Nightlife Entrepreneurs

As I was having brunch this afternoon, I was reminiscing. Texting through the magic of Whatsapp, where a group of about forty of my elementary school friends or shall I say, my childhood brothers and sisters, got together after twenty-five years in order to stay in touch. I could not help it but think about how different, yet still the same we all were Today.

I left Barranquilla, Colombia when I was thirteen years old. At the time when I was starting to step out of my shell. I had never gone out with a girl, as a matter of fact, I had never even been kissed. Well, except for those spin the bottle games and what we called the American hide and seek. I will never forget my last year living in my hometown, mostly because this was when things started to change for me. Up to that moment in my life, you would say without any doubt that I was a shy and introvert kid. Playing sports with my friends and cousins was what I called my social life.

Some of my most memorable memories of that last ...

There are so many misconceptions as to what I do for a living, how easy my job seems to be, is it even a job, anyone can do it, no education is needed and so much more.  Even my family, friends, acquaintances, and people who don't know me have different views or opinions as to what I do or how I do it.

Many people today call themselves promoters, but when I just got into this business I don't believe I knew anyone who used that title, I didn't even know it was a business, not even a hobby, to me it was more like an idea. I will never forget the different people that ran into my path at different times of my life with an opinion about what I was doing with my life. Lets not even bring up the College counselor since he has a full post just for himself and you can always go back and read that. I must mention one of the first conversations with my parents regarding this business, At the time I was not even considered a promoter like I said before it was only an idea of a possible hobby th...

The year was 1993 and I had just graduated from high school just like most students at the time I had no idea what I wanted, but I thought I knew it all. Being eighteen years old and finishing high school gave me and almost everyone I knew a false sense of power and a strange feeling of supremacy. All of a sudden we were better than everyone, we were the big boys, we did not want to ask any more questions, because we knew all the answers. Even our parents became inferior to us, I mean what would they know, they are so old and don't understand the world the way we do.  I am not sure if this resonates with you, but this is my story for sure.

I was one of those kids that started college in the summer in order to get a head start from all others, I mean I wanted to conquer the world and there was no way that I would go on vacation for three months when I knew that I could get started on my career and start earning the big bucks.

Accounting is what I called my career at the time. I mean h...

So Today I am supposed to write a short post about a loss. A personal loss, a financial one, could even be as small as loosing in a game of chess but mainly write about the experience and what I personally gained from it. The reality is that most of the times I am not even sure what it is that I will be writing about until I sit in front of the computer. My first step is choosing a title and after I have a title I start searching for an image that could match the title or the subject for that matter.

When I first sat in front of the computer I decided I would write about the different times in my twenty years of running a successful business that I actually lost money, and even add the times when I lost money in my personal life. I was sure this was a topic that would interest most readers since it can't be all good all the time. But as I searched for a perfect image that would match the post I just could not run into the right one. For some reason something made me stop and think. Ma...

My assignment Today in writing 101 is to talk about my three favorite songs. I suppose this is something fairly easy for most people, but that is not the case for someone in my line of work. I mean, not only do we have to be on top of what is hot in order to keep our younger clients happy but we need to keep good track of what has been happening throughout the years in not one but many different genres of music. Therefore we have to listen to a lot of different songs. As a matter of fact, when people listen to my iTunes they don't understand why it has no club music at all, my iTunes is filled with classical music, doo-wop and Colombian music you would not understand.

As a newfound love in writing and always having lived around music, there is a goal I have in life which is to write a song at some point in time, so I am going to have to say that one of my favorite songs has not even been born yet and I sure hope to be the father of that baby.

This leaves me with two more favorite son...

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I am taking an online blogging class called writing 101 so a few of my blogs during the next few weeks will take me a bit of tract at first but the end result will be a better relationship between you and me.

So here goes prompt number two.

Some people might feel discomfort when standing alone in front of a large crowd that does not seem to take their focus from your every move and their eyes from puncturing holes in your chest as you walk back and forth, closer and away from them.

That same feeling that most artists must get at the beginning of their careers when walking on top of a stage for the first time even with a half-empty room. It is only with time that it goes away, even though that bellyache that you get before going through the curtains and in front of the screaming fans never gets old. Most people are not built for this kind of pressure, but I believe that you could grow to love it the more you set foot on that stage.

That same feeling ...

As bad as it sounds I have clients today that come to me for a drink or two who were born when I started in the nightlife business.

The crazy thing is that it all started as a hobby yet twenty-some years later it has become a career and a lifestyle. The good thing is that those clients who were born when I started as a nightclub promoter are now of legal age to have those drinks.

I decided to write this blog in order to educate people a bit more about what it is that I do for a living, and maybe to even educate some of my fellow club promoters and help them turn into nightlife entrepreneurs but what is a nightlife entrepreneur you may ask yourself? and the answer is not so simple, therefore I will be posting pieces of the puzzle that is my job today and the way I came to it or it came to me.

Back in 1994 when I first decided to start an adventure with a group of high school friends and begin a small business out of the idea that we could GET PAID for throwing parties and open houses...