Violence, Fraud & High School Drama! 🚨💔

Bruce Anthony: [00:00:00] Violence in the ring. Fraud in the streets. And emotional damage at a high school dance. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.

Welcome to Unsolicited Perspectives 🎙️🔥💥

Bruce Anthony: Welcome, first of all, welcome. This is Unsolicited Perspectives. I'm your host, Bruce Anthony. Here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society. Join the conversation to follow us wherever you get your audio podcast. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for our video podcast, YouTube exclusive content and our YouTube membership rate review.

Like, comment, share, share with your friends, share with your family. Hell even share with your enemies. On today's episode, we're gonna be talking about Raja Jackson. We're gonna be talking about accountability, and then we're gonna be talking about me [00:01:00] at my Senior Homecoming dance. Oh, that's a story, but that's enough of the intro.

Let's get to the show.

Bruce Anthony: You know, I often talk about the time that I owned a professional wrestling company and I talk about it fondly, even though it went under shortly after I bought into the company. But I love professional wrestling. I still watch it today. My brother and sister were joking on me a couple of weeks ago about how it was very, very tough for me to give up my wrestling men the action figures.

Even into high school. I was still secretly playing with them, putting together matches and and events and the whole nine, and making my brother watch 'em. I love professional wrestling. Wanted to be a professional wrestler. One of my greatest regrets is that [00:02:00] after my freshman year of college, I went to my father and I said, Hey dad, you think it would be cool if, I didn't work this summer, but instead I went to wrestling school?

My father, even though he oftentimes told me some of my ideas were stupid, he never. Ever shot down my dreams and he said, son, if you wanna go to wrestling school, I will pay for you to go to wrestling school. And I didn't follow through with it. Let's just say if I ever had to go to court as a transition to heaven or to be reincarnated. And I had to answer for regrets. Yeah, that would be one of my regrets. I don't have too many now at my ripe age of 45. You know, I pretty much do what I want to do and I don't let things hold it back.

But that's one of my regrets is that I didn't go to wrestling school in 19 98, 99, and who knows, I could have been the first Rock or the [00:03:00] next rock or the next stone cold. Steve Austin definitely wouldn't have been the next Hulk Hogan. 'cause I'm not racist. But anyway, we're not gonna speak, speak ill of the dead.

Rampage Jackson's Son: The Shocking Truth 👊💥

Bruce Anthony: Why am I bringing all this up? Because recently there was an incident at a wrestling event and the incident involved Rampage Jackson's son. Now for people that don't know who Rampage Jackson is, you do know him. You just don't know him by name. He was a UFC fighter, a major fighter, and his head looks like a pit bull.

Like you would know him if you see him. Okay. He is, I don't know, C list, celebrity maybe, maybe even B-list. He was, he played ba in the remake of the 18 movie. Right? So like, he's, he's somebody and he has a son that's MMMA. So Ra Jackson is a 25-year-old professional, MMA fighter and the son of the legendary Quentin Rampage Jackson.[00:04:00]

He's compiled about a four and oh record and amateur MMA and was seen as a promising talent basically because of his skillset and his lineage. However, Raj has struggled to transition that promise into a stable MMA career reportedly due to personal issues and a tendency for self-sabotage. He also explored crossover opportunities and entertainment wrestling, attempting to leverage his MMA pedigree.

When Wrestling Gets TOO REAL 😱🤼‍♂️

Bruce Anthony: So that leads us to the Knock X Pro event. So Raja Jackson was invited to a Knox Pro wrestling event in Los Angeles, which attracts independent wrestling and MMA talent for crossover segments. The event was meant to feature a scripted encounter, a spot between Raja and a wrestler known as Stew Smith.

Psycho Stew blurring the lines between real combat sports and stage wrestling drama. Okay, before I continue on, I have to break this down. [00:05:00] Yes. Professional rep wrestling is scripted, meaning that you know who's gonna be the winner and the loser the majority of the time. There has been some instances where they walk out there, they don't know what the hell is gonna happen.

It scripted as far as the storyline of the match. When I ran a wrestling company, I did not tell them what to do in the ring. All I did was give them the finish. Who was gonna go over, you know, the finish being the finish of the match. So who was gonna win? Who was gonna lose and how they were gonna win or lose. Most of the time they call that in the ring. They want to feel the essence of the crowd.

So most professional wrestlers do not script out the match. Some do, some don't. But the finish, the end of the match and how it's going to end is always scripted. Now, what they're talking about with Roger Jackson [00:06:00] and, psycho Stu was there was going to be a spot, which meant that it wasn't a wrestling match that he was gonna be participating in.

It's a certain sequence that happens. Sometimes a spot is a power bomb through a table. Sometimes a spot is, a wrestler being interrupted as they're walking down the aisle, the start of the ring. It's, it's a spot, it's a spec particular moment, and the overall story of a match.

So he was supposed to participate in a scripted spot. Now, why am I bringing all this up? Tension reportedly existed backstage after an incident involving Smith and Jackson, which may have contributed to Roger breaking script and attacking Smith for real during their segment. So what does all that mean?

Breaking script. The script goes, this is what we're gonna do. So you're gonna come out, we're gonna talk a [00:07:00] little trash to each other. I'm gonna push you, you're gonna push me. I'm gonna try to tackle you. You're going to slam me. That's the script, right? You know beforehand, that's what's going to happen.

Y'all go over it. You push me, I push you. I attempt to tackle you, you slam me. That's all that's supposed to happen. Right. That is the script. When somebody breaks the script or goes into business for themselves, these are all terms that are used in wrestling. It goes into business for themselves. This means that they've broken the script.

So no longer is it gonna be push, you push me, I push you, I attempt to tackle you. I you slam me. Now it is. You push me, I'm gonna punch you, slam you down to the ground, go grab a chair, hit you with a chair. Not saying that that's what happened in this scenario. I'm gonna get to that in a minute, but that's breaking the script.

So supposedly Raja and Smith had an altercation before the match. Now this [00:08:00] was supposed to lead up to the match or that spot that they had scripted earlier. Something got Miss Tangled and there's tension there. And then Rampage Jackson's son goes into business for himself. His, his presence was intended to capitalize on his MMA reputation and bring a spectacle to the wrestling event, but it went disastrously off course where Roger lost control and administered a violent un unscripted assault Raja violently attacked wrestler Stu Smith during that wrestling event in Los Angeles, leaving Smith unconscious and seriously injured the incident.

Caught live on video, on video, and widely shared Online. Was supposed to be a scripted wrestling segment. Like I said, it was supposed to be scripted, but quickly escalated into a real and brutal assault with Jackson slamming Smith down on the mat and [00:09:00] throwing over 20. Uncontested punches at Smith and he laid motionless.

BRUTAL Attack Caught on Camera! 📹😨

Bruce Anthony: Jackson's actions are under active police investigation and many in the wrestling community have condemned the attack as selfish, irresponsible act of violence calling in among one of the worst ever seen in the ring. So, lemme repeat this. They have a scripted spot that they're supposed to do.

Supposedly what happened before the scripted spot, a psycho stew hit Roger Jackson with a can, like a soda, CanBan can or whatever. And Roger's like, what are you doing? And he was like, Hey man, you know, don't break Kfab. This is in a crowd. So this is all before psycho stu, psycho Smith Psycho stew's match as psycho stew is in his match.

This is before the planned spot as psycho stew is in his match. Raja Jackson, who is also a [00:10:00] streamer, is streaming online saying, Hey, everybody thinks this is going to be fake. I'm about to go in there and beat his ass for real. He's saying that ahead of time, he proceeds to go along with the planned script spot.

He goes in the ring, he picks up psycho stew. Psycho stew gives him his body. So when you're in professional wrestling, you give somebody your body, that means that they're gonna perform a, a move on you and you're kind of helping them along with it as a grown man who lifts a ton of weight, let me tell you, it is very difficult to pick up dead weight.

It is extremely difficult. Grab a kid. Grown adults up there. Grab one of your kids when they fall out and they're not allowing you to pick him up. And it's just dead weight. It's hard, it's hard to do it. So Smith gave him his body 'cause that was part of the planned script. Raja broke script by slamming him down so violently that he [00:11:00] knocked him unconscious and then stood over top of him in that U-F-C-M-M-A mounting position and started throwing wild, wild punches.

20 of them that it looked like they, it, it looked like he was legitimately trying to kill him. Regardless of any prior misunderstandings or tensions, backstage Jackson Bears a lot of responsibility for failing to respect the boundaries and safety protocols of professional wrestling. Not only that.

The professional protocols of being a human being. He attacked an unarmed man and tried to violently hurt him. How violently did he hurt him? Supposedly, per reports, not only was psycho stew unconscious, he was literally choking on his blood and teeth. They [00:12:00] finally got him in stable condition, but he's still critical.

That's how badly this kid beat him. Now, his dad started defending him by saying, Hey, look, he had just got a concussion a couple of days earlier. I didn't know that he was gonna be doing this event. I don't think he should have been doing this event. That was the initial response. The second response is always.

Uh, uh, supposed to be better because typically the initial response to anything is emotional. Then when you see the reaction, you're like, hold up. I gotta do some PR work. So then Rampage Jackson was like, no, my son was totally wrong. I don't understand why he did that. We gonna have to have a discussion.

There's a rumor floating around now that Rampage is, turned his back on his son and said, I can't do nothing with him. Like, he has these temper problems. He has these anger issues. This is part of the reason why his MMA career hasn't taken off the way it should have. But yes, it's under police investigation [00:13:00] because this is, this is a brutal, brutal assault.

Who's REALLY Responsible? The Truth Revealed! 🤔💡

Bruce Anthony: And I hold Roger completely responsible for this. I don't, I'm not gonna victim blame this show. It, today's show is gonna be, you're gonna be like, Bruce, you're doing a lot of victim blaming. I'm not doing victim blaming. I'm gonna explain in the next segment what I'm doing, but what I'm, what I'm doing is, is laying out everybody's responsibility in certain situations and everybody's responsibility in this situation was one for psycho stew, for Smith to pull Jackson aside and say, Hey man, I know we got this planned spot going on in the ring.

To lead up to that, to draw attention to that, I'm going to do something [00:14:00] outside where the crowd will see it. So that'll lead to anticipation for whatever we do in the ring. I'm gonna hit you with a can. Is that cool? Nah, I just had a concussion a couple days ago. Don't hit me with a can in the head. Okay, so what can I do?

You can, punch me in the stomach. That could lead to something. So there was a responsibility as stew to have that conversation so that there isn't any tension. There's also responsibility as Stew to realize after he did that, when there was tension to then talk to the booking agent. That's the one who lays out the match, lays out the match, talk to the booking agents and be like, Hey, there's a little bit of tension.

Are we sure everything is cool? Somebody probably needs to talk to our special guests, but Stu is still absolutely the victim because even if you think you have some tension, he went in [00:15:00] to do a job. Stu or Smith went in to do the spot as they had talked about. Raja, there is no defending you, brother. You are absolutely wrong.

Wrong, and you probably should end up going to jail because this is almost attempted murder. And if anybody can go out there, watch the video, I think they haven't taken it down. You could still probably find it on a lot of sites. It is brutal. It's attempted murder. Okay? It's attempted murder. Who else bears some responsibility in this?

The owner of the wrestling company, this is why I say this. The owner of the wrestling company, remember I was one. Their job is to make sure the show is running smoothly. They're supposed to be in the back, checking on the segments, what's supposed to come next, talking to the individuals who are gonna be interacting with the segments.[00:16:00]

Talking to the booking agents, talking to the wrestlers, talking to the ring announcers, talking to the timekeeper, talking to any commentators, to further along any stories that they're trying to, to, they are the director of the entire show. All they had to do was jump on this young man's stream, which they should have been following anyway.

If he's their special guest and he's supposed to be taking part in a spot, later on in the evening, they should have been watching this stream. And if they were watching this stream, they would've realized that this young man was about serious business. The wrestling company bears some responsibility.

Wrestling company bears as much responsibility as probably Roger Jackson. And the reason why I said that is because they dropped the ball by not monitoring, checking in on their guests. Now. Saying [00:17:00] all that, that does not excuse or give any explanation that's reasonable for what Roger did. All I'm saying is, is that no matter what situation you are in, in life, everybody has a responsibility and accountability to that particular situation.

Your actions and decisions have consequences For every action, there's a reaction, and there were too many people in this situation who dropped the ball. Most importantly, the person who dropped the biggest ball is the soon to be felon. Roger Jackson, who looks like he needs serious therapy. Serious therapy, and this brings a bad light to the sport I love.

Yes, I called [00:18:00] it a sport because you have to be an athlete to the sport. I love professional wrestling.

Whenever you are running a business or making decisions for other people, try to look at the entire board and no matter what decision you make, bear the responsibility of whatever outcome that comes from that decision. Responsibility isn't just about cause and harm. It's about creating and enforcing and respecting systems that keeps everyone safe. When failures occur, it's important to look beyond blaming one person and ask a simple question, what went wrong with the checks, protocols, and supervision? How could the organization better protect its talent, especially from out of control, real violence?

True accountability means taking steps after incidents to fix systematic weaknesses and prevent [00:19:00] future harm. Victims need support, and organizations must be protective in their responses. The story isn't about one person losing control. It's a wake up call for the wrestling industry to prioritize safety and accountability on every single level.

And I'm not talking about the wwe E. The WWE does a really good job of maintaining safety on every level. A EW. You know, they, they're doing a little better, but most wrestling promotions do this Booker TA famous wrestler. A famous wrestler, five time. Five time, five time, five time, five time world heavyweight champion was on a podcast expressing this very thing because he runs a wrestling company.

And he said, look, yes, Jackson. Absolutely responsible. No, there's nothing that we can do to give him grace and his actions can't do it. But the company bears some responsibility, and that's all I'm saying is that everybody has a hand [00:20:00] in this thing called responsibility.

Bruce Anthony: One time, and I've told this story before, I was at my parents' house and it was some holiday and it was the five of us my mom, dad, me and my brother, sister, we were all adults. We were drinking, we was having a cookout or something like that. And the way I was sitting at this table, I couldn't really maneuver around, like I was kind of trapped in this little corner.

So with all earnest and humility, I asked my brother if he could grab a beer out of the fridge for me. Now I say it in a way that's kind of ridiculous.

The Humble Beer Request Story 🍺😅

Bruce Anthony: I go on and say, Hey bro, I, you know, I respect you as a grown man. I respect you as an individual. I, I love you. I just want to ask you one thing. He was like, yeah, man, what is it?

He thought it was going to be, you [00:21:00] know, can I get a kidney? 'cause of, with, with the way that I was presenting it. And I was like, can you grab me a beer outta the fridge? And he was like, are you kidding? Yeah, I can get that. It was like, why'd you do this? A whole big dramatic preamble. The reason was, is because I wanted to make sure that I showed him absolute respect.

That even though I'm asking him to do something for me, that in no way do I take it lightly that he is doing something for me. I say all that to say this, y'all need to hear me out. Please give me the space to say what I need to say in this next segment because what I'm going to say is going to challenge some thoughts out there.

And you might think in the middle of it, Bruce, you crazy. But there is an overall arching point to what I want to say and I ask a simple question, [00:22:00] does the victim have some responsibility? Now I'm trying to bring to attention. I'm emphasizing acknowledging personal responsibility. That doesn't mean that I'm blaming victims.

I'm not victim blaming, okay? It's about understanding patterns and choices while keeping empathy front and center. I'm talking about accountability versus victim blaming. Okay. Accountability is about recognizing when someone's choices create vulnerability, but it's never an excuse for an actual harm done by others.

Victim blaming shifts the responsibility away from the perpetrator and unfairly puts it on those who are harmed. I just want to ask this question. It's a delicate question. It's a complicated question and thought, but it's actually a [00:23:00] simple question to be asked as far as just the language is concerned, and the question is, does the victim have some responsibility? Now, I asked y'all to gimme a little bit of grace and hear me out.

Controversial Take: Are Victims Responsible Too? 🎯💭

Bruce Anthony: I'm emphasizing personal responsibility, acknowledging personal responsibility. That doesn't mean that I'm blaming victims. It's about understanding patterns and choices while I'm keeping empathy front and center. I'm talking about accountability versus victim blaming the two different things. Okay?

Accountability is about recognizing when someone's choices create vulnerability, but it's never an excuse for the actual harm done by others. Okay? Victim blaming shifts responsibility away from the perpetrators and unfairly puts it on those who were harmed. [00:24:00] Case in point, accountability is psycho stew, Mr.

Smith checking in after their altercation to make sure everything is good for their planned spot. But that does not mean just because he did not do that. That is his fault what Roger Jackson did to him. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying there's accountability and responsibility that you must take when you're giving yourself up and making yourself vulnerable in life in general.

That does not mean that just because you make yourself vulnerable that it's your fault for tho for something happened to you. When somebody says, oh, you did [00:25:00] this. That's the reason why that happened to you, that's victim blaming. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is everybody has some accountability and responsibility for themselves, for the decisions that they make that can make them vulnerable.

Why am I bringing this up? I was at a gathering yesterday for my building, a little light party. And the topic of discussion was the story of the young man that ran from the FBI agents and jumped off the balcony. And this is, I knew it was gonna be a topic of conversation 'cause it happened really close.

I've already given you guys a story and basically the FBI was serving him a warrant because he had scammed women outta money. And in one of those situations he had scammed a woman $15,000 on their, on their credit [00:26:00] card. So basically he was getting their credit card numbers, they knew that he had their credit card numbers, they can see the charges that he's making.

And one woman said he ran up $15,000 a credit card. His scam was that he was, he said that he was a government employee and he was gonna be reimbursed. And, and so they, they fell for the scam, which by the way, I knew this guy. He told me some things that I later found out weren't true, but at face value, they made sense to me.

Why would I expect for him to lie? Why would you expect somebody that you're involved with to immediately lie? That doesn't mean that this is their fault. It's not their fault. This guy was a scammer. However, at the party, it was a table of about five of us sitting down, drinking, chopping it up, having ourselves a good time, and of course be me being who I am.

[00:27:00] I had to voice my opinion about it and we all agreeing that what he did was horrible. I just like when I reported it on the podcast, remains steadfast that the truest victim in this entire thing was his daughter. Little baby girl. Beautiful little baby girl. And that's what I kept saying. 'cause I saw him pushing the stroller and the daughter and all that stuff.

You know, maybe the baby mom, wife, girlfriend, I can't remember what she was. Maybe her as well. I mean, she's definitely a victim. I don't think she, I don't think that she was a part of all of this stuff. She wasn't in an investigation. So she's def definitely a victim as well. The women who were scammed were also victims.

Red Flags & Warning Signs You Can't Ignore! ⛔️🚩

Bruce Anthony: They were also victims. But I made the point of saying, at what point does your personal responsibility and accountability have to be brought [00:28:00] to question? I said, once it got to a comma, meaning once it got to a thousand dollars, I have more than just serious questions and, and none of the, the documents.

From the arrest warrant and investigation and anything of that, of that nature, did it come off as a Ponzi scheme? Did it come off as he was making payments on the credit card and he kept charging it up? No, he was charging it up and never made payments. So my question was, at what point is it, alright now you're just being dumb and not handling your business.

And it pissed some people off. It pissed some people off. It pissed some people off. So much to the point they stopped talking to me. And when they left, they didn't even say goodbye to me. Okay. And I'm, I'm cool with that. Like I don't really give a damn. I [00:29:00] don't, but I think it's a fair question to ask. I think it's a fair question.

When does your responsibility to yourself come into effect here? Where? Where was the dollar amount? Was it only when the person stopped contacting you? Once again, I'm not saying it's her fault. She got scammed. She was filling a dude, you know, gave him credit card. He gave a smooth line. He had game. He's the scam artist.

He's the criminal. He's the one who did something wrong. She didn't deserve that. None of those women deserved that. I'm not saying that they did. I'm saying they are victims, but at what point [00:30:00] when we are acknowledging you have vulnerability here, right? We acknowledge it at the top. I said, acknowledging personal responsibility doesn't mean blaming the victims.

But we have to acknowledge personal responsibility. At what point is it that person's personal responsibility to be like, you can't use this card no more. What's the number? What's that point? Once again, I have to stress, I'm not blaming the women for giving him their credit card numbers, for allowing him to charge some stuff, because I mean, he was a smooth talker.

He was smooth when I met him. The victims deserve compassion and support, not only because of the emotional fallout, but also because the shame that goes along with being scammed like that, and [00:31:00] him preying on their kindness and their trust. However. It's still possible to discuss the role of ongoing decisions, such as not asking questions, ignoring the red flags, and continue to trust after warning signs.

Acknowledging that while responsibility for the crime lies solely on my man, who's the scammer, repeated choices by these women extended the vulnerability. This is not blame. This is not blame. This is just looking at when are you gonna listen to that third eye? At what point do you listen to that third eye where things don't make sense?

You know it. You feel it. You feel it, but you ignore it. You ignore it for various reasons. I've done it. I've done it. That's the reason why I'm [00:32:00] not blaming them. I'm saying when. Does your personal responsibility kick in? When do you ask these questions? When do you stop ignoring the red flags? I have dated women.

Dating Horror Stories: My Toxic Truth 💔😤

Bruce Anthony: Red flags galore. I'm attracted to red flags. I'm a little toxic. I can admit that I'm a little toxic. Red flags, gimme all of that completely unhealthy for me. Completely. I know this, but gimme them red flags. That's exciting. Toxic. I know I am. I'm trying to grow and get better. So when I get into these situations and no red flags start red flagging and I ignore 'em kind of on me after that point.

Yeah, it's kind of on me because, yeah, I've trusted somebody. I've opened up my vulnerability. [00:33:00] But when those red flags is red flagging and I'm ignoring them, I bear some personal responsibility for how it, for how the outcome comes out. 'cause I could have made some decisions that could have changed the potential outcome, not the initial target.

These women were targeted. I'm not blaming them for anything. Damn sure. Not that. All I'm asking is, come on now. Wendy, when is your personal responsibility kick in. Now the women at this party, at this table, not happy with that. Not happy with that statement. And I know it's kind of, it's kind of like a, a male-ish statement.

Generalizing here. Obviously some women absolutely agree with me, but it's kind of just like a, where there's more stuff that goes into that and, and they're [00:34:00] right. There is a lot of emotions that go into that. But once again, when do you stop focusing on the emotions and listen to that third eye, your intuition, your, those people that are out here listening and watching right now, you have been in a situation where your intuition says, this ain't good.

I need to take this left and exit from this situation. And you don't, you don't take the left and exit. You keep on down that road despite all the warning signs you keep on going.

If you ignore your intuition and the warning signs. Don't you hold some personal responsibility to the outcome? That's all I'm saying here. The people at the party didn't agree that things are evolved and you just never know. And I said, okay, all right, then we'll agree to disagree. That's fine. I don't need everybody to agree with me, but I think I make a [00:35:00] valid point that at a certain point you have to look in the mirror.

I give you another example. I got a friend who's got a service, not a business, and I explain the difference between what a service in a business is. If you do hair, that's a service. It becomes a business. When you start doing hair on a professional level, when you've got invoicing, you've got clients and you've got appointment scheduling, and things are on point, that's a business.

You're not just a service anymore, you're a business. This person I'm talking about has a service, not a business. They keep saying that they have a business, but they don't. So they have a service where they service individual, not on some old, that came off as kind of creepy, but I don't wanna give too much detail because they're listening to this podcast, even though I've told 'em this personally.[00:36:00]

But other people know them and I, I'm not trying to put their business out there like that. So I'm not gonna say specifically what they do, but they're good at that service. They're really good at that service. So they asked me, because even though I don't have any degrees in business, I've started several businesses.

I am running the day-to-day operations of the company that I work for. I'm the president, okay? So I do everything. I oversee everything and I answer to. A board. So I run the company, I've run several businesses before. Some succeeded, some haven't succeeded. Sometimes they succeed. And I decided I don't wanna do it anymore.

Like my dog walking business, you know, within the first couple of weeks, I was making a GA week on that dog walking business. I could be killing right now. I don't like walking dogs. And then somebody said, why don't you just start hiring people? And I'm like, that's a bigger headache than I want, because I'm [00:37:00] already running the day-to-day operations for the company that I work for.

I'm already doing the podcast, which is a business now. It's no longer service. It's a business. I don't have time. I'm being stretched too thin. It's not worth it. So this person comes to me and they wanna improve their business. The very first thing that I say to them is, you have a service, not a business.

If you want a business, you need to start hiring people. I don't want to lose money. That was their response. Their response was, I don't wanna lose money, because I initially told them that You've got so much business right now that you need to hire somebody to take over that business. Well, I have to pay them.

And then that ticket money outta my pocket. Yes, yes, you take an initial hit, but this is what's needed to expand because when it's just yourself, if something happens to you, you are not making money. When you employ people or even have independent contractors, which is what I typically suggest to companies starting out try and hire [00:38:00] independent contractors, not employees.

It's gonna cost you less money and takes that, the taxes burden, puts it on them, not you. You still gotta pay taxes on the company, taxes on what you pay them, but they have to handle their own taxes from what you pay them. You don't have to deal with that. And, and in certain states, you don't have to pay into the employment, the unemployment tax benefit certain states.

So it's more money in your pocket. So I, I told this person, I was like, Hey, you need to hire people. Told them this for a year. Finally, they said, can you help me? Can I hire you to help me run the business side? 'cause I, I'm not good at that. And I said, no, you can't afford me. But what I can do is I can write a strategic plan for you, a business strategic plan for this upcoming year.

It was the end of 2024. So I was gonna, I wrote it for 2025. You know, it'll be a couple of pages, but it's gonna outline benchmarks that [00:39:00] you need to hit each quarter and how to get to those benchmarks. One of the most important things is hiring people, but you don't wanna do a mass hiring right away.

Because you can't put them through the proper, probation period and really set them up for success. So I said, here's the amount of people that you need to hire each quarter, and then by the end of the year, you'll have a staff of this to match along with your growing business. 'cause I gave her marketing stuff.

I gave her the whole package, did not use it, paid for it. Did not use it. This person got into car accidents. This person's had some health issues. This person's had some personal issues to the point where she hasn't been able to work and she's kind of in a financial bind. And I said, if you had followed the plan, it wouldn't have been an issue.

Where does personal [00:40:00] responsibility and accountability come in? Because I'm not blaming her for getting sick and getting into car accidents. That's beyond her control. Right. I'm not blaming her for that. She's a victim. In those situations, I'm talking about something else. This person took a big job, a big job that was gonna take 'em away to another state where they wouldn't be able to provide the service that they typically provide to their clients.

They made this decision without talking to me. Had they told me about this decision beforehand, I would've said, I understand that's a lot of money, but you have regulars here, and if they're not taken care of, you can make a lot of money over here and come back to nothing. You're thinking short when you should be thinking long because this person didn't have any employees.

No staff. This person decides to [00:41:00] hire people on a whim. Goes away to another state for three weeks and has nothing but chaos at home. When this person comes home, she's let go by three of the clients lost on money. It was a complete and utter, I'm gonna, I'm gonna cuss. So cover your ears, kids. Complete another cluster.

Business Fails: What NOT to Do! ❌💸

Bruce Anthony: Fuck. Right. People not showing up to where they were supposed to be, showing up things, not doing. So she's telling me these things as they're, I'm, I'm hearing this in real time, and I'm saying, okay, well wait a minute. How did you set them up before you left? What was the training? What was the breakdown of what they're supposed to be doing?

Oh, I told them, I said, wait a minute. You didn't even write it down on a piece of paper. You didn't even send them in the email what the steps were for the job. Should I have done that? Yep. You didn't even properly [00:42:00] vet these people. You just hired them. They don't do what this service is. It's the first time they're doing this service and you just hired them.

You didn't prep them, you didn't set them up for success, you just hired them. Yeah. But you can't get good people. I'm not hiring anybody anymore. The person didn't take accountability. I explained to them this was all your fault. You hired people on a whim. You didn't properly train them. And it became a shit show.

And it became that because of your decisions. Yeah, but you know, the good people, people don't just don't wanna work. The people that you hired just don't wanna work. But there are people out there that wanna work. And I said, I gave you the blueprint on how to hire people. That package that I gave you at the beginning of the year,[00:43:00]

your choices. Your choices led to this outcome. You need to take personal responsibility for the choices that you made. Yes, these people didn't show up at time or didn't show up at all, or just did a crappy job. Yes, you can't control people's actions. You can't, you're a victim in the standpoint that they didn't do what they said that they were going to do, but you hold some responsibility and accountability for the fact that you didn't properly train them, didn't properly vet them, didn't set them up for success.

Don't blame them for losing clients. You lost those clients because of decisions that you made. And accountability means reflecting on the decisions [00:44:00] and the systems that you can't control. Rather just pointing the fingers at things when they go wrong. This is for all walks of life, right? We all make mistakes, but growth comes from examining what could have been done differently, not just blaming outcomes on others.

This person acknowledged, yeah, I could have handled that differently. Yeah, and now you're gonna have to build back up. And I expressed to them, you can still hire people, you have to, or else you're gonna run into serious trouble because you have a service, not a business. You need to have a business.

That's the most important thing, and you have to hire other people, but there is steps to take when you hire people. Look, everything that I'm talking about, last segment with Raja Jackson and the wrestling [00:45:00] company, this segment with the, the, the victims of that scam artist, my friend that was running the business.

All this discussion is about learning and preventing future situations. This is not shame. This is not reactive blame. This is about learning.

We all have personal flaws. We all do, but acknowledging those flaws and acknowledging ways in which we can act differently isn't blaming ourselves for what happened. But it's also taking accountability and responsibility. And in doing that, we can reclaim agency and move forward stronger. Those women that got scammed, they shouldn't fall for it the second time.

[00:46:00] It's a lesson, right? It's a jacked up lesson that comes with lost money and emotion. And I was wrong. I was informed yesterday that there's no guarantee that these women are going to get the money that was used on their credit card. I assume because my credit cards, but I've never been scammed out of a a lot of money.

I assume because of my credit cards and I've got like theft prevention that, you know, that stuff would be covered. But I guess that's any lawyers out there, credit card. Company. People like there, explain it to me, reach out to me. 'cause I would love to understand that aspect. I thought that the credit card companies would reimburse these people, but maybe not.

That's what I found out yesterday. There's no guarantee that they're gonna be reimbursed. They are absolutely victims. I'm not taking that away from them. They are victims. [00:47:00] My friend is a victim of people who are poor employees. But in all of these scenarios, each person needs to claim some personal responsibility for their actions and the outcomes that came from their act, uh, from their actions.

Look, accountability and tough situation is not blame. But it's a way to understand what can change next time. It's easy to fall into a trap of saying, why did you or I let this happen? It's easy to say that type of stuff, but real growth comes from asking what we can learn from this pattern or system.

You're not responsible for anybody's crime against you, but knowing the signs can help you [00:48:00] protect yourself moving forward. And this isn't just about crimes, this is about relationships and interactions. It's about life. And all I'm asking is when does responsibility come into effect? When we talk about real victims?

Bruce Anthony: All right. Those last two segments ran long. I was pontificating and preaching. I've been doing that a lot lately. I don't know, something must be going on with me in my older age where I just feel like preaching. My uncle used to say, I think you're gonna be a preacher. And I was like, nah, I ain't gonna be no preacher 'cause I'm a heathen.

But, um, I damn sure going to stand up on my soapbox and lecture and I don't think that I'm always [00:49:00] right. But I think I bring up valid arguments that make you think, if you want to make you think. But that's enough, all that thinking. Now it's time for some silly fun and story time with Bruce, and this is the story of my senior year Homecoming.

Story Time! My Wild Homecoming Story🎭🌟

Bruce Anthony: Now, for people that have watched and listened to the show and understand the backstory, you understand the story about the woman that called me gay, and this was in high school. That was junior year in high school. The next year, that same woman still had a crush on me and was best friends with my, who was one of my best friends right now, but was becoming a really good friend of mine.

Back then, she was best friends with my boy's [00:50:00] girl. And me and my boy. We were hanging out every single weekend.

Bruce Anthony: Homecoming is coming out. I have this particular girl that I want to ask. I like her, she likes me, but we're from different sides of the track. It's not no Romeo or Juliet situation.

She just didn't fit in my high school group and I necessarily didn't fit in her high school group, but we dug the hell out of each other. Just it was young romance, even though we never dated or anything. Just that flirtation and the energy was there and I wanted to ask her the homecoming. So I bring this up to my boy.

My boy was like, don't ask her. He's selfish by the way, or was and self-centered. He was the only child. It's like, don't ask her man. She doesn't fit in the group. I was like, well, I don't. I don't have to like go with y'all. We all go into the same spot. I don't have to go with y'all. I can [00:51:00] go with her and her group, but you don't even know anybody over there.

Why don't you just ask my girl's friend? I was like the one that. Spread the rumor that I was gay. Yeah, I mean, I mean, she said she was sorry y'all could make amends and now be perfect 'cause that's her homeboy, homegirl and you my homeboy. And we could all be in the group together and it'll be fun. I don't wanna do that, man.

What changed my mind? 'cause I did end up going to homecoming with this young lady. What changed my mind is that she had certain assets that appealed to me. I don't know what happened over the summer, but good god. She came back looking damn good. How good does she look? One time I saw her walking up the stairs and I said, maybe I can ask her a homecoming.

So I do, and there's, I don't know, a month leading up to [00:52:00] homecoming. So we're hanging out and. And I'm like, nah, she's all right. You know, she's attractive and I'm, I'm somebody to my fault, when somebody apologizes to me and is sincere, I immediately just let things go. That's not the greatest way to live.

And I've been working on that. But shorty apologized and she was looking good and my making valid points to go to homecoming coming together. And I was like, all right. And we, we were hanging out and we're vibing and everything is okay. And I'm like, all right. And she's talking about I'm gonna get some special treatment on, uh, homecoming night.

And I'm really looking forward to that, really looking forward to that. So, um, I'm going go, go ahead and, and see this through. So homecoming comes, I go to pick her up. I forget the corsage, so I've gotta Dr. I pick her up. Gotta drive back to my parents' house. Get the [00:53:00] corsage, put it on, and my parents meet her.

My dad was like, damn, like, okay, so know how to pick 'em. We drive to the restaurant it was a regular restaurant. Homecoming, we had a big table. It was probably about eight to 10 of us in this group that were all going to homecoming together with the limos and everything like that at the restaurant, the waiter spills Sprite on my tan pants.

It's absolutely the waiter's fault. Spills Sprite on my tan pants, Sprite. It's clear, but super sugary and my pants are tanned. I cannot stress that enough. They're tanned, which makes it looks like I have peed myself. It is all over my waist, like the entire area. It looks like I had an accident for a couple days.

That's how bad it was. The restaurant was at fault so much. They comped the meals for the entire table. [00:54:00] Sent somebody over to like a CVS type store to get a hair dryer. For me to use the hair dryer to try and dry my pants. Didn't work. Big stain. Looked like I peed myself. I untucked my shirt, pulled out, pulled out my shirt.

'cause it doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna pull it out anyway when we get to homecoming. Start dancing. But it didn't matter. Look like I peed myself and I look at my boy and I'm like, this is not a good sign. This is not a good sign for the evening. He's like, man, you know, everything happened. It's not that big of a deal.

You know it's gonna be okay. I was like, this ain't a good sign. All right, what else happened? We get in that limousine. We head over to the school. They had a homecoming dance at the school. We head to the cafeteria where everybody gonna be dancing. The music's gonna be playing. Mind you, this woman's been obsessed with me, obsessed with me for almost a year.

The Dance Floor Drama You Won't Believe! 💃😳

Bruce Anthony: We're finally dating. [00:55:00] She finally has what she wants, okay? We get on the dance floor, she dances with everybody else but me to the point where I'm like, yo, are you my homecoming date or not? Why are you dancing with everybody else but me? Why are you not showing me any attention at all? When this was your idea for us to get together?

You've been wanting to get together for the long time. Now we finally here, and you ain't gonna show me no love. This is after. I looked like I peed myself, so I would think that you would give me a little sym, a little sympathy, just a little bit. Didn't dance with me. I pulled her aside. I'm like, yo, what's going on?

She said, don't worry. Tonight I'm gonna give you that special gift. The special gift was sex, y'all. Anyway, anyway, we're all heading over to my boy's house after homecoming. We just going to vibe out [00:56:00] and chill. Me and my boy already got the drinks down in the basement. 'cause we, we, we always looked older, so we were the ones that got the liquor.

So we already got the drinks down in the basement. So we go to the house, we all chilling, playing games and stuff like that. Most of us are sleeping downstairs in the basement. I go down there, get a couple drinks, come back upstairs. Once again, she ain't showing me no attention. This proceeded all night long.

Mind you, my boxes are sticking to me. Why? Because I got Sprite in my lap. I don't have no change of clothes. I just gotta deal with that all night long. So finally I get fed up 'cause she ain't showing me no attention, none. I go downstairs, I go to sleep about three o'clock in the [00:57:00] morning. I feel this little push on my arm.

Bros. Bros wake up. I'm like, yeah, you ready for that special treat? Nah, I don't even want it. What? Nah, I'm good. I'm tired. I'm gonna go to sleep because I'm pissed. I'm pissed at the woman that spread a rumor of the previous year that said I was gay. I take to the homecoming, my senior homecoming, my last homecoming, all because my boy impression me in this situation.

I got sticky draws and not, you know, not the way I want it. Pardon me, but not the way I want it. It's three o'clock in the morning. You have ignored me all night, but you've been giving me appetizers for what was going to happen weeks prior to homecoming. She wasn't ignoring me. All those [00:58:00] weeks on this particular night, she's ignoring me.

And yeah, I could have been selfish and said, you know what? You ignored me, but I'm still gonna go ahead and done this. I could have ignored all the red flags and not had any personal accountability or responsibility to myself. 'cause I had opened the door to my vulnerability by forgiving her, taking her to homecoming.

Drinks spilled being ignored on the dance floor. I've had a horrible time. This has been horrible. So why shouldn't I get a treat at the end? I done gone through all this, but I refuse. Next morning I drive her home 'cause we all spent the night at my boy's house. So I drive her home the next morning and that car, I had a very adult, hey, as a 17-year-old kid, that is [00:59:00] furious.

I can look back and even say, this was a very, very adult conversation and I said, Hey look, I don't think it's a good idea for us to hang out like this anymore. Like we could be cool, we could be friends, but I don't think it's a good idea why. I just feel like we're just really different.

And I didn't really have a great time last night and this was like a first like official date. And for me it was horrible. And I didn't, I let you know throughout the night that I wasn't having a good time

Late Night Confession: What Really Happened! 🌙🤫

Bruce Anthony: and you didn't care. If you were not having a good time as my date, I would've tried to do something to help you have a good time, pay you the little attention, do whatever I [01:00:00] needed to do to bring a smile to your face because this is both of our night. You didn't really show any sympathy for me having to drink spilled on me and having to go through that whole ordeal.

I'm not trying to say this is all about me, but there's gotta be a little bit about me and, and you showed to me in this instant, the most important thing to you was having me be your dated homecoming. Having me be my be your date to homecoming, but not be your date. And you know, I just think that we think differently in this regard, and I think it's best that we just be friends.

Now, one of the reasons why I was so gentle in this conversation is because the last time this woman got some information that I didn't want to be with her. It was brutal, and she decided to spread a vicious rumor, [01:01:00] and now she could spread a rumor that I turned her down for sex, that that guarantees that I'm gay, right?

Because who turned what? 17-year-old boy turns down this voluptuous woman for sex. I turned it down because, look, I'm better than that. That's the reason why I turned it down. She cried. There was no real beef. She said some slick stuff behind my back, but there was no more rumors, you know? And, uh, she got her ass beat later on that year from a, a, a, a woman that I called Ghetto Godzilla.

And she got the brakes beat off of her. And I was laughing because she had said some things that was mean. And I thought it was karma. I thought it was karma. But that was not the worst date I ever had in my life. 'cause I didn't get punched. But it was the worst date I ever had in high school. And it was homecoming.

It was my last [01:02:00] homecoming. Don't get me started on what happened to prom. Prom was even worse. I didn't even get to go to prom. Look, lemme tell you something, it's one thing that I had issues with from eight years old to my current age of 45, is I always got some issues in my date and life. But all the issues in my dating life is because of me. I take personal responsibility and accountability for the decisions that I make. I made the decision to go to homecoming with this young woman because I saw her booty, despite the fact that she had consistently showed me who she was. I don't think she was a bad person at all.

I just don't think that we were good people for each other. That happens in life. All these things that happened to me, even though I'm the victim in these situations, I still hold some personal responsibility. That's all this show has been about. Personal responsibility, [01:03:00] just think about it. But on that note, ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for listening.

Thanks for Watching! Don't Forget to Subscribe! 🎬❤️

Bruce Anthony: I want to thank you for watching, and until next time, as always, I'll holler.

Woo. That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast. Wherever you're listening or watching it to it, pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock, we'll enjoy it also.

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Audi 5,000 Peace.