The founder of Healthy Hearts describes obstacles to starting a nonprofit: limited capital, trouble hiring talent, low visibility, and structural racism in funding. They emphasize perseverance and living with purpose.
There's a question from one of the students, Teray, and it says, you know, what were some of the barriers you faced when you started Healthy Hearts? I'm assuming outside of prison, and how did you overcome them?
Oh man, you know, some, some of the barriers I think was just getting myself out there, letting people know who I was and sharing my story. And having access to capital, that's still a barrier. Being able to hire talent, that's something that's super difficult just because where I'm at. There are a number of things, but, you know, the main thing is to live with purpose. Like, I really feel like I live with purpose. And when times seem hard, you know, I lean on that. You know, when I see other organizations, you know, and I'll speak on this real briefly, just because of the times that we're in. When I see other organizations that are non-Black and they receive like 4 times the amount of funding I receive in half the time, or they hire talent to build out the team, like highly skilled people come out and volunteer to build their team, or you see when I get a newsletter and it's well-written content and they have videos to boot, like, you know, I wonder like, Why don't I have something like that? Like, why? Where is— what's the barriers for me where I don't— I'm not able to create that type of support so I can get this type of— so my community can get the support that they need? So when I look at those type of barriers, especially, you know, the highlight right now is just talking about all the Black Lives Matter, and you see all these big brands speaking about it. But when I think about, like, what I've experienced personally, It makes me think about, like, is this a part of structural racism, right, that I'm not receiving that? So those are some barriers, and I'm just gonna speak my truth, right? I could sugarcoat it and say, like, "Ray, you're not working hard enough." But, and then, as an entrepreneur, you have to figure it out. It doesn't matter if you're Black or white or whatever color you are. If you're an entrepreneur, you have to figure it out. You have to overcome these things, right? And you gotta stay the course. And for me, I'll say to any entrepreneur, like, if you're doing something purposeful, then lean on that. Like, if you have purpose and you're living through purpose, lean on that and you'll be able to overcome whatever obstacle it is, no matter what.
O processo de reconhecer limites, mesmo quando a vida parece exigir sempre mais.
Depois de tantas histórias, aprendizados e pausas necessárias, o @interior_iza está de volta
