Emma Grede

Question five, what did you learn about yourself after writing this book?

So much, as it turns out.

Now, can I tell you that when I set out to write this book, I thought that I would be writing something solely about building a brand and a business, about navigating career when you have a family,

about the leadership lessons that I'd learned, the hard way, obviously, and money and trade-offs and all the things that I like to talk about the most.

And I do write about all of those subjects in this book extensively.

But what I understood really quickly, while those things are subjects that come really easily to me, they aren't what set me apart.

And so I had to do a lot of self-examination to even begin to understand what led me to where I am in my life.

but also what will be useful to you when you take the time to read this book.

And when I say useful, I mean writing something that you could actually use, not just read.

I want you to take, start with yourself, into your own life.

I want you to take it into your heads and your hands and use it as a tool to get somewhere else, somewhere that you have chosen.

Now, because of where and how I was raised in East London, which was and still is like a really tough neighbourhood, I grew up in an environment where there were real things to be fearful about all the time.

And I remember that feeling of actually being scared.

Small things like the reality of getting your bike stolen on a given day after school or...

I don't know, bigger problems that have made me hypervigilant and really untrusting my whole life.

As a teen, I dropped out of high school and I went straight to work.

But I didn't want to be reliant on anyone for anything.

And when I was in my late teens, I decided to stop blaming the world and to take responsibility.

for my own experience.

Now, both the subject of what I do with fear and this idea of radical self-responsibility, they're weaved throughout this book as they have been throughout my life.