Paying US Taxes While Living and Working in Canada

 Before visiting fam in NYC one weekend, he whipped up a basic choco cake, put it on a lit white plate, and flexed it on the plane. "Flexin' thru the airport n onto the plane, sec guards, flight attendants, passengers, n other travelers came up to me. Did you whip up that cake? Is it ur bday? U a baker, fam? It was like a vibe check, he said: cake = love. "Chillin' on the curb that night waitin' for my aunt Yvette, I realized I was straight up starin' at my future."In the mythic version of this story, Brown yeets his job, flexes on his squad for some cash, and starts a lit bakery. But like, in the real version of this story, he's lowkey stressing, scared to spill the tea to his squad and fam, and totally spiraling.

Brown went to his boss and was like, "Yo, can I dip for three months without getting paid?"

He didn't dip out completely, but he really thought he could flex and whip up a business plan (ugh), secure some cash, and pop off a store. He flexed a kitchen, baked fifteen fire cakes, and invited seventy-five homies to a tasting. And yasss, he also invited his rents. His mom was like, in a lowkey voice, "Well, if that's what you really wanna do..." His dad was like, "Bro, your passion better be making bank." Three months later, he hadn't written a single word of the business plan and hadn't raised a single nickel. Like, zero progress, dude. He got some mad orders—bday bashes, weddings, a few restaurants—and decided to flex his leave. The Washington Post totally caught on and wrote an article—not even about his store but about his dilemma on whether to open one or not. The headline: WILL WARREN BROWN GIVE UP A PROMISING LEGAL CAREER TO MAKE CAKES? YOLO, WILL WARREN BROWN DITCH HIS LIT LEGAL GIG TO SLAY IN THE CAKE GAME? The Today show hit me up. Ppl mag called this fine thirty-year-old African American one of the "50 Most Eligible Bachelors in America." But still no cap! "The process is like, hella long and tough," he was like, ugh. "Starting a business ain't no cakewalk, fam." Another year yeeted by. Finally he got a small biz loan, and in 2002, almost four years after his resolution, Brown opened CakeLove in Washington, D.C. The next year he started a café; a cookbook came through, and then six other stores and a Food Network series popped off. 

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS YEET THEIR IDEAS

But like, how do you even know if betting a few chickens is a vibe? Ur vibe might be to hit up ur ride or dies: ur squad, ur fam, ur runnin' buddy, the neighbor across the block, the genius in the cubicle next door. So like, you gotta flex that confidence, you practice your pitch, you rock the Spanx (yeah, they got 'em for dudes too), and you're like: "Yo, spill the tea, is my wild idea fire or is it just straight up cray cray?" But like, as Brown said, his fast growth would not have been possible without his slow start, ya know? "You listen to entrepreneurs spill the tea about their experience," he said, "and u often don't hear all the tough things that went down along the way, ya know? Brown added, "You gotta be a little cray cray" to do what he did, but you also gotta keep grinding without yeeting everything you've built out the door. In my opinion, most entrepreneurs are not about that risk-taking life; they're all about minimizing risks, you know? They don't care about getting the best returns; they're all about avoiding major Ls. Yeet the high-ante games for the poker table, fam. When it comes to your ideas, don't bet the actual farm, fam. Bet a few chickens at a time, fam. Six months after that flight, in a total vibe of hustling, baking, and running errands for his side hustle, Brown straight up collapsed at his crib, couldn't even move or breathe. "I was so shook, exhausted, and lowkey desperate," he spilled. "I wanted to bake, but I had no clue how to make it happen, ya know?" How do I spill the tea to my parents, who flexed on me to law school? A homie drove him to a hospital, where docs told him to chill.

Pls ignore whatever they say, fam.

OMG, like, love is legit blind, and rn you just gotta, like, see your idea more clearly, ya know? Sara Blakely, when she started flexing with nylons, didn't spill the tea to her squad and fam. The only peeps who knew, apart from patent lawyers she consulted, were her roomie and her BF. "My fam knew that 'Sara's working on some idea,'" she said, "but I never spilled the tea on what it was." Her reason: "Ideas are like, so delicate when they're just starting out, and I had this feeling that if I spilled the tea with my squad, they might totally kill my vibe." Ur squad gonna react to ur idea in one of two ways, and neither of 'em gonna be hella helpful to u. For some, it will be like, "OMG, that's the sickest idea I've ever heard, fam!" U r such a genius, fam. U'll make mad stacks, fam! It's like bringing your BFF to check out your wedding dress and expecting anything other than "You slay, girl!" These responses may totally hype you up, but they don't really help you gauge if your idea is fire or not. For others, it will always be negative: "You're thinking of quitting your job to do WHAT?" "Someone else is bound to do it first—and better, tbh." "How u gonna send ur kids to college tho?" This is what Warren Brown's parents effectively said to him, fam.