Acclaimed Director and beautiful soul Ava DuVernay, is always sharing powerful thoughts on success, achievement, and the courage to start.

1.If your dream only includes you, its too small.

2.Stop asking. Start doing.

3.Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short… make my documentary… make my small films… use my own money… raise money myself… and stay shooting and focused on each project.

4.We have to find new ways to work without permission, new ways to turn corners and go through doors that are closed off to us to create our own audiences and our own material independently.

5.We have so much coming in as sisters. When is our interior life ever put at the forefront? We constantly want to give to other people. The word no is important. It’s self-abuse. Too much of not caring for yourself is not a good thing. We’re bad at that as achievers. Self-care is a priority and we have to do it more.

6.Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.

7.If you’re doing something outside of dominant culture, there’s not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.

8.When you’re in your lane, there’s no traffic

9.You can’t tell me what I can’t do anymore

10.I don’t have big dreams. I just want to be here in five years, breathing and doing what I love to do. I just need to be free to tell my stories from my spirit, my heart…unrestricted. Life is fleeting. If we could be here doing what we love to do, that is success.