#123: From the Dumbest Decision to Global Cultural Change Agent | Zarinah El-Amin |REPLAY+ (10/21/21)

Oct 12 2023 • 1 hr 7 mins

Zarinah El-Amin is an award-winning anthropologist, author and TEDx speaker whose company, Book Power Publishing, revolves around helping clients create cultural change through books and global experiences.

What is the dumbest decision you've ever made in your life?

For this special replay episode that we’re releasing on both audio and as a video on my YouTube channel, Zarinah is back with an update on what’s happened since she first appeared on the GFR Show and opened up about the “dumbest decision” she ever made. She talks about another major loss she's experienced these last couple years, and shares what she's learned around acceptance and letting go.

Being raised a Muslim, Zarinah was surrounded by family friends from many cultures, but as a student in Detroit and later at Howard University, she wasn’t exposed to a lot of different people. Find out what “clicked” that made her know she was a “person of the world.” And how that led to eye-opening experiences like living in Egypt and dating someone in a different caste, and revitalizing orphan programs in Sierra Leone.

You’ll also hear the lessons she learned in her 40th year—a spiritual year of revelations for many Muslims—which came in a series of GFR moments including losing her mom, divorcing her husband of 14 years, and moving in with her father after his stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Plus, you’ll hear the transformational lesson Zarinah learned when she repressed her true nature to try to make her marriage work.