You're only the boss if you put up your own money.
Damon Dash
Work harder than everyone, be patient, and just know that if you're going to do something on your own, you're gonna have to feel some pain.
I've never tried to be accepted. When everyone is doing one thing, I've always had the instinct to go the other way. I don't understand how an individual with their own mind, their own values, and their own beliefs can be so willing to just follow what everybody else is doing. How can you make history doing what everybody else is doing?
How can another man call another man boss? That's like calling another man 'Daddy.'
My delivery can be intense, but it's intense because I need to be heard. I know that people don't usually listen, as it relates to constructive criticism, without getting offended. So, I speak my mind with an attitude that I don't care if you get offended; I just want you to get the message.
Freedom is priceless.
If you're not talking about the truth, I don't even want you around me.
I'm an authentic person: I can talk about diabetes and how it affects you because I'm actually diabetic, and I know how much help a person needs, whether it's support physically or just understanding and being conscious of what diabetes really is.
It's important for people to believe in themselves.
You speak things into existence, but there's a gift and a curse with that. You got to be careful what you say.
Part of keeping work and life in balance is surrounding yourself with people that have similar aspirations.
I'm never gonna owe money because every time I get a dollar, I put it into another business, whether it's to buy goods or develop other companies. You don't have money; you have companies. That's one business model. That's mine. And I only associate with other people that are putting up their own money, 'cause they're the only ones that can relate.
A real man won't ask or answer questions about another man's money.
I always approach logic without emotion. The math always equals the math. Regardless of whether I discovered the math before anyone else, or I just decided to accept it, I know what logically makes sense, and I'm going to speak on it every time.
It's hard not to be confident when you put in business the biggest black male in comedy, Kevin Hart. I know I took him off a stage and put him in his first four movies. I know I did that.
Just cause you don't agree with a man, 'cause you're black, don't mean you gotta fight, argue. You just have a different perspective.
The worst disrespect of all time is to disrespect someone's children.
There's certain lines you just don't cross. You know the one thing that will get a man out of pocket is when you mess with his children.
I lost my girl a couple years back, Aaliyah, in a plane crash. I wasn't expecting that, and also, my mother died, and at the time, my father wasn't in my life; the only person that took care of me was my mom.
There's things that I see that I did on videos when I was younger that I be like, 'Damn, I was bugging.' Champagne Dame, that dude, he was bugging. I don't even know that guy.
When I was young, I read the Bible, and I already knew what it meant to be the good guy - and look what happened to Jesus. So, I already understood that you get ridiculed for telling the truth, and I've always been aware of that. But, I'm a guy with confidence, and I'm not afraid.
If I have an accountant that just reports I just invested $10 million in my business, and he doesn't exactly itemize where every cost goes, it gives a flag to the government. They want to make sure that the reason I'm not paying taxes is because I'm reinvesting in these businesses and not trying to hide stuff.
My thing is to have a good, profitable company, for it to be 100% owned independently.
When my children look and ask about what I do, they know I'm the boss.
If I feel that somebody is hurting other people, then I'm going to make sure other people know - other people know about them.
It's incomprehensible for me to hear another dude talk about another's dude's pockets and have that matter and argue about that.
I got cribs all over the place and offices all over the place, and sometimes I lose track of my stuff.
Being independent is everything. That's all I know.
It's funny: when the press knows someone's gonna say something stupid, they're quick to pass them a mic and put a camera on them, and everybody talk about it.
I had to architect my life where I could raise my children.
In urban culture, Larry Davis is something of a legend.
I'm a businessman who puts up his own money, so I don't have time to hear about emotion. I gotta get right to the point. I'm going to tell you the truth, I'm going to address the elephant in the room, and we'll all move forward.
I don't complain about other people's game - I just create my own.
Lee Daniels, even though he owes me $2 million, I picked that. I put him in business.
I'm proud of Jay Z's success and Kanye's success. Inside, I feel like I had something to do with their success... I don't have anything but positive things to say.
I always knew that content was the best way to sell things, but my thing was, why sell other people's stuff if I have a point of view?
Everyone I put in business, I must've taught them something. They all have reaped the benefits of it. A lot of them haven't done right by me, but it's all gravy.
I'm sick of talking about it. I wanna talk about something else. No more Jay Z questions. I answered them.
I'm not one to be paying too much attention to what another dude's doing.
I love music, but the people in the music don't wanna work.
Those people are corny. You think I'm rolling to a club with Lyor Cohen or John Meneilly?
I have been diabetic since I was young.
I believe in therapy, and I believe an objective opinion sometimes helps you be a better person.
God does things and put certain things in front of you to see how strong you are.
'Hustle & Flow' came out, and I was really rooting for 'Hustle & Flow' because, you know, it was a hip-hop movie, and it was a good movie. It was well acted.
I want to be as creative as I want. I don't ever want to have to compromise; I don't ever want anybody ever to tell me what to do, I don't ever want to argue with somebody because of my vision.
I don't see the reason for sugar coating anything.
When you're a business man, you have a lot of businesses, a lot of times they think you're laundering money or you're pretending you're writing things off that you don't.
Big shout out to Nas: if you want to scream my name out again and put my name in your rhyme, I think it's funny. Let's make some money from it. Just don't take it so serious, man.
I don't think my success or me having the opportunity to have success is from our generation. I think it's from the generations before us. I think it's the fact that people like Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers and people like that fought for us to have the freedom to do and say what we want and have the opportunity to make money.
