SO I SOLD ALL MY SNEAKERS! GUESS WHAT IM COLLECTING NOW...

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

-Ben Franklin

         I remember the day I started collecting shoes like it was yesterday. Almost three years ago I  watched a music video where the artist was rapping in a room with walls that were lined with sneakers from top to bottom! I've loved shoes forever, but never had the means to buy them. At this point I'd been doing doTERRA (see my last post) for about a year now, and could finally buy them for myself so that same night, I got online and bought my first pair. The high I felt unboxing every new pair was incredible, and I couldn't stop! I was years behind the collectors I now followed on social media and had to catch up! Before I knew it, not only was my closet full, but every shelf in my room was full of shoe boxes. It got to a point where I no longer had space to put them. And I LOVED it!

Eventually I decided it was time to save up and make a smarter investment by buying a house. Guess which room was completely moved in and set up first? Thats right, the sneaker room.

         KSL even ran a story about my collection on the news for Valentine's day this year. That probably would have made a normal person realize their addiction was getting a little crazy...  Haha but that thought didn't even cross my mind.

         So here's the irony. The thing that influenced me to buy my first pair of retro Jordans almost 3 years ago is the exact same thing that made me decide to sell them all: a hip hop music video. I found Akala, an English rapper, poet, and journalist, when I watched his TED Talk entitled Hip Hop & Shakespeare. That led me to his YouTube Channel where I watched this video, and was blown away! Never before had I heard a rapper, for 8 minutes straight, address issues including but not limited to violence, race, social status, economics, and education. And that was just one song! The following excerpts are just a few parts that made me really sit back and consider what I really value in life, and what my goals are.

"And I won't hang what I make around my neck

because I know from where the diamonds came,

but I do literally own a library 

that definitely costs more than your chain"

"But we aint studyin' history, too busy watching MTV,

and MTV said, wear platinum.

So everybody wanna go and wear platinum.

When MTV said, pop magnums,

everybody wanna go and pop magnums

If MTV said, drink prune juice,

we would start hearin' that in tunes soon."

"You gotta see what's really happenin',

who the enemy you should be attackin' is.

So read, read, read, read

Stuck on the block? Read, read.

Sittin in the box? Read, read.

Don't let them say what you can achieve.

Cuz when people are enslaved 

one of the first things they do is stop them readin'.

Because it is well understood 

that intelligent people will take their freedom.

Cuz if we knew our power,

we would understand we can't be held down.

If we knew our power,

we would not elevate not one of these clowns."

             I realized that while having a room full of over 100 pairs of "kicks" is pretty cool, those shoes would never be able to improve the quality of my life or the lives of others. I then had the idea, what if I were to sell these shoes and instead, fill those shelves full of books that would teach me about history, personal development skills, and other elements of the human experience? Who would I be, and what would my life look like if instead of collecting shoes for the next 10 years, I collected and read books? I decided I wanted to find out the answer to that question, so I started selling them all, pair by pair.  Im not going to lie, it was hard! Those were my babies! But I had a new focus, and I was excited about it. 

          Nelson Mandela said, "Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world."I know that to be true, but we must first educate ourselves, and that's what I'm doing now! Books like The Slight Edge, The 4-Hour-Work-Week, The Millionaire Next Door, and How To Win Friends and Influence People are already having a lasting affect on my life. I can feel such a difference in my personal development as I spend my time educating myself instead of scrolling through eBay. 

BEFORE                                                                             AFTER

I'm proud of my little collection of books I've amassed so far, but know that I still have a long way to go! I'll end this with on of my new favorite quotes by Epictetus, a greek philosopher, who said, "Only the educated are free." Which begs the question, 

what are you doing to free yourself?

Also let me know of any books you think I really need to have in my collection. Im always looking for a good book!