Introducing Ja-Nae Duane
Ja-Nae Duane is the definition of the Renaissance woman. She is an author, a public speaker, a nondenominational Christian minister, a university lecturer, a serial entrepreneur, and even an opera singer. Her books include “How to Start Your Business with $100”, “How to Create a Revolution”, and “The Start-up Equation” which was co-written by her husband and previous Boiling Point guest Steve Fisher.
Ja-Nae always had an eye for improvement and evolution. As a young girl interested in singing, a teacher brought her to the Metropolitan Opera to inspire her. Upon leaving, the teacher asked Ja-Nae what she thought about the performance, and she said it was the most boring thing she ever watched. The characters just stood there and sung without any dramatics, and the performance seemed very antiquated. However, the performance didn’t dissuade her from becoming a singer, in fact it inspired her to revolutionize how opera was performed. Ja-Nae has a brain for exploring traditional systems and turning them on their head.
Ja-Nae has taken this revolutionary approach to everything she has done in her career. Ja-Nae tells us if we want to think and act like a revolutionary; we must do a few things. First of all, our head and heart need to align. This means in order to be revolutionary, you must have not only acquire the skills needed for the task, but a passion for it as well. Next, there needs to be a trigger to disrupt the status quo. This causes a level of unrest that continues to grow. Finally, one event sparks the need for change. In the chaos of thinking revolutionarily, you will develop a framework for change. Your framework for change may need some modification, but thinking outside the box is never easy.
In this episode
Ja-Nae tells us how to think like a revolutionary and what it means to one’s self-worth to think creatively. She tells us not necessarily emulate someone else’s version of success because what makes success is different for different people. She also recommends that entrepreneurs that are playing it safe should decide step out of their comfort zone because trying new things allows for learning opportunities and evolution of how you conduct business. If you fail, often failure ignites ideas of how to do better next time. Dave is inspired by Ja-Nae’s willingness to be uncomfortable and how her head and heart are definitely aligned. Greg takes the revolutionary leader idea to heart and practice.
Links and References
– Ja-Nae’s TED X Talk