One of the Biggest Keys to Success
Here is what I have found is the biggest key to success, honestly If i were to really reflect back and see what it was that has let me accomplish my goals it’s been this. So far as I am writing this I have lived 29 years and have accomplished most of my goals.
I have been lucky enough to travel the world seeing 26 countries by the time I was 26, I have attended my dream school Rochester Institute of Technology, and broken into four different industries — startups, nonprofit, tech, and now media.
Here is the secret — you don’t need to be perfect….
You just have to start.
There are definitely people who are better qualified than I am. I literally did not study computer engineering, I don’t even have a background in marketing, although I am privileged I didn’t come from wealth — actually quite the opposite I grew up low income and frankly still have a lot of debt (#cancelstudentloans) but I have been able to either accomplish or am in the midst of accomplishing my dreams.
Starting no matter where you are, whether it is perfect or not, the key is you take the first step. You may stumble and fall, it wont be perfect but you have to keep going — when you stop and give up that’s when you fail.
You will see some people that are not as well versed, experts start to success, yes they suck and are the true imposters — but they showed up. They are being consistent they keep going — are you?
I wanted to travel the world, I didn’t just wait — I applied for a scholarship and got to go to Kosovo that small step set me up to meet people all over the world to be invited to visit, to have the courage to go off on my own.
I wanted to move into the tech industry so i unashamedly slid into a former classmate’s DMs and asked if his company was hiring. I took that small step.
I wanted to start a business so — I took a job at a start up as the first employee and a huge pay cut but I did so to learn the ins and outs of what it took to build a business from the ground up.
I want to one day create a show and be the brown girl Anthony Bourdain meets Bill Nye, meets Gary Vee, meets Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I’m not there yet, but in 2014 I started blogging — not as consistently and I started telling my story. I started showing up and connecting with people far beyond borders. I stayed in touch with friends I had met on my travels and been lucky to always be able to find opportunity within my network and connect others.
Today it’s February 17th, 2021, and I have 20K followers now on TikTok, this was the first video posted on April 6th, 2020. I couldn’t think of what I wanted to focus on or story I wanted to tell. I had about 10 followers and my camera was gross and I had no make up on so I went with what I was feeling in the moment.
So I shared a pep talk to myself, and future me today is watching laughing.” You just have to start, because I promise you. I HAVE SEEN IT, I have lived it, mediocre AF white guys are doing it — and they are getting paid. They are living your dreams and you’re just too afraid to start.”
And yes, some of us more privileged because of our socioeconomic status, gender, race, sexual expression and preference — but people will judge us anyways. People will try to find ways to hold us back, and we can’t let other’s determine what success looks like in our lives and what we can and can’t do.
We will never know what we are capable of unless we try, unless you take that first step to realize your potential.
So, I am committing to going back to my roots and blogging, I’m going to share my story more and what I know in the best medium I can — through writing. From there I will make it into videos, podcasts, content but I am starting here right now.
It’s going to be messy, there will be typos, it won’t be perfect — you will be annoyed — but that can all be fixed later. The key is to start.
So what are you starting?
Originally published at https://buildwithjoy.co on February 17, 2021.
