story3

1 year later and here we are at mid 20... things seem to be looking good, I
get engaged to this girl who is a Jazz dancer at one of the other shows at
Board Walk and Baseball, I drive the car of my dreams a Porsche 911 Targa,
I have a pet dog and have my house...so why am I not feeling like this is so
great...Isn't this the American dream? Well everyone, I'm here to tell you don't
fall into the trap... what people tell you in High School about what success is
and getting those material things is all HYPE...not that toys aren't fun to have
because I like my toys... but remember, it's just things and things do not make
you who you are no matter what the commercials try to tell you... and like the
movie "Fight Club " said so well "What ever you own, owns you".

I'm 20 and feel like I'm 40 and life is just in neutral... the breaking crew is
literally crumbling apart on itself, we let go of our older manager and there is
no leader so the crew starts unraveling and little things turn into major
disputes, we're all young and we all think we have the right answers...I get tired
of the whineing, the talking behind peoples back and argueing (not my style)
so I knew I had to depart from my crew and of course on good terms while I
still respected everyone, heck I didn't know what was going to happen next,
but I definitely new I had to get away from the negative energy. Well about this
time i get a call from an agent who says there is this place that could definitely
use my talent. It turns out I get contracted to perform as a Mime at a beach
attraction 7 days a week for a couple of hours with great pay...Is it a fun job?
yes definitely!!... Isn't it great how life always turns out and so the story
continues I'm at the beach perfecting my mimeing and popping skills and
things are just chilling..

Okay here we go it's 4 months later I come in to visit the group to say hello
and only one original member is still there, The night club manager comes to
me and says "Mike you have to come back, I'm about to fire these guys
because the show has gone to hell, what will it take for you to come back?"
So I talk to the one original member ( my friend ) and say here's the deal your
about to be fired with the rest of the other people, management doesn't like
the show and he's letting you go... that's the bad news... the good news is,
one week later I'm starting a show here again and I want you to work for
me...Okay your probably wondering what about the fun job at the
beach...obviously you already know breaking is my life and the choice was
obvious..2 weeks later I am now manager of the group Night Force and now the
story really gets interesting.

It's time to get serious and focus, I felt like I was living in this "Matrix" and it
was time to wake up, wedding plans were not happening and I knew this
woman I was engaged with was not the one... so I call it off...sell the Porsche
and get my life back in gear..and now this time I'm in charge...by the way, this
is the time I get to give you my advice about marriage before the age of
22...think twice about it and don't do it...a lot of people get serious with people
right after high school...some for security, some for insecurities, some for
infatuation, some because it just seems like the next thing to do... I have this
theory that many people try to find what's missing in their life by trying to find it
in someone else without discovering even who they are, if your younger than
22 you might not understand ...but trust me... wait and take the time to figure
yourself out and what you really want then you have something to offer in a
relationship...okay that's enough of the public service announcement:)

Now back to the story, about 2 years go by working at the club..conventions..
and other bookings...now remember this is the period when breakdancing was
being called "out of style" and people saying I can't believe your still doing it
Mike....lesson 7... listen to your heart and don't let people tell you what they
believe you should be doing, because if your always listening to what everyone
thinks is in style than you will always be a follower and we have to many of
those people in the world...think for yourself and believe in your own journey....

Now here I am being the manager saying you gotta see our show to all
agents, convention people... anyone ..you'll love it!!! . You know the scene in
Breaking the Movie where they can't get an audition for the show...well that's
me except I'm living it almost 24/7..Us breakers have always gotten a bad rap
because many people do not respect the art form that it is and don't even give
it a chance.....I finally say to people if you don't like our show don't pay us but
give us the chance to show you...lesson 8 believe in yourself and what you
do...sometimes you have to put it on the line, but when you do people will
know your serious ...needless to say we were always paid and we continued
doing shows but it gave the people hiring us for the show the idea they had
nothing to lose....

Well along that time a place called Universal Studios opens up in Florida and
guess who is in there trying to sell a breaking show in the new tourist
attraction.. you guessed it..At this same time we are still working the night
club about 4 to 5 nights a week that I first started with 7 years earlier... we get
the job and now being the mananger and performer becomes interesting
because it's time to make decisions..the decision has to be made do we stay
at the night club or move on..lesson 9...always expand...whether it works out
at the time or not you always must grow... and change causes you to grow as
a person....

I take the contract at Universal and now I have to hire more employees in the
company to cover the days at Universal ( can you believe I have a company of
Breakdancers...who knew?) Now I don't know what happened from the early
eighties to 1990 but breakdancers were really hard to come by in 1990
everyone was into Hammer , Vanilla Ice and Housing which made it
unbelievably hard to find breakdancers of any quality...everyone that I knew
from the old school had let themselves go and were either out of shape or just
not as good as they used to be so I put the word out I'm having an audition
and hire 7 other breakers and poppers.... Time for some really good lessons in
business...