The Citadelle Henry and the palace of Sans-Souci still stand, two centuries later. Stone upon stone, carved from sweat and will, they endure. What was once concepts, what once lived only in the mind of a great king, now towers above the hills of Haiti, bearing witness to all that was risked, all that was built, all that could not be undone.
You can’t sell a thing until you’ve already sold it.
That is the riddle, the quiet truth behind all ambitions. The Haitian world is flooded with powerful ideas—brilliant, beautiful, world-changing ideas. They live in hushed conversations, in the scribbled notes of the hopeful, in the cheers of friends who say, Yes! You should do that! But ideas are not currency. Execution is.
Reality is the best bullshit-detector, and so you have to build something, something that breathes, something that lasts. A consultancy, a movement, a structure that does more than impress those who already believe in you. Otherwise, all you have is a whisper, a maybe, a story of what could have been.
Take a Fet Gede in Leeds. Once, it was an idea–a powerful one to be sure. A dream from a friend who took it further. She carried it from thought to form, from whisper to weight. She did it twice. And now, when someone in Leeds speaks of Vodou, when they seek its presence, its ritual, its force, they think of her. Not because she spoke of it only. Not because she dreamed of it. But because she did it. She laid the foundation, bore the weight, the cost in time and money (and my patience), and proved that the idea could live outside of her own mind.
And that—more than any slogan, more than any well-crafted argument—is how you prove your worth. Your ideas are only as powerful as the work you put behind them. And the work—the undeniable, unshakable proof—is what brings paying clients through the door.
But between thinking and building, between inspiration and manifestation, there are steps. And they are not glamorous, not poetic, but they are the difference between what is, what never was, and what will be:
Refine the Vision – Not just what you want to do, but who it will serve, why it matters, and how it will stand apart.
Research the Landscape – Who else is here? What gaps remain? What needs are unspoken, unmet? This is a crucial one because finite resources (time and money) going to organizations doing the same thing diminishes the effectiveness of the singular problem they’re all trying to address individually, leading to resource dilution. To fill the gaps left by each organization, organizational coordination is crucial here. Use the one-tree-many-branches approach. L’union fait… .
Lay the Foundation – A name. A mission. A structure that gives your idea form.
Test on a Small Scale – A prototype, a first run, an experiment.
Establish Credibility. Do first. Then talk about it. – Show people, through action, that you are the one to call. Your work, your history, your name—let them speak before you do.
Find Your People – Community is everything. Clients, believers, collaborators who will stand beside what you are building.
Refine and Improve – The first version is never perfect. Learn. Adjust. Build again. This is your first confrontation with reality. Prove that it breathes before you build it to last. Each attempt in the real world forces you to not only build, but to fail, fail again, fail better.
Make It Official – If you want paying clients, move and talk like a business. Register. Price your work. Own your space.
Promote with Proof – No need for empty words. Show the work. Let your execution be your loudest voice.
The Lindy Effect – It is not enough to do it once. What makes a thing real is that it endures.
This is the way. This is the distance between dreaming and doing. Between being someone who talks about great ideas and someone who lives them.