I feel like I haven’t given an accurate update of my life on here lately. So here we go. My top 10 favorite things at the moment….

1. Adele’s album “21″. When I’m in the creative zone that I’m in right now, I tend to find art in just about anything — even two forks clanging together sounds like a potential hit record to me, the blue bucket that I’m looking at on my floor looks like…well, a blue bucket. But Adele’s album would be great regardless of what zone I was in. She’s dope.
2. “Novacane”. It’s everyone’s favorite song on Frank Ocean’s nostalgia/ultra mixtape but before the world caught on I think I had repeated it 100 times on one particular day. It’s one of those songs that takes you to a place.
3. Salads. I’ve become a salad connoisseur. I make my own when I’m in my apartment in Jersey and it’s great. Any dark green lettuce, lots of raisins, corn, peas, a bunch of stuff I’m forgetting and Italian dressing.
4. Jennifer Aniston movies. I just like her for some reason. I’m not a big movie watcher but I find myself gravitating to her joints when I do have time. In almost every role, she has that “thing” that drives me crazy. That ability to cuss you out and make you laugh in the same breath…she’s dope. Second only to my original Jenny, the one from the block.
5. Running on my broken foot. I know I shouldn’t be doing it. I know it’s putting me in a worse position than I’m already in but running keeps me sane. One or two months without it was cool but after month four I lost my patience. Especially because my apartment in Jersey overlooks a park where people are constantly running. It’s not in me to see other human beings doing things that I want to do and not do them.
6. 6S. Yes, we work together. Yes, it’s in my best interest for her to keep succeeding but no, this isn’t promotion. I don’t promote endeavors. I promote ideas. And the ideas she has, the ideas behind her music, it’s dopeness.
7. Not reading. I’ve been wanting to pick up a book for the longest time. I swear everyday that I’ll do it and I never get around to it. Ironically, it’s because I read somewhere that we all fall victim sometimes to too much intake. Taking in all that information without testing it out is as wise as eating for a week straight without exercise.
8. My mother. Nothing new there. She just has a good soul. No matter what life or other people hand her, she has to actually try to be mean and even then she falls short. In a world full of people who are effortlessly mean, it’s refreshing that the person who raised you is nice by nature.
9. You. Whoever you are. If you’re reading this, then you’re one of my favorite things right now. I’m inspired by everything and everyone. If it’s come across my sight, then it’s inspired me one way or another. Keep doing what you do. My only advise would be to do it better.
10. McDonalds oatmeal. You know I never ate oatmeal in my life until like 3 weeks ago. Living this whole single bachelor life, most of it on the road, I’m forced to get creative with what to eat. After hearing a few good reviews, I decided to give McD’s latest creation a try and the rest is history. Now I’m trying to see if they can sponsor me…I guess it’s because I did this dope McDonalds commercial last year that still hasn’t been used and the “refuse to lose” in me wants that back. I’ll keep you posted.

So you know I have no issue with being honest on here. This is my platform to say whatever is on my mind with very little filter for as long as I know what I’m saying to be truth. Since I’m convinced I’m a pro athlete trapped in an artist and businessman’s life, iamphella.com is my equivalent of the media. Twitter and Facebook are the short interviews before and after games, this is a stone cold sit down with Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon, Magic Johnson or whoever you choose. The type that usually happens when something very good happens or when there’s something to clear up. I’m not sweaty from the game…I’m in my Da Fam Inc warm up attire..chillin’. Ready to answer some questions.

Now that you have the scene, let’s begin. I came into this year with an extreme focus that I’ve probably never had in my life. I’ve probably been locked in more before but that was usually on individual tasks such as losing weight, gaining a ton of knowledge, making a certain amount of money, whatever. This year’s focus was very holistic and team oriented. From my family family to my Da Fam family to everyone who knows me and considers themselves part of my life the message was simple: We’re going to win this year and that’s it. No other option. No other choice. If you have an excuse why we won’t, keep it to yourself. If you doubt, go far, far away. If you’re ready to help me, let’s go. I’ll help you in return.

Just naturally, based on the laws of the universe and laws of attraction, once I took my cast off on January 14th and began to at least limp towards these goals, the successes of this new focus began to trickle in. You can almost say we started the season off with a 10 game winning streak. Obstacles were non existent, good art was being created, good business was being conducted, and personal life, what little exists of it, was in pretty decent shape. This hot streak carried on through February and started to kind of dwindle around early March but still going. Lost a game or two but overall still on fire.

Then came the test. “The test” is when you don’t have rusty teams coming into your arena anymore and you’re starting to experience some injuries on your own team. (Just so I don’t lose anybody, injuries in this case refer to the wear and tear of trying to build something; fatigue, stress, setbacks, jealousy, egos, etc.) Opponents now see that you’re about business and they’re giving you their best shot every night. No problem though, right? We’ve been here before. You practice all off season for this.

Life can be hard. Business can be hard if you approach it from the wrong perspective. Creativity, especially the selling of it is tougher now than ever before. Maintaining any kind of relationship (friendship or romantic) has always been hard and now social networking and such things make it that much more difficult. NO FREAKING PROBLEM. All sound like excuses and reasons to not win, and remember, we don’t allow those.

So I do what I know best when I feel things need to be rectified, I play. I play hard. I disregard the playbook, the system and begin taking shots from every angle possible. Teammates are winded and can’t make it up court? no problem. Stay back there, I’ll go one on five. Girl I’m interested in isn’t showing the same interest? no problem. Don’t show interest, I got five others who are interested. Revenue stream slows up? no problem. Got other ways to get it. Someone doesn’t have time or can’t do their job right? no problem. Give me a day or two, I’ll learn it and do it. Those statements are huge problems. They are problems because they come from a negative place and “the groove” only works from a positive place. The groove comes from unity and togetherness, not separation and individuality.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s good on occasion to do certain things to remind yourself and others about the “fierce urgency of now”. It’s cool to express disappointment when you feel yourself or someone else could have done better. But it’s not cool to be so focused on the win and the end result that you take away the enjoyment from yourself and others. You create an environment that becomes counterproductive to the end goal. It’s one of the finest lines to walk for anyone who has ever led. Whether you manage the night shift at Wendy’s or you founded Facebook. Achieving goals while allowing room for error is a skill you must learn or risk losing it all.

I say all this because the groove is still there. It’s going nowhere because I won’t let it. That’s just plain and simple. But the groove has been compromised with several losses in my personal and professional life lately. I take losses hard. Especially when I feel like I’m giving it my all but that’s a bad way of looking at things. Everyone of us is wired differently and consumed by different things so therefore your definition of “all” is probably different from the next person’s.

You shouldn’t take losses lightly but it also shouldn’t change your character. Motivate. Encourage. Lead. Don’t antagonize, stifle, and become an “uptight control freak” as I was called earlier this week.

That said, there is a slight separation between business and personal. Business is business. To me business is sports. If someone claims to be about winning, I need to see a winning effort from that person or my natural instinct is to feel they ain’t really about that life. Times are hard right now. If you aren’t giving your all to your craft or your investment then it’s questionable as to if you really want to succeed.

Personal is a bit different. You can’t be so cutthroat and business-like. I guess that’s where I become my father’s son. He is and was extremely cutthroat and business-like with family and it cost the poor man dearly. I don’t want the same to happen to me so I’m sloooooooooooooooowly learning to check my basketball attitude at the door. Personal can’t be equated to wins vs losses. It’s a matter of growing and progressing. Allowing people to be who they are and still being there for them if ever who they are causes them to stumble.

Enough with the mushy stuff though. It’s 6:30AM. This past week was a week full of losses that I simply won’t allow to ever happen again. Every championship season has it’s tests. That was mine. That was ours. Now let’s get back to winning if no one has any objection. I wanna be able to title my next entry “How Phella Got His Groove Back” or at least “How Phella Finally Got A Haircut”.

Peace & Love…or should I say Love & Basketball. I’m out.

If you walk into my apartment, all you’ll pretty much see are windows, open space, and water bottles; I do own a Playstation 3 but no games for it. To most this may seem like a recipe for boredom but for me it’s an opportunity to challenge my mind and my body. I’m hardly home but when I am, I’m reading, working on music, working on marketing plans, or doing these insane (Insanity Workouts), and sometimes I videotape them to see what they look like. I don’t want my mother seeing me half naked on the Internet (sorry ladies) so this picture will have to suffice for you to get the idea.

Sidebar: Am I going bald?

Champion from Da Fam Cam on Vimeo.

Happy……New Year from Da Fam Cam on Vimeo.

The original purpose of this site when I started it a year and a half ago was to make money. That didn’t work. I wasn’t willing to put in the effort it takes to update a website constantly to have a huge following that will attract advertisers. That would mean posting things I don’t quite believe in and one thing I never do is compromise my beliefs. Not for money, not for blog views, music downloads, fame, or anything else. I have lots of thoughts. I’m someone who is always learning and part of that learning is to put stuff out there in the world and see how others feel about it. So far so good.

I thank everyone who frequents the site, especially those that comment on a regular basis. If you look over to the right I have links to a few more places on the net where you can find me. I also have links to several of my friends websites. Most of them think along the same lines as I do so you will find their stuff interesting as well. Once again thanks for coming and stay tuned.