Earlier this week, I watched a video that sat heavy on my heart. Pierre Neil, known to many as Swiss from So Solid Crew and the founder of Black Pound Day, released a deeply personal two-part update on the campaign he started in 2020.

For those unfamiliar, Black Pound Day was launched in the wake of global unrest after May 2020. It quickly grew into one of the most visible, community-driven economic campaigns in Black British history. It encouraged us to buy from Black-owned businesses every first Saturday of the month. More than a hashtag, it became a movement. One that saw pop-ups, physical stores, and partnerships with household names like Google.

But in the video, Swiss revealed that behind the movement’s success was personal collapse. He spoke candidly about the toll it had taken on his health, his relationships, and his peace. He shared that he’d lost feeling in his feet and suffered reduced hearing. The stress of building something for us had left him physically and emotionally unwell.

As someone who knows the weight of responsibility when building for your people, I felt every word.

There’s a quiet expectation in our community that we must keep going. That we must be strong. That our output is a measure of our value. But the truth is, many of us are pushing beyond the limits of what is humane or healthy, and doing it silently.

Swiss’s honesty was not only brave. It was essential. His decision to step back and scale down the operations of Black Pound Day wasn’t failure. It was strategy. It was preservation. And it was love, for himself and for the work.

What struck me most was how familiar it felt. I’ve often continued delivering at full force even when I was running on empty. I’ve felt the pressure to hold things together while privately falling apart. So many of us are building legacies and breaking in the process.

Swiss reminded me, reminded all of us, that rest is not a luxury. It’s not a reward. It’s essential.

We do not have to break to prove we’ve built.

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A Note to You

If you’re reading this and you’re tired, please know you’re not alone. If you’re reevaluating, recalibrating, or simply trying to breathe, that is the work too.

Our movements deserve sustainability. And so do we.

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