You have an amazing ________. Why are you hiding it from the world?
If we think hard enough, we can all certainly fill in the blank with an attribute or talent that we choose to suppress. Too often, we don't go after what we want because we allow fear and self-doubt to take over.
Adrienne Bailon of
3LW and
Cheetah Girls fame was forced to be honest with herself and the world when she was posed that tough question on her hit daytime talk show
The Real. One of the things that makes her special is her voice, and the other hosts wanted to know why she hasn't put out new music.
"One, I'm scared to fail, so I've had this solo album, people, that I've been saying is coming out for the last five years," an emotional Adrienne bravely said. "I'm scared to fail, I don't like the sound of my own voice...As a 31-year-old woman, sometimes I hear myself recorded and I still think I sound really young!"
Being that Adrienne is so outspoken, especially in her hosting gigs like
The Real, it hurt us to hear her say that she is silencing herself with respect to her art because she is fearful of other people's opinions.
"To step out on my own and let my voice be heard, I'm scared. Like what if people don't like it? Or what if it's not, I don't know...what if it's not successful?" the entertainer confessed. "I almost have been saying I would rather it not come out and just say, 'Well it just never came out,' than for it come out and be wack."
While her girls were quick to offer their support, we particularly love what fellow singer
Tamar Braxton, who found success late in her career after struggling to get out of sister
Toni's shadow, shared.
"I understand why I wasn't
Mariah Carey at 18 like I thought I was going to be. I was not ready," she said. "It wasn't about singing. It was about the accolades. It was about the charts...I don't even look at that stuff [now] because it taints the gift, the love and the passion that you have for it, and you can't do that."
The "Love and War" songbird brought her point home by telling Adrienne: "Who cares if 100,000 people or four people...buy your record? You be proud of your record because that's what you want to do."
Press play on the inspiring segment above to (A) realize that even those we admire have insecurities, but they fought through them in order to get to where they are today, (B) be reminded that only you are standing in the way of your dreams (stop it!), and (C) have a good cry...because who doesn't love that?