We caught up with the brilliant and insightful De’Shawn Maurice a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

De’Shawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To me, and this might be a very boring answer but to be successful is to be happy about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. Because success is what you make it out to be for you and your definition of success. Otherwise I feel like you’re doing something just to do it and it won’t blossom into anything.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ll start with writing. That was my first form of art. God blessed me with the gift of writing. I can write poetry and I can write straightforward advice, words of wisdom. It’s funny, in high school I was a big fan of “Run’s House” and at the end of each episode Rev Run would sit in his tub and send out daily words of wisdom to his friends. I took that and ran with it. I would type out a text of whatever I was feeling in that moment and deliver the best piece of advice that I could. And I would make them into Facebook statuses. So eventually that turned into making a book out of it everything I’ve written in the form of poetry. I decided to self publish my books (two and working on a new one) because I didn’t want to be limited and have a “theme” of what someone else wanted. I wanted to do everything my way. What you see is all me. The color, design, font, texture, etc. what I want people to get out of everything I write is to know you’re not alone and whatever you thought about or feel, many of us have too.

Photography, my second gift I’d say, is similar to the purpose of writing. I got into photography in 2020 and my goal since day one with it was to make people see their authentic beauty. If you see my work, you’d notice it’s very authentic. No over the top editing to their faces. What you see is them. Not hiding their flaws. That’s why I love it and they love what they see. In turn, gives them a big confidence boost. We all deserve that feeling. We’re beautiful creatures in our own way.

Anything I do is me trying to help with the mind and heart. Whether it’s with my words or through photography. I’ll continue to do that best as I can.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Easy. Making people feel better. Reminding them that you’re human and it’s okay.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

So many. In no particular order, The Alchemist, Think and Grow Rich, Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, The Seven Decisions, Steve Jobs, Peaks and Valleys, and The Magic of Thinking Big, to know a few off the top of my head.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.deshawnmaurice.com/?fbclid=PAAabrGaar4P59O_vNEAyOwsFDC6nDglUfCTJKHuhSsclq6H-3kR6kVHvlVIQ
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/deshawnmauricephotography?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Image Credits
De’Shawn Maurice