We asked some of the city’s most brilliant and creative minds to tell us about the most difficult decision they’ve had to make.

Cynthia Kaye | Innovator & Teacher Advocate

Maybe not THE most difficult, but certainly in the top 5 are the decisions we’ve had to make this year with the pandemic and subsequent shutdown. Our business sells to schools; With schools, as well as everything else, closed, we had to regroup and find our pivot. As the school shutdowns progressed, the trending solution was virtual learning. Educators needed to find a way to teach remotely. For older students, this wasn’t too painful, but for the little ones, engagement was a major challenge. How do you keep a 4-5 year old’s attention over a computer? HEY! That’s what we do best! Pivoting our engaging 3D zoo experience for reading and math into a remote learning resource that engages kids was the new focus. Not only have we now successfully added virtual learning to our repertoire, we also took the time to script and film 26 alphabet lessons on YouTube and offer them FREE to parents and educators. They are fun, engaging, and offer over 6 hours of at-home learning. Read more>>

Mr Outley | Spoken Word Artist, Host & Media Personality

Leaving a good job, stable home environment, my son, my family and all things I was familiar with to relocate to another state. I just believed there was more in the world for me to experience. I love my city(Detroit, MI) but in order for me to grow I knew I had to go. Read more>>

Abeje TheAtre

The most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make? I’d say leaving my job full-time to focus more on my career. My most recent job was a lot of mind work; it became very overwhelming. There was so much I had to deal with everyday, that by the time I got home, I didn’t really want to do anything but chill. I’d open up my iPad and watch a show until I felt myself get really sleepy. Occasionally I’d try to work on my craft. I’d pick up my guitar and songbook, but not much would come out and I’d give up before you knew it. One day I decided enough was enough. I needed to quit my job to focus on my craft; the job was sucking the life out of my soul and my creativity. But it was a battle; I had made certain plans and goals with this job and leaving was going to slow those plans down in a major way. I also made a promise to my boss that she’d have me there for 1.5 to 2 years. Read more>>