The Legend of Honest Freeman

"You wanna be in this business, you got to pay the cost to doing business, and when the cost gets too high, you get out of business" - Riley Freeman

The Honest Man is a huge fan of the Boondocks. And after watching a classic 2010 season, the following is an ode to that. Whether it's reading the strip or watching the episodes on TV, that is one of the Honest Man's guilty pleasures. Bold, truthful, and don't give a fuck attitude. That's what today's post is about. Bold, truthful, and the Honest Man don't give a fuck about you or ya mama.

Back in the day, before the Honest Man got his Higher Learning on, I was grinding after hours to realize my MLK dream. My dreams didn't involve hand holding with other lil white children. My dreams involved getting paid in full and talkin' shit when I got there. I set my sights on getting an MBA to help realize that dream. Because I didn't major in business nor took any business classes in college, I needed to strengthen the resume in the eyes of the MBA recruiters that would be giving me a look. So on the advice of one school, I signed up for an accounting class at the local community college.

Four days a week. Three hours a night. 6-9 pm. 2 month class. Keep in mind, I'm still holdin' down a day job too but like I said, I had MLK dreams so I was in full grind mode. When I started the class, I was low profile, exchanged conversations when necessary, and had a goal of just getting an A. The class was 7 deep and my instructor was mad cool. She didn't want to be there anymore than we wanted to so she said, "We are not going to be here all 3 hrs every night!" She promised if we paid attention, did our homework, and showed up on time, we'd be out in 2 hrs or less every night. BET!

We had our first test, a week or so into the course. MLK dreams are a killa kid! I was so driven that I knew after I took that test, I killed it. What I didn't know was how much I did. So 2 days later, we in class, I'm joking with this one chick, who truly didn't give a fuck about life. What I mean is, she had a nice whip, was living off someone's $$, and was just there to say I'm there. We just cuttin' jokes until the instructor shows up. The instructor announces 2 folks in the class scored over a 100: Another chick in the class and yours truly. Because of how high we scored, we prevented the rest of the class from getting a curve. I could sense a few folks angry stares breathing down my neck but no one said anything. Then later in class, the instructor had me come to the class to do a balance sheet problem (actually this question was beyond simple but whatever). As the teacher says "Nice Job!" and I'm walking back to my desk, the same chick who doesn't give a shit, whispers to me "SHOW OFF!", then mutters "actin' like you know everything.." And like that it's on like Donkey Kong.....

Lemme say upfront, I'm a team player. That's how my parents' raised me. If the team wins, then I win, and we all can get ours. Doesn't matter the place or activity, school, work, sports, etc, I'm laid back, working to help others, and take care of my own business. But throughout my history, no matter the above, if I'm ever challenged or called out by someone, I take it personal and decide it's time to play Jay Z and reintroduce myself! In this classroom case, I was like oh it's like that. Up until that point, I had no qualms with no one. But after that, I decided I'm going to fuck up the curve to spite you. And that's literally what happened. 3 more tests. 1 Final. 100 or more on every single one. And the curve was all a dream. Because yo silly ass wanna talk shit when yo game ain't tight.....

Let's fast forward to today. Recently the Honest Man came up at work. I've been in the game for 10 plus years and no matter where I was, no matter who I was working with, whenever I came up, my whole team congratulated me. EVERY TIME. Interesting enough when the good news came this time, less than half the team said anything. And a couple others didn't say congrats but wanted to know what that meant in employee level. Because now they checking to see if I'm at their level or not. Which is Haterade 101. So I hopped back in DeLorean ala Back to the Future and just said "Oh it's like that!"

Those that really know Honest Freeman, know I'm about teamwork and working together. They also know how determined I am. And they also know I can be a jackass too. Put those all together and it's a scary combination. So like they say on Chappelle Show, it's a wrap B!

Today's Lesson

It's time for me to fuck up the curve again! To the Honest Mobile......