Nina Morena speaking to the audience
An intimate sized group of students and staff gathered in the Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum on Wednesday afternoon for The IDentity Lecture Series where guest speaker Nina Morena shared her journey and insight on entrepreneurship and defining success.
The IDentity Lecture Series was created by Cedric Jones who expressed that his goal was to create a space for students to interact and network with professionals who have been at the ground level.
“This series provides those professionals with an opportunity to give back,” Jones said . “I’m really excited about where the series is going and I’m really glad to have Nina coming down to speak”.
Morena, a website developer and entrepreneur from Detroit, Mich., discussed the importance of self-value, which she described as the judgment of what is important in life and shared stories on how crucial it was to the turning point in her career.
“I just started thinking what can I do to make people value what I did the way I valued it” said Morena. “What I realized is no boss, no business partner, no one can actually value you the way that you can value yourself.”
She talked about self-happiness and how it prevails over working to push the ideas and agendas of others and not your own.
While working alongside tech giants such as: Google, Intel and Tipco, Morena realized that her passion was helping people to create and develop the way that she wanted to.
“My success was not about the money. I’m glad to have it but my success is more about inspiring people to create,”she said. “Being able to share is probably the biggest thing that I can take away from the last five years of my life.”
Nija Jones expressed that she gained a lot of information from the lecture.
“She taught me how to only make decisions that make me happy and to be satisfied with what everyone else has to say about my goals what I have set for myself,” said Jones.“What stuck out to me was to always be prepared for change and never settle for less.”
Morena closed with a message for students looking to start their own business or brand.
“You’re already your own brand. Do it, try it, learn from it. Success is great, failure is better because you learn from it.”
The next lecture is tentatively scheduled for April 13th, be on the lookout for more information.