Sheila Johnson Quotes

“Surround yourself with people who have a vision and not their own agenda.”

“You have to diversify to grow. I'm not afraid to take risks and falls.”

“Don't rest on your laurels. There's always someone going to be behind you who's going to be better than you; so, you need to get out there and keep working.”

“You can do anything you put your mind to. When people say no to me, I say, 'Don't say no to me. There is a way we can work this out.”

“I love challenges. I'm a risk-taker.”

“These doors would open, and I said, 'Why can't I go through them?' And I decided I was going to go through every door that came my way.”

“Every time I drive to the Virginia hotel, I'm like, 'I can't believe I built this.' I'm very proud of myself, but to see faces of color coming through the door is really terrific.”

“I go to my own house. I live on a 200-acre farm in Middleburg, and it's the best. I can walk up to three miles and never leave the property. That's my sanctuary.”

“I was not happy with what I was looking at on the screen.”

“To receive one Forbes Five-Star award is an honor, to receive two is a privilege, but to receive three is simply humbling.”

“There are so many people over the past five years saying, Sheila, it's time for you to tell your story. They have watched me over the years and the trauma that I've been through. Because I suppressed this for so long, the pain got worse.”

“I've suppressed so much in my life, and the pain has been terrible. Everyone else has been telling my story, and theirs isn't accurate. I needed to take my power back.”

“There was so much where I was literally erased out of everything that was going on at BET, where I was there and was in the background making sure that I could really promote my ex-husband at the time because that's what I wanted to do.”

“There is no way in the world that you can move forward without knowing who you are. As I got to know myself better, I was able to go on another path but keep the foundation of my arts career. Now I'm in Act 3 of my life, as a 70-plus-year-old woman. And this is the best part of my life.”

“I was at a healing point in my life where I just needed to figure out who I was again and to get my voice heard in the world. And more than anything, I just wanted to re-create something that was going to touch not only a community, but many people.”

“That's me. That's my life.”