Leaders who sense when people need and want uplifting and are able to go about communicating in a way that secures and holds attention, can inspire and drive action.
Actor, filmmaker and playwright Tyler Perry just did it.
“I want to talk to you about this thing that is happening in this country,” he said last week at the BET Awards. “They are removing our books from libraries, they are removing our stories and our history, they are removing our names from government buildings. It’s as if someone wants to erase our footprints.
“We were snatched from our homeland, brought across the ocean and left footprints all the way to America.”
This is the point where Perry saw an opening to encourage and push a little.
“I don’t care if you’re struggling, if you’re trying to make it, you’re trying to build a business, if you have a dream: keep making footprints,” he said. “… dig in and keep leaving footprints everywhere you go.
“Don’t let your worry be greater than your faith.”
Communication Intelligence talked to a small selection of people about what Perry’s comments meant to them, generally speaking. Here is that two-question conversation.
“You need to keep showing up, no matter what,” says Jorge Argota, co-founder at Grease Connections, a cooking oil recycling company. “If you think of your life as a story, the story which needs to be told is the one of struggle, the one of pain, overcoming challenges, making things happen, even after all of that.
“That is the story which is shared by heroes through the ages,” Argota adds.
“It resonates a lot with me because at the end of my days, I want to tell a story to inspire those who will come after: We are resilient, we are human and we are lucky.”
“We all have struggles and the people who make it to the top, their success in life, are the one's who didn't stop or give up,” says Shay Kent, an author, speaker and owner at Shay Kent Creative Enterprises, where she inspires women to live their best lives.
“Leaving footprints is a visual representation of moving forward, to keep going, to never give up.”
“Sometimes in the midst of working to meet basic needs, like putting food on the table, keeping a roof over your head, taking care of loved ones, you can forget what you dreamed of doing one day,” says Rhonda Overby, founder and CEO at Camera Ready, Inc., a strategic communications company.
“Even if you remember, you may feel you lack the energy to pursue your ideal,” she says. “It’s important to not only remember but also to keep taking steps to actualize your dream. No matter how unrealistic it may seem, steady progress can create a new reality.”
The proper framing of our aspirations is necessary, Overby stresses.
“It’s important to not measure where you want to be from you are, as that distance can prove daunting or deem the attempt overwhelming,” she says.
“Constantly taking steps, leaving footprints, leads you there. Having escaped poverty to become an entrepreneur, I know that first hand.”
“To me, ‘keep making footprints’ is a spiritual call to move forward even when you feel invisible. It’s a reminder that presence matters,” says Patrice Williams Lindo, a career coach and leadership development expert and CEO at Career Nomad, a consultancy dedicated to transformative leadership.
“It means your effort, your showing up, your voice, all of it, leaves a mark whether or not you’re being applauded in the moment.”
She explains how she’s come to feel deeply what Perry said, in the context that he communicated it.
“As a Black woman navigating corporate rooms that weren’t built with me in mind, I know what it means to walk anyway, even if you are tired, don’t have the right shoes, or worse, feeling like you’re walking into the firing line,” Williams Lindo says.
“‘To leave a print even when the ground tries to erase you’ — that quote is about legacy-in-motion. It says: Even if the path ahead isn’t clear, you’re still shaping it with every step.”
“I talk a lot with clients about ‘zooming in’ or ‘zooming out’ at different times in treatment,” says Michelle Smith, a mental health professional and counselor.
“When you are approaching a large goal of some sort, sometimes zooming out and looking at the forest amongst the trees feels incredibly overwhelming, confusing and unhelpful and can put folks into what we call a freeze mode, which feels like paralysis.
“You may know what you need to do but it feels impossible to get started.”
There is an approach that can help people overcome that stress and inertia.
“Changing your perspective with Perry's words instead to ‘zoom in’ in these moments and just focus on what that next footprint may be, can be incredibly helpful to get over the emotional blockages that can get in the way of maintaining commitments we make to ourselves,” Smith says.
One foot in front of the other:
“Many times getting started can be the hardest part when it comes to achieving bigger or long term goals,” Smith explains. “If you can train your brain to make a footprint that feels achievable, that is a great way to begin.”
“When you are growing a business, you are often taking many different actions throughout the day. Although hindsight is always 20/20, at the time you're doing all of this, you don't know what's going to work,” says Dave Gulas, president and co-founder at EZDC 3PL, a logistics firm and also the host of the Beyond Fulfillment podcast, a weekly interview show focused on the entrepreneurial journey.
“So often, if success doesn't happen right away, which is the case for most people, it's very easy to get discouraged and question why you are doing all of this.
“So, it's very important to continue to persevere in spite of the struggle because you have no idea which of these actions will lead to a breakthrough,” Gulas says.
“Most people give up too soon.”
Perry’s Encouragement and Plea is Valuable
“We are living in a time where so many people are afraid that their work, their voice, or their dreams don’t matter, especially after layoffs, AI disruption or DEI rollbacks,” Williams Lindo says. “Tyler Perry’s words pierce through that doubt.
“They’re a radical invitation and invocation to stay visible, to stay vocal and to stay in motion. That’s what I teach every client and community member: ‘You don’t have to have the whole journey mapped out to make impact. You just have to keep walking with intention. Every footprint proves you were here and that’s power no one can erase.’”
Perry’s words carry weight because, for many, he’s earned influence and seems, even as a billionaire, to understand people who are ensnared in a struggle.
The Psychology of the Struggle
“This is incredibly inspiring guidance, especially looking at someone like Tyler Perry who has built an empire on his own purpose and passions and created so many things,” Smith points out. “He is a human like us and had to start somewhere.”
“It is especially helpful when you think about the ways the brain tends to block us from being able to work through road blocks or achieve long-term goals because our brains are not hard wired for happiness, but hard wired to protect and keep us safe,” Smith says.
‘Your brain knows ‘OK, Michael has been safe and alive doing XYZ thing for the past XYZ period of time so why would we risk something that could not be safe when we can just keep doing what we have been doing.’
“Even if logically, you know this step will not create a true danger or threat, we must work with the brain to send subconscious messages that the change you are creating is safe, achievable and doable.
“It is as if when you do this, your brain carved a new pathway and when this experience shows up in real life the brain goes, ‘Oh right! I have been here before, even if only in the mind, and it was safe: I can do this!"
If Making Footprints to You is about Business Building
Gulas offers advisory as a smart reminder.
“Growing a successful business is a long process filled with failure, rejection and setbacks,” he says. “On this journey, it's easy to get discouraged and give up. It's important to keep making those footprints, the consistent daily actions that will compound over time.”
Remembering what Perry said or anyone offering something similar can become the software our minds need to push through.
“It's helpful to hear this advice from someone like Tyler Perry every so often,” Gulas says. “It's easy to look at someone's success and not realize what they went through to get there,” he adds.
“On my podcast, I've interviewed over 150 entrepreneurs and so often, it's a similar story: success didn't happen right away, people were on a long journey filled with pain and disappointment and the ones that ultimately succeeded were the ones who believed in their vision and simply refused to give up, no matter what life threw at them.”
“The divide between the haves and have-nots continues to widen,” says Overby.
“These are globally uncertain times, wherein many feel confused, disenfranchised and hopeless, believing it doesn’t matter what they do, they can’t win.
“They cannot, sans taking steps.”
That’s why what Perry said is critical to remember, whether for Black America or anyone seeking to make their mark, walk through a struggle and fulfill potential.
“Leaving footprints can make the difference,” Overby says.
“There may be obstacles, yes. Winners — footprint makers — see an obstacle as something to be navigated around. Others let it rob them of their dream. That is sad. So as Tyler Perry suggests, let’s keep making footprints, to create a better tomorrow.”
Kent repeats what most of us have heard before yet too often forget.
“People don't see the struggle before the success,” she says. “The stories we hear are of overnight successes when there was a lot of nights prior to the ‘overnight.’ Those people kept moving forward, leaving their footprints behind them.”
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