How I quit my job and became a social entrepreneur -- and how you can, too

This time last year I was counting down the days until my last hour at my 9 to 5.

I had no idea what was next for me, but by the end of March 2016 I was mentally done.

I had to get out — and hip-hop philanthropy was about to become my ticket to social entrepreneurial freedom.

Get Out!

My 9-to-5 as an advertising assistant at a local publication had taught me the inner workings of running a business, but the job had taken its toil on me. The unsettling feeling that my workload was now overload, and probably not normal, was haunting my dreams. It felt like I didn’t have any opportunity to advance up the corporate ladder and move out of working poor status.

Every time I stepped into the office I felt uncomfortable. As one of the few black people in a predominantly white work environment, I felt like I had to mentally code-switch and not be my authentic, creative self for eight hours a day, five days a week. I needed to Get Out.

I didn’t know what I would do once my 9-to-5 ended last April. It was scary. But it was nowhere near as scary as watching my creativity wither. Work, Netflix, sleep, repeat was no longer cutting it.

I needed more.

I needed to be creative.

I needed hip-hop culture.

I needed to become a social entrepreneur.

I needed a knight to rescue me and help me establish my new social venture career path.

We are the champions, my friend.

Lucky for me, my knight came in the form of the Emerging City Champions Program funded by the Knight Foundation.

Last May, while getting suited and booted for a Beyoncé concert in Raleigh, I received a email stating that my social venture idea Hip Hop Orchestrated had won. I was going to receive a $5,000 micro-grant, a week-long, all-expense-paid trip to Toronto for training, and would become a member of the massive Knight Foundation network.

I quit my job without a true exit strategy (which I do not recommend), but the universe set me up to go after my true purpose — social entrepreneurship through hip-hop culture.

Hip Hop Orchestrated is a social venture focused on uniting Charlotteans by blending the musical genres of hip-hop and orchestral music to create social connections. These social connections will help improve the city’s upward economic mobility track record by creating social capital between people of different backgrounds.

Through these musical encounters, Hip Hop Orchestrated aims to help to convene people and create genuine social connections that could possibly blossom into friendships. Those friendships can turn into people helping each other find ways to move up the socioeconomic ladder through sharing business ideas, collectively building resources, forming partnerships and more.

The Emerging City Champion Fellowship provided me with a unique path into the music industry and allows me to do good through music.

Someone has to help find solutions to the challenges facing our city, why not you? How do you want to do good for your community? If you are flirting with the idea of becoming a social entrepreneur, too, maybe it’s time to apply to be an Emerging City Champion.

How to apply.

The Emerging City Champions Program is for young civic innovators with “transformative ideas.” The program finds people with good ideas and provides them with the guidance and funding to get started.

Emerging City Champions is open to anyone between the ages of 19-35 in one of the 26 Knight Foundation communities (like Charlotte) with an innovative project idea focused on at least one of the following elements of a livable community:

– Enhancing civic engagement

– Improving mobility

– Activating public life in public space.

Everyone is welcome.

The deadline to submit your idea is April 26. Head to emergingcitychampions.org to learn more and submit an application.

Photos: Courtesy of Kia O. Moore

This story was originally published April 18, 2017 at 9:18 PM with the headline "How I quit my job and became a social entrepreneur -- and how you can, too."