🌟 Remarkable Monday, Mar. 11

Here’s to a REMARKABLE MONDAY, my friend!

For every dreamer who is part of our community with a big week ahead, let’s access our inner capacity to bounce back from any difficulty that might arise.

Before we get into it, a big shout out to Da'Vine Joy Randolph for her Oscar win. In her acceptance speech for best supporting actress, Randolph said, “I always wanted to be different, but now I realize that I just need to be myself.” Wow! What a realization. She summed up her tearful comments with, “Thank you for seeing me.”

A Lawsuit She Didn’t See Coming

Today, we salute Arian Simone as we continue honoring the women who are making history throughout Women’s History Month. Arian is the co-founder and CEO of the Fearless Fund, a venture capital firm on a mission to level the investment playing field for female founders of color.

According to Fearless Fund, minority women account for 20% of the U.S. population but receive 0.39% – you read that correctly, less than 1% – of venture capital funding.

In an interview on CBS Mornings, Simone discussed the “racial discrimination” lawsuit waged against her organization by The American Alliance for Equal Rights. Led by the same conservative activist who worked for more than a decade to upend affirmative action in college admissions, the lawsuit claims that one of the fund’s grant programs is discriminatory.

Engaged in this high-stakes legal battle, Simone admits that she has her ups and downs. In another conversation with Forbes’ Rosemarie Miller, Simone detailed how other founders can find their own resilience and withstand the battles they must fight, especially the ones they didn’t choose.

I love her reasoning behind “pulling from the child within,” partially because I know this scenario all too well. She talked about how children will keep asking for something until they get it. I remember a phase when my daughter, who was 2 years old at the time, would ask for something on repeat until her mom or I responded. Who am I kidding? We’re still in that phase a year later.

But isn’t it ironic how we, as adults, can lose that tenacity children possess? We lose that fire to keep asking until we find our yes. My challenge for you this week is to keep asking. I understand that what you are working toward is not easy. In fact, it might require everything you can muster and then some. But don’t stop asking until you find your yes.

Before I let you go, I want to give you a call to action.

As we continue our Women’s History Month tributes, I want you to think of a woman in your circle who is fighting for her dream. Will you let her know you are thinking of her? Remind her that she has you in her corner.

I think I know of a good email you can forward to her for inspiration as well. Hint: The name starts with Remarkable and ends with Monday.

If you are reading this far…

I hope this message finds you well. I’m sharing from my heart in hopes that you will be inspired to unearth and live out your God-given purpose. Hopefully, something I said resonated. I would love to hear from you if so. Please feel free to reach out to me on social media. FYI: I’m mostly active on Instagram these days. If you were forwarded this message, you can subscribe here to receive thoughts like this directly in your inbox. And don’t forget to check out the latest episode of my podcast, ConvoRoom with Mark Allen Patterson.

See you next week,