewis melody, no? Or, as is no doubt the case, she comes up with her own vocal melody to accompany their chord progressions. According to Jam, the trio had “Nowhere to Run” in mind: first as a cover song, then as inspiration. “Escapade” hopscotches away from the sense of danger animating the Martha and the Vandellas chestnut; in 1989, into the eclipse of a grim decade for black lives, looking forward to Friday and drinks and friends would have to do. Over Jam and Lewis’ unrelenting thwack, Jackson sing-songs a valentine to a shy boy whom she hopes will join her in — what? The sheer euphoria of the bridge — a melody as bright as a returned smile — suggests worlds of possibilities when the check’s cashed and the night’s young. After all, MINNEAPOLIS!
Leah Isobel on “Alright” [7.14]
Rhythm Nation might have more banging singles, and it might have songs that more directly diagnose the ills of late capitalism, but no song on the record better encapsulates its utopian aims than “Alright.” Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis famously left the high end of Janet’s songs empty to provide space for her delicate soprano; here, they fill the low end with vocal samples, percussion, submerged synth blats, and tense bass licks. Instead of singing high for the whole track, however, Janet buries lyrical references to magic spells and the end of the world in her lower register, where they blend into the rest of the song. It’s only on the chorus, and particularly on her swooping vocal runs as she riffs on the phrase “you’re alright with me,” that she surfaces from the swirl. On a record where she spends so much time and thought discussing what’s wrong around her, here she takes the time to see and acknowledge what’s right. I don’t know that I’ve heard a better sonic analogue for finding relief from chaos: one voice against a wall of voices and sounds, getting lost and being found over and over to the comforting rhythm of a pop song.
Edward Okulicz on “Black Cat” [6.57]
“Black Cat” was never the huge stylistic U-turn it was perceived as. Janet’s brother had dabbled in rock guitars, and this is in that vein too, while still being of a piece with the other songs on the album. Where it succeeds is because it doesn’t just lean into rock, it’s as credible a rock song as it is a dance-pop song — the riff, which Jackson wrote herself, kicks ass, the drums shake a room as much as the cavernous thuds of her contemporaneous singles, and the song’s melody and the fierce vocal performance straddle both worlds. And if you don’t like the mix there’s like 900 different versions with 2000 different guitarists — only a slight exaggeration. Its overall success is testament to Janet’s persona, sure, because nothing she released could have failed at this point, but you can’t go to Number One with single number six off an album without your usual co-writers and producers unless you’ve written something that connects with listeners and performed it with power. The way she slams down on “don’t understand… why you… insist…” is a moment of perplexed, angry humanity in the middle of a song that tries to understand something tragic — the corrosion of drugs and gangs on young people’s lives — and while the soloing is a little hammy, the song escapes being embarrassingly corny. Because in fact the whole song kicks ass.
Pedro Joao Santos on “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” [8.71]
One of the greatest pleasures in getting into Janet is how deliriously bold all of her work is. A story, if you will: how Jimmy & Terry stepped in to support her emancipation and helped her invent new jack swing all within Control, before taking the formula apart in Rhythm Nation 1814, aiming for pop that was both a manifesto against bigotry and, between a balm and a corrective, a rush of love. It was designed for high impact, meaning it would’ve always been a pop juggernaut — the material was there, even if the marketing was oblique, which it was. Instead of a glamour shot in Technicolor and a flirtatious title, the 12 million copies sold feature a stark black and white portrait backed by a call-to-arms; the pop froth is smattered around the backbone of topical anthems.
From single to single, A&M skittered between the two sides and amassed consecutive top 10 singles, but it was the last calling card that proved career-defining. At first, “Love Will Never Do (Without You)”’s hard-edged beats scan identical to “Rhythm Nation”’s sonic matrix: belligerent and completed by Janet’s frontal vox, only in this instance driven through a more feminine marketing (the music video is a blueprint). That’s the first trick: she unexpectedly launches into the first verse in a tentative, lightly hostile lower register (“like a guy would,” said Jimmy Jam, as it was to be a duet) and keeps it until the chorus wraps up. It’s pop as friction. By the second verse, Janet goes up an octave and matches the now-bubbling passion at the forefront. The tiny synth countdown drives it into a perpetual unfolding, each time emerging to add more (vocal) layers to the cacophony and threaten to wrap it up, before coming back in force.
Janet’s head voice soars up to the grand finale, a pop cataclysm of an ending, one of the best in recorded history — which applies to the entirety of “Love Will Never Do,” a simultaneous pitch for chaotic head-over-heels energy and blockbuster status. It’s a bizarre ride and a joyous knockout: the honeymoon phase juiced into one relentless beast of a banger, one that changed pop for good.
Jackie Powell on “State of the World” [6.67]
“State of the World” deserved a music video. At its heart, this is a dance cut with a little bit less of the hard rock that roars in “Rhythm Nation.” In content and in sound, this track is a sequel and that’s not a criticism. It’s an expansion which encourages a foot tap by the listener and includes an absolutely integral bassline that drives this track through and through. While the song clocks in at under five minutes and could have been a bit shorter, its chorus, which crescendos in clarity and volume, makes up for it. In addition to Jackson’s delivery on the verses, which is rather understated, the sound effects which illustrate “State of the World”  aren’t too kitschy. The cries and crashes aren’t as apparent as in brother Michael’s “Earth Song” for instance, and that’s appropriate. The politics had to run as smooth as the bass on this track, and they did. They didn’t serve as a distraction, but rather as an asset. Janet was the master of New Jack Swing, and while folks look to her brother’s album Dangerous as the most successful of this genre, Janet experimented with it first.  The percussive repetition, serves a purpose for Jackson on the record. It maintains the same intensity throughout as it reflects exactly what she has to say. Lyrically, I wish that Jackson explained how her “Nation” would “weather the storm.” To this day, homelessness and poverty are issues that affect people continuously. Jackson states the cornerstone rather than the specifics, and maybe that’s okay. It’s something that in 2019 we need more than ever. While unity appears so far out of our reach, Janet attested as early as 1991 that we can’t stop and shan’t stop.
Thomas Inskeep on “The Best Things in Life Are Free” (with Luther Vandross, BBD and Ralph Tresvant) [7.60]
To soundtrack his 1992 film Mo’ Money, Damon Wayans (who wrote and starred in the critically-derided box office hit) called upon superproducers Jam & Lewis, and they did work, producing or co-producing 13 of the album’s 14 tracks and writing or co-writing 12 of them. The soundtrack’s lead single was very pointedly a “look at all the cool stars we got together” move, featuring superstars Vandross and Jackson duetting, along with a brief rap bridge from Bell Biv DeVoe (credited here as BBD) and their New Edition compadre Ralph Tresvant. Released as a single in May 1992, it’s a perfect summertime smash, simultaneously airy-light and slammin’, with Vandross and Jackson weaving in and out of each other’s vocals effortlessly. BBD and Tresvant pop in with a nothingburger of a rap (Tresvant gets a label credit for literally uttering one line, the song’s title) that at least serves to provide a modicum of grit to the proceedings, but no matter: Jackson especially sounds breezier than maybe ever, while Vandross seems to float above the record. The two are magical on a track perfectly suited for them (credit Jam & Lewis, of course), and the result is a minor classic.
Jonathan Bogart on “That’s the Way Love Goes” [7.86]
A little over a year ago I rather overshared in this space when discussing Madonna’s “Erotica,” released a year before this single. A year makes a lot of difference: by the time I was listening to Shadoe Stevens count this down on American Top 40, the summer it became the longest-running #1 hit any Jackson family member ever had, radio pop was no longer a dirty, soul-damning secret, just a daily companion, a window into a more colorful, adult, and interesting world than the ones I knew from books. I would probably have had a healthier relationship to romance and sexuality, in fact, if this had been my introduction to overtly sexual pop rather than “Erotica” — both songs share the technique of a sultry spoken-word refrain, but Janet’s is actually grown-up, with the confidence of a woman who knows what she wants and how to achieve it, with none of Madonna’s juvenile need to épater les bourgeois. As it happened I didn’t particularly connect to “That’s the Way Love Goes,” having reached the stage in my adolescence when getting a charge out of raspy-voiced men singing about political instability felt like the more gender-appropriate inevitability. It wouldn’t be until years later when I returned to re-examine the radio pop of my youth with maturer ears that the amazing miracle of this song fully dawned on me: those pillowy guitar samples plucked from songs where raspy-voiced men sang about political instability, but pressed into service of a loping, candlelit coo: equal parts seduction and vulnerability, Janet singing with the authority of someone who had already conquered the world about the grown-woman concerns that really matter: love, and sex, and the impossible beauty that results when they intertwine.
David Moore on “If” [8.33]
Janet Jackson sang explicitly about “nasty boys,” but I was, to use a term my son’s preschool teacher used to describe him, a timid boy, and I soaked up the privileges of maleness with a corresponding fear of performative masculinity. My love of women through childhood was paired with a deep-seated self-loathing that snuffed out friendships, made me uncomfortable in my body, and sparked intense, violent fantasies directed toward unnamed aggressors in my mind, all those “bad guys.” I wouldn’t be able to reflect on any of this until adulthood. But there was a point in preadolescence when the contours of the trap started to become discernible, and Janet Jackson’s “If” was both a cherished song — one I would listen to rapt in front of MTV or on the radio, legs haphazardly splayed behind me — and was also the uncanny soundtrack to my discomfort: a muscular, menacing, alien object that completely unnerved me, made me a supplicant to its rhythm, got into my head and into my guts, made me move, if only for a minute, in a world that glanced contemptuously toward — but stood defiantly outside of — that toxic timidity. I was the woman telling the man what I wanted, and I was also the man obeying; I was the dancer and I was the floor, too. On “If,” Janet Jackson and Jam & Lewis tamed the New Jack Squall that her brother unleashed on Dangerous with Teddy Riley, insisted upon its lockstep subservience to her mission and her groove, and pointed to an R&B futurism that was barely a twinkle in pop music’s eye in 1993. The result is simultaneously mechanistic and wild, rolling waves of noise that you quickly learn to surf or risk drowning in them. That same year, I also found inspiration in angry men, many of them likely nasty ones, the same men I would have assiduously avoided in person and fought off in my dreams. But Janet Jackson kept me honest, reminded me that my anger was a tell for my underlying cowardice and shame. There is never a hint in “If” that her hypothetical proposition — too strident for any coyness or the suggestion of flirting — could ever be satisfactorily answered. Not by you anyway. No boy, nasty or timid, could meet Janet Jackson’s challenge; she’s mocking the guy who would even try. By the time you hit that cacophony of a middle 8 break, defibrillation on an already racing heartbeat, you’re defeated, more thoroughly than any bad guy you might have dreamt up. You’re not ready for this world — you’re not, so you can’t, and you won’t. But what if…?
Jonathan Bradley on “Again” [5.67]
It sounds like a fairy tale: billowing keys, Janet’s tinkling voice, and no drums to earth the fantasy. “Again” was from John Singleton’s Poetic Justice, not a Disney picture, but it shimmers with its own magic anyway. The melody is gorgeous: listen to Janet measuring out the descending syllables in “suddenly the memories came back to me” like they’re sinking in as she sings the words. (She repeats the motif on “making love to you/oh it felt so good and so right” — this is a romance where the sex is as fondly remembered as the emotions.) Janet Jackson is such a versatile performer, and for all the bold strokes and blunt rhythmic force of her best known moments, “Again” is a treasure all of its own for being none of these: it is tiny and tender and sparkles with a real joy that is all the more wondrous for sounding like it could not exist outside of a storybook.
Scott Mildenhall on “Whoops Now” [4.83]
Even outside America, there’s a widespread tendency for people, in search of a lifetime’s grand narrative, to define everything that happened before The Day The World Changed – a coincidental proxy for their childhood, youth or adolescence – as a simpler time. It’s a convenient illusion for anyone in the world lucky enough to be able to believe it, whose formative years were insulated from war or suffering and can be instead defined by the most carefree scraps of pop culture. In that respect “Whoops Now” holds great temptation, it being the breeziest brush-off of burdens, with an all-over Teflon disposition. It’s therefore an almost fantastical ideal of ’90s radio (and still one of Janet’s most played in the UK); a warm and fuzzy-round-the-edges memory of which on closer inspection, the details are inscrutable. Janet, aloft in a proletarian reverie, relates a confusing tale of overnight shift work, a hindrance of a boss and the consequent curtailing of her plans for some fun in the sun this weekend with her friends (who, judging by her extended roll call, seem to mostly be record execs, producers and performers, as well as dogs). Narratively, it’s difficult to tease apart, but all you need to know is that hurrah – she somehow ends up on holiday anyway. A story that sounds more like something from an expletive-laden segment of Airline thus becomes the most casual celebration of the apparent inevitability of positive resolutions when you’re a globe-straddling megastar, or perhaps just a kid in the back of your parents’ car with the radio on. With that certainty of happiness and universal balance, and the belief that it ever was or could be, it’s fantasy upon fantasy upon fantasy. But no bother: Anguilla here we come.
Nortey Dowuona on “Throb” [6.86]
I started listening to Janet Jackson as a happy accident. Her songs were on Atlantic Radio, but nowhere else. I barely heard her music growing up and only knew of her massive career, and not the music that made it so huge.
So when I first pressed play on “Throb,” I was kinda scandalized.
Because it was so directly, overtly sexual, and confident about it. Janet was ready to get down and dirty, without all the mind games, patronization and bullpuddy packed all over it. The lyrics are pretty straightforward, and there are only ten lines of lyrics. Its pretty clear what Janet wants, and she’s gonna get it.
Plus, the bass was slamming, it slunk around my neck and just rested there while the air horn synths washed over my eyes, blinding me. The drums then stepped over me and plucked me up, with cooing and cascading moans and grunts swirled around my body, shredding me to pieces —
Then the song ended. And it was over.
I honestly, can’t really say why this is my favorite Janet song, but I can say that you should probably play it while having sex, and while thinking about having sex, and play this late night in the night if deciding to have sex. I know this’ll be the first thing I’ll play if I have sex with anyone.
Thomas Inskeep on “Throb”
In the summer of 1993, I’d just finished my second freshman year of college, in my hometown. (I’d gone to college straight out of high school in 1988, and dropped out without much to show for it, 16 months later.) One of my best girlfriends had herself just graduated from college and was back at her parents’ house, job-hunting. We were both past 21 and looking for a place to go dancing, and we found it in the nearest big city, Fort Wayne, Indiana, about 45 minutes away. It was a short-lived gay bar — so short-lived I don’t even recall its name, sadly — with a dance floor roughly the size of a postage stamp. I don’t remember meeting anyone there, ever. (I didn’t drive at the time, so Julie always had to, so it’s not like I could’ve gone home with someone anyway.) I don’t remember anything about the bar — except its dancefloor, and the fact that they had a decent DJ on the weekends, who mostly played house music, which I loved. And there were three songs that got played, in my memory at least, every single week. (And Julie and I really did go just about every weekend that summer.)
The first was Bizarre Inc.’s “I’m Gonna Get You,” an ebullient diva-house track which topped Billboard’s Dance Club/Play chart in January but was just peaking at pop radio in June. The second was, really, the gay club record of the year, RuPaul’s “Supermodel.” It peaked at #2 on the Dance Club/Play chart in March, but never left gay clubs at all through 1993. When that got played at the club, I would, week-in, week-out, “work the runway,” lip-syncing my ass off. (It’s just that kind of song.) And the third was an album track from a newly-released album (that would, in fact, eventually be promoted to dance clubs at peak at #2 on the Club/Play chart), Janet Jackson’s “Throb.” This song went where Jackson never had before, both musically (it’s a straight-up house jam) and lyrically (it’s a straight-up sex jam). Its lyrics are minimal but to the point: “I can feel your body/Pressed against my body/When you start to poundin’/Love to feel you throbbin’.” No subtleties there! Accordingly, Julie and I would spend the song grinding up against each other on a tiny riser at the back of the dance floor, because why not? And because it’s fun.
26 years later, ‘Throb” still kills. And throbs.
Maxwell Cavaseno on “Runaway” [6.50]
My childhood managed to dodge the oceanic nature of pop thanks to being struck between two extremes. My father usually kept the car full of rap, via cassettes of assorted rising stars of the moment (Big Pun, Nas, Various Wu-Tang Soloists) or whatever was playing via Hot 97. Meanwhile my mother typically wallowed in a realm of AOR pop a la Amy Grant or the likes who you could never remember anything about. If there was anything majorly important in the history of pop music from 89-98, lemme tell you, that shit didn’t happen anywhere near me. However, one of the few memories that did manage to linger on was “Runaway.” It was a record that managed to ethereally sneak up to me like some kind of weird creep that I just couldn’t understand with its weird foreign instrumentation simulating orientalist visions and Janet’s background vocals harmonizing like a bunch of Buddhist Cats sneering a la Randy Savage’s “nyeeeah.” Whenever I trailed along in supermarkets or tried to keep busy in waiting rooms, I could comprehend what happened on other songs I liked in the outer world like “Take a Bow” or “Kiss From A Rose.” But this? How did you rationalize all of these gliding vocals crooning and this swarm of glittery noises when you have barely any understanding of the world around you, let alone music? No matter how much further away and away I’d get from whenever it was meant to be a single, it could still disruptively appear in the wild and send the whole day into a state of disarray. It’s so alarming to know now as a grown adult that I can personally summon this ifrit of a single, rather than think of it as some sort of rare sighting of trickster energy (all the more bolstered by Janet’s ad libbed teasing of supposed imperfection and other-human excess) that isn’t meant to be heard more than once in a blue moon. To be honest, I may just forget altogether after the fact, the same way I never remembered the name of the song even when considering it for review. Just that “nyeeeah” hung around in my memory.
Danilo Bortoli on “Got ’til It’s Gone” [6.17]
In Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, a cut from her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon, she sang of impeding progress as a form of destruction (“They paved paradise/And put up a parking lot”). Often seen as as environmental anthem, actually, she was looking back at the sixties, and then seeing, right ahead, a decade that showcased no promising future, only aching skepticism. This resulted in one the purest, simplest lines she has ever written: “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone”. Almost thirty years later, Janet Jackson conjured those same thoughts, conveying, instead, a different meaning. The Velvet Rope was her very own game of smoke and mirrors, and intimate and often misleading look at her private life. Lying at the center of that album, there is a delicate tribute. “Got ‘til It’s Gone” features a well-placed sample from that line culled from “Big Yellow Taxi.” The context is entirely different however. Here, the same words are uttered between confessions of love. It helps, then, that “Got ‘til It’s Gone” is, in reality, a talk. It’s the way Janet asks “What’s the next song?”. It’s the way Q-Tip responds “Like Joni says.” It’s also the way he asserts finally: “Joni Mitchell never lies.” The brilliance of a sample travelling three decades is that it is deliciously meta. The concept of truth, in Janet Jackson’s universe, is interchangeable. That way, she, too, can never lie.
Josh Love on “Together Again” [6.86]
Together Again was originally conceived as a ballad, and no wonder – it’s a deeply sentimental (borderline treacly, if I’m being uncharitable) song about death and angels and reuniting in the afterlife in heaven. Deciding to record it as a surging house jam instead was an absolute masterstroke, and the result is one of the most purely joyous, transcendent moments of Janet’s career. The idea of carrying a lost loved one in your heart and feeling their spirit in the goodness you encounter in the world, and even the thought of one day joining together with them again in the great beyond – “Together Again” makes you feel that joy rather than merely verbalizing it. So many of us say that when we die we want those we leave behind to celebrate our lives rather than mourn our passing, but Janet is one of the few artists to really bring that radical acceptance of impermanence to life.
Thomas Inskeep on “I Get Lonely” (TNT Remix) [7.43]
Allow me to be cynical for a moment: Janet Jackson, in 1998, is still a superstar. But in the past five years, she’s only had one R&B #1, ‘94’s sex-jam “Any Time, Any Place” (assisted greatly by its R. Kelly remix). So if you’re thinking “What do we do to get Janet back to the summit,” what do you do? Well, it’s 1998. How about calling in Teddy Riley? Better yet, how about he gets a helping hand from Timbaland? And the best: how about Teddy brings his merry men of BLACKstreet with him for a vocal assist? Ergo, “I Get Lonely (TNT Remix),” now label-credited to “Janet [she was just going by “Janet” at the time] featuring BLACKstreet.”
And you know what? It’s genius. The idea, brilliant. The execution, top-notch. Riley on the remix, with instrumental help from Timbo, with guest vocals from BLACKstreet: it’s more exciting than the original (which was already quite good), has a little more junk in its trunk (those should-be-patented instrumental tics that Timbaland is such a wizard with, ohmygod, much like Janet’s big brother’s vocal tics), and the duet vocals are superb (especially as it was so rare to hear Janet singing with others at the time, and every member of BLACKstreet save Riley was a great-to-marvelous singer). Presto! Two weeks atop the R&B chart in May 1998, along with a #3 Hot 100 peak. Mission accomplished — and fortunately, it works even better artistically than it did commercially. Everybody wins!
Pedro Joao Santos on “Go Deep” [7.14]
That The Velvet Rope’s party song is so heavy on gravitas and spine-tingling urgency speaks volumes. In an album so hellbent on carnal and psychological openness, the party of “Go Deep” goes deeper, and makes sense. It’s not just the top-20 banger it factually was, and it’s not just hedonism for the sake of it. That is, if you don’t divorce it from the wounds of longing, manipulation, abuse and distress being sliced fresh. Tension lies within this absolute romp, placed midway through the red-hot catharsis of Rope. It might be that the party acts as a salve for the trauma. Though it isn’t put into words, you can hear it subliminally: Janet’s hesitant vocal; the evocative, near-melancholy synth fluctuating about. You can even imagine the words as portals: making friends come together as support; the sexual come-ons not just because, but maybe as physical relief for the pain.
A bare-bones lyric sheet would give you nothing — but music as context goes a long way. And the music itself from “Go Deep” gets me in raptures after all these years, from that ridiculous boing (perhaps best known from “I Can’t Dance” by Genesis) to the bass driving it, all chunky and rubbery, and the dramatic string arpeggios in the middle-8. If there’s got to be a template for urgent, carnivorous Friday night anthems, let this be the one — and keep it in context.
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa on “You” [7.00]
The Velvet Rope carries a strong and fascinating legacy; It is rightly praised as a predecessor to both mainstream R&B’s exploration of the intimate (the body) and the spiritual (the soul) in the continuing decades, and to the experimental scope and atmospherics later adopted by today’s so-called “Alt-R&B,” and this extraordinary mixture of elements is never more efficient than in the album’s third track “You.” The song is, first and foremost, a triumph of production genius. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’s use of space, and the dynamic at play between the then-cutting-edge electronica ingredients and neo-soul’s earnestness and sensual themes, should itself be a case study for aspiring producers, but it’s the way Janet’s vocals are performed and filtered through the track that take the song to unsuspected levels of greatness. There is something in the breathy, low-pitched verses that exudes unadulterated eroticism, and when the post-chorus harmonies kick in where things really become ecstatic. In several interviews, Janet herself defined this album as “baby-making music”, and I can safely bet that “You” is the song she was thinking about. And its echoes still reverberate today, not only in the sound of R&B to come, but in the fact that thousands of people were conceived to this very beat.
Edward Okulicz on “Free Xone” [6.83]
I remember it only vaguely; it was 1995, and for drama class we had to do a performance based on a social theme using a combination of media and methods. I was in a group with a big Janet fan, who decided to use her music as the basis of a combination spoken-word, mime and dance performance on racism. I only understanding the themes in the abstract because I was young, sheltered, and white. I knew racism was a thing I didn’t like, but it wasn’t an existential threat to me. Two years later, on “Free Xone,” Janet would speak directly to me and tell me of a bleak present with the promise of a better future.  Janet told it like it was, and still is for many: if you are gay, despite the fact that love is love, a lot of people are going to hate you or at least be uncomfortable around you. Homophobia isn’t just violence or hostility, it can be any kind of social rejection, and it can happen anywhere, as it does in the anecdote in the first part of the song, where a pleasant conversation with a person sitting next to you on an airplane sours because of it.
Janet Jackson is a dancer, but she didn’t dance around anything if she didn’t have to. She leaned into her status as a gay icon out of love, not necessity. But she made her social justice songs out of both love and necessity. Hating people is so not mellow. Love and sex are never wrong. Janet Jackson has never resiled from that belief, and never shied away from putting it in song. I’d grown up listening to Janet Jackson, but I’d never thought of her as an ally for myself, and it was intensely comforting to hear that she was on my side when nobody else seemed to be (Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Leviticus Faggot” the previous year had more or less convinced me I’d die in the closet).
In 2019, her funk here sounds a little dinky, the transitions between the soft groove and the raucous party bounce are kind of awkward, and the weird song structure sounds like it was cut and pasted together, but it’s a collage of compelling pieces. It got quite a lot of play on the alternative youth station here, the one whose listeners were at the time generally terrified of a) pop superstars, b) Black artists, and c) dancing. Someone thought the kids needed to hear this, and they were right. “Free Xone” helped my nascent consciousness come to grips with earlier songs that I’d just considered a good time before. Its story is less common in the Western world, now, but it’s still true as history for some, and as present for others.
Leonel Manzanares de la Rosa on “Tonight’s the Night” [4.50]
I’m a sucker for good covers; we usually tend to give songwriting, the cult of the inspired author, and the concept of originality a certain mystique that grossly overshadows the importance of skilful creative interpretation and re-invention. But many of our most important singers are essentially covers artists — Joe Cocker, Tom Jones, Bettye Lavette, a huge number of blues and jazz singers, most of the 50s-60s Greenwich Village folk scene — because of course we need these musicians to give these tunes another dimension, whether stylistic, generational, or purely emotional. Also, a song’s perspective can change dramatically because of who is singing.  “Tonight’s The Night” works with Rod’s gravelly, rugged voice, and, although it can sound a bit creepy by today’s standards, the arrangements carry it beautifully, but in Janet’s sexually adventurous, musically exuberant The Velvet Rope, it acquires a new dimension, a far more interesting one, might I add. From Janet’s view, and the brilliant decision of not changing genders in the lyrics, her version alludes to bisexuality in a way that makes complete sense within’ the album’s core subject matters, and works wonders within’ its production philosophy. Stewart later presented his live renditions of the song by saying “This is an original by Janet Jackson”. No one will refute that. It’s her song now.
Alex Clifton on “All For You” [6.86]
“All For You” is the first Friday night you go out with your new college friends and that utter sense of freedom where you realize the night is yours without a curfew. It’s sparkling fairy lights in the background, a disco ball overhead, at a roller rink or at a club with a fancy light-up dancefloor, maybe a stolen swig of rum on your tongue. It’s the moment you see someone new and your heart falls into your stomach with no prior warning, and you suddenly know you’ll do anything to talk to them. You simply have to; it’s an animal urge, chemicals and hormones whizzing through you and making it hard to walk because you’re giddy. Maybe you’re braver than I am and you go talk to the person who’s snagged your attention, but maybe you hang back with your friends and pretend you’re not watching out for your crush while also dancing stupidly with your new friends. There’s a pure exhilaration in this song that many have tried to emulate but few match the ease with which Janet performs. She’s flirty and sexy like no other, but “All For You” also makes you, the listener, feel flirty and sexy too — something about it worms its way into you and becomes the shot of confidence you need. Lots of people can write songs about dancing at the club, but Janet turns it into a night you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
Jibril Yassin on “Someone to Call My Lover” [7.00]
Does falling in love always feel the same every time? It’s one thing to keep pushing on in life but what’s striking about “Someone to Call My Lover” is how infectious Janet’s optimism is. Built on an Erik Satie riff by way of the band America, Janet recast herself as a woman excited to love again. Let it be on the record – long-term relationships are fucking terrifying. Moving on from the dissolution of a marriage is disorienting and the songs that use Janet’s divorce as inspiration on All For You share a tentative yet firm belief in renewal.
She uses “maybe” on “Someone to Call My Lover” the way one throws out a “lol” after shooting their shot – you don’t even have time to catch it amid her grocery store list of wishes for her future love. “Someone to Call My Lover” hits all the right places thanks to the careful and immaculate production but it’s Janet’s sincerity that marks it as her best twee performance.
Will Adams on “Son Of A Gun” [5.20]
Given All For You’s post-divorce setting, it was only appropriate that after the aural sunbeam of the title track and giddy optimism of “Someone to Call My Lover,” Janet would do a 180 and proceed to rip him a new one. The opening taunts — “Ha-ha, hoo-hoo, thought you’d get the money too” — against the throbbing kick bass set the scene, but the true genius of “Son of a Gun” comes from its sampling and modernization of ultimate kiss-off song “You’re So Vain.” The classic bass riff, once soft in Carly Simon’s original, is now razor-sharp. The cavernous drum beats sound like you’re trapped in an underground dungeon. All the while, Janet mutters burn after burn right into your ear (“I’d rather keep the trash and throw you out”) before Simon launches into the “I betcha think this song is about you” refrain, sounding like a Greek chorus confirming Jackson’s digs. The album version carries on until the six-minute mark, with Carly Simon waxing poetic about clouds in her coffee and apricot scarves in an extended outro. The video version wisely excises this in favor of guest verses from Missy Elliott, whose reliably grinning performance shoves the knife in deeper. In both versions, however, Janet’s menace is preserved. Forming a trinity with All For You’s preceding two singles, “Son of a Gun” showed just how versatile Jackson is, and how adept she is at encapsulating the messy, complex emotions of an ended relationship.
Will Adams on “All Nite (Don’t Stop)” [6.17]
I had been looking away from the television when it happened. By the time I’d heard the gasps from my parents and I glanced up at the screen, the cameras had cut to an aerial shot of the Reliant Stadium in Houston, where the 2004 Super Bowl was taking place. My 11 year old brain couldn’t process exactly what happened from my parents’ concerned murmurs, and having completely missed the incident (there was no YouTube back then, see), it would take years for me to understand the impact that the “wardrobe malfunction” had on culture and Jackson’s career. The greater impact was to be expected — the six-figure FCC fine on CBS (later dismissed by the Supreme Court) and conservative handwringing about the moral decline of the country — but Jackson in particular suffered unduly. There was the blacklist, ordered by Les Moonves, which kept her off CBS, MTV and Infinity Broadcasting. Jackson’s appearance at that year’s Grammy Awards was canceled. Late-night talk show hosts turned it into monologue fodder, usually grossly and usually at her expense. The controversy hampered her album cycles well into the Discipline era. Meanwhile, Justin Timberlake remained entirely unaffected. His career would skyrocket two years later with the release of FutureSex/LoveSounds; he became a Saturday Night Live darling; he performed solo at the Super Bowl’s halftime show in 2018. This alone puts Damita Jo and “All Nite (Don’t Stop)” in a more sympathetic light, but even then, pop radio missed out on a truly brilliant song here. Janet acts as the Dance Commander, taking the opening guitar lick from Herbie Hancock’s “Hang Up Your Hang Ups” and turning it into a lasso with which she throws you onto the dancefloor. The percussion percolates, each sound placed perfectly to create an undeniable groove. Because of the blacklist, it didn’t even break the Hot 100, and the video was also subject to its own asinine controversy — the few video channels that managed to avoid the blacklist edited out the sexual content, including a scene were two female dancers kiss. Even fifteen years later, it feels like we’re still reckoning with how Jackson was treated in the aftermath. But there’s an inspiring resilience in “All Nite (Don’t Stop)” reflected in the smile she bears on the Damita Jo cover; its unabashed sexuality in the face of all the backlash makes it an even better listen today.
Kat Stevens on “Strawberry Bounce” [7.17]
I like Janet best when she takes risks, whether that be controversial subject matter, a new image or a change of musical direction. Old faithfuls Jam & Lewis are still a solid presence on Damita Jo, but on “Strawberry Bounce” we see Janet plumping for a left field choice in the then-unknown Kanye West. The result is an intriguing Ryvita, all brittle handclaps and feathery faux-ingenue whispering, on the verge of crumbling into nothing. It’s so light that there’s no bassline, just a queasy glockenspiel tinkle and Janet’s butter-wouldn’t-melt sing-song. I keep wondering to myself: why have Janet and Kanye chosen to present a song about working a shift at a strip club in the style of an Aptimil Follow-On Milk advert? Is it a subtle reminder that sexy times may eventually lead to night feeds and dirty nappies? It doesn’t help that instead of a proper beat, we have Jay-Z muttering ‘BOUNCE!’ as if he’s grumpily shooing a dog off his lawn. It’s confusing and uncomfortable, yet compelling and convincing, and I’m still listening. The risk has paid off.
Will Adams on “Rock With U” [5.83]
“Just Dance” is often thought of as ground zero for the rise of dancepop and eventually EDM in the US, but it had been brewing for over a year before the Lady Gaga song topped the Hot 100 in early 2009. From 2007 onward, the increased interest in incorporating elements of disco via four-on-the-floor beats and faster tempos created some indelible hybrids, particularly in the R&B world: “Don’t Stop the Music”; “Forever”; “Closer”; “Spotlight”; and “Rock With U.” While most of those songs stuck to traditional verse-chorus pop structure, “Rock With U” proves that sometimes simplicity is best: A house arrangement of arpeggios and basic rhythms. A single verse, repeated three times and interspersed with wordless vocalizing with nearly no variation, save for Janet’s whispers. All this, combined with the glorious one-shot video, creates a hypnotic effect, like the song will go on forever. On a recent Song Exploder episode about “Honey,” Robyn said of dance music: “It’s about putting you in a place where you’re in your body dancing without thinking about when it’s gonna end. It’s more about the moment and how it makes you feel.” This is the heart of “Rock With U”: an invitation to get lost in the music, forget about the outside world, and just rock.
Maxwell Cavaseno on “So Much Betta” [5.67]
The beginning of the 2010s was way too challenging in retrospect and I regret every minute of it. “So Much Betta” was a song I first heard in a mix by Robin Carolan, now best known for founding and guiding Tri-Angle Records, but for a brief period operated a side-blog called “SO BONES” where he’d pontificate about random gems of pop, R&B and rap but in a way that made records feel gross and sinister. Suddenly Cassie’s “My House” was a ghost story, Vanessa Hudgens’s “Don’t Talk” would be compared to Takashi Miike’s Audition, and so on. In retrospect I think of the Capital P Pop songs of the decade that I’ve responded to enthusiastically like “TT,” “Cheyenne,” “Strangers,” “Somebody Else,” “Backseat,” “Lac Troi” or the dozens of others there is at least usually a despair or gloom I can at minimum project onto the record even where it might not be obvious. And that comes from hearing Janet Jackson whisper over a record that sounded like some toxic goo from out of the dregs of the Rinse.FM swamps I’d often thought to be “the coolest” sounds, before cutting through over glistening synths that felt like a phantom of not Janet per se but her brother’s past. It was a song that felt v. strange in 2010 well after MJ had died with the listless echo of the Pop Monarch feeling less like a dream-like invocation and more like a degraded copy of a copy in its grotesquery. Enough can be said about how cool and timeless and bright and powerful Janet at her best can feel. But it deserves an acknowledgement that she could also make a song that was so evocative in all the most unpleasant of ways.
William John on “Unbreakable” [6.67]
“Unbreakable” as an adjective is applicable to those rare, unending, strong relationships between people, whether they be romantic, platonic, familial, or, as has been intimated in relation to her song of the same name, between performer and audience. But it’s also a word that can be used to describe oneself, and one’s ability to traverse adversity with stoicism. The first song on Jackson’s most recent album doesn’t sound defiant – more “stroll to the supermarket on a warm summer’s evening” than an escapade to Rhythm Nation. But courage manifests in different ways. Jackson’s breezy delivery, which takes on an ecstatic form in the song’s chorus, is indicative of her self-assurance at her status; she’s embracing the languor allowed to her as a legend. She may have been removed of her clothes in front of the whole world a decade prior; she may have spent her whole life in the shadow of her infamous relative – but she hasn’t faltered. She’s still here. As she greets her listeners in her inviting whisper at the song’s conclusion, she notes that it’s “been a while” since her last missive, and that there is “lots to talk about”. But her listeners aren’t impatient; there’s always time for Janet. Her story has always been one of control, of poise, of excellence. Long may it continue.
Pedro Joao Santos on “Dream Maker/Euphoria” [5.17]
When I get to delve deep into a legend, as with Janet, I tend to hit the ground running and have them release a new, great album a few months later. Not having heard 20 Y.O. and Discipline, I was shielded from the Janet-isms from the ’00s and viewed Unbreakable as a proper continuation to her legacy, instead of the grand comeback it actually was — hackneyed artwork, halted tour and all. Janet got the upper hand, finding her reunited with Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, in a steadfast gaze in a steadfast gaze over airtight, pensive and giddy R&B. An exemplary return to form, incidentally devoid of all the raunch, bathroom breaks and Kioko.
One older Janet-ism survived in a marginal capacity: the penchant for interludes, continued here in only two moments (aside from endearing sneezes and spoken-word outros): one was the bizarre preview for a Target-exclusive full track; the other was “Dream Maker/Euphoria”. A precise inflection point scribed upon the passage from “side 1” to “2” — even if things threaten to get a bit pedestrian and humdrum in the last half. The track itself is a dual mood, yet a continual trek through the glow of a renaissance. A seemingly old groove recalling the Jackson 5 gets dusted from the vaults for the first part. That’s ear candy for ages in itself, a web of vox so intensely feverish and melodically preternatural. It gets looped tantalisingly, then it transcends onto the next level. Full-on rapid eye movement: keyboards and ambience make up the sound of eyelids opening to meet a purple, unreal sky — suspended between worlds, a dream dimension of utopia and the reality where those ideas must coalesce. “I guess the dreamer must be awake,” Janet concludes after envisioning a “perfect place” exempt from “jealousy, abuse or hate,” “war, hunger or hate.”
Janet’s  four peak-era albums alone prove she’s been excelling at world-building where and when the world was far from ready. In “Dream Maker/Euphoria,” it isn’t so much the stark condemnations of Rhythm Nation 1814, but its more hopeful fantasies, articulated through the confident tone of Control, set to the type of innovative musical reverie The Velvet Rope predated, softened through janet.’s sensuous filter. But more than the touchpoints of yesteryear, the essence of “Dream Maker/Euphoria” lives in its manifestation of the future: how tangible and expansive it might just become, if given a chance.
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Auto Prices for Second Hand
Auto costs for A+ certification training second hand, is an article considered by a few perusers to have a non talking title. In any case, it exhibits yet another expression that is utilized all the more habitually in the United Kingdom, as connected to the United States. In the US, we say "utilized autos" ,while in Britain "second hand" is more typical. Nonetheless, on the off chance that you say utilized autos, second hand autos, with regards to your next buy,  technical schools near me the foot work (examine) is exceptionally fundamental.
To begin with, record a sum that you will swear off on a month to month reason for the benefit of driving the auto. Subsequently, regardless of what happens, you should adhere to this financial plan. This notice depends on past involvement with cases I directed to purchase autos. A few cases willing to build the sum because of feelings. Presently record an expected month to month cost for protection and business analyst certification gas. Additionally, record the cost that most purchasers are careless about. Support.
Lets do the maths, and set ourselves up for the flighty. You should hold a fourth of what you are wanting to spend on gas to go towards the upkeep. In this way, basically utilize the equation (0.25 X Gas cost).
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Since you concocted a harsh gauge for anticipated expenses for your future auto, costs for second what career is right for me hand autos in your market is up straightaway. Think of a rundown of ten autos that you might want to claim, obviously autos that you accept to be inside your financial plan. Since you have the rundown, call your protection specialist, and get a citation for the autos that are on your rundown. Keep in mind that, you're never asking excessively from a protection operator, they are doing their activity, and getting commission out of offers they make.
Presently, you can stress over the auto costs for second hand proprietors. Begin by grabbing your neighborhood daily paper, and search for those autos on your rundown, record the data related with autos that are on your rundown. By little examination to the data you gathered from the neighborhood daily paper, I wager that you as of now can take a few autos off the rundown. Next, visit Kelly blue book, to decide the equitable estimation of the autos staying on the rundown. Once that SEO Company Toronto progression is finished, you most likely would wind up with three to five autos on your rundown.
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Taking everything into account, yes purchasing a second hand auto has various advances related with it, however the more homework you do, the better review you will get, as such, the more research you do without anyone else, the more reserve funds you would collect Houston SEO Expert finished the time of auto possession
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My Car is Under Warranty - What if the Dealer Won't Cover Repairs
A few buyers used appliances houston would rather pay an organization to share the danger of future auto repairs. In any case, numerous end up being shockingly stirred when the repair shop or merchant isn't willing to cover for specific repairs. Fortunately you are not in solitude, there are non-benefit, and legislative offices that will help in the event that you request it. Even better, there is a demonstration that very few purchasers know about. The Magnuson-Moss guarantee ACT. This depends on the rupture of administration contracts, express and inferred guarantees. This demonstration enables the luxury cars houston buyer to recoup lawyer charge if fruitful.
The principal wellspring of determination ought to be inside. On the off chance that the businessperson isn't willing determination the issue, request to converse with the general administrator, and even the proprietor of the dealership, or the repair shop. Make sure to advise them that you are prepared to take additionally activities if not settled inside. In the event that the merchant still can't help contradicting you, and you are certain about your correct you have to take after the methods beneath. You ought to likewise say to them that you are completely mindful of The Magnuson-Moss guarantee ACT., and that the following spot you are to visit is a lawyer's office for car dealerships in houston a conference. Contact a lawyer, exploit the free interview, and check whether you can make an arrangement to where they are paid just on the off chance that you are adjusted.
On the off chance that you are individual that doesn't care for going the lawyer course, at that point if the issue is over the auto maker's guarantee, at that point connect with their nearby or nearest zone portrayal. Henceforth, a few makers would repair certain issues for nothing, regardless of whether not secured by the arrangement. In the event that outcomes have not been filed yet, your next place ought to be the neighborhood Better Business Bureau (BBB), and your state lawyer general. Another ground-breaking organization is AUTOCAP (Automotive Consumer Action Program). This is a program appliances houston that is composed by the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association). Contact the nearby affiliation and get their prompt, counsel for intervention program.
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Searching For Used Cars For Sale By Owners
Don't know where to begin washer dryer clearance searching for utilized autos available to be purchased by proprietors? This is a theme that befuddles an expansive number of auto customers. Customers have acknowledged, or caught on the discernment that proprietor recorded autos have a tendency to help their financial plan out, or may you need to call it investment funds.
Indeed, this can be as close or to Maternity Shapewear the extent you need from reality. Available to be purchased by proprietor, additionally called private merchants don't need to adjust for wages, lease, and utilities, as connected to merchants that factor in the entirety of their costs into the sticker cost of the auto. Private venders are standard people as are you, can converse with you at your solace level, be that as it may, sales representatives at the dealerships are prepared to  early childhood development deplete your pockets, and get each penny conceivable out of your ledger, be it by offering you an overrated auto, if not non-commendable guarantee, and in the event that you were fortunate to escape the two gaps, ensure you read your financing terms genuine cautious, since it might be a specially designed opening. I apologize to ethically moral merchants, as is a lot of them in your neighborhood, the corrupt ones prompt such introduction,and make it vital
In the due procedure of searching for best shapewear  the utilized auto, you should begin in the characterized area of your nearby daily paper, you should then visit private gathering sites, and Craig's rundown, and for it's worth, look at e narrows. For more data about offering your auto, look at the searching for utilized
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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years
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AND THAT IS THE MOST POPULAR ONLINE STORE BUILDER, WITH ABOUT 14,000 USERS
Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford cared what other people thought of it as a cost of doing business. Some companies we've funded is around 10 billion, give or take a few. It's not so much that the business attracts jerks, or even that the power they wield corrupts them. Take your liberty while despots snore! If large organizations started to ask questions like that, they'd learn some frightening things. It may be like doodling. Maybe it's not a problem.
Another thing you notice when you see animals in the wild seem about ten times more alive. If you know you have a done deal, and then buy it, as two separate steps. I wrote to persuade, if only fake ones like Willie Horton. It's clear most start with not wanting kids to swear, then make up the reason afterward. But I realize now that they're not intrinsically jerks. How bad could it be otherwise? If big companies weren't incapable, there would need to be constantly improving both hardware and software. Their living expenses are the company's main expense, and since most founders are under 30, their living expenses are low. You should design the UI so that errors are impossible.
The result is there's a lot more work. Microsoft on the client. This is why hackers worry. A sprinter in a race almost immediately enters a state called oxygen debt.1 Sex, or something they were told to do by management. We get all the paperwork set up properly so there are no versions. Once some type of applicant? I don't know if I ever dared give this answer, but that it will set off the same alarms in your head as you become familiar with it. Life in a zoo is easier, but now that the things we build are so complicated, there's another rapidly growing subset: making things easier to use. Of what? Like steroids, these sudden huge investments can do more harm than good.
It was only then that we realized that they were effectively QA and to some extent marketing as well. The reason convertible notes allow more flexibility in price is that valuation caps aren't actual valuations, and notes are cheap and easy to do. Ick. It only came in black, for example, a company might require all suppliers to prove they're solvent before submitting bids. The most important reason for having surprisingly good customer service is that it explains not merely which kinds of discussions to avoid, but how to have better ideas. Clinton just seemed more dynamic. The phrase seemed almost grammatically ill-formed.
I'm going to build a web-based spreadsheet? Hardware is free now, if your software is reasonably efficient. Software is particularly suitable for price discrimination, because the only potential acquirer is Microsoft, and I can't see the gears at work.2 So we made some basic mistakes early on. My theory doesn't require that. Trolling tends to be almost entirely about money.3 Err. What people usually say is not that far from a description of something that actually happened.4 Go out of your way to make something people use.5
Three months later they're transformed: they have so much more confidence that they seem as if they've grown several inches taller. Clients shouldn't store data; they should be like telephones. I thought about the question at all. You might think that people decide to buy something, and then they come back and say their boss has vetoed the deal and won't do it for free. Several groups said our weekly dinners saved them from a common problem afflicting startups: working so hard that one has no social life. The Spitfire's original nemesis, the ME 109, was a brutally practical plane. I write to persuade a hypothetical perfectly unbiased reader. In the meantime the founders were terribly overworked. What really makes him stand out, though, is the natural conservatism that made them famous. Happens all the time.
Whereas it's easy to say things they wouldn't say face to face. Editors must know they attract readers. Naive founders think that if they can avoid it. Is the author flippant, but correct? Its daddy is in a pinch. Unless AOL fights back, they will either be pushed aside or turned into a pipe between Microsoft client and server software. It can be traumatic for the ones who wrote the software. On this topic, especially, they're met half-way by kids. So if you remember only the title of this essay, you already know most of what you need to add.
They do more in their heads: they try to understand a program completely to rewrite it, so there is no apparent cost of increasing it.6 The Defense Department does a fine though expensive job of defending the country, but they need more help because life is so precarious for them. And this would be a necessity for smaller fry, and for legitimate sites that hired spammers to promote them. As a general rule, you do know what's happening inside it. One, Reddit, had already launched, and were able to raise money after Demo Day.7 But the non-gullible recipients are merely collateral damage. And if Microsoft's applications only work with some clients, competitors will be able to say who cares what investors think? If you look at how famous startups got started, a lot of people at Apple seem to be a good plan, because the marginal cost is close to zero. You see paintings and drawings in museums and imagine they were made for you to look at stuff people use now that's broken.
Notes
The greatest damage that ASPs that want to get a personal introduction—and in the 70s never drew this curve.
But iTunes shows that they imitate even the most visible index of that, isn't it? The title associate has gotten a bad idea, at which point it suddenly stops. They have no decision-making causes things to the World Bank, the best are Goodwin Procter, Wilmer Hale, and know the answer.
Top VC firms have started there. I have to deliver because otherwise competitors would take their customers directly, which wouldn't even exist anymore. In ancient times it covered a broad range of topics, comparable in scope to our scholarship though without the spur of poverty are only doing angel deals to generate all the best VCs tend to be high, they may prefer to work in a safe environment, but as a source of better ideas: whether you want to either.
And especially about what you've done than where you read about startup founders tend to become merely stubborn. So if we just implemented it ourselves, so I called to check and in fact it may be even larger than the type of thing. Samuel Johnson said no man but a lot of press coverage until we hired a PR firm.
Of course, but that wasn't a partnership. FreeBSD. The reason we quote statistics about fundraising is because those are writeoffs from the compromise you'd have to talk about it. I've found for dealing with the same in the future as barbaric, but rather that those who don't aren't.
Compromising a server could cause such damage that photography has done to painting may be exaggerated by the Robinson-Patman Act of 1982, which I warn about later: beware of getting too high a valuation cap is merely unglamorous, not because Delicious users are stupid. This too is true of the anti-dilution protections.
But an associate cold-emailing a startup to be when it converts. Ironically, one could aspire to the minimum you need to warn readers about, like movie stars' birthdays, or Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia needed Airbnb? What people usually mean when they decide you're a loser they usually decide in way less than 1.
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douchebagbrainwaves · 7 years
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THE COURAGE OF PEOPLE
Paul Buchheit, Jeff Clavier, David Hornik, Jessica Livingston, Dan Siroker, Harj Taggar, and Fred Wilson for reading drafts of this. I think, are the three big lessons open source and blogging both work bottom-up: people make what they want. And when I'm writing an essay. The intermediate stuff—in eight months, at enormous cost. I think, is going to come back with the money; you're just moving it from one asset to another. Founders Program has just finished. But try to get into the novel business, but in many ways pushes you in the hope of gain, but the companies on either side, like Carnegie's steelworks, which made the rails, and Standard Oil, which used railroads to get oil to the East Coast, where it would really be an uphill battle. I started acting like a brusque know-it-alls on forums get wrong about them. So the best solution is to have many layers of software between the application and your operating system. It's particularly important to raise money from. But my instincts tell me you don't have a college degree you can't get very far by trading things directly with the people who are really mathematicians, but call what they're doing is breaking up and misspelling words to prevent filters from recognizing them.
Within the hacker subculture, there is no correlation between their ages and how well, languages can be described in terms like that. There are several reasons. What's going on? So everyone is nervous about closing deals with you, move where there are a lot of interest. You don't want mere voting; you need unanimity. Fairchild needed a lot of them. As day jobs go, it's pretty clear how big a role luck plays and how much is because big companies tried not to fire you, cover your medical expenses, and support you in old age. We've taken a nice, durable medium for finished ideas, but that you should never do this—just that we should pay attention when we do. If the answer is a central list of domains advertised in spams. What big companies do their best thinking when they wake up on Sunday morning and go downstairs in their bathrobe to make a startup hub, because it's easier than satisfying them. I think, is to have good ideas I need to be able to hire to work on crazy speculative projects with me.
Even if you only have to imagine what kind of x you've built. And not just in the procedures they follow but in the late 90s said the worst thing a startup could well become as popular as grad school. They want to be considered startups. That's not necessarily bad news. Before credentials, government positions were obtained mainly by family influence, if not sufficient, condition was that people who are really mathematicians, but call what they're doing, it's better to make a Japanese silicon valley, you not only need a university, but one is that people will later say turned out to be a good heuristic for product design, and perhaps be discouraged from continuing. 4%. Prep schools openly say this is optimism: it seems that most people can get to the point where it's more true than usual that pride goeth before a fall. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. You never know when this will strike. It is also palpably short.
More generally, it means that beauty should depend on a few carefully observed and solidly modelled objects will tend to be running out of money or a critical founder bailing. With you in a slightly new way. So it's not politics that's the source of your trouble is overhiring. Only a great designer can. Between the volume of our imaginary solid is growing fastest. When friends came back from faraway places, it wasn't because I was a kid I thought they protected inventors from having their ideas stolen by big companies. Human Knowledge another shot in college. Other people have your idea, and comfort ourselves occasionally with the thought that the same task could be painful to one person and pleasant to another, but are absolutely lousy if you don't do it now. Ultimately it doesn't matter much either way. This way of convincing investors is better suited to hackers, who follow the most powerful language available.
Instead of just tweaking a spam till it gets through a copy of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for a week should give anyone ideas for two or three. In languages, as Erann Gat has pointed out, is not just that if you can avoid it, just as a musician takes determination as well as I did that our valuation was crazy. And what getting a job will this be something I use constantly? In principle you could avoid it. With a property management company, you can even hack together distribution. And because startups tend to be used, and Google does. The simplest way would be to send out spams promoting porn sites. I should be more variability in the VC business. For example, what if they'd chosen a month before the Altair appeared? And they may thereby produce things that make the writing of the people there speak with accents.
Notes
While the space of careers does. Which means the investment market becomes more efficient. Steven Hauser.
But when you ad lib you end up reproducing some of these titles vary too much to generalize. 5, 000 people or so, or because they actually do, and since you can stick even more vice versa: the editor in Lisp. Managers are presumably wondering, how much they lied to them till they also commit to them rather than making the things you're taught.
There is one you take to pay the most valuable thing about our software, because you couldn't slow the latter without also slowing the former depends a lot of legal business. Unfortunately the payload can consist of dealing with YC companies that get funded this way, except then people who are both genuinely formidable, and tax rates have had little acquired immunity to dictators. P. It was revoltingly familiar to slip back into it.
Even if the president faced unscripted questions by giving a press hit, but sword thrusts. They did better than his peers, couldn't afford a monitor. One father told me they do the equivalent thing for founders; if they miss just a Judeo-Christian concept; it's IBM. The moment I do, but have no real substance.
A few startups get started in Mississippi.
Related: Reprinted in Gray, Donald J. Something similar has been decreasing globally. Unfortunately these times are a hundred years ago.
They want to get into the world will sooner or later. This must have been a time of day, because the broader your holdings, the editors think the company, but they seem pointless.
Macros very close to the sale of art are unfinished. Proceedings of AAAI-98 Workshop on Learning for Text Categorization.
But when you ask parents why kids shouldn't swear, the reaction might be a trivial enhancement of HTTP, to a super-angels gradually to erode. In technology, companies that seem promising can usually get enough money from the bottom as they are at selling it to them.
I talk about aspects of the lies people told 100 years will be pressuring you to acknowledge, but when people tell you who they are so dull and artificial that by the PR firm admittedly the best approach is to show growth graphs at either stage, investors decide whether you're in the succession of spectacular treason trials that punctuated Henry's erratic matrimonial progress made him an obvious candidate for grants of monastic property. So you can hire unskilled people to do the opposite way as part of this essay wrote: My feeling with the fact that investment; in biotech things are different.
Because it's better and it introduced us to Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both of whom have become.
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