Robert Rice -The Barber(BEAT Issue 1)

“Devine Platform”

Some choose a job, a career, or a lifestyle. We are born with an inner voice that speaks out about the pitfalls and injustice that occur during life stages. Something was different about the voice that resides within me. Its influence over my mind manifested the most significant moments of my life. When I wanted to change and needed an anchor to slow me down, along came my wife and kids. The stability wasn’t always there. The money was there but not the time. My job required most of my attention; the rest was to recoup from the exhausting energy necessary to accomplish someone else’s dream by meeting their demands. That inner voice began to scream. A bewildered, unguided father and husband began losing their way. Still, the voice was preparing a womb of change that would be strictly guided and headed solely dependent upon my efforts, of dedication. Remembering the womb being prepared, and acknowledging giving birth meant travail and pain accompanied. Being in unfamiliar territory, I didn't know how to prepare my way or where I was headed, but I lost the comfort I had grown accustomed to. With no job and a family and financial obligations, the uphill battle had begun. A series of events I will not acknowledge or give power befell me, and I ended up in the county jail.

The traveling moments were there before I began to cut hair, and it caught the attention of a shop owner and instructor. He approached me with the core of intentions that drives every father and husband. He asked, “How would you like to keep meat and bread on the table, allowing your family never to starve?” I was all ears! He then asked me to work at the shop and get my barber’s license. A license was something I had never imagined or even thought of up to that point in my life. Those closest to me are the ones who asked me how I could take care of a family as a barber? No one but my wife believed in me and all I needed was the partner I had taken vows to support me. Together we struggled, together we climbed.

My drive to succeed led me to long hours to establish myself. I needed a balanced life to keep my quality time with my family. I struggled with a four-day-a-week, very well-paid barbering commute, but the time lost from family seemed like a regular 9-5 job all over again. My supportive wife rescued me once again. She created a way for me to come home and work without travel. Together we established ourselves. The voice inside me was disgruntled, and as my clientele grew, I partnered with another barber as we both were being somehow punished for our success. This time I was more prepared for what the voice inside me birthed. The transition was much more fluent as my partner, and our wives opened our very own business in a double suite, aka a studio. R&R Barber Studio was underway. We outgrew the studio and have now launched our first shop and soon to be on the tongue of everyone's brand.

There was a gentleman I must mention that taught me about being a brand and ultimate professional, Mr. Tone McGill. Along with what Mr. Michael Wallace taught me, how to be a people person. The success and Glory are not mine though!! All the glory and praise I give to YAHWEH and his son YAHSHUA!! This is the platform I use to help our youth by sharing success and information to transform lives and spread the truth. A platform has been given to me by Yahweh, and so much has been birthed. I’ve gained the opportunity to reach more than the church individuals; I reach those who’ve never attended a church service. He has blessed me to have a career that does not feel like a job. I remember these words that my grandfather echoed to me

“When you love what you do, it’s not a job.”