Rapper/Novelist
Name: Blakeslee Curwen
Hometown: Exeter, N.H.
Education: Babson College, Olin Graduate School of Business, MBA Class of 2009
Plan A: Brand management
Plan B: Rapper/writer
The defining moment for me was when I was 100+ applications into the job search. I got to the point where I was desperate to get some money on the table and keep the lights on, so I put out a Craigslist ad. I called it "From Hedge Funds to Hedge Trimming" and offered to walk dogs, house-sit, manage a sales force, manage books. I was bombarded with spam. So I decided to start focusing on long-term creative things and stop worrying about an economy that I can't do much about.
I like business, but nothing's ever going to stimulate me as much as writing or performing. A little-known fact to my former MBA classmates is that I've been rapping for more than a decade and have been signed to an independent record label for the last three years. One of my songs was featured in an online Sprite promotion. Now with a bunch of time off, music is most of what I've been doing. I have also started taking creative writing classes at night and spend several hours a day working on my first book, a suspense thriller.
This is definitely not what I thought I'd be doing a year ago—writing songs in a studio by day and putting on the desk light to type seriously on my computer by night. Rapping might run its course at some point; I don't know if I'll be 37 and wanting to go out and perform at rap concerts. But I'll take it as far as I can go. Once you get over the initial anxiety of the job market and realize it's not totally in your control, it opens up the door to do some soul-searching. And that's exactly what I've done.
