Elaine Welteroth quotes: the journalist slash bestselling author speaks her truth.
“You’re allowed to dream up your life as you go.”
“There is a divine order, a divine flow to our lives. We don’t need to have all the answers. But our job is to keep on dreaming and trusting enough to put one foot in front of the other. To keep moving forward. To keep pushing beyond whatever feels confining. To keep searching for where the magic is.”
“The only way to find your path is to do it your way with guidance, mistakes and great people surrounding you.”
“I learned early on the magic of life is having a vision, having faith, and then going for it.”
“There is hustle and there is flow, and you cannot successfully achieve one without the other.”
“Sometimes it takes reaching the summit to see what’s on the other side.”
“There will always be a measure of calculated risk-taking.”
“There is no success story that’s complete without struggle.”
“Falling down is inevitable. It’s the getting back up that’s on you.”
“There is more honor in losing a battle with dignity than in winning a war without it.”
“There is power in speaking your dreams into existence.”
“When your dreams are bigger than the places you find yourself in, sometimes you need to seek out your own reminders that there is more. And there is always more waiting for you on the other side of fear.”
“Make friends with fear. Look in the face of fear and say, ‘I’m going to do it anyway because fear is a part of the process.'”
“Nothing good can grow if you don’t nourish your own soil.”
“Discovering what you don’t want is just as important as finding out what you do.”
“Finding out what you’re good at is priceless. And having the opportunity to actually get paid for doing it is, well, the dream.”
“Take it as far as you can, and when the time comes, jump. And by then, be ready to fly.”
“I think we speak to a certain mindset, and it’s about, you know, inspiring people who are progressive thinkers who want to see change.”
“What’s done in the dark will come to light.”
“In order to change the stories, you must change the storytellers.”
“What is unusual is not always threatening. What is different is not necessarily strange.”
“This is for anyone in your dream job facing perils no one talks about. You are not alone. When you exist in spaces that weren’t built for you, remember sometimes that just being you is the revolution.”
“The point was to become unbreakable. My mother’s words were the warning shot that fairness, justice and security are not guaranteed to any of us. No matter how hard we work.”
“When the world tells you to shrink, expand.”
“The truth is, job titles are temporary. But purpose is infinite.”
“There is no glory in a grind that literally grinds you down to dust.”
“What is not for you can never be for you. No amount of sheer will or work, no amount of bending or shape-shifting will make it so. No act or effort, no apology, no amount of therapy or prayer or repetition, no self-help, no distraction, no matter how hard you try, you can never force anything that isn’t meant to be.”
“What I know now is that when we derive our worth from the relationships in our lives—the intimate ones, the social circles we belong to, the companies we work for—we give away our power and become dependent upon external validation. When that is taken away, our sense of value, and identity, goes with it.”
“If we aren’t vigilant, we can move through our entire lives feeling smaller than we actually are—by playing it safe, by unconsciously giving away our power, by dimming our radiance, by not recognizing there is always so much more waiting for us on the other side of fear. But when we are brave enough—to go there, to grab what we want, to tap into who we are—damn, it feels so good.”
“When the music changes, so must your dance. It was the most beautifully worded truth, a profound lesson reminding me to trust my instincts, to let life guide me, and to never stay anywhere doing the same thing longer than I was supposed to.”
“Every boss I’ve ever had has challenged me, pushed me, believed in me, and led by example. I had the chance to learn from some really talented people who have taught me a lot.”
“I started out as the assistant to the editor-in-chief at Ebony magazine. She took me under her wing and gave me opportunities to take on bigger responsibilities very early on in my career.”
“I was finally waking up to my own possibilities, and to a deeper realization of the power of vision and faith—two of the most important tools I would need on my journey. For the first time, I understood that the bigness of my life would be determined not only by the bigness of my dreams, but also by my capacity to trust that there is a Higher Power who would always take those dreams and multiply them.”
“Continue to expand, staying open to being stretched. And allowing room to be completely awed by how much better it gets along the way.”
“When you do your part, life just unfolds in ways that are so much better than you would have dreamed up on your own.”
“I feel an obligation to tell the truth. At the heart of every journalist is a truth-teller. And I certainly employed that muscle when writing my own story. My mom always says, ‘What comes from the heart touches the heart.'”
“When other people tell the truth, it awakens the truth within yourself and sets you free to tell yours.”
“I don’t believe in work-life balance. I think it’s more about work-life integration because, increasingly, so much time of ours is spent doing work, so I’ve always wanted to dedicate my work life to having a social impact.”
“We don’t prioritize our time with ourselves. We rarely set aside moments to be still, to access our center. And the bottom line is, when we don’t focus on our inner light, it dims.”
“We live in a multi-cultural world, so embracing diversity is important in every industry.”
“When a girl is born, a universe of possibilities is born within her.”
“Young people are craving something real, craving authenticity.”
“I share certain parts of my life that young girls can relate to because it is important for them to see themselves in women who are placed in positions of power, without having to sacrifice or hide or disguise certain parts of who they are. I think that’s an important message for young girls who are still figuring out their own identity and dreams.”
“I looked up and realized, I have to take my own advice. It’s time to tell more of my story, because if I’m going to be held up as a trailblazer, I need to be doing the work to make sure that I’m leaving that trail with some sign posts along the way that make it easier, less confusing, less daunting for the next generation that’s coming up behind me.”
“I grew up with social media. I am the boomerang queen. I enjoy this. I live this. The day I don’t is the day I need to resign.”
“The next generation of luxury consumers are much more socially conscious, and they look to invest in brands that see the world the way they do.”
“I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of about being a woman who loves fashion. Fashion is a vehicle for self-expression, it tells the world who you are and how you want to be seen. If you use it as a canvas for creativity, then you might want to talk about it, you know? And I fully embrace that.”
“I truly believe that getting dressed in the morning is about deciding who you want to be, what you’re saying in the world, and how you want people to see you. It’s so much more than superficial.”
“Not gonna lie, having a personal glam squad is pretty amazing.”
“If you feel that it diminishes your intelligence to be asked about your fashion choices for an evening on the red carpet, so be it.”
“I’ve learned to love who I am.”
“My mother taught me to be proud of who I am, no matter what anyone says, and that’s been something that’s helped me to be—to have integrity throughout my whole career and my whole life.”
“There are no destinations, no happily ever afters in real life, no glossy pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. There are only new beginnings.”
“The reality is, no matter where you come from, no matter how big your dreams are, you already are more than enough, even if you are a work in progress.”
“You have done enough. You are enough. You were born enough. The world is waiting on you.”
“Our lives are a series of dreams realized.”
“Find your voice and tell the stories that only you can tell. We live in a click-bait culture where there is pressure to just chase the click. But what I will tell you is that the most transformative work you will do is the work that only you can do. Find your zone of genius sooner than later; zero in on that and don’t be afraid to tell the story that no one else is telling.”
