Viola Davis Wins Best Supporting Actress and Teaches Us Precious Life and Career Lessons

by Solange Lopes | Feb 27, 2017 | Career

Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars last night, and I’m still in my feelings. Watching this absolutely amazing woman, actress, mother, wife, human being walk up the stage in all her well-deserved glory to get her well-deserved Oscar had me tearing up. But it was her speech, one of her many striking, true-to-the-core, emotional speeches, that had me doing the ugly cry all over my late night dessert…

“You know, there’s one place where all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. And that’s the graveyard. People ask me all the time, what kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola? And I say, exhume those bodies, exhume those stories, the stories of the people who dreamed.”

As I listened to Viola (in my fertile imagination, Viola is my big sis, you may borrow her too), I heard the longing of my own  heart. And that of so many others faced with the work of their lives, with dreams they may be weary of pursuing, with aspirations they may not think themselves worthy of…

I thought of those before us who also were faced with the work of their lives, with dreams and aspirations they may have ushered to the side for fear they wouldn’t be practical…Or just because life demanded a different, more grounded, less dreamy kind of living…Those whose talents, potential and spirit now lie in the graveyard, stuck somewhere in between the dash separating their birth dates from the day they died…

How many of us are also carrying within us those dreams, that potential, that extraordinary spirit, that can make an impact in the world? How many of us are burying those alive in stuffy cubicles, toxic work environments, and an all-around busy life that fails to provide us with the ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction we’re created to experience?

If you’re sitting in front of your computer today, feeling a gap where there should be a fill, sensing that there’s got to be MORE, then you may be concealing that potential, that spirit, that talent inside of you. Then you may be sacrificing fulfillment and satisfaction for the sake of normalcy and security…And yes, we all face different circumstances, have different obligations, and are not always at liberty to run free…Yet, if your life’s work, your life’s dreams, talent and potential, is unfinished, who may complete it?

After her historic win, in the midst of tears and intense emotion, Viola said: “I just wanted to be good at something!“

In her words, I heard once again the cry of so many women, so many sisters, working day in and day out, searching for the recognition they deserve. Don’t get me wrong, Viola certainly doesn’t need validation! Neither do we…Yet this precious sense that we’re doing work that is valued, that our contributions are cherished and recognized, has the power to fill us up and continually raise us to new heights. It’s the same value and recognition that so many women, so many sisters have been sorely missing in both their careers and lives. And that may very well be the reason why so many of us don’t dare to dream bigger, expect more and rise higher!

We all want to be good at something, and to be recognized for it! And sometimes, many times, it takes facing massive failure, taking gigantic risks, and switching courses to achieve it. But like Viola, being good, being great at something we love not only creates miracles, it sets the bar and opens the path wide for the rest of us…

Viola won, finally! The first Black woman to win an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony, she won for women, for sisters, for minorities, for overcomers, for all those who wanted it big, and wanted it bad! But most importantly, she won for each and every one of us who may have, at some point or another, realized that there was MORE to their story, MORE to their circumstances, MORE to their surroundings! And instead of settling for normalcy, for tradition, for survival, decided to go out there and dream, thrive and succeed!

Without the Hattie McDaniels, the Halle Berrys, the Viola Davis’, and so many others, women like myself could not see ourselves winning on stage, in life and in our careers. Without those who dream, who dare, who persist, we couldn’t see ourselves clothed in the vision we have for our lives and communities!

So yes, Viola Davis won last night! And so did we…

To Your Success,

The Corporate Sis.