Monday, November 16, 2015

Dealing With Bad Days And Working Past It

So I wanted to open the eyes of those who don't understand the way things work when you are trying to establish a business.  I'm not sure where to exactly start, but I can tell you this.  Opening a small business is not an easy task.  There are the obvious things such as finding a proper location, having or obtaining financial backing, and then operating the business itself.  These steps might seem very simple, but when you take into account all the work and effort required, things are not as easy as they seem.  Just finding a city that would allow an establishment like Super Arcade was a task in itself.  Had I told people what I was going through just to obtain the proper permits for this, I'm sure I would've looked like a clown and no one would believe me.  If my public hearing were not streamed live, my entire effort might have already been shut down and all of my loyal friends and customers might have just called it quits too.  But thankfully, the internet does exist and the City of Azusa not only archives and records their hearings, but yes, they too are streamed just like our beloved tournaments.

At this point, I have honestly been doing everything I can to speed things up and get up and running as soon as possible.  Here is where the toughest part of everything stands and here is where my biggest problem comes.  I am not in control of what is going on and not able to change that.  We received a stop work order back in mid September due to building permit issues.  I can only press the issue so much in terms of asking for things to get expedited and what not before I just become a nuisance to the city planners and get on their bad side.  The funniest part of all this is, some people think I am not opening on purpose.  Let me just say that by not being open now, I am currently paying rent on a building that is not in use, I am not taking in any revenue from the location, I am completely stressing myself out day and night because the situation, and also being stuck without any progress for almost 2 months will drive anyone insane.  If you calculate expenses during this time, I am at an estimated loss of roughly 4,000 to 5,000 per week.  So if anyone believes that losing this type of money is fun then be my guest and walk in my shoes please.

Regardless, this week we will be allowed back at work and move as fast as we can to get things finished with all the proper steps being taken.  There has been very few times where I wanted to give up, but this particular project has really driven me to the brink on occasion.  The light at the tunnel seems so near but at the same time out of arms reach and ever so frustrating.  The journey is almost over everyone and thank you all for hanging around.  The next post will have a lot more positive things to talk about so keep your eyes open for that.  Until then, thank you again for your support and thank you all for reading.

Just some ranting and daily thoughts......

(This blog was written around 10/20)

As I mentioned in my previous post, things are really really starting to weigh down on my life.  I have so many things to be thankful for and I try to just do keep moving forward without any regrets.  There are so many situations that have led me to the current point in my life and honestly these events have been almost unbelievable.  I will share some of these stories with you guys over the next few posts since I have some time while waiting for the city to either grant or deny our restroom situation.  There's a lot of things that have been on my mind and being as I have been very public about everything, there is no need to stop now.

I don't want to continue to beat on a dead horse or bring up old nonsense, but if a lot of people want to continue to accuse me of things than I guess I should defend myself a bit.  People honestly feel that I have some type of grudge against Alex Valle and I want to clear that up once and for all.  And I would also like to take the time to state my opinions regarding the status of the FGC and competitive gaming.  So, I am not going to get back into any super specific details, but I will say this.  Valle did not ditch me and the separation of Super Arcade and LevelUp was very much beneficial towards me.  I no longer had to split venue fees and we still had the same attendance on Wednesdays and Thursday.  Without stating the obvious, the financial aspect of this huge and things were taking a turn in the right direction.  The only thing that was bad about this is that regardless of the what Super brought to the scene, tourneys on Wednesday nights were the idea of Alex and it was kind of sad that things did come to an end.  I met Alex way before many of you even heard about Street Fighter, and it's always a tough thing mixing friends and business.  But hey, we are both adults and we know what we are doing and the direction we are headed.  He is now accomplishing what he wants to do, and I am doing things the way I want to as well.  There is so much I want to discuss, but I will just go into two specifics regarding all this.

Firstly, this whole separation was actually brought about because of one person, Mr. Wizard.  I have already explained my whole ordeal with this guy and I don't want to rehash on it because it's already completely confirmed that he is nothing but a greedy leech to the community and only yearns to be in a position of power to feed his ego.  We already know he tried to sabotage my 37 Reloaded tournament last year that led me to speak out on stream one night and say some things that might have been best left unsaid.  But anyways, that's over with and not until recently I found out he also tried to tarnish my friendship and reputation with the Cannon brothers.  This sick bastard told them that I tied to "DDOS attack" them in some manner and had I not found out from a third party, this rumor would still be truth in their eyes.  Tom Cannon was actually a major help in guiding me through the Kickstarter campaign and him and his brother are the two people I look up to and respect the most in the entire community.  No matter what anyone does or achieves in terms of helping or moving the FGC forward, the existence of this community is purely cause of their love and support from day 1.  So for Wizard to actually spread this rumor and try to turn them against me, that's just an all time low even from his standards.  Luckily I reached out and straightened things out recently so I didn't have to deal with any more problems that I didn't create with them.

Now onto the second part.  Valle was always one who was willing to push forward and really driven to get sponsors and just be a part of the so called "Big Show."  I was more in favor of keeping a competitive environment and doing what was best for the players and our customers.  Here is where more people tend to overextend their opinions and call me a poor business man and other friendly names.  So to give a different perspective of the situation, I am the type that would rather work hard, do things my way, and not sell out just for the money or the fame.  Others seem to be blinded by the money and feel that having an extravagant setting and mimicking other scenes is the way to go.  Growth is a natural thing, but it just seems that lately people are caring less about the game and just aiming for a quick buck and self gains.  Now I know people will have their opinions, and sometimes mine opinion isn't the most popular, but I am who I am and I will just keep things 100% honest at all times.  Will this ultimately be the reason for my own demise?  Possibly, but at least I can deal with the fact that I hurt myself, and wasn't a victim to anything that I didn't bring upon myself.