EMBRACING THE REAL WORLD... A BOOK EXCERPT

Advice for the Real World Handling Self-doubt: the Fear of Failure

By Chaz Kyser

When you are overcome with self-doubt and the fear of failure, you can become a barrier to your success.

That frustrated voice inside your head that tells you the goals you’re working towards can’t be accomplished, and you’re not good enough, smart enough, attractive enough, talented enough, or man or woman enough to accomplish them anyway, can be more detrimental to your livelihood than racism, sexism and ageism combined.


Feelings of self-doubt and the fear of failure aren’t foreign to anyone. These two cousins of discouragement strike people at various points in their lives, usually when there is something they’re hoping to achieve.

These negative feelings are what kept many of your high school classmates from going to college. They caused some of the people who entered college with you to drop out. Self-doubt and the fear of failure even managed to keep students who stayed in college from majoring in what they wanted to because they felt the classes would be too hard for them.

More Embracing The Real World is here.

Black Folks and Harry Potter (the BOOKS family, not the movies!)

I finished reading “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final book in the series, last night. Many avid readers of author J.K. Rowling’s young wizard’s odyssey finished the book over a week ago, but I got started late and I only read in spurts. (Hey, I gotta take time to post this blog right?)

“Hallows” is an incredibly well-written novel and Harry’s tale, which is meticulously and amazingly woven through seven books, never loses its momentum or tension. Obviously I’m a fan—a big fan. But after I closed the book it lead me to wonder, with over 12 million copies printed:

Are there a lot of black folks who are reading the Harry Potter series?

I asked short story writer and home schooling consultant Candice Davis that question. “Amongst readers, yes, the Potter books are popular. But unfortunately many of our black children are not avid readers,” she says. I asked about adults. “Most of them when they do read, don’t read fiction.”

I’d love for there to be some poll to discover what percentage of black people are avid readers (I hear the question coming: What determines “avid?” But that’s the surveyors job) and what are our avid readers reading?

Until we get that survey, please tell us if you think you’re an avid reader or not. And if so, what are you reading these days? Might it have anything to do with wizards, quidditch, wands or a kid named Harry?