Archive for March, 2009

ZINGHA STEWART is a blossoming director that is preparing to live out a vision that she concocted on a red eye flight from Los Angeles to New York. On this fateful journey Stewart pulled out her copy of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf that she received her Aunt Joan on her fifteenth birthday . Though she’d read the book many times over the years, this time it was very different. This time the words turned into pictures and the pictures were in motion. As she  frantically scribbled these ideas into the book itself – setting off a creative process that led to her securing the rights to develop the screenplay.

Last week Lionsgate Films announced that it  had acquired these  rights  and signed  Stewart to direct from her  adaptation of  “For Colored Girls,” the critically acclaimed play by Ntozake Shange, that was written as a series of 20 poems telling stories of love, abandonment, domestic abuse and other issues faced by black women.

It is  important to understand that Stewart, who is mostly known for directing music videos,  wasn’t just “signed”  by Lionsgate to write and direct;  This is a project that evolved by Stewart putting the motion pictures of her mind into real life motion,  thus creating a dream job for herself. (interview after the jump)

I don’t consider myself a hustler.  I am a mother of 4, a Girl Scout leader and drive a junk filled van.  The only hustle I know is getting the kids off to school, getting them to sports and getting them fed and in bed.  The only power moves I make are, trying to coordinate the carpool, or organize a sleepover. But I was shocked when during a recent conversation my husband called me complacent.  He works two jobs and up until last year, he supported the whole family.  Just last year I found a  _ data entry position with Girl Scouts.  I don’t make much money in my job, but it’s 5 minutes from my home, and is flexible enough that if one of my kids doesn’t have school, or is sick, they can come to work with me.

We were talking about money and I told him that two positions were opening up that paid more money but require more hours.  He said I should go for them.  I told him that I was happy in my little niche it is comfortable, though it doesn’t quite meet our monetary needs.  And that’s when he said I was complacent.  I had a flashback – Snoop Dogg said basically, the same thing to his wife  Shante, when he suggested she get her hustle on.  He suggested that she could get a beauty salon, a nail shop, a barbershop.   “It’s what you like and you making money, it’s a business.”  Snoop is a millionaire and still he wants his wife to do the damn thing.

Following a passion and turning it into a lucrative career can be quite daunting for many, especially in an economic environment where the choice stands between joblessness and simply earning a paycheck to survive.

However, there are some who are brave enough to step out on faith and take the risk of forfeiting an immediate means of survival to pursue a dream.

Aaron Arnold, 30, founder and CEO of Music Is My Business, made that decision, leaving a high-paying job as a public relations executive to take an unpaid internship working under one of the hardest-working men in show business – Bad Boy Records founder and entertainment industry powerhouse Sean “Diddy” Combs.

After the life-changing experience (and living off credit cards and a prayer), Arnold’s Atlanta-based music company now boasts a client list that includes ESPN, Heineken, and the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). He’s also worked with Grammy-award winning songwriter Bryan Michael Cox and platinum-selling artists Danity Kane.

He talked with BlackEnterprise.com about finding the courage to pursue his dream, being inspired by Combs, and the lessons in learning as you go.

Read the interview here

Connect with Aaron at 21st Century Hustle