Beyoncé’s 'Lemonade' Think Piece For Lawyers

What can lawyers and law students learn from Beyoncé's latest creation?

Beyonce Formation“I’m going to keep on running because a winner don’t quit on themselves.”
Beyoncé

On Saturday, Beyoncé dropped her latest visual album to support her new 12-track record, Lemonade. The narrative arc follows a form of the Kübler-Ross model. Her journey from isolation to community and anger to redemption is sorted into chapters: Intuition, Denial, Apathy, Reformation, Forgiveness, Hope, and Redemption.

During the Redemption phase of the video, Jay Z’s grandmother Hattie — on stage at her 90th birthday — shares with the audience, “I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade.”

Whether Beyoncé was addressing her parents’ problems, her personal journey, or a multigenerational tension with society, one thing was certain: she’s discovered a fierce recipe for Lemonade. Beyoncé’s sixth album is an ode to battling hardship, withstanding adversity, and triumphing over tragedy. It is a celebration of life, self-realization, and empowerment. As Beyoncé tells us in her video:

Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.

Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kit. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You passed these instructions down to your daughter who then passed it down to her daughter.

As another famous saying goes, “life is like photography, you need the negatives to develop.” In Beyoncé’s case, she’s developed her hardships into a visual masterpiece. The music collaborations in Lemonade transcend any genre and her persona transcends the role of pop artist. More than anything, I’d argue her newest album is a visual manifestation of her grit and supersurvivor traits.

Beyoncé began her career singing about being a survivor – “Thought I couldn’t breathe without you, I’m inhaling. You thought I couldn’t see without you, perfect vision.” Our troubles don’t have to mirror Beyoncé’s trials and tribulations to understand that everyone is facing battles, which the world may know nothing about. It is only fitting that this trait is so ingrained in her most recent work. So what can we learn from Beyoncé about making lemonade?

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In her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow and University of Pennsylvania professor Angela Duckworth observed across numerous and disparate contexts that grit was the ultimate predictor in success. More so than IQ or talent, grit is the quality that results in hard work and focus – not just for weeks or months, but for years.

Grit depends on having focused, long-term passions. It is often derived from a growth-mindset – the belief that one’s most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Grit is about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that — not talent or luck — makes all the difference.

Sure, Beyoncé’s talent can be measured in spades, but ours doesn’t have to be out of this world. In many of their research samples, Duckworth’s team found that on average, grittier individuals were actually less talented. Our jobs may change, but our long-term passions don’t have to – as long as we cultivate a growth mindset.

Just as Beyoncé’s career and passion have evolved, our careers and passions can evolve together. Everyone receives their own life’s lemons, it is what we do with these lemons that makes all the difference. The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.

Beyoncé’s unique blend of talent and hard work have made her arguably the most influential celebrity in the world. Yes, her talent is undeniable, but I believe her grit is off the charts as well. After all, grit is the genesis of motivation and productivity. It is the ultimate competitive edge. Beyoncé’s Lemonade reveals to the audience what went through her head as she coped with the five stages of grief. More than talent, the visual album exposes grit – passion and perseverance.

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In their book Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success, psychologists David Feldman and Lee Kravetz dispel society’s idea that resilience is the ideal response to adversity. Instead of just bouncing back after being broken, some people actually bounce forward in the wake of tragedy. They emerge from adversity better than they were before. Where most will eventually recover and return to normalcy, supersurvivors make it out of purgatory with a newfound strength. Baptized by fire, they shine brighter once the resiliency fades.

Whether it is was by reformation, transformation, or Formation, Beyoncé is more forged and fierce than ever. It is surely no coincidence that Lemonade features a kintsugi piece, artistry from a very specific school of Japanese ceramics. As Cosmopolitan’s Alex Rees points out:

Kintsugi craftsmen repair broken pieces of pottery with lacquer and/or porcelain glue as well as a dusting of precious metal — like the gold leaf featured in the Lemonade bowl. This is to highlight the previous cracks and damage as an integral part of the piece, and to illustrate that something even more beautiful can be created from the hard work needed to make things whole (and right) again.

Supersurvivors can serve as a blueprint for anyone dealing with adversity, even minor setbacks. Supersurvivors overcome adversity and focus their ambitions by: (i) accepting what they cannot change; (ii) being optimistic; (iii) possessing an unshakeable confidence in their ability to shape their future; and (iv) establishing a strong support system, finding strength in community.

To emulate supersurvivors, we should reset our thinking about how we deal with challenges, no matter how big or small. By adopting the supersurvivor framework, we can become better equipped to turn tragedies into triumphs and failures into successes. Life’s lemons can give us the clarity to reevaluate our priorities, to check if our passions match our endeavors.

By serving us her pure, unfiltered truth in Lemonade, Beyoncé has discovered yet another refreshing way to reinvent herself. No one has a flawless journey, but anyone’s legacy can become irreplaceable. Needless to say, we don’t have to be Beyoncé to realize that grit and supersurvivor traits are the necessary ingredients for overcoming hardship, withstanding adversity, and triumphing over tragedy.

For most law students and young lawyers, their goal in their careers isn’t to just survive, it’s to thrive. By making lemonade from life’s lemons, law students and young lawyers can develop successful careers that transcend the role of attorney for themselves and others.


Renwei Chung is the Diversity Columnist at Above the Law. You can contact Renwei by email at projectrenwei@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter (@renweichung), or connect with him on LinkedIn