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Surviving the Side Hustle
Welcome to "Surviving the Side Hustle," the ultimate podcast for balancing the demands of entrepreneurship with maintaining mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
Hosted by Coach Rob Tracz, an expert in helping driven professionals achieve 'personal development for professional success,' this show is more than just storytelling—it's a masterclass in thriving amidst the entrepreneurial grind. Each episode features candid conversations with leaders who are rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship, sharing their unique stories, the creative solutions they're offering, and the everyday challenges they’re overcoming.
Whether you’re a side hustler looking for your big break or an established entrepreneur seeking fresh perspectives, "Surviving the Side Hustle" provides valuable insights that resonate with the movers, the shakers, and everyone in between.
Feeling burnt out and sidelining your own health? This podcast empowers you to overcome stagnation, build resilience, and optimize your life and business. We dive deep into your goals, identify obstacles, and share strategies to boost your energy, improve your strength, and keep the entrepreneurial grind enjoyable.
Join us for inspiring stories, expert insights, and practical advice to help you look good, feel good, and do great things at every stage of your entrepreneurial journey. Let’s not just survive the side hustle—let's master it.
Surviving the Side Hustle
E119 - From Following Your Heart to Living Authentically: Aisha Makara's Journey Through 60 Countries
What does it mean to truly live authentically in a world that constantly pushes us toward conformity? Aisha, an artist and world traveler who has visited over 60 countries, joins us to share her extraordinary perspective on embracing life's full spectrum of experiences.
Having grown up in an orphanage before becoming a global adventurer and successful artist, Aisha brings a refreshingly direct approach to life's biggest questions. She challenges our assumptions about success, happiness, and fulfillment, suggesting that our societal programming keeps us trapped in careers we dislike and relationships that don't serve us. "About 90% of people live lives dictated by external expectations," she observes, "but your heart wants you to do things that make you truly happy."
The conversation weaves through profound insights about how travel expands our understanding of ourselves and others. Aisha explains how experiencing different cultures taught her that despite surface differences, humans share the same fundamental struggles worldwide. This realization has fueled both her artistic expression and her mission to inspire authenticity in others.
Perhaps most compelling is Aisha's practical advice for transformation: change just one habit consistently, give yourself permission to struggle with it, and recognize that persistence eventually leads to breakthrough. This philosophy guided her own remarkable journey from entrepreneur to recognized artist whose work has literally reached space after a bold outreach to Elon Musk.
Whether you're contemplating a major life change or simply feeling disconnected from your authentic self, this episode offers both inspiration and practical wisdom. As Aisha reminds us in her parting words: "Always believe in yourself. Never give up. We're all winners, no matter what experiences we've gone through."
What's going on, and welcome back to another episode of Surviving the Side Hustle. I'm super excited because I've got a longtime friend coming on today, aisha. She's super cool because she's. I met her probably two years ago, maybe at a wellness retreat, and then so many other events, and she's all over the place all over the world. She's just super cool. She's got this objective that she's on this mission to really inspire, motivate and empower audiences to really live and breathe in their creative energy. She really wants everyone to take risks and be brave in their endeavors, with the ability to reinvent themselves multiple times even. And she also wants everyone to know that not everything in life is granted or given. So you must go out and really carve a path for yourself to think success is not just only about obtaining a position of power or financial strength, but to also see it as a bringing color to life and creating beautiful world with your own identity. So I know this is going to be a great conversation, so welcome to the show. I'm excited to have you on.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for having me. I really appreciated this moment and I feel like what you guys do. It's amazing and also inspiring. It inspires me to see that community, like the real community, that wants to create something beautiful. They really do that and it's inspiring and it's very cool as well.
Speaker 1:I love to hear that too, because when we first connected it was we kind of had this community growing and things are going on. But it's cool to see somebody else from the outside who's kind of witnessing how things are growing and how we're going. And before we started recording you were sharing that. You're all the way over in Lisbon now.
Speaker 2:Yes, lisbon, portugal. It's my home, where my heart is. I love this country so much and it's so many colors here. I'm feeling so inspired. Here again, my heart is, you know, so many colors here. I'm feeling so inspired. Here again, my heart is, you know, busy again. So it's a wonderful feeling to come back home and just feeling like I'm home again. You know, it's like everything feels like family and home, and even the food, you know, oh, that's got to be awesome.
Speaker 1:So, to my understanding, I saw that you have over 60 countries stamped in your passport.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean I love to travel. I still travel a lot and I really love to explore new places around the world. And you see the magic, how magical the world is, how many magical places around the world. And you know, I just more I'm traveling, more I'm understanding that we're really living in magic and we're really like creating it now by having this opportunity to travel around the world. And, you know, connected to many different places around the world and experiencing it as well Learning the languages, dances, culture, everything, it's just so. Food, you know the taste of the different fruits, and it's amazing what we have with the opportunities that we have and how much we can experience by living it now. So that's kind of my way of exploring new countries. You know new languages and new cultures by being curious. That's why I probably went to all of them and I still do.
Speaker 1:Well, so what drives you to keep traveling around? Because I imagine you've seen a lot of amazing things and why not continue going back to some of your favorites? Why do you continue to explore and find new places and where does that curiosity kind of come from?
Speaker 2:I have time in my life, I like to explore the places that I already went, that I love very much as well, very much as well. And I also like to go and explore new places because, you know, you never know what you can discover, because, like, sometimes I feel like that's a need, or maybe wonder that somewhere that magical land is there and more I'm exploring about that magical land, I understand how my life is magical and where I am living now it's already magical itself. So, like, by exploring new places, by exploring you know new people, new cultures and everything. We understand everything is the same, you know, the same work, the same struggles, the same challenges, just different way. And when I just decided for myself what I want to create in this lifetime, what I enjoy, and for me it's I'm living history of Europe because I love these beautiful buildings.
Speaker 2:You know architecture, I love their food, I love this family vibe. You know I love this. You know everyone on the street like I love it because, like everyone, become like a family for you. You know I love this. You know everyone on the street like I love it because, like everyone, become like a family for you. You know, like everyone, the baker, the restaurant owner, and it's just feeling of like they know you, you know they don't know you and at the same time, they do know you, you know they see you every day. That means like for them, you're here for so long and you see all the changes that's happening in the same time. When you're going traveling and exploring new places as well, you're coming back completely different person in the same time the same, and I'm feeling like travels change our perspective and the the way of seeing life and the way appreciating life, and I'm just feeling like more of a travel.
Speaker 1:We're discovering how much we don't know yeah, I love that because I feel like that when the new perspective that you gain you, you realize that it's you're still you and you kind of learn more about yourself through learning about other cultures and other people and things like that. And I think the more that you know yourself, the better than you can be. Then you can kind of understand others, and I think that's powerful, whether speaking in terms of like business and such too, like the better you know yourself and your brand and your product, the better than you can know your audience and customers and things like that too. And I feel like, like you said there, traveling gives you that incredible perspective which carries over and really, like I would imagine for you, helps you be more creative and create new things and just carry over into so many different aspects of your life.
Speaker 2:Yes, carry over into so many different aspects of your life. Yes, for example, for me, when I started to explore art and I moved to America, because in my mind at that time many artists were still like, oh, you get to be in Art Basel, you get like it's like a big thing for the artist, like accomplish that you know side of the reality. And for me it was just okay. I just moved to Miamiami and I will be in our buzz in one year, you know, like next year, and it's being artists and if not covid, you know I've been in about 2020. I'm just feeling like it's all about just see the possibility through the tools that we have, and I'm feeling like not so many people have that awareness and bravery to do that, to kind of like explore yourself and then your places and just be authentic yourself. You know, don't be scary of other people opinions. So, like you know, for me, one of the challenges English.
Speaker 2:I, when I arrived to America, decided to leave. You know like I get to communicate in English all the time, because when I'm in Europe, I was living here, I was speaking Norwegian and I was speaking Portuguese and me like going and um talking and I did like that language all the time was also a challenge. You know you get to learn new words, understand yourself, like how you get to express yourself correctly. So it's not easy like understand the way you get to be understand somehow, you know, because it's like you expressing your truth of your reality or from your perception, and with the words that you have, the vocabulary that you have so far, I'm just feeling like you. I get to do it as simple as possible for the people to understand what I mean. And I also understood one thing that explaining it as simple as possible, I'm also opening some questions for the people. So it's, you know, simplicity is actually so complicated sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I love what you're saying there about like more so being authentic and kind of stepping into all these different challenges. What do you have to say to individuals, though, who, because it can be scary, to kind of challenge yourself and stepping out and like you're very brave for traveling around and going to all these different countries and a lot of people that could be terrifying because you don't know the language, you don't know what to do, you don't know how to communicate, um, so how? So what do you have to say to individuals who might trying to express to themselves, but they're they're a little afraid, and how do they, how do they introduce some of that challenge to build some confidence?
Speaker 2:me, for example, what I, what I do. I just say the statement Now, I'm an artist. So what artists do they create? And I say, okay, what they create, they get to just go and create whatever it is to create, because when we decided to be artists, anyone can be an artist.
Speaker 2:It's just what you want to do with that time, with that challenges, with that free time and how you want to explore that side of you, that unknown side, because many people would criticize you, to say to you like, oh, you're an engineer, you're a doctor, you're this and that, and like why you are decided to go to the direction that not so many people go, almost nobody goes why you know and I'm feeling like when you overcome that, why you know and started to actually create that reality for yourself because that's what you want to do, nobody else and overcome the old, I would say, challenges, that people pushing on you because of parents wants you to be an engineer or doctor and a lawyer, and you don't want that. You don't want that path for yourself. Because you decided and many times people cannot overcome that side of the reality they're doubting themselves for years and years and years. And the thing is you have just one life. It's no doubt you got to go, that's it. And I'm just feeling like, yes, yes, if I would doubt myself, probably I was still there in orphan house and don't do anything, not in some way like living. Maybe I'm dead already, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But the point is is like the decision that I made in my life and where I am today. Yes, it's many things is happening, back and forward. It's this is what life is it like. It's everything is growing and growing, and growing because we have expectations. And the thing is it's good to have expectations. You get to clarify them and communicate them all the time. You know, because when you're creating something with others, especially, and when you're creating these expectations, you get to communicate all of them. And many times people don't do that. They have assumptions, they think, thinking, whatever, but they don't communicate. And how you can build something without communication, without actually express your vision or your way of seeing things? People don't know. And that's the reality of art I've been artist is going, entrepreneur, going towards that direction of unknown. And explore and be curious to learn as much as you can by being authentic yourself, by being true in the first place to yourself.
Speaker 1:So if someone's looking to kind of dive into this, because I feel like so many people nowadays, they're kind of not living themselves, they're not living authentically themselves and people building up these different lies or personas or different characters in their head and this makes it difficult to live your life because you can't relax, essentially, If someone's listening to this and they're like, oh okay, I need to dive into this a little bit more, what would be some advice that you could give to them about like hey, how do you introduce that authenticity? Like, how do you get into the? What's the easiest way to kind of start to express yourself? I guess Question things.
Speaker 2:I think it's about like a question. Start to ask yourself, like why people do this, why this person communicate with me, for example, about gossip. I used to say to the people first you get to understand the reason that they communicate with you, something that can be true or can be not true, because it's, it's there, it's what I decided and, in reality, many people decided to listen to the gossip and you don't create your own opinion. It's based on you know, someone else opinion and many times I feel like people like using the other someone else opinion about something, about knowledge, about whatever. I'm just feeling like you get to go. If you feel the, the call, you get to go and explore that side of the reality that you want to explore. Yes, it's scary, yes, it's easy to take all the mask out and start with that question why not? Why you cannot do that? And after that all the other questions will come and whatever direction that question takes you, this is where you get to go, because you get to continue to ask questions. Sometimes questions are not comfortable. At the same time, they're still there for you to explore them and I feel like, when we have that courage to create that reality for ourselves, that we stop to care about other people's opinions, stop to like, listen to the other people's opinions, decided to leave from our heart, because that's what I feel, to create that, what my call is. That's what you get to do, because you don't know.
Speaker 2:In the reality, we all have the same end, absolutely anyone. You have money, you don't have money, you're living in a palace or you're living in a tent, it doesn't matter. We all have the same end. So why not? To walk and see what you can actually do with authenticity, with that reality that you believe, you don't know, and you get to believe in that, that you are not alone. To walk that walk maybe it will be some time. Walking alone, it's okay. That's life is.
Speaker 2:You know, we are like, we're thinking we're with people. In reality, we don't know what is in the head. So what you get to do is to create what you know you want to see in the world. You get to be that and it's not easy. Many times you're getting a lot of rejection because society built on lies and I'm feeling like because, like the family, even look like the family, the idea like, happily ever, it's not true. You know like in all this years they're selling this idea of the happy family and all these different realities that it's there and in reality it's not easy to keep it, to work on it, to communicate through two parties.
Speaker 2:You know, and I'm feeling like it's just so much to do and this is what we don't learn at schools, for example, we get to go and explore on our own. You know, one of the things commit to be with someone the rest of your life. It's a big commitment, you know, and especially when you don't even know from your heart, is this really what I want to do? Is this really? Oh, it's just a program that's been built and that's what I get to do because everybody else do it. I don't know.
Speaker 1:That is a powerful stuff because that makes me think. I have a friend in particular who really does, does not like his job, that he has, but he does it because he's got a family and he needs to provide. And every day he's upset and kind of depressed and I tell him, like man, you can, you can do whatever you want to do. You can create the life you want to live. It just takes a little bit of time and a little bit of energy to kind of figure things out and kind of work through it. And yeah, it is hard, but, like everything is hard, nothing in life is easy. Like you said, like even relationships take a lot of effort. There's no such thing as a happily ever after you got to make sure you're constantly showing up and putting the work in, and uh, I believe that. So that's powerful stuff and I love that you brought that up there. Um, but I, I'm interested.
Speaker 2:Many people do. I believe like 90 90 percent of our population actually do that. They do it because they've been, they've been programmed that level and they've been programmed because it's important for our society. You know, society gets to continue. We get to pay taxes, we get to produce, we get to do this and we get to produce, produce, produce.
Speaker 2:There's no way to understand what I really want. Maybe I want to go and live in the mountains. Maybe I want to go and live in the islands and just eat coconuts every day and smoke weed all day long. That's maybe what I want in the rest of my life and just die. You know, everyone has their own idea, the way they want to live their life, and they have the the power to do that. They don't because, oh, society will not accept me. Is this is not acceptable. My parents will not accept me, my you is not acceptable, my parents will not accept me.
Speaker 2:You know, like every time it's something outside, not what you feel, the reality. Go and explore that side of yourself. You don't know, you can guess and you don't know. That's what I used to say to the people. I don't know me as a sailor. I get to go and explore. Do I really like the ocean? Ocean, yes, I have this idea of myself and it's just idea. I get to go and work towards that idea in real life to explore how my body reacts to these different waves. And you know, being in the water for weeks or days it's not easy. It's a lot of like you know, work for the brain, with the brain, a lot of rejection because it's new for brain and everything that's new for brain you're rejecting it. You know it's not easy for the brain to adapt to the new reality and still you get to work toward that reality with your heart, because this is what your heart wants, because you don't see, the brain doesn't see, you know, and every time its brain is scared of something new and that's what our brain is. On scarcity, and I'm feeling like it's now the world, the universe, the planet Earth wants you to work towards. Your heart Wants you to come and do things that your heart wants to do and just having a great time.
Speaker 2:You know being happy, like I used to say to the people. You know it's kind of a sad story but the reality is I was very young and I was hanging out with gangsters and I feel like we were stealing the bikes. At that time we were being kids, very young kids. We didn't understand, we didn't care if we were going to die today or we were going to die tomorrow, it doesn't matter. We just had fun in that moment of our life. And, you know, when they started to some of my friends died in this motorcycle accident I was thinking like they had so much fun. You know that moment of their life yes, it's scary, and they had fun. Their heart was beating so strong because that's what, you know, like, life is about. It's about to feel that happiness. Yes, everyone is going to die. It doesn't matter You're going to die in a hospital for months or you're going to die like jumping from somewhere or like doing something that you're incredibly happy about.
Speaker 2:You have such a this level of adrenaline rush and it's consistently this excitement. You know, kids are consistently living in excitement. They don't think about I'm going to die at all. We do as adults. The kids don't know what's dangerous is. They get to always go and explore that you know side of them and what happened is is like the danger is what who is showing is parents, the adults? Oh, it's scary.
Speaker 2:Don't do this when, you know, I look at myself, I say I've been very free kid. You know, I did a lot of probably very dangerous things climbing the top of the trees, you know, doing a lot of crazy shit but like I just feeling like in that moment of my life I didn't even think about that, oh, I'm going to fall from the tree. Oh, like something will happen, I break the arm, whatever. No, I didn't think, I just had so much fun.
Speaker 2:I want to be just winner, be on top of that tree, like be the first one or all the other kids. That's what I can do. You know, like I'm kind of like showing up at the same time, take that risk, that danger that not so many other kids could do, and I'm just feeling like that's what you get to understand. It's not about thinking about doing it, you know, and really creating that possibility first for yourself to see that I'm a winner. You know, I'm here to win, I'm a winner of the world. That's what I was calling. Like every time I was on top of the top of the tree, I was like I'm the winner.
Speaker 2:You know, I love it. I love that feeling of freedom in the same time, because be on top of the tree, none, almost none of them could do. You know, I was the only one and I feel like so proud of it inside of me and, just as a kid, you're feeling this like feeling of you, what you can do, you know and like and what you can achieve Just in the moment. It doesn't even happen. You don't think so much. Everything was happening in the moment, all the games happening in the moment, all like whatever they have in mind, they're expressing it right away and everything is just happening in the moment.
Speaker 2:Because, with other kids. They're there around and they're just like, okay, let's do this, let's jump, let's create something, let's create a boat together. Everything is happening in the moment with kids. Some of them are leading because he or she has ID and you know now, kids don't do that.
Speaker 1:No, where do you think that it stopped?
Speaker 2:I think it's because the kids is too much in their computers and it's like too much like this screen interaction and they just guiding, you know, the kids to the direction because they just playing with, just guiding you know the kids to the direction because they just play with their. You know there's a direction of the one that she was through their programs that they you use as a kid and you kind of kind of, as you're smart, as a like as an adult or as a parent, you get to guide them through this so they can actually, naturally, can understand what they like in the digital world. You know, because they're smart, they can guide themselves, but you get to kind of navigate them a little bit. I just feel like the technology and the way the technology works right now, it's amazing, it's really powerful and magical and the way we can develop it, um, it's also like a consequences depends the way we want to take it as well. Right, so it depends on our mind and I'm just feeling like kids nowadays are way more smarter and more developed than many adults is because they have this idea of emotional intelligence already.
Speaker 2:So they kind of like understand about the patterns based on the you know, like they learn about emotion through the cartoonish or whatever these different cartoons that we have. Oh, this is happy, this is joy, this is like sad, or this is like. You know, I get to be kind to the sad one. You know they're learning in the early age the reaction, the emotional. Remember there was a cartoon. It was upside down or in and out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I remember In and out is about emotions.
Speaker 2:Oh, inside out, yeah, inside out the joy you know like was like several anger yeah sadness, sadness.
Speaker 2:And the disgust, remember, after, like the next step up is like other things to show, because they try the pixel trying to explain the emotions as a kid has. They have everything in a moment. You know that's a kid experiencing, because they don't react, like they don't. They don't act, they react, you know, persistent. It's like observing kids. It's very amazing, like just in a second or like in five minutes they can express so much and I'm feeling like we adults losing that sight of us because of the screen.
Speaker 1:again, I'm feeling like when they're still like not spending so much time on the screen, they're still like growing and developing their emotions, and I'm feeling like, in some point, because of the screen, they're not developing their emotion, so they stop I totally agree with you on that, because I I was actually just having a conversation with somebody recently, somewhere along the lines of of what we're kind of talking about now, and we related it back to like the screens and how people are so sucked into it and how the technology is great because it allows us to connect with people across the world, but at the same time, we're more disconnected now than ever before.
Speaker 1:And when we're constantly on social media and we see everybody else's highlights and everything that everyone's doing so great, we start to just feel kind of sad and depressed because we look at everything on social media and then we look at our own lives and then we think we don't have enough happiness and then people are always constantly chasing after that happiness and I think people forget that like we're human, we're meant to experience all of the emotions, so like there's no bad emotions, like sadness and anger those are not bad emotions, but we get so fixed on wanting to achieve more happiness that we lose appreciation for the other emotions and we lose appreciation for the things that we do have in our lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe you know the body like, for example, when I have some not easy experiences in my day, like some days is not easy, like more emotional than other days, and I'm feeling like why it's happening for me. Like I always ask like why it's happening, why this? Like I'm getting some days so emotional and I'm getting very angry, very easy. And I understood like for me it's um, because I'm a woman, I have my period, so the periods are up and down and you kind of as only you're connecting with everything that's happening around. So it's easy stress level and everything in the city. You know, when you're living in the city it's like so easy to get out on the like, on the anger way, because your body is naturally, you know, doing it. And many times what we do with the antidepressant, because people get scary of the different emotions that's coming in and they don't want to feel them because they're scared of them. You know they cannot, like they don't even ask why it's happening. You know why I have this. You know, and this is one of the my observation on my own body and my own reaction of the things that's happening around and I'm asking why it's happening. You know why it's like so people not growing through the emotions, and sometimes I'm observing, as the the patterns that people have. I'm asking you have a pattern? I have a pattern too and I just know like, I have my patterns and sometimes I'm going to change I. I can change the patterns when I want to change them. Sometimes it's not easy I mean many times it's not easy to change them.
Speaker 2:And my discovery was I just need to change one habit. You know, even so, like I used to say, I put like 5 am, you know, like alarm, even so, I don't wake up. When I continuously do that in months or two months, eventually I started to wake up and my body will eventually start to move and do things. Of course, in the beginning it's not easy. Your body will like, see, like, oh, I don't want to wake up, and maybe in two hours you will wake up. Instead, to wake up at like, let's say, 10 or nine, you start to wake up at around seven. You know, and like and like. This is like natural. But just changing one habit it can change your life. You know, completely, you get to focus on that one habit to change it. So I feel like many people give up very early and they don't even put you know.
Speaker 2:Some people need more time than others and many times we get so distracted in our everyday life with so many, you know, bombarding information and I'm feeling like when people just decided, make that decision for themselves, focus on one thing at least for some time, one thing. It's not so much. And when they have opportunity, like doing art, for example, or I don't know, like started to um sailing, like if, when you have opportunity, every time you have opportunity to do that and you don't do that in your everyday life and you have the, the, the wish or like the willingness to do that, do it. You know, like I'm just saying to the people create a slowly habit. Maybe that habit takes years.
Speaker 2:The thing is is like, give yourself permission to do that, to experience, and it's different habits. Like even you have the same conversation complaining about taxes, I don't know complaining about something that you know that you're consistently complaining about that. Like, understand why you, what's the reason behind that? You know, like, instead, like people like don't go on the parties and they don't even notice their own parties, their own conversations, they don't even listen to themselves when they're speaking and I'm listening to the people you know, and I'm just feeling like, oh, this person.
Speaker 2:Again. They said I, usually you all the time just talking about yourself. I said yes, because I have so much and I'm listening to the people and I'm just feeling like, oh, this person. Again they said Aisha, you all the time just talking about yourself. I said yes, because I have so much going on in my life all the time I got to just talk about me. It's just so much every day and so like I'm feeling because people probably don't live the life they don't have nothing to share. I don't know. The point is like maybe I'm so selfish and I'm listening to other people and the life doesn't change and it's like since last time, nothing changed in your life, in my life, is there's so much going on, you know, every time yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:it's a problem when people are like yeah, no, nothing's new, same old, same old, and it's been like forever. It's like, oh, you're not living life, you're just kind of sitting home on your screens and that's it.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I want people more action. They play more, you know. Go outside and play with each other. Do things, you know. Do acro, you know. Do yoga. Do like meetings in the park. Do some activities and it, you know. Do yoga. Do like meetings in the park. Do some activities. And it's not easy, you know. People are getting shy and it's like takes time and after like you know so many things, instead of just play and have fun. People cannot even do that as adults.
Speaker 1:They don't even have consistency to have fun yeah, it's terrible watching their routine, you know well, I appreciate the uh, the tips on the changing the routines and stuff too, because, as you know, I'm always kind of talking about changing habits and shifting routines and the uh, what's the saying? It's like how do you eat an elephant? It's one bite at a time. It's just pick one thing and focus on it, which is another thing too is like we we tend to be terrible with focusing nowadays too, so it's like one thing and that instant gratification is like oh, the whole journey it's going to take like a hundred years, but I want to do it now. Slow down, enjoy it, go breathe, get some air like get some sun and enjoy the process and the journey itself instead of just seeking that destination.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's what I learned through my life. I was, like you know, I'm an artist. I'm very grateful I discovered it. You know, like that side of me, I was new. After being an entrepreneur and a business owner, I understood like to be an artist. It's kind of like this final stage there to dream big, there, to walk your own path. Because I did walk my own path. I just didn't realize that I'm the creator. You know, I can create things and I can actually work towards that.
Speaker 2:By coming as an artist to Miami and just decided I'm an artist and started to go to all these events and creating all this, going to this, all the network events that connected to art. I knew that I will get in our boss because it's all about networking, it's about connection. It's about know who you're. All the network events that connected to art. I knew that I would get in the art world because it's all about networking, it's about connection. It's about know who you're connecting with, why. Just go to the places that your heart wants to go, not like thinking about oh how will you know?
Speaker 2:You get to be authentic yourself and continue to work on your own mission, and this is when people ask you to bring your art. Bring your art, you know. Bring something. Don't ask like how much you will get for that, how much you will get for this, it doesn't matter because, right, you're building your own. You know it's like it will matter later.
Speaker 2:Like the money work I use, always it's abundance of the money. It's just so much money in the world that it's not enough people to spend all that money that we have in the world. The thing is people don't open that door for themselves and I'm feeling like, yes, you can struggle, but understand why you decided to struggle right now and continue to live your dream. You know, like I used to say to people, I like to struggle from time to time because if I will not struggle I will be just super spoiled. I will be such a bitch, you know, all the time. And I like to have that a little bit of struggle on the side because it's keeping me humble and understanding about other things that I value in myself, that I have, and I value that other people have.
Speaker 2:That humbleness, you know, still happy and humble and when I'm feeling like I just go to the place because I want to go to this place, because this is what I'm growing, this is what I'm developing in my reality.
Speaker 2:I don't know about other people, reality, that's my reality. And when my friends is coming in, it's like, oh my gosh, your life is amazing, you're doing so many things. It's always like all these beautiful people and I'm like, yes, because I'm a beautiful human being. Of course, my old friends are very beautiful. They're very passionate about life. They're passionate about art, they're passionate to travel and do the thing that they do. They're passionate about music and I'm just feeling like I'm because I'm passionate myself, so like I create because of my passion and because of the curiosity I have and more of my like this myself, because this is the way I am. I'm connecting with the right people. I always do, and I'm just trusting to that because, in reality, what I discover from by living in Miami and being art community, like it's so many things is happening in the same time.
Speaker 1:What I love about Miami was like people give each other space to be yeah, it's important to go through, uh, going back to what you were talking about, the struggles because, uh, I think that's where we grow the most. We grow through the. We grow the most through challenge and not the celebration and not the partying on the sides, because that's where everything kind of stems from and you use that to kind of learn about yourself and move forward for the ups and the downs. But I'm interested, I wanted to ask you because I think I saw something about your artwork went to space.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so many years ago, when I was it was a COVID I decided to send my artwork to Elon Musk, to Richard Branson and to Jeff Bezos, and I asked Elon Musk to send my art to the space. I asked Richard Branson that I can paint his rocket and I asked Jeff Bezos to send me to the space I mean, in this case, amazon, you know, and SpaceX and I sent it to this offices. It was a perfect time, end of the year 2020 and I'm feeling like Elon Musk kind of like took this idea and kind of created something out of that and collected I don't know. I just want to believe, you know, because it was not nobody was thinking about probably like to send art into space. Yeah, and he likes the idea.
Speaker 2:And I said and it's connected to this 50 years 50 years ago, in 1972, a bunch of scientists sent one of the artworks and gave them the golden plates it's called a piano pen and they send the artwork and they were like a bunch of hippies. I would say so because of the 50 years later, they decided to collect or select 50 artworks from around the world and two of my artworks were selected. So it's flying somewhere in space right now.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Because it's connected to my dream. This is what I used to say to people dream and enjoy your life. Yes, Life is a dream.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is Well, Aisha. This was an incredible conversation. I appreciate you taking the time coming on here and sharing some of your insights and your experiences, I should say, but I do want to be courteous of your time, so I want to thank you for coming on and sharing again. This has been a really fun conversation. I really enjoyed it. It's always good to connect with old friends. But before I let you go, I want to ask you, from all your travels and all the different countries and different lessons that you've learned and from all the people that you've connected with, if you were to boil it all down and if you were to pick out your number one piece of advice for being successful in life, and just in achieving living authentically what would be your number one piece of advice for that?
Speaker 2:Always believe in yourself. Never give up on yourself. Believe that we're here to win. We're all winners, no matter what, no matter what experience you went through, we are winners.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love that. I appreciate that. That's super powerful. It's a great reminder that we're all winners and no losers in this world. We're all just here together to wish and work together to create a better place, and I really appreciate that. And again, thank you so much for taking the time and hopping on, and it was awesome to connect with you Jai for living Namaste. We'll talk to you soon.