Meet Lashon Byrd

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lashon Byrd. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Lashon, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from a very unique, expansive journey that I embarked on very young. Here it is in brutal honesty, with no part left out in the slightest:

The road was far from smooth. Especially younger, I was naive, ambitious and that’s in good faith, but had no idea what I was doing. I like to keep things real, so here I will — in excruciating depth and detail describe my multifaceted journey. Not the success, but the failures and losses.

My first three businesses went down in flames. The first one named “Vortex” which was a Shopify print on demand apparel store, the second named “Number One Media,” the third named “Raspberry” between ages 12–13. Vortex failed because I’m not passionate about apparel, Number One Media failed because I fell for the “Social Media Marketing” agency scheme, in addition to not being passionate about social media marketing and prematurely attempting to outsource the social media marketing service I was offering to other businesses (B2B). Raspberry failed miserably because I was trying to build an entertainment product that already existed, and I called my version the “T-Holocom,” and just lacked the necessary knowledge, resources, and connections needed to actually get anywhere with that at 13.

When I was 14 years old, I would add myself to projects on IMDb I had absolutely nothing to do with, in an attempt to add credits to my resumé. It was absolutely ridiculous looking back on it, and soon after I realized just how dumb that was, retracted them, and stopped that behavior. In addition to that, at the age of 14, I identified a transit of what became, and was, a confirmed exoplanet “TOI 5678 b” through a citizen science platform. At the time, I was so young and didn’t fully understand the scientific publishing process — and I made some critical missteps and tried to publicly take more credit than I deserved. And was rightfully called out for it. I’ve been very open about that since, but I’ve grown a lot from it. The nominations I received weren’t because I was a published scientist at the time — they were from people who saw something meaningful in a young person sincerely trying to contribute to science. And while I don’t take credit for the discovery presently, as it’s not mine to claim, I’m proud I was a part of the process and even more proud of how much I’ve grown since then.

Same age (14) I attempted to self-nominate for an AFP Lifetime achievement award and shared that. However, unlike the real accolades I possess, there was never an official confirmation email, so I celebrated too early, and presently do not consider myself nominated for that award whatsoever.

IMDb award nominations would show up on my page, with certain projects I’ve done, however, I got no official emails or found lists included (though I know some don’t do that) for them, therefore I don’t claim those either. Unless of course it’s official. Those are what I like to call “IMDb blips,” as they’re unofficial achievements documented on IMDb and many people in the film industry can attest to this. Users adding random credits, wins and nominations that aren’t official.

I wanted to explore another interest of mine, philosophy, and with humor and delight introduced a philosophical idea called “The Theater Principle.” I didn’t intend on taking this to the skies, it was simply just a fun idea I put out there. People may have though I intended to become a professional philosopher but that wasn’t my intent. If you see my name, and that term linked, you now know why.

What I will say next, isn’t a failure or loss, or mistake, but it highlights a feeling many of us may feel. At the age of 15 years old, I was nominated for a Turing Prize, I wasn’t sure exactly why, and I felt as if I didn’t deserve it by any means. However, reading the email’s attachments confirming the nomination, the reason states a venture of mine. It was based on my software-enabled fractional real estate investment venture, that’s won two distinct awards already. I felt it was an incredibly simple and undeserving reason for such a nomination, as with a Turing Prize you’d expect it to be based on a tangible contribution to the advancement of computer science — such as the development of a novel algorithm that transforms an entire field. Yet I was nominated for a simple venture. What I’ve been told is that this likely represents:

Innovative application of computer science principles
Socioeconomic democratization of investment opportunities
Young entrepreneurship leveraging real-world software systems
Handled secure fractional ownership with smart system elements, with broader relevance and or implications for accessible investing
And maybe even the novelty of the business model and how I implemented it
Though it feels undeserving, someone saw something valuable, and worthy. Although the rest of the letter seems to highlight a different candidate, or winner, whatever she may be — but the nomination stands. The backstory for those accolades is deeply human.

For that same venture, I was approached, and directly nominated for a “Stellar Business Award” and later won it. This is one of the distinct awards I’ve mentioned for that venture. I didn’t pay for anything, I don’t pay for accolades by any means, I think that’s vainglorious and goes against what awards really stand for. I say this because people definitely may have thought that, but I assure, I don’t pay for accolades and that was completely free from the start of the process to finish.

It’s bold, it’s real, and I hope it was refreshing to hear, but that highlights inner feelings, and missteps on my journey. I’m human, I make mistakes, we all do especially while really young, but I intend on striving to make genuine contributions and doing everything with integrity, honesty, tenacity, and my best effort!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My life’s purpose is three things: advance human knowledge, culture, and technology. What I do is make contributions to those areas of human achievement that align with my natural aptitudes, interests, and passions. Throughout my journey, I’ve been able to make some extraordinary contributions, and achieve some extraordinary things. Such as getting my own sitcom greenlit and streaming on the major streaming service “Cineverse” P.S the “Capcut” outro at the end of the first episode is a part of the gag haha. Being cast in some other great projects and even winning “Lego Brickfilm of the Year” back in 2023. I have a few scientific publications coming out.

Speaking of which, when it comes to the venture I’ve spoken about previously, but didn’t name, which is “Byrd Estates,” I don’t want people thinking it’s something it’s not. It’s nothing more than an entity I formed around investments made on the innovative investment democratization being done on — Landa. It’s been fruitful, but it’s to me, a generational wealth building machine that when grown exponentially enough, I want to pass on to my kin.

As of recently, I’ve been aligning myself with ventures that I will be able to make a tangible, societal impact with, such as infrastructure or road safety and in business — that’s now where my head is at.

I intend to be open, authentic, and philosophical with the public persona I’ve been able to attain. Even if it’s uncomfortable, as that’s where growth happens. No matter how big my public persona may become!

And you know what, I can’t stand vanity. I badly wanted to be somebody when I was younger, and I tried everything I could to get my name out there. Some misguided, some genuine, and others young, naive, and utterly ridiculous – but it’s all apart of growing up. In the present, I couldn’t care less about the faking it till’ you make it sort of approach I was leaning towards. I care so so much more about making a genuine impact with my work, which is why my public life has been so inactive. I haven’t been doing interviews, or media features, or anything, just enjoying the success I’ve already built, being young, and tapping in to my most primordial passions and working towards making me dreams a reality in those areas.

Recently Marquis’ Who’s Who approached me for induction, and I of course obliged and became one of the youngest, if not THE youngest inductee in the history of that publication. But… then I was upsold, rather assertively at that. There was no way I was going to pay a dime for anything with the recognition, that essentially makes it faux, but we want authenticity not anything fake.

I’ve always held this view – I will never pay for media coverage or recognition, ever. Every single recognition, honor, feature I have is genuine and authentic. I have not paid a penny and never will. You see people vaingloriously paying for media coverage all the time, and if you have a keen eye you can see through the smokes and mirrors. I want to be a figure of authenticity in this world. It’s harder of course, but so worth it.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Networking, unapologetic boldness, and growth mindset will take you anywhere you could ever think to conceivably go in life, and I’m living proof.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

The number one obstacle I’m facing currently is getting my new research reports into the mainstream through publication and exposure. It’s an incredibly difficult task, especially when you’re the sole author presenting entirely novel frameworks and methods. Particularly publication, not so much exposure – which will be a simple byproduct after publication. To resolve this, I’m doing absolutely everything in my power to ensure my research is absolutely bulletproof, all while being the solitary figure behind it. Which is a task that takes immense resourcefulness given that I’m challenging the status quo by every metric. However, I will never give up. I mean this, and will prove it. The same grit and insatiable persistence that led me to the advancements to begin with, will carry me all the way to establishment in the literature and appropriate recognition. To anyone who doubts me – watch me.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourmum256/