Failure is the Price of Admission (Episode 103)

Ever wondered what it truly takes to build multiple successful businesses from scratch? In this riveting episode of MindShift Power Podcast, entrepreneur Kelvin Abrams reveals the raw, unfiltered truth about his journey from selling toys out of his bedroom window as a child to owning a doggy daycare, coffee shop, gym, and online business platform.

"I've never been afraid to fail because I've been failing my entire life," Kelvin boldly shares, challenging conventional wisdom about success. As someone who nearly filed for bankruptcy when launching his first official business during the 2008 economic crash, his perspective on embracing failure as a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block offers profound insight for anyone pursuing their dreams.

The conversation takes a compelling turn when Kelvin unpacks his philosophy of "getting uncomfortable" – the sleepless nights, financial struggles, missed social events, and relentless work ethic required to build something meaningful. For those unwilling to embrace discomfort, his advice is refreshingly direct: "change course" and stick with conventional employment. This dichotomy forms the foundation of his book and online course of the same name.

What truly sets this episode apart is Kelvin's powerful advice to "reinvent yourself every three years." Drawing from lessons learned from successful mentors and cautionary tales like Mike Tyson's infamous loss to Buster Douglas, he explains why comfort becomes the enemy of continued success. Whether you're an established entrepreneur, aspiring business owner, or simply looking to grow in your personal life, this principle offers a framework for sustainable growth and innovation.

Ready to transform your approach to failure, comfort, and success? Listen now and discover why the path to achievement might be more uncomfortable – and more rewarding – than you ever imagined.

To learn more about Kelvin, purchase his book or look at his courses. please visit: http://www.kelvinabrams.com/

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Kelvin Abrams
• 4:15 Early Entrepreneurial Beginnings
• 9:14 Building Multiple Businesses
• 13:31 Success Through Failure
• 21:20 Get Uncomfortable or Change Course
• 26:58 Advice for Today's Youth
• 33:01 Mind-Shifting Moment: Reinvent Yourself

Transcript

Fatima Bey: 0:04

This is MindShift Power Podcast, the number one critically acclaimed podcast where we have raw, unfiltered conversations that shape tomorrow. I'm your host, Fatima Bey, the MindShifter, and welcome everyone. Today we have with us Kelvin Abrams and he is out of Maryland in the US. He is an author, an entrepreneur and a successful mistake maker, and we're going to talk about that today. How are you doing, Kelvin?

Kelvin Abrams: 0:39

I'm doing great, Fatima. Thank you very much for having me on your podcast.

Fatima Bey: 0:44

Thank you for coming on. I'm really looking forward to all the stuff you're going to say to my audience today. So I like to dive right in. Let's start off by telling us your background.

Kelvin Abrams: 0:55

Okay, let's see. My background is I grew up in New Jersey, went to school at Rutgers University, came out of Rutgers and I became a federal investigator for a period of time here in Maryland and from there I started my first business back in 2008 or 2007.

Fatima Bey: 1:13

Oh, that's. That's a while ago now.

Kelvin Abrams: 1:17

Yeah, it's been about. It's actually been one one month shy of 17 years.

Fatima Bey: 1:22

Wow. So what? What was your first business?

Kelvin Abrams: 1:26

Well, my first business was back in high school, no, probably junior high school. You know, we had, you know, for money. What we would do is sell our old toys out of my window, my bedroom. So my first job was back then. And then also, you know, we had to hustle for money. So back in the day we're Lee jeans, were Lee jeans and a fat shoestring Adidas were out in popular, we would go up to Philly and New York and so we would cut grass and rake leaves and shovel snow and hustle to make our own money so we can go, get our clothing, so we can look fly.

Kelvin Abrams: 1:59

If you remember that word from back?

Fatima Bey: 2:00

in the day. You just really age yourself, but yeah, you just really age yourself, but yeah.

Kelvin Abrams: 2:08

You just told me how old you were. A fly girl.

Fatima Bey: 2:09

a fly girl, oh my God, back in 1856, I remember that's right. So, even as a teenager, you found a way to be an entrepreneur, you and your friends.

Kelvin Abrams: 2:22

Absolutely. I think it was just in my blood, like in my book, I like to say you're born an entrepreneur and that's just. My humble opinion is that you're born an entrepreneur and I knew very young that I was a free spirited, kind of creative person from the very beginning. I would you know, there are certain toys that I would want, and then I would try to make those toys or make those objects out of cardboard or plywood. So, for example, my family never went skiing but I wanted to always ski.

Kelvin Abrams: 2:52

So my brother and I we got some plywood and kind of cut it like a ski, wrapped it around our feet and we made a snow mound and we tried to go skiing down the snow mound. So I've always been creative. And then we used to have skiing down the snow mound, so that you know I've always been creative. And then we used to have this little shed in the backyard and you know I always wanted to go skydiving and I did as an adult. And so my brother and I would take like sheets or bags or whatever and jump off the house, the little shed, and try to fly down or skydive down. So yeah, I've always been creative since I was little lie down or skydive down.

Fatima Bey: 3:26

So yeah, I've always been creative since I was little. Wow, you know what? You just bring a point that I say continuously and I have in some other podcast episodes talking about this when we're young and we're creative, that is our bodies telling us what we're meant to do. It's our body trying to discover our purpose, and so parents listening out there. If you have a child who's curious about everything like that, foster that. There's a reason why they're so curious. And if they're creative like that, foster that, because they may be the next millionaire. Now tell us, calvin, what is your business now?

Kelvin Abrams: 4:05

Well, I have a few businesses, so the first business I officially started as an adult, I would say is my doggy daycare boarding facility. It's called Tiki's Playhouse. And the second business from there was a doggy ice cream truck that I no longer have. Yeah, I had the first doggy ice cream truck in Maryland. I would go around. Yeah, I had the first doggy ice cream truck in Maryland, I would go around, I loved it. I miss it, though.

Kelvin Abrams: 4:27

Um, because I started my third business, which is canine and coffee, and so I had to get rid of the ice cream truck, cause I just couldn't maintain the ice cream truck and all of that stuff while running a bar called, or a coffee shop called, canine and coffee. Uh, and then my third business, uh, came, came by way of opportunity, and that's a gym that I own called American Fitness Express, and they're all kind of in the same neighborhood. They're right across the street from each other. So I have three businesses that are right here, across the street from each other. Platform course that I have called Get Uncomfortable or Change Course Setting Yourself Up for Success. So those are the four businesses that I have, and of course, I got two or three more on the back burner, that once I get through these businesses and get these businesses where I want them to be, then I'll go ahead and start working on the other two or three businesses that I have. All right.

Fatima Bey: 5:21

What I hear is that you are successfully running several businesses, not just one, and that is not easy to do.

Kelvin Abrams: 5:28

Definitely, Well, I don't know what, I don't know how you define success, but I wouldn't say I'm successfully running all of them. I would just say I successfully work at all of them.

Fatima Bey: 5:41

Well, let's define success by what I'm saying with this. It doesn't mean that everything's perfect or that you want that. Everything is where you want it to be right now, but you are maintaining them correct.

Kelvin Abrams: 5:53

Yes, ma'am.

Fatima Bey: 5:54

You are maintaining them, and the fact that you even were able to create them is a success. There are levels to success.

: 6:03

Yes, ma'am, would you?

Fatima Bey: 6:04

agree? I do Absolutely Now. Are'am, would you agree? I do Absolutely Now. Are you a multi-billionaire because of it? Right now? No, but that doesn't mean you're not successful, and I just I think that's important to point out to our youth and to the adults listening. Success doesn't look like just one thing. Success, for you know, success is reaching a goal. One level of success is reaching a goal that you went for, that you had. Have you done?

Kelvin Abrams: 6:35

that, oh yeah, absolutely. I mean starting my first business and at first, when I started it and I started in 2008 when President Obama got elected and that was when the housing market crashed and of course, everybody blamed it on Obama. But the housing market crashed and that first year in business, oh man, I used to pray and pray and I mean I remember times and I was out in the yard in the rain and I'm yelling and screaming up at God asking him why did he do this to me? And blah, blah, blah, and so, yeah, I mean it was tough. So I would say success for me is making it past the first year and then, after that, the milestone that every business owner has to go through, which is year three, and then year five. When you hit that hurdle at year five, then that's usually when you can kind of coast and you know that you're going to survive and luckily I I've been able to survive and it's been 17 years here come next month.

Fatima Bey: 7:27

Wow, you just define one definition of success and, like I said, there are levels, and you're living proof of that. That's why I brought up the fact that you have so many businesses and they may not be where your bigger vision wants it to go to yet, but that doesn't mean you're not on the way there. You have other successes that you've already succeeded with, and I think that's what you're saying.

Kelvin Abrams: 7:51

Absolutely, my journey is. I'm not. I'm at the beginning of my journey, very beginning. I have such a long way to go, but yeah.

Fatima Bey: 7:58

I feel that way too. I totally get that. Now tell us I said you're a successful mistake maker. Now tell us I said you're a successful mistake maker so I was lying right, because you've made no mistakes and everything was perfect as soon as you started your business. That's how it works right, yeah, okay. I got an island to sell you Fantasy land.

Kelvin Abrams: 8:22

So tell us how mistakes have paved the way for your successes. So I like to tell people, like I do, every so often I speak at a local library here to my community, because I'm trying to give back to the community and help others not to make the same mistakes that I make. And so my mistakes. Over the years I've learned from them, or I like to say I've learned from them, and there are a few times that I had to go back around the corner and learn that same lesson twice, but again I learned from it. And so I always tell people that failure equals success.

Kelvin Abrams: 8:53

And the thing I always say to people is I've never been afraid to fail because I've been failing my entire life. I mean, I've failed in school, I've failed classes. I failed at Rutgers University. I had to redo my whole first semester because I partied like an animal. So I made the choice to party and not study. So I failed at college and I had to redo the first year all over again and it cost me money and it set me back. I failed at relationships. You know, you name it. I failed and got fired from jobs. So I've been failing my entire life. So I'm not afraid of failure at all, but failure to me to answer your question. Failure to me equals success and that's why I welcome failure.

Fatima Bey: 9:35

Now you have a book. What is the name of that book?

Kelvin Abrams: 9:39

It's called Get Uncomfortable or Change Course.

Fatima Bey: 9:41

And what does this conversation have to do with your book?

Kelvin Abrams: 9:50

Oh, it's everything with my book. The title alone Get Uncomfortable or Change Course. So what I'm saying is get uncomfortable, which is get used to failing, get used to being uncomfortable, get used to being at the edge of your seat, get used to sleepless nights, get used to the anxiety, get used to having no money in your pocket, get used to not eating, get used to not sleeping and staying up all night. Get used to missing vacations and holidays and birthdays and funerals, getting used to just missing social events in life and forget about your hobbies. Get used to just being work, work, work. 24 seven period. So get uncomfortable. And if you're not willing to get uncomfortable, then change course. And change course means stay with your nine to five.

Fatima Bey: 10:30

What is the drawback of doing a nine to five versus having your own business?

Kelvin Abrams: 10:36

For me, creativity and freedom. So creativity to me is, you know, my brain doesn't stop. I mean, I go to sleep at night and when that creative brain starts working, I get up and I write it down. I write it down Constantly. Once a week or more I'm writing things down. If not, first thing I get up in the morning is I start writing that stuff down so that I can remember no-transcript.

Fatima Bey: 11:30

Yes, so being uncomfortable and making mistakes is a part of success. Yes, yes. And can we reach success without those two things?

Kelvin Abrams: 11:42

I don't think so. Every successful athlete, every successful celebrity, every successful product out there will have failure. You know, failure goes all the way back to Isaac Newton discovering electricity. Right, it goes all the way back to Bill Gates and Microsoft, or Bill Gates, and yeah, Bill Gates and Microsoft create Microsoft in his garage. And then it goes back to Apple Computer all the failures that they made before they became successful. Hell. It goes back to Oprah Winfrey. Look at all the failures and problems that Oprah Winfrey had, all the abuse that Oprah Winfrey had. And where's she? You know so failure equals success, Absolutely. Michael Jordan would tell you that. Tiger Woods would tell you that. Any athlete out there on top of their game will tell you success equals failure. Serena Williams, you name it.

Fatima Bey: 12:25

Absolutely, and every singer had a whole bunch of unsuccessful notes before they had a successful one we saw on stage.

Kelvin Abrams: 12:32

Absolutely. And a whole bunch of rappers had their demo tape thrown back at them before they became successful. So, failure equals success.

Fatima Bey: 12:40

It does. But failure doesn't equal success by itself. What else is needed to go with that failure?

Kelvin Abrams: 13:05

termination. You have to give that nobody's going to fucking take shit from me and you have to just be like devious and you just have to be like hardcore, like David Goggins. I love his book. He's got a book called you Can't Hurt Me and I read that book once and I listened to the podcast twice and that dude is crazy.

Kelvin Abrams: 13:20

But you know what Taking souls is a lifestyle. Taking souls is a mentality. Taking souls is you're not going to take this from me. I'm going to overcome anything you throw at me. So you have to have the mentality of I'm going to overcome. I'm going to overcome no matter what you do to me. You can't hurt me. And that's the mentality that I live by. You can't hurt me no matter what you do. I'm not afraid of failure. I failed plenty of times. I don't care about failing, do I'm not afraid of failure. I failed plenty of times. I don't care about failing. The thing I care about is when I meet the you know, when I go and I'm approaching the pearly gates, I want that person to say to me hey you, congratulations, you failed. Versus why didn't you do? Or why didn't you give it your all? Why didn't you try? You? I've given you life, I gave you the opportunity, I gave you the creativity. Why didn't you try? Why were you afraid? And that's not going to be me.

Fatima Bey: 14:12

I'm going to go to the pearly gates and he's going to say job well done. So what mistake for the youth that are out there listening right now is the year is 2025 right now? What mistakes would you say that?

Kelvin Abrams: 14:27

you see some of them making right now Mistakes and I see it all the time with my employees and what that is is that the generation nowadays, instead of crawling and then slowly learning how to walk and then jogging and then running the generation today they want to go right's why they're not going to be successful because I think technology today has ruined technology and social media has ruined the generation today. Because everybody wants a fast buck. Girls are that sell makeup and perfume and all that stuff and do face makeup on TikTok and all of that stuff. So everybody this generation is looking for a fast buck. Gone is the generation where you work from the bottom up. This generation comes right out of high school asking for top dollar with no experience. So I think that's going to be the failure of this generation.

Fatima Bey: 15:30

So what should they do instead? Because where they should be, they're not, so that's where they are right now. We're here. What can they do from here?

Kelvin Abrams: 15:39

Humble themselves. Be humble and go back to the very beginning. Get a mentor, get someone older, get someone who's been there. Get someone. If you, if you want to be an influencer, go find someone who did it from the bootstraps up. Go talk to a business owner. Find the oldest business that you can find in your neighborhood and go talk to that business owner and learn from that business owner. Every small business that you see has a story.

Kelvin Abrams: 16:02

So go to any small business that you know and don't be afraid to ask to talk to your owner, and don't be afraid to get a mentor or ask the owner to be your mentor and have him or her teach you, because today, what you're learning on social media and what they're learning on TikTok and what they're learning on the internet is just garbage.

Kelvin Abrams: 16:20

It's filling their mind with garbage and it's not filling their mind with the core values and the basics, like showing up to work 10 minutes early, being ready to work, not showing up to work at 8.01 and then having to go, put your bag away and finish your Starbucks coffee that costs you $10 and then sit down and reply to a text message before you start working. No, no, no, no, no. Get back to the basics. Show up 10 minutes early, ready to work and be available after your shift, and don't say it's four o'clock, I got to go, be available until the job is done after your shift. And that's say it's four o'clock, I got to go be available until the job is done after your shift. And that's what's wrong with this generation.

Fatima Bey: 16:58

So mindset is what I hear, and what I also hear you saying is that they need to. I want to add to that. You said that they should get mentors and start. You know, talking to people who have been running businesses, and I completely agree with that part. I want to add to that Just because someone is and I'm talking to the young audience right now just because someone is older and started a business in 1974 and things are very different now than they were back then, you still have something to learn from them.

Fatima Bey: 17:30

You can take the principles that they use to be successful and apply them to your modern world, Because you don't live in the world he grew up in or he started in. We don't live in 2008. But you can still take the principles from what somebody else went through and apply them. Just change some of the details around. We now have AI. We now have the internet. That is a really big deal, and AI can do a lot for you, and I love AI, but I also understand how it can be damaging if you rely on it too much. So there are lots of ways of modernizing the advice you get. So don't assume because someone's older and they live in a different time with a different technology and they seem all out of date. Their principles are never out of date. Some of their details might be, but the principles aren't. Learn how to listen to principles and not just details. Absolutely, you can hear things differently. Tails Absolutely you can hear things differently. So what advice? What else?

Fatima Bey: 18:39

I hear you saying that mindset is one of the things that our youth need to change, because our culture has taught them a bad mindset. I would agree with that. A lot of mindsets have been incorrectly taught. But there are some youth that, okay, they grew up in this world. They can't help that. They were taught these things by our culture because they were born when they were born. They can try to change their mindset. They can try to find someone who runs a business. What else can they do in today's world to try to be successful for tomorrow?

Kelvin Abrams: 19:13

in today's world to try to be successful for tomorrow. You know that's a great question. So two things I would say. One is I've already talked about it, which is get a mentor. And then the second thing is look for free programs or free opportunities to better yourself.

Kelvin Abrams: 19:28

Like there are a lot of grants that are out there, there are a lot of educational programs that are out there. There are a lot of state fund programs, federal funded programs, like I mentioned in my book Get Uncomfortable or Change Course that I went when I started my business. I went and I spoke to a SCORE representative from the Small Business Administration for about a year and boy, that guy taught me a lot. I mean, I thought I knew what I was doing and after about four or five times of him ripping my business plan apart and marking it full of red X's and marks and question marks and all of that stuff, you know I learned a hard lesson. It humbled me very quickly, you know. So I would say there is plenty of free and the word is free opportunity out there educational opportunities, learning tools and advice and online courses. You know, don't be afraid to pay for some online courses to learn. It's all about continuing education.

Fatima Bey: 20:23

Yes, education is so important, but there are so many different ways to get it, and you're right, there's so well. In the US anyway, and I know in the UK too, there are so many opportunities to learn stuff for free. If you have the internet, you got a whole encyclopedia right there. You can learn a lot of stuff for free. Just go to YouTube and use it as a search engine. There's so much that you can do to learn. If you don't have people around you who know what you want to learn, then find the online presence that can do that, and I don't care what you want to learn. Then find the online presence that can do that, and I don't care what you want to learn. There's something out there. I completely agree with that. So what does your course offer? Since you say they should learn from taking courses, what does your course offer?

Kelvin Abrams: 21:04

So my online course is all about setting yourself up for success. So it talks about. It goes deeper than my book goes. It just talks about everything from a business plan to meeting a banker what the banker's expectations are, what your marketing expectations will be, what your social media expectations will be people that I work with and trust and I spoke with my lawyer, I spoke with CPA bookkeeper, I spoke with my marketing person content writer, I spoke with my mentor and I spoke with my banker from everybody as to what's really needed to create a successful business from the ground up.

Kelvin Abrams: 21:53

And this business plan is I mean, my course is not the end of all end, but what it is. It's a great start for you to get going. It talks to how to write a business plan. What's important in the business plan? Everybody focuses on talking about me, me, me and the business plan and what you've done, and put nice little pretty pictures up in your business plan.

Kelvin Abrams: 22:11

But the reality mission statement and immediately turn to your financial section, which is your three-year pro forma. And that's exactly what they turn to and that's what they base their decision on is the finances. And to get to the finances, there are six C's that the bank talk about that you have to, which are in my online course. So in my online course, there are six C's that the bankers look at when they come in and they look at your resume and they look at you as a person. There's six criterias that they look for. So my online course is a great start for someone who either looking to start a business and afraid and don't know how, because it provides resources, it provides links and things like that. And then also it's a great course for someone who's stuck and not really sure which way to go in their business. So I think I've tried to. I've tried to gear it towards people that are looking to start their business, but also I think people that have started their business and have a few problems would benefit from my course as well too.

Fatima Bey: 23:13

That's great. It's nice to have it all in one place, and it sounds like your course is built for today, not yesterday, correct?

Kelvin Abrams: 23:23

Correct.

Fatima Bey: 23:24

And I say that because there's a lot of people out there giving advice from 1942.

Fatima Bey: 23:30

You know, like this was true back in 2001,. But it's not true now. But the fact that you reached out to people today to create this course tells me that this is something that they can use for the future. I like to talk about the future, not just the past, here, because our youth, they're growing up in a different world and I want them to be successful in the current and coming world, not in the one we grew up in. So I really like that.

Kelvin Abrams: 23:55

You mentioned something about principles and the core values of principles. So I have a mentor who's about 75 years old and I've known him for about seven years.

Kelvin Abrams: 24:02

He's a self-made man. He almost went through bankruptcy, like I almost filed bankruptcy when I was going through my starting my business and then he got his break. And he loves to say this is that his famous quote that he uses is you make your own good luck, and I quote that in my book that you make your own good luck. And what that means for him is that it's up to you to create your own good luck. You know, everybody goes out and buys a Powerball ticket and a Mega Million ticket and we keep praying and hoping that we win right. But you got to make your own good luck and what that is is opportunity. You have to create the opportunity.

Kelvin Abrams: 24:37

And so there are some principles you mentioned principles before there are some principles that he lives by as a 75 year old that I totally disagree with. But at the same time I take the core value of what he says to me and I turn it around in today's world and in my mindset and I use what he gives me. Because here's this guy who almost filed bankruptcy, had a family, self-made man. He's a millionaire, now self-made man. He's a millionaire now self-made man and he's still doing it at 75. He has two companies still doing it at 75. So I listened to what he has to say. Now I may not take every advice he has to say, but I take what he the core values, and I use it for today's, in today's world.

Fatima Bey: 25:19

I like to say my way of wording, that is, eat the meat and spit out the bones. You got it Just because someone kind of goes what I was just saying. You've got to, just because someone gives you their advice and how, what worked for them. That may not be the way that it'll work for you in detail, but the principles don't really change. The principles of success are the same for all of us.

Fatima Bey: 25:41

They just look different, but sometimes you listen to the way the person did it and oh okay, now I get it. You get a different view and that makes a big difference, Absolutely, For all of my youth out there. Just because you're young, do not let anybody treat you like you're stupid. You're not, and sometimes you might be smarter than them. Amen. You just got to find your way.

Kelvin Abrams: 26:05

Got to find your way.

Fatima Bey: 26:06

Yes, and finding your way means making mistakes. You got to try. You don't know how far you can run until you try running. Yes, absolutely. You don't know how well you can build a car until you start building. Amen. And you're going to make mistakes when you do that. If you don't, and you never make mistakes, you're perfect. Well then you should probably wake up because you overslept. You were dreaming that ain't real. I like that. You're still dreaming Because you're still dreaming, you overslept, it's time to go to school, but the reality is and I say this because so often and I keep this is like a repeat theme I keep hearing my guests say on my podcast when we look at social media which is what, if you're a teenager or young adult right now, what you're paying attention to all day long, because that's what you grew up with we see the highlight reels of people's lives.

Fatima Bey: 27:01

We see the highlight reels of their successes. We don't see how many times they failed before they put the pretty stuff in front of you. And you got to remember that. Don't be ashamed of making mistakes and do not let anybody, any stupid adult, put you down. And I said stupid because you made a mistake. See, you should have never done that. They can shut up and you can keep going and try again, because I can tell you right now and Kelvin will agree, he would not be sitting here with me right now if he had let his first letdown, his first failure, cause him to stop.

Kelvin Abrams: 27:36

Right, and if I would have listened to people that told me to stop, I wouldn't be here today. I mean, I've had plenty of friends and family members saying, give up, why don't you just give up? And you know I'm like no man, you know they're going to have to roll me out of this building and I'm OK with that because that way I know that I gave everything I had and I left it on the field.

Fatima Bey: 28:04

Just like you hear athletes saying were saying earlier about the determination, because that here's the thing Most people don't realize it's not the great, the most gifted that succeed is the most persistent. Oh amen, it's the most persistent, the most persistent, the ones who don't give up, who keep trying to keep going until they get it right and go ahead.

Kelvin Abrams: 28:25

I'm sorry, I mean to cut you off. I apologize. So you know, it is the person that just never gives up, right? But I learned this a long time ago from a guy who owned 45 pizza huts in the state of Maryland, multimillionaire. And what he said to me. And then I had another client of mine that had seven restaurants and he was again another multimillionaire, and the best advice both of them gave to me is every three years, reinvent yourself. And that doesn't mean start a new business every three years. No, what it means is every three years, reinvent yourself, because if not, you're going to get stale and you don't want to be stale.

Kelvin Abrams: 29:03

And the example that I like to use is this um iron mike tyson, no doubt the greatest, greatest boxer that has ever lived and the youngest world champion ever, got comfortable. And when he got comfortable, there was a guy named buster duster Douglas Jr, that had nothing to lose, he had everything to gain. And that guy was relentless, he trained, he worked hard, he believed, etc. And Mike Tyson walked in there comfortable. And when he walked in there comfortable, he came out uncomfortable because he got comfortable. So, every three years, I think it's so important that you reinvent yourself every three years. Just pivot and do something different every three years. I'm not saying change your industry, change that. No, what I'm saying is maybe add to your service, maybe change your service a little bit, maybe be more creative with your service. Just reinvent yourself every three years and never let yourself get comfortable. That's when you start to fail, is when you get comfortable.

Fatima Bey: 30:08

And if you own a restaurant, that might mean adding something to the menu Exactly, there's always a way of doing that.

Kelvin Abrams: 30:13

What is it now? Vegan or gluten-free or whatever? Add whatever to your menu, but you're 100% correct.

Fatima Bey: 30:20

Yeah, and I love that. I was just going to ask you what's your advice for for the youth today, and then you already just gave it to me. Stop reading my mind.

Kelvin Abrams: 30:26

There it is Pivot Every three years. Pivot, reinvent yourself.

Fatima Bey: 30:29

I actually really like that advice and I, I, I see what you're saying and I think it's, I think it's pretty wise. We do get stale if we do the same thing over and over again for too long, and when we become stale, we become comfortable, and comfort is sometimes our biggest enemy. Sometimes comfort is the biggest enemy to success. Thus your book and your course get uncomfortable.

Kelvin Abrams: 30:54

Yeah, Amen, I mean you know. Another example is I hate to say this, but in today's modern world look at Sean Puffy, Combs, P Diddy. P Diddy got comfortable doing his little freak offs and started getting more wild and wilder, and wilder. And he got comfortable and all of a sudden he forgot. He forgot who he was, what world he's in. He forgot and look where he's at right now. He got comfortable.

Fatima Bey: 31:15

And I hope they, I hope he suffers in jail, but that's another conversation.

Kelvin Abrams: 31:19

Yeah, yeah, I hope he fries in jail, but that's another conversation. Yeah, yeah, I hope he fries in jail too, but I mean, hey, that's another conversation. I mean being up on a woman.

Fatima Bey: 31:25

Come on, man, I'm glad he's being publicly embarrassed, let me just say right, right, I'm really glad, it makes me happy yeah exactly now, uh, but you're right, when we but even though you use him as an example, there are other people we can think of as well. When we get comfortable, arrogance sets in, we start getting loose with the bad things we're doing, and he's an example of that he's not the only one.

Fatima Bey: 31:51

There's plenty of others. But when we get comfortable, we stop being innovative. When we get comfortable, we stop trying to look for the next gain. When we get comfortable, we stop trying to upgrade. When we get comfortable, we stop trying to be better, and that's why being uncomfortable is a good thing. So where can people find your uncomfortable book?

Kelvin Abrams: 32:17

Oh, thank you. I have a website called wwwkelvinabramscom and I'm sure you'll provide a link, but it's spelled K-E-L-V-I-N. Abrams, a-b-r-a-m-scom, so kelvinabramscom. They'll find my book. I have a workbook. They'll find a link to my workbook, as well as my online course, and also they'll see some of my podcasts that I've done in the past.

Fatima Bey: 32:44

Sitting right there as well. Well, thank you once again, Kelvin, for coming on and being a guest. I really appreciate it. I've enjoyed this conversation.

Kelvin Abrams: 32:50

Likewise, thank you so much for having me.

Fatima Bey: 32:54

And now for a mind-shifting moment.

Fatima Bey: 33:01

I want to take you back to something that Kelvin said that I think is very important. He said to reinvent yourself every three years. I want to focus on the principle behind that statement. Are you allowing yourself to get stale? Are you just going along to get along and never reassessing or looking to make changes? This is applicable not just in business, but in your relationships and other areas of life. Are you just staying the same and becoming stale? I want you to think about how powerful that principle is. It's not just about reinventing yourself. It's about reassessing. Are you reassessing yourself once in a while? Are you reassessing your relationship? Are you reassessing your career? Are you reassessing how you handle your finances? Just something to think about.

Fatima Bey: 34:02

You've been listening to MindShift Power Podcast. For complete show notes on this episode and to join our global movement, find us at FatimaBaycom. Until next time, always remember there's power in shifting your thinking.