Nureed Saeed of Nu Interiors speaking at KBIS 2023 about “being uncomfortable”. Video courtesy of https://www.thecabinetnerd.com/
I have spent much of my life as the “other” in spaces. Whether it’s being the first or the only one, I have been uniquely positioned as the person who is not like the others. Otherness can feel like a burden. It can feel lonely. It can feel like you are wondering “Am I the only one who sees what’s wrong here?” It is a feeling and a way of living that more often than not will leave you always feeling uncomfortable.
Accepting my otherness helps me accept that the rules were never written for me to succeed. I am being evaluated, like everyone, based on a societal standard of driven by whiteness. So I do not wake up wondering how I can win the game that has been set, I wake up playing my own game. One where the only standards to which I hold myself are my own.
Most do not choose to live in or with their discomfort. I think it’s human nature to look for comfort and ease. But when you are living as the other your entire life, uncomfortable can become your super power. What if I told you that every success I have experienced started with me being uncomfortable? The old saying “to learn from our mistakes” comes to mind. But the idea of a mistake comes with feelings of shame or regret. Those feelings do not help us grow. Instead my way to describe my success is that “I learned what I could do differently when I leaned into being uncomfortable.”
About two years ago, I enlisted the help of a business coach to help me write goals for my business. Like most people, I expected this to be a few months of working together and then I would move on. After about two months and me very much feeling like this is therapy not business coaching, my coach, Sasza, asked me if I wanted to do a thought exercise that required me to give myself accolades. At first, I cringed at the idea of telling myself how great I am. I honestly could not think of anything worse. And I told Sasza as much. And then I said “I hate this idea. I am incredibly uncomfortable, but maybe that’s the reason to do it. After all, the way I’ve been going clearly isn’t working. So f*ck it let’s try this.”
What came after that was a different me, a different life, and a different business. I was able to build goals and give myself credit for my achievements. I grew my business by 79% from 2020 to 2021 and by 43% from 2021 to 2022. But most importantly, I was working smarter, not harder. I was more efficient. I was using different, out-of-the box ideas to grow and I did this all while living in California, and servicing clients in California and in my previous home state of New Jersey. And I did this all because I allowed myself to be uncomfortable.
I could list the many ways I have grown and evolved my business over the last eight and a half years, but the number one way to grow is to challenge yourself to think differently about everything you see and think. Challenge the status quo. Challenge the norms. Challenge the idea that the “successful people work this much” or “a design business works like this.” The only rules that matter are the one’s you set for yourself (with the help of someone amazing like Sasza because everyone needs an editor).
So I would give this one piece of advice to every person; Lean into being uncomfortable because that is where the real growth happens.
Nureed Saeed is an award winning interior designer and a thought leader / advocate for creating true inclusion and equity in the design industry. She speaks about today’s ongoing inequalities in the design industry, housing, the workplace, and education. Most recently, Nureed spoke on the above subject at KBIS, the leading Kitchen and Bath Industry show in America, where she shared her thoughts on growth and leaning into being uncomfortable. Nureed is a successful entrepreneur and owner of Nu Interiors, a full service interior design firm, servicing California and New Jersey. She is also a regular volunteer, serving as the President of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, Northern California Chapter. She formerly served as a Steering Committee member of the National Committee to Redress Residential Segregation, now called “The Redress Movement.” Nureed holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising from Philadelphia University and a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
In the past, Nureed has run for elected office three times, having served as a Democratic Leader in her previous district in New Jersey and as the Chair of the School Site Council for Oxford Elementary in the Berkeley (California) Unified School District. Previously she ran for town council in the Township of South Orange, NJ, running as the only independent candidate and the first South Asian, Muslim woman to run for that position. Nureed also served as the Immigrants Rights Chairperson for SOMA Action, a local non-profit activism group, a Board of Director for the South Orange Public Library, a Board of Director for the South Orange Village Downtown Alliance, Vice-Chair of the Master Planning Committee for South Orange, and Secretary and Committee member of the South Orange Development Committee, where she was the only female and one of two people of color to serve.