We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Latrell Carter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Latrell, 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 is motivated by the dreams I have for my future and sustained by my unwavering faith. The development of my resilience was initially delayed due to not having a suitable anchor or sense of purpose. Once there was an alignment between daily activities and future goals, my resilience gradually developed. I am now working toward something bigger than just me so whenever adversity shows up, I think about the bigger picture and push through.
The path to personal growth often entails confronting challenges and deriving profound lessons from them. The Bible mentions the phrase, “It has come to pass” multiple times and I took it to mean that every life experience unfolds with purpose and within a distinct timeframe. While the duration of these experiences may vary, they all eventually come to an end. Some circumstances reoccur, signaling an ongoing need for us to gain wisdom from them. In the presence of these challenges, I always ask the question, “What lessons does this situation intend to teach me?” If the answer is not immediately apparent, I remain persistent in my pursuit of a resolution.
Consequently, my resilience is a combination of my desire to attain my future goals, my understanding that challenges are integral to personal growth, and the assurance that every challenge is only temporary.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am the host of The Brother Next Door Podcast and also work as an Electrical Engineer. I started the podcast two years ago when I was working as a resident assistant with a coworker. The coworker and I always talked about finance and personal development when we were at the front desk and we were both in agreement that most people our age were not having the conversations we were having. We would talk for hours about different topics and eventually decided to start a podcast about those same topics. What is most exciting about this Podcast is being able to build a community of like-minded young adults who value self-education and making the optimal financial decisions for their situations.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Effective communication because it allows me to better explain my thoughts on the topics that I talk about on the podcast. Being able to persevere through adversity is crucial because you won’t always have the motivation to do the things that are required and there will come times when you’ll question why you’re doing what you’re doing. Confidence in your work will translate into how you do what you do as well as how you speak about what you do. After a couple of weeks into the podcast, I wasn’t confident in the episodes that were being put out. When I started taking more time to do research before recording and studying the craft, my confidence started to grow and I didn’t hesitate telling people to check out my podcast. The best way to improve these qualities is by practicing. Actually talking to people, realizing how much adversity you’ve already overcome, and growing the knowledge you have in your field will yield the development you desire.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Extreme Ownership by Jacko Willink was the book that changed the game for me. I read it about three years ago and it made me realize how much I didn’t take accountability for my current situation. The book takes lessons on leadership in the US Navy SEALs and shows how they are also applied in business. Not only do I believe this book is valuable for leaders with any amount of people reporting to them, but I also believe reading this can assist individuals in becoming better leaders over their own lives. The overarching idea is that leaders should take responsibility for everything that pertains to the mission they are attempting to accomplish, from the planning stage all the way to the execution of the mission.
The book talks about encouraging and delegating tasks to your junior leaders so you don’t get so consumed in the details, that you lose focus on the overall picture. You won’t have extensive knowledge of everything, so having leaders who specialize in certain areas can allow for a much greater plan and outcome. The best way to get people on a team on the same page is by making sure everyone involved in the team believes in the mission. The last two valuable concepts I got from the book were completing an after-action report and prioritizing then executing. Having an after-action report allows you to figure out what went well, and what can be significantly improved on for next time. I apply this on a weekly basis professionally and monthly basis personally by taking some time to evaluate what I need to do in order to produce better results based on the outcomes I am receiving. Prioritizing involves listing out everything that needs to be accomplished, ordering them from most to least important, and then executing based on that order. It is more difficult to tackle multiple problems than it is to deal with them one at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brothernextdoor
- Instagram: @brothernextdoorpodcast
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheBrotherNextDoorPodcast
Image Credits
Paula Wofford
