Season 3 - Episode 22: "But you didn't get a bachelor's though"-Mom

If you're emotionally invested in something, make sure you have passion for it, make sure that you have a continuous drive to keep going. As long as that passion remains in whatever form you're taking on and the effort is there behind it, I think you'll be successful. I'm not talking about like doing something for one day. I'm putting in eight hours in one day out of a week. I did photography, music, dancing, this and that. Ask yourself as a creative, why are you doing this? Are you doing music to get rich and famous? Are you doing it for fame? I think a lot of soul searching has to start when you go into a specific field like that, but a lot of people do it for checks.

Music was my passion. Like I was like 13, 12 years old, just starting to rap at that time. I would go into high school and the way I asked this one girl out, I performed in front of the whole entire school. As soon as everyone got out, like a hundred people behind me and I'm rapping. And then instead of doing a boring presentation, I would rap the entire presentation. By the time I got done with high school, people already knew that I was in that scene. I'd show up to a few battle, raps, and events.

On a college degree:

To become a First Vice President, there's so many candidates that have their JDs and MBAs on top of MBAs. Right? They're very qualified and when you see a resume with high school graduate, they won't be able to get past a specific ceiling. On the flip side, I have the experience, right? A lot of people in my department have a Masters. However, I beat out candidates with Masters for roles, and they get pissed because they have their Masters and, this individual and I, we both applied for this compliance position that I'm in and they just couldn't fathom the idea that someone with a high school degree could hold this position.

Listen to the entire conversation with Compliance Officer, Photographer, and former founding member of the B...

Interview with Kensington-based activist Shahana Hanif

Bengalis of New YorkBy Bengalis Of New YorkJun 15, 2019