Monday 11 January 2016

Fast Lane


I spend quite a lot of my time reading fictional books during the week and one series that I cannot seem to let go of is the Lucky Santangelo series by Jackie Collins.

Lucky is the daughter of an American Italian mobster. Soon she becomes one of Vegas' most successful hoteliers. Except Lucky doesn't look and act like the typical multi-millionare entrepreneur. She speaks in a rough New Yorker accent despite having come from money, she dresses in leather pants and silk blouses instead of pinstriped pencil skirts and white collared shirts. She is only 27. This is the 1970s where women are not equal to men but Lucky is a game changer and when she wants something, there is nothing that will take her eyes off the ball.

Business mogul in her own right, intelligent but exotic and sexy as hell. She takes pride in her feline nature but has no problem with getting straight down to business. 

What Lucky wants Lucky gets - no questions asked.



Nothing belongs to you but everything is there for the taking.



On Saturday night I found myself having a sort of philosophical conversation with my friends from University when an odd topic came up. Can we really have anything we want in this world or are we limited by timing, expertise, the people around us, the changing course of future circumstance? From this I started to consider my own level of ambition. How far would I go to achieve everything I set out to? The answer is very very far. We can talk about things like timing from today until next year but living without this level of passion for me would be like living without water. I wouldn't survive the cruelties of this world if I knew I couldn't influence it in a big way.   
But have you ever had someone tell you to stay in your lane? Lucky Sanatangelo has, I have and I'm pretty sure the answer wouldn't be different for you too. 
It all starts off like this: 
"That University is 'hard' to get into. Why don't you try these other 8 places?" 
"The chances of becoming a millionaire entrepreneur is impossible." 
"You can't grow to become that famous actress you watch on TV. You do know she came from money right?"
"You certainly can't work for Apple, not to even mention Google. They only hire multi lingual people." The Fast Lane. 

There is a toxic societal system that has been inked into us from birth. Why demand such level of greatness from yourself when it is reserved for the 1%? 

To make ourselves feel better we use tag lines like: 
"At least I have my family and friends." 
"I don't need to do something big to make a difference." 
"I'll go to University because this prospective job will pay the bills." 
I'll stay in my lane and play it safe because what will I tell my friends and family if I don't get to where I truly desire to be? 

Let me assure you that the pain of embarrassment is far less than the pain of 'I wish, I wish, I wish...'

The truth in the matter is we can have anything in the world that we want - if we want it bad enough. If we are willing to ditch the complaints and excuses and replace them with resilience, perseverance, a strong backbone and probably blood stained tears.

Today I'll share my aspirations with you in the hopes that you'll shares yours with some friends and family and fearlessly begin to make a path towards them:

I want Diamants au chocolat to grow into a universal brand known by everyone in the fashion, film and entertainment industry. I want to write books and with that I want to be a scriptwriter and director, hence why I watch about 15 different TV Shows simultaneously in any given year. In short, I want to create stories that will change trends in pop culture on a large scale, tackling the diversity issues that seem to be present in every inch of the fashion and entertainment industry, the stereotypes of young millennials and women in general. 

Now it's your turn. Go for it.






Stay hungry, stay foolish.   -   Steve Jobs









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