Classroom-2-Boardroom: Build Your Kitchen Table
5-minute read: When the going gets tough, the going seeks collaboration, not isolation.
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. 😇
Ad Break…
Dot is a cash-to-cashless experience for immigrant students in Africa.
We are currently performing internal user acceptance testing, if you’d like to experience this or know someone who might, please sign up to join the waitlist below and you’ll be the first to know when we go public.
Ad Ends…
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!
Don’t go through this journey of life, alone. The prize is not worth the price.
Quote of the week
👉🏾When the going gets tough, the going seeks collaboration, not isolation.👈🏾
Ad Break…
Dot is a cash-to-cashless experience for immigrant students in Africa.
We are currently performing internal user acceptance testing, if you’d like to experience this or know someone who might, please sign up to join the waitlist below and you’ll be the first to know when we go public.
Ad Ends…
Don’t Forget to be Awesome!
Dulra ❤️
Founder/CEO, Dot.
Simply brilliant Dulra. I love your posts! Keep going!!!