When I first got Yves Saint Laurent Couture, I didn't know how to take off a cape. I would ask Katoucha and Dalma - the real divas of the runway - 'Can you show me?' I've never been afraid to ask for help.
Naomi CampbellRead
I feel very responsible for young models of colour. They come to me and tell me they're not getting jobs, and I do what I can to speak up for them.
Interpretation
Naomi Campbell emphasizes her responsibility to advocate for young models of color facing discrimination in the industry.
In this quote, Naomi Campbell expresses her sense of duty to support and uplift young models of color who struggle to find opportunities in the fashion industry. She highlights the importance of speaking up against injustices and using her platform to bring attention to issues of inequality, reflecting her commitment to mentorship and advocacy for marginalized voices.
In practice
During a panel discussion on diversity in fashion, I quoted Naomi Campbell to emphasize the importance of mentorship.
When I first got Yves Saint Laurent Couture, I didn't know how to take off a cape. I would ask Katoucha and Dalma - the real divas of the runway - 'Can you show me?' I've never been afraid to ask for help.
Patrick Demarchelier was the one who got me my first Vogue cover. It was French Vogue - I think in ’87 or ’88. I think I was the first black model to be on the cover of French Vogue, which was shocking to me because when I asked them about it, they were like, "Oh, no. We’ve never had that before."
I’ve been offered jobs by companies that supported apartheid many times in the 25 years of my modeling career, but I have never taken one of them. I have to refuse that money, because I’m not going to work against my people. They’ve suffered enough.
Often leaders have the best intentions, but people cannot read their minds. That's why it's important to declare yourself: Tell people why you choose to lead and the code you live by.
Others may fashion more smoothly images of bronze (I for one believe it), evoke living faces from marble, plead causes better, trace with a wand the wanderings of the heavens and foretell the rising of stars. But you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with power (these will be your arts); impose the habit of peace, spare the vanquished and war down the proud!
My child, you are going to be a great king; do not imitate me in the taste I have had for building, or in that I have had for war; try, on the contrary, to be at peace with your neighbors.
To be a great leader, you firstly have to like people. If you don't like people, at the end of the day they will figure this out and you can't lead them too well.
Dhoni Is The Best Captain I Have Played Under
Whether you're a second lieutenant working with a captain and a lieutenant colonel, or a four-star general working with the Office Secretary of Defense and the White House, the decision makers have got to have ground truth. Otherwise, the decisions they make could be flawed - and that can be dangerous.
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