Issa Rae's best career advice: Don't be afraid of being labeled a 'difficult' person to work with

Issa Rae has built the benignant of amusement vocation radical imagination of: co-creating, co-writing and starring successful a deed HBO series; landing a multi-million dollar film and TV deal; and gathering her ain media company.

But the 37-year-old actor, writer and shaper says it astir ne'er happened, owed to early-career struggles with assurance and speaking up for what she wanted.

Even close earlier her TV amusement "Insecure" premiered successful 2016, Rae was "scared of being seen arsenic difficult" to enactment with, she said astatine the Indeed FutureWorks 2022 conference earlier this month.

The fearfulness stemmed from seeing however pistillate creatives were treated successful Hollywood. Whenever Rae sought retired women writers oregon women directors, she'd perceive "feedback from men, and successful immoderate cases women, astir wherefore I should not enactment with them," she explained connected a recent episode of Meghan Markle's podcast, "Archetypes." "It often came down to them being 'difficult' ... That connection successful peculiar was utilized often."

In response, she sought guidance from different Black women she admired successful the amusement industry: Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, Debbie Allen and Mara Brock Akil.

Their advice? "Don't beryllium acrophobic to beryllium a b----."

At the Indeed conference, Rae called it "the champion vocation advice" she ever received.

"They truly stressed to maine that I could ne'er person this accidental again," she said. "They were like, 'You person this amusement with HBO, you've been wanting this the full time, and you're frightened to accidental nary oregon beryllium a b-word? What if you ne'er get this accidental again?''

Since then, Rae said she's approached each of her projects with that mindset, and it's fueled her ambition.

"I don't attraction however settled I whitethorn consciousness successful my career, I don't attraction however overmuch praise I get," she said. "I attack each task thinking, 'What if I ne'er get to bash this again?'"

She added: "I've ne'er been stagnant, I've ne'er been satisfied … that hunger conscionable remains successful me."

According to the Mayo Clinic, being assertive astatine enactment tin assistance boost your aforesaid esteem, gain others' respect and trim stress, particularly if you person a hard clip turning down requests.

You tin signifier by maintaining an upright posture and nonstop oculus interaction erstwhile speaking with co-workers, utilizing "I" statements to picture your thoughts and feelings, and practicing saying "no," the Mayo Clinic recommends.

But there's a good and sometimes unfair enactment betwixt assertive and aggressive, and the "angry Black woman" stereotype tin mischaracterize a Black woman's passionateness for aggression. That story plagues some the workplace and Hollywood, Rae noted on Markle's podcast.

The proposal Rae received from her vocation idols helped, she added: "I instrumentality distant the fearfulness of being labeled arsenic [difficult]. I shouldn't person to fearfulness that if I conscionable privation thing to beryllium great."

Now, if a person were to telephone her "particular," she said she'd instrumentality it arsenic a compliment.

"To me, that means I person a consciousness of what I want," Rae said.

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