You may feel overwhelmed by circumstance, but just the simple act of looking for that silver lining in your life can give you the power to rise! Adam Nugent is joined by multicultural, multigenerational, global artist Alex Boye. Together, they walk through his powerful personal story and the heartache that came before his success. Building a foundation is at the core. Every trial in your life has a silver lining if you’re willing to look for it!
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Life for music artist Alex Boyé hasn’t always been easy. In this podcast excerpt, he talks with Adam Nugent about his difficult childhood and how he now strives to help others through their challenging circumstances.
AN: Alex, you’ve got a tremendous story background, Tell us about you. Where did Alex get started?
AB: My family is from Nigeria. That’s where my roots are, but I was born and raised in England. When I was 11 years old, my mom went on vacation to Nigeria for three weeks. She was just going away for three weeks, but I didn’t see for eight years. During that time, she put me in boarding school, and the boarding school was tough. But I had an interesting experience. I look back, and being in that boarding school for six years, while I was going through it, it felt like a nightmare. Now, I’m looking back and it was pretty much a daydream. It was an amazing experience.
I’m at this boarding school and, if you can imagine the intro of Downton Abbey where you see this building, it was just like that. So it was like an experiment for all us guys. We were all from broken homes, single families, divorced families. Some were very, very wealthy, but the mum and dad just sent him off to this school. So we had the best education that you could ever imagine. I was playing like rugby and cricket. You’ve got to realize that cricket is like an elite sport in England. Now it’s not so much, but then it was an elite sport. And the next minute we’re fencing with swords and stuff like that, going on trips to France to do competitions. I was just taken out of this place and put into this incredible situation. And I hated every moment of it.
AN: What advice do you have for our listeners who are struggling today?
AB: I’ll say it’s okay to struggle, but don’t put that in your head. Don’t let it live there.
AN: In a year like 2020, it has really put some challenges on the entertainment business. What silver linings have you found?
AB: I was praying, and I just had this really strong feeling. It was like another question where it was like God saying, “Okay, here’s another question you should ask. What are you going to do now with this whole situation to bless your community? What are you going to do now with the gifts that I gave you to help put a smile on faces?”
I put a message out on Facebook and on my Instagram page. I said, “Guys, we’re going through some crazy times. You know, it’s Charles Dickens time right now. You know what I mean—the best times, the worst of times. I know that people going through stuff. I want to just see if I can bring some smiles on people’s faces. So what I’m going to do, I got my little sound system in my car, and I want you to nominate someone. I’ll go to their house and I’ll perform six feet away from them, bring my mask, sing some songs, and we’ll have some fun.
I posted it and forgot about it. I came back to it, and after a day there were 1,500 nominations. And I’m like, “Holy smokes. What am I going to do?” So I thought, okay, I’m just going to start from the top and just start working my way down. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last three or four months. It’s taken me to Wyoming, all over Utah, and Missouri. And I’ve got to tell you, brother, it’s changed my whole life.
