By: Brandon Clay @PSBPopCulture

The year was 2002. I was 20 with a college degree and a vision to spend my life helping kids chase their dreams of playing basketball at the college level and beyond. I didn’t have any money to invest but was willing to spend my weekday & weekend nights in gyms around the state of Georgia watching players. I worked as many as four part-time jobs at a time in those first 3-5 years to keep rent paid, lights on and Ramen Noodles on my plate. Even when I lost the little money I made on events that didn’t pan out, I never lost hope…..

Fast Forward. 2016. I’m 35 with a growing business that has impacted thousands of kids and employs hundreds annually. Sure people still doubt the work I put in but a lot more people respect the efforts than those who don’t. If you have a gift and the work ethic, don’t let anyone tell you what you can or can’t be. Work smart, stay humble.

A couple of my favorite quotes to describe the work:

“Who you know lock themselves in a room doing five beats a day for three summers? That’s a Different World like Cree Summer. I’m supposed to do these numbers.” – Kanye, “Spaceship”

“Vision in my head all I had to was get it out.” – T.I., “Slideshow”

“She said I would never be as big as Trey Songz, boy was she wrong. That was just negative energy for me to feed off.” – Drake, “From Time”

[Photo Cred: Larry Rhinehart]

A photo posted by BrandonClayPSB (@brandonclaypsb) on Sep 18, 2016 at 4:42pm PDT

Brandon Clay serves as the publisher of PSBPopCulture.com. A self-professed entertainment, music and sports junkie, Clay has been on his game since picking up his first Nintendo and Sony Walkman in the early 90’s. Adding in a SLAM (Basketball) Magazine subscription in the late-90’s had him setup up for lifelong success. Clay is also a founding member of the “Luxury Boys Club” designed to stay on top of whatever is next in the world of PopCulture. You can follow him on Twitter @psbpopculture.