Tag: Tyler Perry

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Write 2 Be Magazine will be debuting on January 15^th, 2013 so please go join the magazine on twitter before it debuts on https://twitter.com/write2bemag and join the email listing for the magazine at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com. Also please feel free to like my Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine. Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

When Hitting a Rock, Just Keep Digging

January 10, 2013 jcladyluv

I opened my emails yesterday and there was a message from Tyler Perry (sent days prior, just unopened) talking about digging deep until we get to where it is we are going and where we know God wants us to be. He advised that even if you hit rock, if you know that it’s what’s meant for you, just keep digging.

It got me to thinking about just how long I have been digging this well (meaning my attempt at being a successful freelance writer) and just how long it seems like I have been hitting nothing but rock. I don’t just mean rock that is movable and pliable with just a few whacks either. I mean really hard, strong, take ten people to move, kind of rock.

Obviously I know that there are many people who are worse off than me and who might look at me and wonder what I am complaining about, and they may be right where it pertains to them. But when you are hitting nothing but rock you really feel like it is the worst position you can be in and you feel like there is no way to move through it or past it.

But then I remember that I have faith and I have God and while I may not be able to move a rock that would ordinarily take ten people to be able to move, God is said to be able to move mountains. In Tyler Perry’s email he spoke about hitting the rock and eventually being able to dig deeper, past that rock, and reaching your well of blessings.

I’m not sure how close I am to that well yet, but I have a feeling that there’s only so much rock left to hit and that my well is right around the corner. I don’t know how many of you out there feel the same way, like all you’ve been hitting lately is nothing but rock while trying to get to your well, but don’t stop digging because your well may just be right past that rock. Don’t give up too soon, I know I’m not.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Lessons to Be Learned From a Media Mogul—Tyler Perry

December 11, 2012 jcladyluv

In reading about Tyler Perry’s journey; both his struggles and humble beginnings, as well as his rise to success and his eventual triumph; I can always point out a lesson that he has learned along his road to success that I can apply to what I am currently going through now. Some of the things that I have learned from reading and just watching his journey are things and words that were never spoken to me growing up.

They are things that I have been struggling to comprehend for a long time now. They are things that are finally starting to sink in and I am realizing that these are things that will help propel me to where it is that I want to be, and where it is that I need to be. So I wanted to share with you a few lessons that I have learned from observing Tyler Perry that could help steer you on a more sturdy road to success.

1) Don’t Let Anybody Define You— People have hated on Tyler Perry since he became a success. They’ve tried to tear him down, say what they think he should be doing. Even some people in the industry still don’t take him seriously enough just because he started off in the comedy arena. None of that matters to him. He has never tried to be anything that other people wanted him to be. He has never tried to be anyone other than himself. And look at where you can go just defining your own identity instead of letting others define it for you.

2) Guard Your Heart—When Tyler Perry speaks of guarding your heart he isn’t talking about heartbreak (like I initially thought). He is speaking of keeping your heart in tact when others continue to try and change you. On your road to success people are going to do cruel and unforgivable things to you, things that you never thought they would do. Guarding your heart is going to keep you from allowing those cruelties and those unforgivable things to change your heart and turn you into someone that you are not.

3) Never let the word NO stop you from succeeding anyway—Tyler Perry’s first play that he wrote in 1992 and took his whole life savings to produce and put on was not well received and it placed him back into the poverty that he dealt with in his childhood. He spent months sleeping in seedy motels and eventually in his car. He never let the No’s keep him from powering through the rough times and eventually someone said Yes! The rest is history.

4) Don’t let the bad that’s in your past hold you back from receiving the good that is in your future—Tyler Perry had an abusive and poverty stricken childhood that could’ve made him shut down and give up. He took his painful and hurtful past and let it be the fuel that drove him to succeed and to make his life better. He refused to let his past hold him back from all of the blessings that he was due in his future.

5) Never question what God has in store for you—No matter what hard times he faced and no matter how bad it got, Tyler Perry didn’t just maintain a strong belief in himself and his talent, but he maintained his faith that he had in God and what God had planned for him. He maintained his desire to fulfill the purpose that God had given him in life.

I know that they say success is all in who you know, and I do believe that to an extent. However, in observing some of these powerful media moguls and seeing what lessons they have to teach along the way, that may be an over-exaggerated phrase that everyone just would like to be true. I mean it’s a good excuse to use for why you’re not where you want to be right? You don’t know anyone so that’s why you’re not where you want to be. It’s the excuse I’ve been using for quite a while now.

It’s more about knowing yourself and knowing what your purpose is and never questioning it. It’s about not letting other people’s ideals for you turn you against what you know is right for you. It doesn’t help to know all the right people, if all they’re going to do is tell you all of the wrong things and lead you down the wrong path. You are your best bet to get where it is that you desire to be.

I have the Write 2 Be Authentic…What is your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Write 2 Be Magazine will be debuting on January 15^th, 2013 so please go join the magazine on twitter before it debuts on https://twitter.com/write2bemag and join the email listing for the magazine at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com. Also please feel free to go and friend me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310 and like my Write 2 Be Magazine fan page. Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

What’s It Going to Take to Become a Media Mogul

December 10, 2012December 10, 2012 jcladyluv

I’ve been thinking a lot over this past weekend about what it’s going to take to become the media mogul that I have always dreamed of being. I know that it’s not going to be a piece of cake and frankly in the cases of most people it probably would have already happened by now. Perhaps if I hadn’t spent so much time standing in my own way I’d already be halfway to that point by now.

But nevertheless, I am not there yet. Largely due to the fact that I spent most of this year (a lot of years really) telling myself and convincing myself that I had took too long, and I had let too many opportunities pass me be, or that I didn’t have what it takes like Oprah or Tyler Perry and other impressive moguls (some still in the making) have, and that for those reasons it was just too late for me. Ever since I heard that message that I watched by Bishop T.D. Jakes about opportunities presenting themselves in chaos and about not counting up all of the things that I didn’t have or that I couldn’t do instead of relying on what I do have, I have shifted my focus into a different place.

I plan on taking this year and focusing on the things I can control and the things and more importantly the opportunities that I do have. There’s a reason why people say that it is never too late to accomplish your dream and I am going to stop telling myself that it is too late. Of course I have a lot of ground to make up for and a lot of hard work to do but I have also realized something else. I have to start paying closer attention to those media moguls that have essentially paved the way and laid the ground work for those that will come behind them (I will be one of those people).

So this week I wanted to share with all of you some of the media moguls (and one’s in the making) that I admire and some lessons that I’ve taken away from them that can help propel the next generation of media moguls to come. Tomorrow I will share with you what I admire most about Tyler Perry and the lessons from his journey.

I have the Write 2 Be Motivating and Inspiring… What is your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Write 2 Be Magazine will be debuting on January 15^th, 2013 so please go join the magazine on twitter before it debuts on https://twitter.com/write2bemag and join the email listing for the magazine at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com. Also please feel free to go and friend me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310 and like my Write 2 Be Magazine fan page. Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Quitters Will Never Win

August 28, 2012 jcladyluv

As I was sitting here thinking about what to write today I was thinking about just throwing in the towel. You know you can only keep trying at something for so long that doesn’t appear to be working before you start to really wonder if it’s just not going to work, or maybe it’s just not meant to be. Lately I’ve been feeling as if every time I take one step forward, I end up getting knocked two steps backward. I was beginning to feel like all of this was pointless and that all this dreaming that I’ve been doing had been for nothing.

Just as I was getting ready to give up and just say to hell with it I looked in my email inbox today and received one of my Tyler Perry mailing list pep talks (it was actually sent a couple of days ago but I hadn’t checked my email in a couple of days). His message was short, sweet, and to the point. Simply put it read “IF YOU QUIT OR GIVE UP THEN YOU DON’T DESERVE IT! Process that and get back in the fight, DREAMER! You can do it.” As I said before, time and time again, Tyler Perry always has a way of sending out his inspirational messages just as I need to hear it.

I love writing and most importantly I am meant to do this. I know it deep down inside my gut. Even when I doubt myself, I never doubt my ability to write. Even though I keep getting knocked down repeatedly, I have just been reminded that I can’t throw in the towel because if I do I never deserved it in the first place. I have never been one to quit anything that I really wanted and that I knew was for me. I’m not going to start now!

If any of you are out there feeling like it’s just never going to come together, don’t stop now, don’t give up the fight. Just when you think it’s time to quit is the precise moment that you need to keep holding on.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Are You Living Your Life Or The Life Someone Else Thinks You Should Be Living?

August 2, 2012 jcladyluv

I love my emails that I get from the Tyler Perry mailing list. I swear it’s as if he knows when I need to hear a specific message and writes them just for me. Like he was somehow the vessel that God chose (one of the many vessels) to send me a very bold and clear message. He sent a message that didn’t mince words and didn’t beat around the bush by sugar coating things. The subject title in this particular email was simple: Don’t let anybody define you!

His email talked about how when he was a young boy he had so many people tell him that he would never make it, that he would never become a millionaire because he was black or because he was poor. Among those many people there was actually a teacher and even some of his family. I understood exactly what he was talking about because I have always been told that I would never amount to anything by the one person who is supposed to think the world of me, my mother.

Now there are plenty of others who have said things like I dream too big, and I am never going to become successful, and I’m always going to be in a state of struggle, and basically that all of my efforts to become successful and to build my own company doing what I love to do and what I know is meant for me to do are for nothing. I would like to say that I haven’t listened to those words of discouragement and that I responded to those negative voices in a way that Tyler Perry did, by ignoring them and doing it anyway. But I can’t say that because I have spent the better part of my life trying to defy what I was told I couldn’t do all the while, deep down, believing in what those voices were saying.

I have since learned to tune out those voices (for the most part anyway) but every once and a while, mostly when I have a new idea or a new way to develop and produce the ideas I already have, those voices do get deep inside my head and sometimes they even manage to convince me that they are right, but only for a little while. When I read this message from Tyler Perry, it came after I had just finished brainstorming an idea with Ms. L. on how to bring one of my dreams on my list of accomplishments to fruition and those doubts began to creep in on whether or not I could really do this.

I shared some brief ideas with another person that I thought could possibly help me in one area of making my idea a reality but they essentially told me every possible thing that could go wrong and that could keep me from being able to do it. Not what I needed to hear. I know everything that can go wrong. I know that I am operating on little to no money most times and that my credit might not be so hot to a bank or possible investors. So What?

I am finally starting to realize that if I am constantly waiting for the money fairy to rain some money on my dream then I might never make it happen. I have to have faith that it will happen, not just because it is a really good idea, but because it was what was meant for me to do. God didn’t give me this gift for nothing and he sure doesn’t expect me to waste it. So I’m not going to waste it.

It’s hard to think that you have to tune out the people who are supposed to be close to you but if they can’t support me in living the life that I want to live then I don’t need to listen to words that aren’t driving me forward. I’m done living the way everyone else thinks I should. I can’t live the life other people would rather me live because that wasn’t the life that was meant for me. Whose life are you living, yours or someone else’s?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

What’s Your Motivation When the Odds Are Stacked Against You?

July 30, 2012 jcladyluv

I read a blog post the other day that asked the question ‘Is having something to prove a good enough reason to do something?’ When I read the post the blogger discussed how perhaps we should not use someone telling us that we can’t achieve something or someone’s negativity altogether to influence or motivate whether or not we in fact decide to go after what it is that we want. She stated that people pleasing was something not to get caught up in. Initially I felt that she might have a point to that statement and that people’s sheer passion for doing something should be enough to ‘just do it’ and that it shouldn’t take someone else telling us no or rejecting our passion for us to go at it full force.

But then I realized something. Isn’t that the nature of how dreams are realized, and how businesses are built, and how people are made to be successful? I mean of course you dream something and naturally you want to achieve that dream no matter what and when you start a business you hopefully are starting that business because it is something that you’ve always wanted to do. But if you listen to a lot of successful people talk about how they got there and how they accomplished their dreams and started their businesses, a lot of it had something to do with what someone told them they would never be able to do.

Think of how many singers and film stars were told no, and how many times they were told no, and how many people even told them that they were crazy to think they would ever really make it. Now think about how that just fired them up to going after that dream with even more force and more drive. Think about Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates and how many people told them they would never make it and that they would never see their dreams become a reality and how those words must have fueled the fire that was already lit underneath them.

I remember hearing an interview once about an entrepreneur going after their dream and starting their own company (can’t quite remember who at this exact moment) and when they were asked what made them go after their goal when all of the odds were stacked against them, their response was simply ‘someone told me I couldn’t have it’. It’s amazing what someone telling you NO will do for your drive and ambition to prove them wrong and get what you want in spite of all the odds stacked against you. I hate to be told NO but if I really think about it, when I do get to where I want to be in life, those No’s will be what made me so fiercely determined to prove everyone who said I couldn’t do it wrong.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

It’s Either Fear Or Success, It Can’t Be Both

July 25, 2012 jcladyluv

Seek to understand whatever you’re afraid of. That was one of the messages in a video message that I got in my email as being a part of the Tyler Perry Mailing list. He had a huge fear of flying so he sought out to learn everything that he could about airplanes and eventually became a pilot and started flying his own planes. Not only did he conquer and overcome his fear, but he took fear and rose above that fear (or should I say flew above it).

So I was sitting here trying to figure out what I was most afraid of. You know, not the little things like being afraid of bugs, or heights (which is not really a little thing because I am greatly afraid of heights), but the things that will halt me in my tracks of wherever it is I’m trying to go. I can’t really do much at this present moment in my life about my fear of being on a stage and doing any type of public speaking (which I truly believed kept me from ever pursuing a singing or acting career). But there is a fear that I do still have time to do something about.

I don’t know if you would characterize it as a fear of failure or a fear of actually succeeding, but either way that you phrase it, it is a huge problem. On the one hand there’s the part of me that would be devastated at giving it my absolute best, a hundred percent, and falling flat on my face, and on the other hand there is the part of me that is afraid that if I do give it my absolute best and I do succeed, then what happens if I can’t keep it up. I know what you’re all thinking. Nothing is ever going to go completely smooth all the time so that even if I do succeed then there is bound to be some down moments but it is the down moments that have me stuck, or rather the fear of them.

I’ve started to take a look at a lot of the business people, and writers, and moguls that I admire and aspire to learn from and as any of you might have guessed, Tyler Perry is definitely at the top of that list for me. He has proven that you can come from not so humble beginnings, and suffer horrendous things in your life and that even when no one else believes in you that you believing in you can really be enough. I’m never disappointed when I get an email from Tyler Perry’s Mailing list because his message is always just what I needed to hear. I guess there’s no way I can really succeed if I’m too busy being afraid to. So it’s either I let the fear win out over the success, or I succeed in spite of the fear. I really can’t have it both ways.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Haters, Haters, Everywhere; Time Being Wasted with No Time to Spare

May 2, 2012May 2, 2012 jcladyluv

“Sometimes, people wanna tear you down. Keep in mind that it is because they want to be like you and you are so far ahead of them that to knock you down would be the only way for them to catch up to you.”

~Author Unknown

It always amazes me how the more successful a person gets, especially when they come from a tough and struggling background, the harder people go out of their way to tear them down. Last night I was on the phone with Ms. L. told and she told me the news about the four-alarm fire that broke out at Tyler Perry Studios inAtlanta,GA.

Then she read the ignorant and disgraceful comments that people were tweeting in response to the news about the fire. A lot of the comments were joking about his building being on a fire and other personal jabs that just weren’t funny and aren’t even worth me restating them.

It just made me remember how hateful and jealous people can be. It doesn’t happen all the time but too often when someone rises from their bad circumstances and makes something out of themselves, reaching a level of success that other people only imagine (unless you’re one of those people who goes beyond imagining and takes action) themselves getting to, people just get so jealous and downright mean.

I suppose that one could take into consideration the saying that the more haters that you have the more that you know you are doing something right. But I just really wish that it wouldn’t have to be that way. I wish that we didn’t have to find a way to look at people’s negative attitudes and spin them around to be something positive for us.

We are supposed to celebrate people’s successes, their rise from the struggles they had to overcome to get to the point they are at. We are supposed to be joyous for others when they succeed and not find ways to keep tearing them down in hopes that they fail. If people are so busy begrudging someone else the destiny that is due to them, it is no mystery why those same people have such a harder time than others achieving the goals and dreams that they strive for.

We are supposed to help lift people up instead of pulling them down just because we might not like where we are at that very moment. I am thankful that no one was hurt in that fire. I am also hopeful that Tyler Perry gets everything repaired fairly quickly and without delay. Not just because I think that he is a brilliantly creative being. Not even because there are so many positive messages that I get from watching his films.

But mostly because the good that he has done with his work, the success that he has achieved in which others are so hatefully envious of, is what allows him to employ 5 thousand or more people who need his success to continue. It is also the same thing that fuels him to help pull others up the ladder in their efforts to become successful.

Successful people help other people become successful too and if the haters looked at it in those terms then maybe they could learn something and maybe they could get to wherever it is they are trying to go. Time hating others success is only time that you spend wasting on the climb up to yours.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Is It Really Worth Taking the Leap?

March 21, 2012 jcladyluv

“Man cannot discover new oceans until he has courage to lose sight of the shore.”
~Unknown

So last week I sent off for some more of my books. I couldn’t get that many because, well, I just don’t have the cash flow right now to get a whole case load, but I got a few that I could sell to make some more ‘seed’ money. However, there are at least three books that I had planned on setting aside to send to three very important people (to me), Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and Zane.

Now I know what some people would think as they are reading this, ‘why send it to people who might never actually read it?’ It’s the same thing I was thinking at first but someone advised me that I never know whether they would read it or not, or whether someone on their staff would read it and like it enough to do things with it that I can’t do with it, not yet anyway. So I was anxiously waiting for my books and today they came (earlier then expected) and now I sit here rethinking whether I should send it to those three important people or not.

What if my book just sits in some pile of what they deem to be junk mail or ordinary fan mail and never gets looked at? What if they look at it and just toss it away in the trash somewhere? I mean who am I to them that they would find any interest in my book? What would they find so special about my book that they would pay attention to it? But then I am reminded of what I posted yesterday and what I am trying to put into a more consistent practice.

I have to step out on faith and believe in myself to know that not only am I good enough but my book is too, so why wouldn’t they want to pay attention to it. I said that this stepping out on faith thing was going to take me some time to actually do without questioning it. But then there are the questions that are going to pop into my head if I don’t send them off. What if they were to get my book, and read it, and love it? What if I would be passing up an opportunity that God is placing on my path? I guess I won’t find out exactly what would happen with my giant leap of faith if I never take that leap.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”