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Founder's Letter: What We Can Learn From Jennifer Hudson’s EGOT Win

If you know me, you will know that I am so impatient. It is one of my worst personality traits to be honest. I want everything to be done in an instant. If I don’t see results sooner rather than later in any area of my life, from working out, to my work, I can actually feel like I’m on the edge of a breakdown and that unfortunately isn’t an exaggeration.

However, where I am most impatient is my career and it can often rob me of joy when I achieve something, because the result isn’t exactly what I wanted or when I wanted it. An example of this is when Black Ballad first needed investment. I had spent months creating pitch decks, perfecting my actual pitch and spending months trying to convince investors to give us money but ultimately it didn’t happen. However, someone convinced me to apply for a grant. We won a grant in the high five figures that allowed us to start our Outside of London journey, yet inside I couldn’t quite pat myself on the back because the money wasn’t won in the way I wanted to win it. I wanted to secure investment and with hindsight it, it is a ridiculous reason not to fully celebrate because money is money and a win is a win. I mean grants aren’t given for free, you still have to do the work to win them.