BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Before Sean “Diddy” Combs built a $100-million-business empire and became a household name worldwide, people thought that he was “mentally challenged.” But, he pushed the haters aside, fetched coffee, buffed and waxed cars, and hustled harder than everyone around him, blasting open the floodgates of his amazing success.
That drive and determination is also why he was the honored guest at the 7th Annual “Bryan-Michael Cox Pre-Grammy Brunch,” presented by SESAC and 100 Urban Entrepreneurs.
“[Diddy] stands 100 percent for what 100 Urban Entrepreneurs is. A lot of people don’t understand that you can create wealth, that you can create a legacy,” said super producer Bryan-Michael Cox. “He has this idea, he moves on it, and it spawns this whole thing. He came up at a time when there was no internet, no social network, no email. I can’t even imagine what you had to do to get where you are today.
Diddy said he had a singular purpose in life and, combined with unbreakable faith in himself and relentless singlemindedness, became an idol-maker right before our eyes as he brought up the likes of Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, Mase and, of course, Christopher “Notorious“ B.I.G.
“I just wanted to show young African Americans — and I was real selfish about it — that we could do other things,“ Diddy waxed poetically before his musical peers inside the Four Seasons Hotel on the edge of West Los Angeles. “It ain’t just some flash or ‘oh, Puff Daddy got some big names with him.’ No, I’m trying to change the world and leave a legacy behind and inspire us and let it be known that we can do it. So, if you driving down Times Square, and you see my fist in the air [on the billboard], that message is to you.”
Diddy also had a message for the “dreamers” in the room and others who benefited from the philanthropy of 100 Urban Entrepreneurs.
“Being an entrepreneur is one of the hardest jobs in the world because don’t nobody believe in you. They thought I was crazy. It’s painful and lonely. It ain’t gonna come easy. As those obstacles come, you gots to swag that thing aside, push that thing to the back, and know that you got another thing to fight. But, you don’t get too many opportunities. So, to all the entrepreneurs out there, you have to carry yourselves at a whole new level of professionalism.”
–terry shrosphire
