While standing on a Chicago street corner, I was approached by a man named Reginald. Reginald was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, he was a raggedy looking man, most likely in his 50’s. Due to his accent, I concluded that he was from Louisiana / Arkansas / Mississippi area. He told me he plays his saxophone wherever he can, whether on the street or doing night shows at local bars, and that he uses whatever money he gets to survive.
Due to my distaste for small talk, our conversation progressed quickly. I ended up asking Reginald, “So what is it that everyone on this Earth isn’t getting?” What Reginald mentioned, I’ll never forget.
“People need to find a small group of people that they work well with and try to succeed with those people.”
He went on.
"Before the circulation of paper money, people still had to eat. You could go hunting yourself, get your hands on a chicken or a fish and eat a fair meal. If you were conservative while eating, this small kill would be enough for the day. God forbid you have to share, then there’s only enough meat for one meal. Everyone could go out and slay their chicken, and everyone could find their own fish –sounds fair to me, but these would be minor victories; there are bigger rewards to be claimed. Plus, in a few short hours, it’s time to repeat the process.
If you want to eat and I mean eat really good, you have to go out and kill the buffalo; unfortunately there is no way one man can kill a buffalo.
And even if you are one of the few people who are capable of killing the buffalo by yourself, you can’t carry the buffalo back to camp alone."
Illustration Benjamin Franklin sent to the colonies during French and Indian War.
You know killing the buffalo is better meat; it eclipses your prior meals in quantity, and the buffalo doesn’t just provide food but fur as well. The dilemma is that you cannot kill the buffalo alone, but rally a group of people who can work together and it’s possible. There are risks: poor teamwork and poor planning gets you killed, not having enough people gets you killed, involving too many people leaves everyone with scraps. But when you begin to look at the effort and cost in comparison to time spent hunting, you realize that the amount of time it takes a group to kill the buffalo, is about the same amount of time it takes to kill a smaller animal on your own. Even though you have to divide the winnings, you still get a better bang for your buck. You’re going to have to share the prize, but it’s better then settling for small meals.
You soon realize the buffalo is not what you have to fear. What you must fear is having selected the wrong individuals to go hunting with. You can choose to settle with your small meal, or join the ones ahead of the curve in trying to kill the buffalo. Knowing who to join forces with is crucial, and in this case, can be the difference between life and death.
I’m even better
I’m eatin’ better.
Best thing about it is my niggas eatin’ together.
With each endeavor, we reaching levels that niggas, ain’t seen in like foreverJay-Z
So choose—feast or famine?