My origin story is an example of unlikely emergence through divine purpose.
It begins with family; a mother and father who steadily equipped me with a disposition of belief, ownership, and self-determination. I describe this disposition more simply as entrepreneurship.
My earliest and fondest memories took place in car rides with my father, a dessert baker of over 25 years, as he would make deliveries to local coffee shops and food stores that carried his products. It is clear to me now that entrepreneurial intentions and ambitions were being thoughtfully nurtured, but deeper than that was the philosophical foundation of self-determination, or as he would put it, “do for self.”
I was raised in Inkster, MI, a “suburb” of Detroit that contradicts every preconception of what a suburb is. A quick ride down one of the few main roads will show that Inkster is plagued by the same symptoms of systemic oppression that many other Black cities face; crime, scarcity, addiction and the like. Inkster will always occupy a special place in my heart. I left at 17 years old to attend Florida A&M University, in search of the beaches that existed only in the imagined version of Tallahassee and was luckily and pleasantly surprised to encounter the rich and life-changing legacy of the HBCU experience.
Upon graduation from the prestigious School of Business and Industry in 2012, I rejected the fruitful corporate path that was so well laid out for me because I had no interest in it. While I don’t regret the rejection, I did not have a solid alternative plan, so I floundered around Tallahassee for several years following graduation. That lasted until a professor in a graduate class I had enrolled in told me I received the highest grade he’d ever given on a paper. This invoked a new desire for higher education.
I applied to more than ten PhD programs and was accepted into just one: the entrepreneurship PhD program at the University of Louisville. With no desire to ever be an academic, or any knowledge of what it entailed, I became the first Black person to graduate from the program in December of 2022. Through yet another divine intervention, a five-minute conversation would turn into a phenomenal job opportunity. In January of 2023, I moved to Atlanta and started working as the Vice President of Data and Research at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs. My time there was swift, productive, and transformative. It prepared me for my current role as a Professor of Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. Every day I am blessed with the opportunity to pour into the minds of aspiring entrepreneurs.
I can confidently say that I am living out my purpose because of my faith in God. A reflection on this chain of events emphasizes the unexplainable breakthroughs that can only be attributed to Him: my conception by a Christian woman and Muslim man, leaving Inkster to attend FAMU, being accepted into a PhD program I was wholly unprepared for, earning a VP role I was equally unprepared for, and countless others that haven’t been mentioned. Reconciling the sometimes-conflicting spiritual guidance of my parents and navigating the deceitful and tempting pleasures of this world caused challenges in my early process of spiritual maturity. But the emergent endurance continues to establish a sense of clarity. Jesus is my savior, caretaker, and source of hope. Through alignment with His Holy Spirit and reading His Word, I have discovered three guiding principles for my life. First, and above all, show love to everyone. Second, be diligent, consistent, and disciplined in your work because no one is going to provide for you if you don’t first seek to provide for yourself. And last, put community first by sacrificing for the good of the collective and standing against injustice and oppression.
I have spent my entire professional life discovering and crafting education for entrepreneurs, to teach people to effectively generate and implement ideas, based on one guiding belief: entrepreneurial action is a powerful form of resistance to adversity and oppression.