We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leeryck. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leeryck below.
Leeryck, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
There are two people in my life that taught me resilience and that is God and my mother, God can do all things but fail and my talent is truly God given so if he brings me to it he will bring me through it. That’s a motto that I live by even when I become discouraged and want to give up, and, believe me, there has been so many times that I’ve wanted to give up and then I remember whose I am. My mother Donna Polite is the other contributor to my resilience, one quote I always hear my mother telling me is “Nothing brings on a failure, but a try and if you don’t try, you’ve already failed!” I will never forget the moment my mother said those words to me and it has encouraged me to do things that I would have otherwise been too afraid to try.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
As a creative, you are always thinking of new projects and ways to reinvent yourself and have your talents appreciated and I have done it all from singer/songwriting, record label owner, clothing brand owner/creator, poet, photographer you name it. Many years ago I used to write poetry for someone that I was interested in at the time and they suggested that I write a poetry book. I shrugged it off and thought these were just my feelings towards you and no one else would be able to relate to them but the more they suggested, the more I contemplated and decided to publish my poetry and to date I have 3 self published poetry books. During Covid, I was furloughed from work like a lot of others and I picked up creating and reading once again, because I was afforded the time. I remember reading a Jerome Dickey book and at this moment the title escapes me but I thought to myself I want to try writing a novel. I finished that book and through conversation with a very good friend of mine I came up with a book title and said “I am going to try my hand at this!” That day I began writing, then found out that Jerome Dickey the author that helped inspire me to become an author had passed away and I ended up, not only dedicating my first novel “The Chase for Destinee” to him but finishing it in a week. This turned into a 3 part series, the second called “Catching up with Destinee” which is also published and available on Amazon print and kindle and the third and final novel in this series is affectionately called “Conquering Destinee” which is set to release March of 2024. My first novel was completed in a week, I took the weekend off and in a different conversation with the same friend I came up with another book idea and completed that 4 days later and that’s entitled “If I were a boy.” Since then I currently have 3 published poetry books “Heartbeat Translated,” “With no voice, still I couldn’t be silenced,” and the most popular “Sexcapades,” and 4 novels “The Chase for Destinee”, “Catching up with Destinee,” “If I were a boy,” and “The night that lasts forever.” I also have 3 others in the works not including the finale to the Destinee series as I mentioned before “Conquering Destinee.” After the completition of the series I will be going on a six city book tour that will include vendors and live music, I am open to adding more locations wherever I am requested.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Looking back, I believe that my focus was on the wrong things. Someone once told me that I needed to give more of who I am because when people like you, they will support whatever you do but I wasn’t for sale, I still had the frame of mind like I was selling products and not personality but the way the world has shifted people really and truly want to know who you are as person to decide rather or not they wanted to follow and support the things you were doing. I still haven’t fully conformed to the way things are done now but I’m much more open to it. If I had to give advice to anyone that was thinking of embarking on a journey of self expressions, entrepreneurship, etc. I would say just get started and commit to finishing and don’t think that you have to do everything alone, there’s so many resources to find assistance that will determine how you finish but you can’t ever finish what you never start. My focus has been Passion, Plan, Purpose I’ve always moved in my passion, planned how to succeed and align with my divine purpose. However, my big three may be totally different from others.
How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
I would focus on creating a legacy that would change my family’s life and others in and around my community. I’d put out as much creative content as I could to immortalize myself and my bloodline, make sure my non profit organization thrives and the people that I have involved will continue it on after I transcend and love on my loved one’s and make everlasting memories every second that I could.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soarrogant.com/books
- Instagram: @Leeryck
Image Credits
Images provided by Brandon Johnson of SoArrogant Film & Photography Models Shyann Roberts and Ahmad “Mahje” Jenkins
