My name is Akua Soadwa and I am the founder of the Gye Nyame Empowerment Project. I started it in February of 2007 and I started it because I really felt like there was a lack of support for people in my community, specifically with ensuring that we really tap into our full potential.
When I first moved to New York I was really seeking out volunteer opportunities for organizations that focused on black people, Latinos, just really supporting them with living the lives that they want to live. Ireached out to a plethora of organizations in New York City.
Success is really about how true am I being to myself. I‘m committed to really allowing myself to unapologetically let my light shine so I can be free and fully self–expressed. Any time I‘m not doing that I don’t see myself as being successful.
I am the only thing in the way. The conversations I have in my head are the only things that are preventing me from doing the things that I say Ican’t do. It’s also the only thing preventing me from doing the things I can do. Anytime I say I can’t do it, I‘m not going to do it. When I say I can Ifind myself doing it, so I am the biggest threat to me not having everything that I want.
I went to a competitive college. I went to Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts, which is an all-women’s college. It’s like the rigor of the academics there, everybody was trying to be successful. My friendships in college significantly shaped my understanding and interpretation of success because whatever it was going to be, I knew it was going to be exceptional.
No such thing as failure. Everything is a lesson learned and you then get to play with it the next time around and make sure you don’t do the exact same thing. Don’t believe the naysayers. There are certain things that they’ve experienced and they don’t see it as being possible, but so long as you’re clear that anything is possible that you speak into existence then everything is going to work out for you.
Nothing is impossible. I believe in being able to create whatever it is that Iwant. If I want to name it ‘American Dream’, cool, but I can create it whatever way I want my life to look. Success is not about how much money I have or how much fame and fortune I have. It’s really about how true am I being to myself so that I can then give to other people in that same way.
