So even though this isn't a 'religious' blog post, I do think I want to frame it with a bible verse to get things going. In the book of Proverbs, you can find my all time favorite verse in Scripture in chapter 16..
What's funny about my love of this verse, isn't that at the first time I read it I had flashes of visions and revelations. Nope, it was a bit more worldly than that.
This is actually from a comedy bit by George Carlin. He starts his routine talking about pride and how much pride is ruining the world. Racial pride, country pride, etc. He said that you can be happy that you are a certain race or be born in a certain country, but being prideful is a sin.
For context, Carlin was pretty much an atheist, so when he started quoting the bible, my ears perked up. After showing people how pride can ruin their lives he ends the bit with this verse and states.....Always remember Proverbs.
I first heard that comedy routine decades ago, and it still resonates with me today because.....Boy oh boy, was I ever filled of pride in my younger years...
Story time!!!
Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the entire Thanksgiving weekend just ended in the U.S. Back when I was in business for myself, my two business partners were based in America so when they introduced me to 'Black Friday' I wasn't sure what to make of it. Remember, this is back in like 2010 or something, so Black Friday deals where just starting to become a major 'thing'.
We decided to do Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals of our own for the digital products we sold. And the first year we did it, they were a hit. It gave us a lot of ideas on how we would approach them in the following years and when the next Thanksgiving weekend rolled around we were ready...
We started a live stream and went for over 100 hours, and to this day I think we should have called Guiness because I'm pretty sure, at the time, it was the longest live stream in history lol And every hour we had a new deal for the live stream. To say it was popular would be an understatement. Each hour, a new deal would show up and those of us on the live stream would essentially 'sell' the deal to the dozens if not hundreds in attendance.
On Friday we sold over 43,000 dollars worth of products. On Saturday, it decreased a lot but it was still around 15-20K, we followed that up on Sunday with another 20k or so. And finally for Cyber Monday, we sold another 20k or so.
Pretty much 100k in about 4 days. And Jongo was on cloud 9. In fact, I was such a P.O.S. that I would brag on the live stream about 'look at us, we're amazing!!!' and by the end of the stream you could almost sense that our customers were getting fed up with my antics.
The next few weeks, I thought I was the king of the world. I'd never have to work again, just do one of these live streams every month or so and then crush it when Thanksgiving rolled around. And it worked for a bit....
But....Always remember Proverbs!
Pride goes....Before destruction!
After Mr. Cocky aka Jongo has worn out the good faith he built up with his customers for years and years, people stopped showing up. They were tired. And a lot of them, were struggling to make ends meet with their online businesses, trusting that my company and I had the solutions they needed. Sure, our products were good and to this day, some of them are still around under new ownership.
But when push came to shove, my prideful boasting ended up being quite harmful. And it didn't happen overnight. It as a super slow bleed...Slowly, fantastic profits turned into decent profits, decent profits into just making enough, to finally....And you guys know the story, PayPal came knocking in 2017 and shut us down for reason to this day...I don't know.
We literally survived for about 5 plus years after that incredible weekend, and maybe my 'pride' wasn't the only factor for the demise of my company. But I know this for sure, the people that I used to hang out with every day and do business with...Stopped hanging out. They stopped buying our products and in some cases we even became their enemy because of my mouth and my pride.
Why do I say all this now, in 2025?
Because I hope it teaches someone a lesson and someone can learn from my mistakes. Maybe someone reads this in a few years and thinks they are young, on top of the world and nothing can ever go wrong. I'm telling you know, it can all disappear.....
You need to be grateful, every day! Thankful that you can do what you love!
I think of the popular rapper Drake, who said in one of his songs..."You never see it coming, but you always see it go". And to that I say....Yup! I grew up as a broke kid, raised by a single mother in Toronto Canada. I got SUPER lucky with my online businesses and then all of a sudden had more money than I knew what to do with. Pride showed up. Bad decisions and choices happened. And now, about to be 50 years old....I'm back to struggling.
Cycle of life?
Check your pride and ego at the door. Add value to your customers and your followers every step of the way and remember why you are in business....It's because of them. They are the reason you can eat every day. Treasure them and make sure you always remember they are your greatest asset!