Thank you to our Advisory Board member Lisa Peddy for your continuous support! 💛💛💛
Last weekend I had the opportunity to reconnect with Pharrell, who I deeply respect and admire! I want to share with you a few insights from him that left a lasting impression. A little background first: Pharrell and I met in 2019 at a philanthropic conference. Over the three-day event, I was struck by his dedication—fully engaged and invested—while many other celebrities made brief appearances on stage then left the conference. We connected and bonded at that event over Transformational Communities, he was moved by my support and he asked to meet me. We co-funded a prize design together with two other great people. That has led to more opportunities with him and his incredible philanthropic leader and team these past years. Pharrell operates on an extraordinary level—a unique blend of truly next level creativity, vision, purpose and empathy. He continues to be so humble and grateful in spite of his success, which now includes Louis Vuitton and a current movie about his life (told with Legos, it is amazing and something only Pharrell could come up with!). His genuine appreciation for people and moments in his life is rare and one of many things special about him. At the small intimate event in New York hosted by Louis Vuitton and Yellow, Pharrell’s nonprofit education initiative, where I’m honored to serve on the advisory board, here are just a few of the insights he shared: ——— Optimism is a very powerful thing when you access it. I think that what I love about existence, evolution and our species is that dreams continue to multiply and bifurcate at levels that are probably matched by the rate at which galaxies are created. There’s trillions and trillions of galaxies with billions and billions of stars and the dreams of people are expanding at the same rate. If you find a situation, person, place or thing that is challenging for you, be the sunlight. Be the sunlight that you want to see in that person, place or thing and I promise you it will get you across the line. Even when you are feeling depressed and low, go and help somebody else in a far worse situation than you and it will lift you and take you to heights unimaginable. Louis Vuitton, the people here, consumers, the people who listen to my music, the people who are interested in anything I’ve had a fingerprint on, I am just so grateful. You are the absolute power source for what I do. You keep all my dreams alive. I’m so grateful you do what you do and I’m grateful you’re here in this moment with me. ——— You can guess by now that Pharrell’s favorite color is yellow, you’ll see some in the Louis Vuitton’s men’s collection, and it’s a reminder to me to be the sunlight and help others. Pharrell’s wisdom and authenticity motivates me, and by sharing I hope also inspires you! The next night on our flight back, my husband and I saw Pharrell on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Kimmel performing “Piece by Piece” from the Lego movie about his life. A perfect ending to the weekend!