Classroom-2-Boardroom: Build Your Kitchen Table

5-minute read: When the going gets tough, the going seeks collaboration, not isolation.

Sep 19, 2023

Hi friends 👋🏾

Happy Tuesday. Welcome to Issue 5 of Classroom-2-Boardroom (formerly Follow Your Money).

👉🏾Last week, we talked about the importance of execution and getting things done. 🚀

Today, we’re diving into how to get things done, but not alone. 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦👨‍👩‍👦

This week’s Issue was heavily inspired by the Forever First Lady, Michelle Obama and her book- The Light We Carry.

CLASSROOM-2-BOARDROOM
Issue 5: Build Your Kitchen Table

This may sound harsh but I’ve come to realize that If you want to go slow, please go ALONE. 🤷🏾‍♀️

If you truly want to FAST & FAR, don’t do it alone. 👯‍♂️

No one has ever truly done any great thing alone. No passion can wither in the face of communal support– if it’s the right one. 💯🎯

👉🏾When the going gets tough, the going seeks collaboration, not isolation. 👨‍👩‍👦

The meaning of life is found not just in ourselves but in other people. ❤️

To pursue your passion alone comes with a prize but my friends, the price you pay is not worth the prize. 💁🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♀️

Those who are in my close circle know how much I obsess over the former First Lady, Michelle Obama. ✨

I first read her book, Becoming, during the global lockdown and in the midst of the global pandemic, I found peace that makes no sense. 💯

Eventually, the title of her book ended up on my college essay as Becoming Me. Becoming More. 👌🏾

Recently, she released another book titled “The Light We Carry” ✨and there, she doubled down on the importance of building a Kitchen Table. 💯

See here’s the catch…are you gonna catch it❓

👉🏾When you choose to follow your heart and do odd things, you’re choosing an unconventional path– a path with more failures than success.

You’re choosing to be uncomfortable with problems and comfortable with setbacks. 🕺🏾

While your friends are making 3 career bets every 5 years, you’re making 1 passion bet, every 5-10 years. 🤦🏾‍♂️

It’s the hardest thing you’ll do but also the most rewarding experience you’ll have– if you do it the right way. 🎯💯

I know what you’re thinking– ”So Dulra, what’s the right way”❓

Well, here’s the twist, my friends. The “right way” is relative to the entity in charge- YOU. 🙅🏾‍♂️

Sadly I don’t know what the right way is for you. But I know what the left way is– doing things alone. 🤒

Simply put, “Kitchen Table is the cabinet of good friends beyond one’s family who are each other’s cheerleaders” - Michelle Obama.

So what/who characterizes your Kitchen Table❓

Your Kitchen Table will provide you with “emotional shelter, good humor, and communal shelter”

Your Kitchen Table is never stagnant, always evolving through time and space. 💯
No one person, no one relationship will fulfill your every need. 🎯
Not every person at your Kitchen Table will show up how you need them and when you need them. 💯
It’s okay to bring in new people but it’s also okay to downsize your Kitchen Table. 🎯
You’ll never not need them. 💯
It’s not IF you need them–but WHEN you need them. 🎯

Yet, it’s not a one-sided relationship. You want to invest in your kitchen table, as much as they are investing in you. 🕺🏾

You can only harvest what you plant. You can’t depend on a relationship you didn’t nurture. ✨💯

Your Kitchen Table could be 5 people, could be 1 person, could be 3– doesn’t matter. 😇

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Simon Sinek, in one of his videos, consciously or unconsciously summarizes a few things about your Kitchen Table below: 👇🏾

He said 🤌🏾 “All you need is one person (Kitchen Table) in your life who says…

You got this, I believe in you.

Cause then, you’ll find the courage and energy to do things that you would not have done before. 🕺🏾

More importantly, they also say if anything goes wrong, I’ll be there for you. I’ll be there with you and I’ll be in the mud with you. 👨‍👩‍👦

Your Kitchen Table has the ability to say something is wrong. I’m worried about you.🤒

Your Kitchen Table will protect you from burnout.👌🏾

Because burnout happens when you’re trying to do all of the things you see other people do without realizing that they have deep meaningful relationships that you can’t see.🎯💯

And you think, falsely, that you have to do it alone– that’s when burnout happens. 🙅🏾‍♂️

Because you as an individual don’t have the energy to do it alone. 🙅🏾‍♂️

But [through your Kitchen Table] and in community, relationship, and friendship, what you can do is remarkable.” 🚀🚀

Lastly, the power of a Kitchen Table is in the community. 🤌🏾

Your Kitchen Table should be diverse & if possible filled with different people. ✨

Collectively, their strengths are beyond measure. 🎯💯

You have one job- one job, my friends. 🤌🏾

Lean into their strengths cause then you’ll become unstoppable (as the song says). 💯
Lean into the light they carry cause then you can’t be ignored. 🎯

When light competes with light, it creates glare (otherwise blindness) but when light mixes with other lights, it creates a rainbow. ✨❤️

Therefore, my friends, I encourage you to set out to build your Kitchen Table- round or square. Build it!