#16 The Genuine Article

I’m a fairly private and reserved person when it comes to my deepest of thoughts and feelings. It’s not very often that I share these thoughts with people. Though I welcome just about anyone into my life, I do have a very tight inner circle of friends (you know who you are). You have to be a particular type of person in order for me to open up to you at a deeper level. NNena is one such person.

Feeling the positive energy

I’ve only recently just met Nnena. We had a sit down over a late supper a few nights ago and we got into a fairly personal conversation where I had a vulnerable moment. I reflected on this afterwards. I don’t usually share these types of thoughts with people I just met. It takes a while for me to able to establish my trust in someone, but I think it’s her genuine and honest nature that brought it out of me. That’s exceptional.

I met Nnena at a mobile developers networking event. I typically consider these events a waste of time as I’m only there to meet fellow techies and talk shop, but I end up running into all sorts of biz dev people. It’s usually the same people over and over…and over…and over again. Like one particular person from a certain startup that I’m not fond of (you know who you are). Grrrrr.

I unleash my Fierce Panda Roar Technique on you!

When I ran into Nnena, I immediately felt a different vibe from her. For one, she wasn’t schmoozy, but genuinely interested in the people she was meeting. I appreciated that. Too often we meet people that we can only chat on the surface with. She’s not one of them. During our recent conversation, she talked in depth about her family and in particular the support she had throughout her life from her father. She described him as a man that was nurturing no matter what path she took. He respects and loves her unconditionally. I have great admiration for this man.

I sense that she was able to grow into the strong woman that she is today because of his guidance and support. She told me how, early on in her academic career, she rebelled against her innate affinity for law. She decided to study medicine instead. Her parents suggested otherwise, but let her walk her own branching path and discover her way back to what she should naturally pursue. When she finally realized she wasn’t meant for the medical field, she went back home to tell her parents she was going back to studying law. I believe this was a sigh of relief for them, but they didn’t give her a hard time about it. They showed love and understanding and backed her 100%. They were just happy she had found her calling. That’s fantastic parenting. I can only hope to live up to this standard of parenting one day. She is now an accomplished attorney with her own practice and, on top of that, she is the founder and CEO of Black Founders. The goal of Black Founders is to establish an ecosystem that stimulates entrepreneurship and foster economic growth in the community, especially among the black community. She has taken on a tremendous undertaking with this project and I support her endeavors. She’s such a busy body, I don’t know exactly when she finds time to rest and relax, but every so often she’ll sneak in some shut eye.