From Homeless To Harvard Business School

A young Blackett with his mother and grandmother. Courtesy photo

‘I’M STILL SPLURGING AT SUBWAY AND IHOP!’

Blackett asked himself what’s something he could do that would accomplish three things: Help a lot of people, be personally and mentally fulfilled, and get back on his feet financially. He landed on coaching people interviewing for schools, internships and jobs.

“I was kind of surprised by it,” he recalls. “I thought, help people ace their interviews? That’s all?”

But for someone on the brink of foreclosure, who was splurging at Subway and IHOP and scouring the depths of Craigslist for any sort of work, it was a start. So he put a Powerpoint presentation together and convinced his alma mater, North Carolina, to let him give a presentation on how to interview for summer internships. Phone calls and emails poured in after his presentation. The students loved it. “OK, maybe we’ve got something here, but I still need to make money,” Blackett says.

GOLDMAN SACHS TO ITALIAN RESTAURANT: HIRE PHILIP

Blackett ended up retreating to Memphis to circle the wagons and try to regain some sort of dignity. Not to mention, some money. The most humbling moment came when he had to ask his previous supervisors to recommend him for a job as a waiter at an Italian restaurant in Memphis.

Finally, in August of 2011, Blackett got his “big break”–a year-long program advisor role in FedEx’s social responsibility department. “I was like, OK, this is my chance. Time to put my head down, work hard and keep grinding,” Blackett says.

All the while, Blackett remembered his dream and promise as an 18-year-old to his mother. He was going to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. In a round two Hail Mary attempt, Blackett put together an application. “I wanted to apply to more schools, but only had time to apply to one,” he recalls. “And so I thought, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it big. Let’s go to Harvard.”

Blackett was waitlisted, never got an interview, and then dropped.