020: maybe i follow the wrong people online.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
019: i once saw my cousin walk in with a new hat. it looked expensive. i ask "how much was that?". he says "£110". i said "bruv".
with that same money, he could have bought multiple hats, make up his own brand, and stitch his own logos into the hats. not only would he have felt good that he has created his own clothing brand, but if people like the hats, they would say "where did you get that from?". he would say "i made it". they would say "i'm gonna buy one". now he has more money than when he started.
we break our backs to buy into brands that don't even share the same beliefs as us. build your own brand. don't find value in the things you buy. create your own value. not only is it cheaper, but it's more rewarding.
happy black friday init.
[written on black friday 2015]
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
018: we don't need to be taught how to be creative. more times than not, creativity is taught out of us. the ability to make something out of nothing is encoded into our dna. we are made in imago dei (the image of god). we are carbon copies of a infinitely creative being. so please, never down-play your ideas. never let them rot in the dark corners of your mind. because when you begin to create, you become what you were designed to be in the first place. imago dei.
always remember that.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
017: my soul does not know how to speak english, but my pen does.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
016: i know one girl called yara.
we met a few years back when we were both working for live magazine. living in a city that hardly sees the sun shine, her high-energy was blindingly noticeable. her wisdom was infinite. our conversations were enlightening. honestly, i just found her to be an amazing human being.
every now and again, we would catch up to see how things were. i call her one time. she tells me she is working for london live. cool. i call her again. she tells me she is working for sony records. cool. i call her again. she tells me she's leaving england. i ask why. she says "i'm working for the united nations".
yara is an example of focus and dedication. yara showed me that using things like your postcode, race and gender as an excuse not to live a large life is garbage. yara showed me it's possible to change the world with a smile on your face. yara is a g, basically.
i can't wait to see what she's gonna achieve on planet earth. remember me when you are going around the world doing what presidential people do. will miss you!
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
015: "so we adjust. never stagnant. forever progressing. forever improving. forever establishing. never stopping. ever.
and from a distance i can see us reigning over this town. kings and queens in an established kingdom. once confiscated from us, we received our crowns back with a thorough invasion"
was 19 when i wrote 'manifesto'. can't believe it's been four years already. happy fourth birthday...
[written on november 25th 2015]
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
014: let me read that proverb again...
'a gift will make room for you and present you before great men'
when i was eighteen i would write short stories on my smartphone on the overground. one day i put these writings in a book and began to sell them at college. my friends started talking to their friends about it. one introduction after another, i was meeting new people. not too long afterwards, i'm no longer on a train to college, but on a plane to canada. over there i meet a man that reminds me that my words got me there. these trivial sentences i constructed on my smartphone, somehow became my passport to travel overseas.
now i never stop creating, because ten times out of ten, every new creative project i start allows me to travel to new places, whether it be mentally or geographically.
'a gift will make room for you and present you before great men'
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
013: thirteen years ago around about this time of the year, i was playing gta: vice city. that game taught me more life lessons than you may expect.
when you start the game, you're free to do whatever you want, but there's a catch, one third of the map is locked. you could either carry on free-roaming (which eventually gets boring) or you can develop in your skills, character, and storyline. the more you develop in your story, the more the world unlocks itself to you.
i once read a proverb that says "your gift will make room for you and present you before great men".
i believe that when you are born, god puts us in a small room with a key to open doors. this small key is known as your 'gift'. the more you use your gift, the more the world 'unlocks'.
you can either free roam (which eventually gets boring) or you can develop your skills, character and storyline. your gift expands your map.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
012: i heard them say that ancient cultures considered it to be a curse if you kept a gift for too long. if something was given to you as a gift, you were expected to pass it on. you were supposed to 'keep the gift in motion'.
there's too many secretly gifted people on my newsfeed. too many people pretending to be untalented. too many of us acting like we have no gifts to share. mate!
show us your gifts! not only that, keep showing us your gifts. keep your gift alive. keep the gift in motion.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance
011: back when i was in school, mandem used to write their tag names on the back of bus seats and class chairs. back when we was in egypt, scholars used to write hieroglyphs on the side of temple walls.
they wrote different messages but had the same human instinct, to make a memorable mark. i wonder if future archeologists will look at old london walls and marvel at ancient mandem the same way we marvel at ancient egyptians.
ha! 'ancient mandem'. i like the sound of that.
Andre Anderson - Freedom & Balance