Written by Jesus Figueroa
@ThisFunktional
Mauricio Mejia transformed the nightlife of San Jose, but started by transforming his own life trajectory.
The entrepreneurial spirit was awoken early for Mejia even as obstacles got in his way, he never allowed his spirit to be broken.
“Growing up in L.A., growing up with a single mom, (and) in the hood. The ‘Nos,’ the teasing, and the going to bed hungry is what made me hungry to want more in life,” Mejia said.
The drive to want more out of life started early, as Mejia moved forward even through mistakes which created even larger obstacles.
Mejia had to lean on his faith to believe that God had a bigger plan for him and he would be able to make his way through life’s turbulent times to becoming the godfather of the San Jose nightlife.
“At the same time, the things I have experienced in life have been blessings,” Mejia said. “That’s because of the patience and on top of that my work ethic. (Which is) there is no stop until we get the job done.”
Mejia said there is no excuses to be made for working tirelessly to create the opportunities to get to the life he wanted to live, the lifestyle he wanted to get to, and to pay it forward as he wants to help close the inequities he experienced as he worked his way through the obstacles life put in his way.
“Smoke & Mirror” is the first book Mejia wrote to share his experiences in hopes of inspiring others, sharing his business mindset in his second book, “Decide. Commit. Execute,” and in his next book in the high rise thinking series, “Address. Assess. Move On.” will be out soon.
“For me, high rise thinking is thinking from the highest level,” Mejia said. “Being in an urban environment or metropolitan, by high rises, you wonder who is the one sitting at the top top.”
Mejia’s concept of high rise thinking is from a high level, from a point of view of being able to see the way to success and thinking differently.
“Inflict Power: The Architecture of Highrise Thinking,” the book which will come out later in the year, is the bigger book that discusses the idea to give power to one’s self to propel forward.
“The way that I celebrate (my successes) is by sharing,” Mejia said. “I created a podcast and I bring on other entrepreneurs, mainly focused on the Latin community, I share my successes along with their successes and we learn from each other.”
Mejia shared that he may not have all the answers, but by bringing other experts together everyone can learn from the way things get done, the shortcuts others discover, and the other ways do things.
“I like to share my wins with other,” Mejia said. “Then they reciprocate and then we all win together.”
