This is officially the first post on Nzuri Noire. Yay! So what is Nzuri Noire? It’s a media platform designed to serve, inform, inspire and delight Black women, through thoughtfully curated content. One of the reasons I created Nzuri Noire is because I was exhausted by what I was seeing on the internet – the fakeness, the bad news, the hate, the negativity, the celebrity gossip, and politics – it was all too much for me. I felt I needed an escape. And if I felt I needed an escape, I was sure other women felt the same way. I wanted to create a space that would be a safe space and destination for Black women everywhere, to be informed, inspired and delighted, minus politics, gossip and celebrities (If that’s what you’re looking for, you can find it somewhere else – there are plenty of sites out there covering all three).
So, you might be asking, what does this have to do with failure? A lot, actually. I’m a recovering attorney. My professional dream was to work in-house for a corporation. Maybe do some mentoring, but that was it. Had I successfully realized my dream of going in house, Nzuri Noire probably wouldn’t exist. The failure doesn’t stop there though. In 2008 I launched a fashion blog called Detroit Style Review. I ran it off and on for ten (10) years. It never took off the way I had hoped. Again, another failure. Oh, but we’re not finished. In 2014, I launched a t-shirt company called DSR Apparel. It never really caught traction the way I had hoped. Strike three.
Had I succeeded at any of these ventures, Nzuri Noire wouldn’t have been born. Now, at the time, I felt crushed about all of these failures. But with each, the time it took for me to let go and move on decreased significantly. Now, as I look back, none of these were losses, they were all lessons. Each of these endeavors taught me valuable skills that I’ve been able to incorporate into Nzuri Noire. And while Nzuri Noire is still fairly young, I know that it will be greater than all of these experiences combined.
In a day and age where many people’s social media feeds are carefully curated to showcase nothing but their wins, the idea of failure probably makes you think you’re doing it wrong. It certainly made me feel that way. According to all the celebrity entrepreneurs and “bizfotainment” magazines (Yes, I made up a word – you know the “business magazines” I’m talking about too) if everything wasn’t falling into place for me, I was abnormal. Once I turned off the noise and focused on the truth, I realized that failure was normal and all a part of the process. Henry Ford is famously quoted as having said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Ain’t that the truth!?
Don’t let fear of failure stop you from pursuing your goals or dreams. Perfection is an illusion and failure is a normal part of the process. And just think, your failure may give birth to something greater than you even could’ve imagined.
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