One of Ones: Lessons From 50 Cent

The first time I interviewed 50 Cent, the year was 2008, and we’d both started new chapters in our careers. I’d gotten my first big break, landing a staff reporter job at Forbes just out of college. And 50 had just gotten his first really big break: a $100 million payout for his stake in Vitaminwater’s parent, Glaceau, when Coca-Cola bought the company for a little over $4 billion.

But what really struck me at the time was not his massive windfall, which represented the biggest single-deal haul—o...