As almost any entrepreneur or creative will tell you, unexpected problems are to be expected. Below, you’ll hear some incredible stories that highlight and illustrate the kinds of issues and problems entrepreneurs and creatives are dealing with everyday. It’s not easy, but the silver lining is that dealing with unexpected problems is one of the best ways to develop antifragility.

Lawdia Massaley

Creating is is a part of my DNA, what I call my Divine Natural Ability. To be able to use my God-given gifts and talents to bring art into existence is a joy. But the creative journey is not without its bumps and bruises. In fact, life is a creative journey and we all expect to face problems but they still somehow take us by surprise. This is what I experienced when I learned that I had fibroids. They were large and I felt lost because I didn’t know anything about fibroids. Dealing with a physical problem that takes a toll mentally impacted my creativity because it impacted my identity. Read more>>

Leng Chin

It started in about 2017 when my dad was first diagnosed with stage 4 nasal cancer, I was still in school and didn’t really know how to react to the news. My dad started chemotherapy and radiation a couple months after the diagnosis – my whole family helped out with taking him to his appointments and making sure he was okay to go about his daily life. At this point in time, I was working 2 part time jobs, 1 was as a hostess in a restaurant and the other 1 was an apprenticeship at an alteration shop. I was juggling 2 jobs, being a full time student, being in a relationship, and helping out my family. Read more>>

Keith Corona

It has been everything but a smooth road. The business behind the music has caused me to lose friends, I lost both a partner in rhyme as well as an investor to drug addiction, I met various aspiring artists which I wanted to help out and they didn’t believe in themselves enough. The business end of the music journey can be discouraging to many starving artists. Read more>>

Dex Canvas

Knowing where to invest: No matter what field you are in, business owners generally have the same business model. You will more than likely have to promote and market your brand. Investments will have to be made to reach more consumers. Although I understood the importance of investing, I had no idea how to know which sources would benefit my business (music), and which ones were reliable. Read more>>

Gia Cope

The most unexpected conflict I have ever faced in regards to my creative journey has always been with myself. I have been my own worst critic since the jump, and that prevented me from being at my full potenial. I suppose I could say it stemmed from my childhood, or the emotions I felt during my adolescence that made me doubt my own efforts. That feeling of not being good enough, or the crippling fear that I’m just not that good in the first place. Though, the older I became I could notice my perception shifting towards a different direction. I had to come face to face with the realization that doubt is a wonderful thing. Read more>>

Redamancy

One of the problems we have faced that we did not originally anticipate has been garnering unwanted attention – Whether that be audience members at a show overstepping their boundaries, strangers on the street, drunk bar-goers, or unsettling messages sent to us online. Being a rock band requires us to curate a certain image and presence that can come across as glamorous and larger-than-life, which often results in people approaching us for the wrong reasons. Read more>>

Derek Holmes Jr

Building a business from scratch has its plethora of challenges. I’ve ran into a few still have somewhat of a lingering effect today. The first one was that I started my business without any loans or outside funding. All of the funding came out of my pocket via disposable income from my full-time job at the time and my savings. I had no idea what I was in for. I found out quick I was going to need to be creative to survive. I taught myself graphic design to save on paying someone for every design or concept. When I would sell my shirts at pop-ups and markets, I would only take 6 shirts per design. Read more>>

Tay Scandrick

As a dancer, I never expected something I enjoy so much to be so mentally draining. I’ve had many opportunities to capitalize off my talents with dancing but mental fatigue is a real thing and a real problem. I feel like it’s not spoken of a lot. I speak for all dancers when I say that, we have some form of mental or creative block that holds us back from reaching our potential with any piece that we make. Read more>>

Lamont Nanton.

Some of the most unexpected problems in the music industry is how a lot of the radio and media outlets who play urban music tend to only play music form black Hip Hop artist that promote murder, drug use and misogyny. There is no for room made for rappers who make clean music with a positive message. Its almost as if the only rappers that exist are artist with negative messages. Program directors and curators for platforms that market to the black community only present negative images to our community and there is no balance in what they play when it comes to hip hop. Read more>>