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Dame Dash helped to build Roc-A-Fella records with Jay-Z using their own money. He was recently on the Breakfast Club and talked about Ownership and being a boss versus an employee. While I don't agree with everything that he said, I think he did make some valid points that hit home. Dash and Jay-Z started Roc-A-Fella records and bootstrapped it with their own funds and built it into the company which eventually became a part of Def Jam. It's important to understand that is what he's urging others to do.
While I never feel like there's “one way to skin a cat,” I do understand his perspective. Even though it might seem like he's being “mean” or “disrespectful,” I think what he is ultimately trying to say that people need to look to ownership and not being okay with being employees. Even though he didn't say it, I believe he even means that instead of being solely focused on being comfortable and investing people need to take the steps to own today. The internet and social media (direct to consumer) provides an opportunity that has never existed in the past and people are making a lot of money from it.
His biggest point seems to be having the ability to pass that ownership on to future generations. Unless many of those stocks pay dividends, as even Robert Kiyasaki says in Rich Dad, Poor Dad it doesn't provide cash flow because it doesn't put money in your pocket. It also doesn't offer the opportunity to employ others by providing jobs. He seems to explain that's selfish to have that mentality.
Overall, it was really great to hear this and here are some of the points he made during the interview related to business and entrepreneurship:
“I hustle for my last name…not for my first.”
“Jobs are for lazy people who don’t want to invest in themselves.”
“You’re only the boss if you put up your own money. If you don’t put up your own money…I don’t care how much they offer you, you’re nothing but a supervisor. It’s not yours.”
“Saving money is for suckas.”
“I’m mad at y’all for having the same job for 25 years…I can’t imagine doing the same shit every day having to be told what to do every day…and ask to go on vacation.”
“How could a man say he has a boss and be proud?”
“I’m not going to fight for something I don’t own.”
Overall, I don't think he was right about everything but I do believe that ownership needs to be the goal and sometimes it's “honest” discussions like this that can get the ball rolling and change a mindset. Also check out American Gangster, that opening line discusses ownership through the eyes of Bumpy Johnson.