Sean Combs was this year listed among the world’s 100 Greatest Business Minds by Forbes, he also tops 2017’s edition of Forbes’ annual ranking of the top five wealthiest hip-hop artists, for the sixth year running. According to the publication, Diddy is worth about $820 million, beating out both Jay-Z and Dr Dre.
From a paper route in his early teens, Sean Combs went on to found his independent record label, Bad Boy Records in 1993, which became one of the most influential hip hop labels of the 90’s.
Combs has since diversified his portfolio with an empire that includes record labels, clothing companies and a variety of consumer goods. According to Forbes, Combs’ empire includes a “lucrative partnership with Diageo’s Ciroc vodka and hefty stakes in companies including Revolt TV, DeLeón tequila and Aquahydrate alkaline water”.
At the recently-held music, media and tech event, Revolt Music Conference 2017, he gave greater insight into the strategies that have helped put him among the world’s most influential business leaders.
One of Combs’ current goals is to inspire up-and-coming entrepreneurs, particularly those from poor neighbourhoods, to find their success in entrepreneurship and says the number one strategy is believing in yourself.
“A dreamer and a realist” – Here’s why Sean Combs says becoming a successful entrepreneur depends on your mindset, your crew and your work ethic.
1. First Get Your Mindset Right
“We live in a time where people don’t really understand what it takes to be successful or to be great. As young men and women, when you’re dealing with business, the mindset that you have to have is [business]. I was a serious child, I was serious about my dreams. It wasn’t a plaything with me as far as what I was dreaming.
“The mindset that you have to have, is you have to be a little crazy, your faith and your belief has to be crazy, you have to see what’s not there and manifest it to being there. But the mindset is [also] that of a dreamer, I started this whole thing as a dream and then the day I turned into [a] combination of a dreamer and a realist, that’s when I started to go.”
2. Your Team Has To Be On The Same Level
“If you’re surrounding yourself with different energies that [are] not on the same wavelength as you if they are not praying for you, inspiring you, supporting you or showing you a better way, remove them immediately. Take your time and look at who you’re surrounding yourself with – are they like-minded, are they disciplined, are they pushing you forward.
“It’s so simple for us to solve this. A lot of the hardest problems are so easy to solve, we just have to take those steps which are hard. Be mindful of that because trust me that energy is going to affect you. If you’re around thugs and gangsters, you are going to be in jail, if you’re around cats that’s talking negatively you’re going to be negative, if you’re going to [be] around brokenness you’re going to be broke. If you’re around God and some money, you’re on your way.”
3. Your Work Ethic Is Your Competitive Edge
“That competitive thing opened up a big door because that’s one of the things I want to instil in you guys. I look in and I shape my career, sometimes I use the muse of LeBron James. He motivates me every day. I see him, he’s up and he’s working out at six in the morning. He doesn’t have to really work out at six in the morning but he’s working out at six in the morning, harder than everybody else.
“That’s one of the keys. You have to stand up for yourself and be able to compete and you’ve got to put in the work that it’s going to take to do it. We’ve got the same 24 hours, you’ve got to use your time wisely and you have to be ready to do the things that other people aren’t trying to do.”
See also:Â Russell Simmons Has A Unique Take On Success – Which Of His Mantras Will You Try?
4. You Have To See Past Your Ceiling To Get Past It
“The truth of it is you’re going to hit a ceiling, you’re going to hit a couple of them, that’s part of the journey of life,” Combs says. He adds that you have to keep your vision and your goals in front of you all the time to be able to see past the challenges.
“The only way I was able to get out of it was I had to write down on one side of the page, “This is the problem” and on the other side, “This is the possible solution” and something as simple as that, that got me up out of that funk, and when you hit that ceiling the thing that you have to do is you have to go back and retreat and re-strategise and re-focus and set a plan and that’s the only thing that’s going to get you over that hump.”
5. Keep Your Ego In Check
“When it comes to [achieving] a goal [or] greater good, I know how to put my ego to the side. It’s really hard to get to a successful point and have an ego because it’ll stop you from doing things that you need to do to take care of your family.”
