BF Mag — Book

A common question that's asked of anyone whenever a height of success that is reached is usually that of 'what's next?'. Immediately a shred of doubt peels through, as we all understand the common pressure and expectation of creating something new for the audience. Call it a form of writers' block if you like. I can tell you in my experience, that I haven't experienced such block during my time in drafting my novels. All of what I've done so far, comes from a very distinct place of vulnerability within myself. Emotions are high, my immediate environment appears low, and I only have myself to depend on to pull through.

This is the exact ingredient necessary to staying on top of yourself and being ahead of the game. Past judgements and experiences tend to pull us back, as I've written previously before, and our TRUE strength lies in overcoming those traumas, and pushing forward despite these self-imposed obstacles. Staying ahead of the game means just that - the game that's constantly being played on your mind. Your interactions with others, the successes, the failures, the hurdles you've overcome all can serve or hinder you - depending on how you use them.

Do you allow your past success to make you grow soft for future challenges, or do you find a way to stay hungry despite your internal accolades? Do you allow your failure to stop you trying something new, or do you use the pain experienced as fuel to your internal fire to push on for something great. These are things that we all subconsciously ask ourselves everyday, sometimes without our own knowledge. This is what separates the pigeons to the Falcons and the Lions to the Antelope.

2021, like every other year will present challenges to Blaque Falcon, but we'll be ready as ever, for it's the uncomfortable challenges that bring out the best in us.

Love and Light,

Ikenna

‘Time heals all’, ‘Patience is a virtue’, ‘Time waits for no one’, these are all quotes or life lessons that we hear consistently over time that, although may sound lofty, can also be rather contradictory. Time indeed does heal, but to what extent, and what exactly do you need healing from? Yes, patience is indeed a virtue, but if we are to behave and conduct ourselves of a high moral standard, then surely an understanding of time itself must be adhered to. Of course time is always in motion, never stopping, everything in flux, but surely if there is no goal for one to aspire to, then this logically leads to limbo - albeit wasted time.

I think I made my point in delving into some of the contradictions of taking some ‘inspirational quotes’ to heart. To my understanding, and as the blog title suggests, is that patience is a superpower. I write this not to mean that you can punch through walls or fly in mid-air kind of superpower. I’m referring to patience as a power play, a card that can be dealt as a means to obtaining your goals and win - so much so that you appear to have some kind of superpower.

I’ve written previously on the importance of having a goal, setting targets and executing them, but the one underrated element is always the requirement of time it takes to achieve this. Most blogs or even books will go to the nth degree about the dedication it takes to reach your aspirations, but what about the time? What about the hours spent understanding the logistics of getting that a product manufactured and dealing with the feedback of it?

This is the kind of power that I refer to, for if you can still go through the inevitable periods of frustration and still come out on top, the rewards are always fruitful. As a throwback, I refer to the writing process of producing DRAX. I’ve written previously on this very subject of dealing with the long periods of frustration. I can tell you that during my time of writing DRAX and my new top secret project that I’m working on, there were endless moments of boredom and annoyance.

However, what assisted in perseverance of it was my focus of the end goal. It was this very focus, that drove the patience out of my naturally - without having to refer to an inspirational quote on social media. If you’re currently going through such a period now, I wish you every success - keep going!

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What would a Blaque Falcon 2019 look like? What did we achieve in 2018 that we could’ve improved on? These are questions that I continued to ponder on during the winter holidays. I’d love to say that it will always onwards and upwards, but I’m sure you’ve heard that elsewhere. Blaque Falcon itself as a brand has continued to enthral me in so many ways. Over the years since its conception, as I’ve grown as a creative Blaque Falcon itself has grown, so naturally the brand itself can only ever go in one direction.

I have found many positive traits in my own personal development as the brand has grown, but have found many other aspects that must improve for it to grow even stronger than ever. This must be the challenge that all entrepreneurs, as well as aspiring businessmen and women go through on a day-to-day basis. Even those who understand their potential, but are unsure on which direction they must place their creative energies. Their talent continues to haunt them, while the societal pressures of conformity bind them to a regressive form of spiritual lockdown. 

If you are one of these people, believe me you are not alone. Blaque Falcon has always been a healthy outlet for me to express the expansive imagination going on in my mind – and perhaps it can do the same for you too. I made the free choice to change the spelling of Black to ‘Blaque’ to simply add some personality to the brand, while also immediately forcing the seeker to ask themselves the following question/s (among others): What does the bird image represent? Why is it spelt like that? What’s the story behind the symbol? When I heard onlookers ask those exact questions during my stint on becoming a market trader, I knew that that Blaque Falcon is almost certain for success.

The greatest challenge that all of us face in our times is, the current trend of instant information. Information and data is sent through instantaneously at an alarming rate and almost everyone that owns a smartphone has an opinion on the latest gossip or fashion trend that embarks the web. How do we relinquish ourselves from the constant pull and urge to bring out our phones from the ever-growing distraction of social media? A pertinent question for us as a growing brand, would be how we stand out as a brand amongst all of the noise?

The answer is simple but difficult. We continue to keep the persona of the Falcon, by persistently focusing on our prey, which in this case would be our goals and objectives. We already know what the wings represent, but we must continue to remind ourselves of how essential it is to continue to strive for the natural regal boldness of the Falcon. This is an attitude and identity that you can also adopt, for removing the chains of ignorance and fear will always be an uncomfortable but liberating experience – as I have known personally in my own development.

What would a Blaque Falcon 2019 look like? As much as I’d like to get a crystal ball out on the finer details of the year, what I can guarantee is what I have always stated on previous posts – we will continue as always to push ourselves for an aggressive expansion of our brand.

2017 was the year that pretty much set the pace and tone for Blaque Falcon Clothing and Publishing. The very idea of kicking off a clothing line came to fruition following multiple brainstorms, questions, set-backs and a whole barrage of emails sent to different suppliers and merchandisers. The result was our first collection of clothing and the brand’s publication of its debut novel, Drax. The experience itself was somewhat of an education for myself. To test the market’s waters, last summer I decided to rent my own pop-up shop, and pursue a very short career as a market trader. I traded in Chingford, Brick Lane, Battersea, Tottenham, Enfield and Battersea. I took every opportunity available to receive direct feedback and involvement in getting the brand off the ground.

With the first-hand experience and lessons learned during this in 2017, I knew that the intention for Season Two was going to be somewhat of a transitional one. I very much wanted to keep the brand’s ethos of regal sovereignty yet take the brand to a period of ascension; and to achieve this was to take Blaque Falcon to a new direction.

Usually when companies, brands, people of influence etc. announce that they wish to take themselves in a new direction, this usually results in the audience giving a somewhat nervous sense of anticipation of what’s to come next. I’d like to think the host of YouTube videos and other exclusive behind the scenes content on social media have dispelled any sense of doubt of what’s to come for Season Two.

Season One was, to say the least a warm-up to what we have in store for Season Two. I wanted to kick-start the brand by starting modestly – providing a simplistic, yet a quality controllable collection for both men and women. This involved a minimal line of T-Shirts, long-sleeve t-shirts, jogging bottoms and hoodies for both genders, as well as a unisex Sweatshirt. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with the majority of customers and supporters complimenting on the softness and comfort of the products – not to mention the positive reader reviews of my novel Drax. While this was all very humbling and of course exciting, this gave me a detailed enough baseline on where to take Season Two, namely keep doing what you’re doing but better.

The Season One photoshoots all provided a very urban theme to jump-start, which clearly worked, but to introduce a fresh new outlook, I wanted to bring in a more preppy-summertime theme in. We have a collection of Unisex Casual shirts, and knitted sweatshirts, a range of Mens Chino Trousers and Shorts, Polo -shirts for both men and women as well as some crop-top shirts for women - not to mention a range of unisex Bomber Jackets.

I have truly been blessed to work with several talented individuals to make Season Two come to fruition. It’s collaborations like these that personally confirmed to me that my entrepreneurial endeavour was very much the correct path to take. As mentioned on previous posts, the Falcon symbolises the visionary power necessary to achieve one’s goal, thus achieving spiritual sovereignty. We as Falconites and Falconettes elevate ourselves to see beyond the horizon, and when necessary, we swoop in for our prey with no permission while also eliminating all distractions en route.

Ikenna Nwimo