Issa Rae Sees Her 'Impulsivity' As 'A Present And A Curse'

[ad_1] by Jeroslyn JoVonn August 27, 2025

Issa Rae reveals how her impulsive nature nearly left her broke.

Issa Rae is offering examples of how her impulsive streak led to vital monetary dangers early in her ascent up the Hollywood ranks.

In her new essay assortment, I Ought to Be Smarter by Now, launched Aug. 26, Rae displays on how her impulsive nature formed each her successes and monetary struggles early in her profession. Among the many six essays out there on Amazon Authentic Tales, I Virtually Know What I’m Doing particulars how her impulsiveness almost left her bankrupt.

“My impulsivity, the character trait I’ve benefited from and paid dearly for, is each a present and a curse,” Rae wrote, as captured by Us Weekly. “The reward is that I will be fearless within the pursuit of something I wish to obtain. If I need one thing, I’m going to be lively and go after it. The curse is, in fact, that I don’t correctly suppose by way of the results of my actions.”

“Some creatives can’t get their tasks off the bottom as a result of they overthink,” she added. “I’m an underthinker. The perfect instance of this price me each single greenback I had ever made in my life.”

In 2014, Rae was working full-time as a author and had “just a few net sequence” below her belt, she recalled. The Insecure creator was additionally within the strategy of writing a e-book, seemingly her 2015 memoir “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Woman,” which got here with a considerable advance. It was right now {that a} name from her enterprise supervisor would shake her world totally.

“I made a decision to be accountable and repay all my debt,” Rae defined. “I used to be on the set of an independently produced comedy pilot referred to as Phrases with Women from a brand new author I liked and believed in, after I bought the decision from my enterprise supervisor.”

In line with her supervisor, “each penny you’ve saved is about to be gone,” and Rae cites three main errors she made that just about led to her going broke.

Rae, alongside together with her producing associate Deniese Davis, launched the impartial manufacturing firm ColorCreative. Nevertheless, earlier than securing any investor funding, that they had already set a schedule, solicited scripts, and met with writers. Whereas trying to find traders, neither Rae nor Davis was “getting many bites,” she wrote.

“I used to be so enthusiastic about our simple concept and assured that we finally would, so we proceeded anyway,” Rae defined. “We discovered some actually nice scripts that, to me, have been filling a void in tv.”

Mistake No. 2 got here when Rae reached out to a “wealthy ex” for funding, and the third occurred when she “bought right into a combat with stated ex every week earlier than we have been scheduled to shoot,” she wrote.

“The actual mistake was not pulling the plug after I knew I didn’t have the cash and that the entire prices could be falling on me. Let me let you know what I didn’t have in my checking account: $150,000,” Rae added. “I had about half of that as a result of I had obtained a part of the advance for my first e-book. Most of it was in my financial savings — it was all the cash I had ever made in my life up till that time. Therefore, the frantic name from my enterprise supervisor.”