The Beauty of Success

2Heart for God

You have to be careful not to allow people to dictate how you feel about the circumstances of your life or your mere existence.

—Teresa Bledsoe, my mom

When I first moved to Los Angeles in 2014, I was stopped at a red light less than a mile from my house for what seemed like an eternity. My heart raced, and I remember tapping and tapping on the steering wheel. I had an intense headache that was radiating across my forehead and a sharp pain in my chest. Was I having a heart attack? Was I about to faint?

I later realized that I was reacting to being at a crossroads of whether to stay or go in the first company I co-created, Digital Brand Architects (DBA). I wanted to stay, but I also had a strong desire to leave and start something new. This all came from a division between me and my co-founders that was fueled by ego, power, and a dynamic between three people that can only come about in intense business relationships.

We had fundamentally different views. I remember one of my partners saying she wanted to be a cult leader, which I later understood to mean that she wanted to be the only person in charge and of authority. She wanted to control all aspects of the company and team and later created a false narrative that she was the founder of DBA. She tried to completely erase me from the company's history and creation story, when in truth, she was not at the kitchen table when Karen Robinovitz and I started DBA, nor was she present when we had the idea to launch ...