Master P quotes: life lessons from Mr. No Limit.
“Work hard and never make excuses.”
“You have to be committed to what you do. Everybody thinks it’s about the money. Nobody really gave me anything, but, I was committed to what I believed in.”
“With every falling flake, a unique spark of interest falls from heaven.”
“Diversify. You spread out because you never know when it’s going to end. Business is like a seesaw going up and down. When one goes down, I have the other one going up. You have to think like that if you want to survive.”
“Understand the game, but make your own moves.”
“Be an owner. I’ve always been about owning as much of what I make as possible.”
“If you can’t work that good of a deal, at least get a piece of the piece. It has to start with owning property, owning your business.”
“I tell people, if you get in a business, you need to know everything about your business. You need to know what the janitor is doing. You need to know what the guy who’s cooking the burgers is doing. You need to know what the mailroom is doing. You need to know everything about your business to be successful.”
“It’s called ‘putting skin in the game,’ putting your own money up first, being your own boss. That’s how I got the power: I put up my own marketing money.”
“Find that person to push you. Life is a marathon. You got to find that person that’s going to push you, instead of running with people that’s just running with you. If you want to be successful, you have to find somebody that’s going to push you all the way over the finish line.”
“There’s a lot of people that don’t want to see you make it. It’s a lot of hating when it comes down to it. You got to stay prayed up. And I think that anybody that wants to be successful, they have to know your determination will get you to your destination. That was real for me. I had to change a lot of things, had to cut a lot of people off to get to where I wanted to go.”
“Cross-promote, always! I want to cross-promote everything that I have. That’s been the key to our success. Saying that if we cross-promote, we can open up opportunities for so many different people. And that’s what I love about my business. It’s not about one thing.”
“All ’bout marketing, because it’s all marketing. At the end of the day, when you sell one of these businesses, you want to be a part of that business on the marketing side.”
“Know and believe. Understand your investment. A lot of people like to get in stuff, say they just want to make money. I tell people all the time, ‘You can’t make money. You got to love what you doing, be passionate about it.’ So when you’re making that investment, make sure it’s something that you know and you believe in. And if you’re investing in somebody, make sure they have skin in the game, too.”
“Your circle should be about business. In business, if you’re going to be an entrepreneur, maybe you might need to cut off some people that’s not worth it for your business or bad for your business, whether it’s family members or friends. I tell people all of the time, ‘Get into the game.’ You know, that’s the only way.”
“I think everybody has a good and bad side. If you start making a big deal of it, then it’s a problem. It’s like in life. Some people have to be good.”
“I feel like God blessed me to be successful and to have a couple of more things that a lot of people of where I come from didn’t have or didn’t see, but it ain’t always about me. It’s about empowering the next generation so that’s what I love doing.”
“As a young kid, basketball saved my life. It took me out of the projects. It sent me to college. I didn’t even know I was going to be a rapper. I used to be singing these little songs and I knew I was good at it, but it didn’t hit me till I got hurt playing basketball that I’m going to chase a music career.”
“If I can go through what I’ve been through and do a television show with my son and then be a boy from the ‘hood making records for the people I make records for, that’s reality.”
“I want to be like Muhammad Ali. He went out there and made a lot of money, he fought hard in the ring, and he fought for our people outside of the ring.”
“I want to get paid for doing my job and whoever don’t like it or whoever don’t give me my just due then that’s on them. Most of the people don’t get their just due until they ain’t here no more.”
“How does hating get started? It’s started by the jealous people, and they get mad over the things you have.”
“Everybody has their time. That’s just like right now. Michael Jordan was the biggest basketball player in the world, but now you have LeBron James, you have all these new kids coming. You can’t compare them to Michael Jordan, but they still are paving the way for the next generation. And I feel like we just have to figure out how we can use our wisdom and expertise to help them. And that’s what I want to do. I want to be able to show these guys. I don’t care whether you’re in the NBA. That’s where my life’s going at now.”
“I think my thing is I grew up in the ghetto, and I was able to get a second chance. That’s what I’m trying to tell kids.”
“People do look up to me and it makes me feel good. I made it out of a bad situation and I didn’t mind bettering myself and I think that is what people respect. Most people go backwards but I was able to look at the big picture.”
“I want to teach to the next generation: to say you have to be prepared for this money, because anybody can get money. But if you’re not prepared for it, you’re going to lose. You’ve got to build a relationship, even on the financial side and with businesspeople. You can’t just jump into bed with them.”
“I feel like it’s okay for us to grow up because a lot of us want to get rich and die young. I want to get rich and die old.”
“Know your worth, today and tomorrow. Mine is a rags-to-riches story. Jimmy Iovine offered me $1 million in the ’90s to be under contract and I turned it down and walked away and built my empire into hundreds of millions. So, imagine if I took that million dollars. I would have been done. That probably would have been the only money my family would have seen. I tell people all the time, ‘Don’t do a business deal when you’re desperate.’ At that time I was living in the projects. I would’ve sold the rights to my name. I never would’ve been able to use my name again. So we have to be able to read these contracts.”
“I want to be able to take care of my family.”
“Everybody needs love. There are a lot of guys that you think are hardcore gangsters, but all these guys’ weaknesses are women. Look at the movie Scarface. At the end of the day, all he wanted to do was to have kids with his woman.”
“I’m keen on building generational wealth by instilling values in my seven children. I share money lessons with my children. However, above all things, I stress the importance of building a foundation on faith and family. You have to teach them economics and banking at a young age. Don’t just be great entertainers and athletes. Understand economics and put your faith and trust in God.”
“We just got into being able to build wealth. So if we are going to build generational wealth, kids need to be programmed.”
“I teach them integrity and I teach them how to be hungry. If you want to be successful, it’s not about what I’ve done, it’s going to be about what you do with your career.”
“I don’t need to get my due; I get my money.”
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