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but it underscored a particular aspect of his personality—Banks wanted things to come to him, as opposed to going out and getting them for himself.
believe a true star must possess four fundamental abilities: create great material, be a high-energy live performer, have a unique appearance, and possess a strong personality.
adamant.
Refusing to be persuaded
but I’ve always been more concerned about creating my own moments rather than copying theirs.
It’s great to respect the past, but never to the point that it stops you from moving into the future, or even making the most out of the present.
Age isn’t about what year you were born—it’s about how you approach the year you’re in right now.
If you’re open to new experiences, willing to take chances, and curious about new topics, you’re young. Period. On the other hand, if you’re set in your ways and aren’t interested in trying new things, or think you’ve already learned all there is to know, then you’re old. In fact, you’re dying.
That meant we were going to be very aggressive in taking what we felt was ours.
acquiescence,
Reluctant acceptance tpwards something without protest
I learned that when things are moving very fast and you’re constantly being put in new situations and environments, most people tend to lean back into their old habits, not develop new ones.
You might not ever be able to read the writing on the wall, but what you can read is the energy around you. If you’re willing to be observant and listen, you’ll find the messages that energy carries are spelled out almost as clearly as Belshazzar’s warning.
Once the sales started slowing, I felt the energy begin to shift, subtly at first. Contracts started to take longer to get done. My phone calls and emails weren’t getting returned as quickly. I was spending more of my time meeting with junior executives than with top dogs.
SOunds familiar
Instead, I read the energy in the building, sensed the way the industry was heading, and took control of my own future. Always a better plan than waiting for the writing on the wall to appear.
Wise move
Robert explained to me that when you read about a Napoleon or a Bismarck, you couldn’t just think of them as old white guys in dusty history books, but geniuses who understood how to match strategy to their circumstances. And this is what maintaining power is really about.
History and hip-hop aren’t supposed to meet. Why not? We’ve both got a lot to learn from each other. Our friendship is a way to break down those walls.”
Robert to 50 cent. Sweet
He knows about manipulation, but at heart he’s a compassionate guy. That’s a good person for me to be friends with, because some of that energy rubs off on me and helps me be more sympathetic in certain situations.
The purpose of meditation isn’t to “stop thinking” or to make you stop having thoughts, but rather to help you lower the volume on those thoughts, so that when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by whatever is in your head, you have a tool at your disposal that you can use to slow things down and begin to think more clearly.
You need people in your life who are going to invite you to places you might not normally go, or send you interesting articles you might not normally read, or have you try food you might not normally order.
You must find people who are going to inject new energy into your life. Because if you keep having the same conversations with the same people year after year, your energy is going to stagnate. Your ideas are going to get stale. Your momentum is going to get stuck.
To nite!
I was able to get past that insecurity by accepting that those people weren’t more cultured than me; they just had been exposed to a different culture. The culture I experienced growing up in South Jamaica was every bit as real as the culture a kid who grew up in Beverly Hills or the Upper East Side of Manhattan had been exposed to. They just had different foundations and priorities.
This meant that there was no imbalance, and we were on equal footing culturally.
but because I know that when I’m around highly educated people, I’m going to be able to extract real value out of their input. When I combine that information with my own instincts and experiences, it’s the perfect formula to make amazing shit happen.
Your time is never wasted when you’re gathering information. This is why I’ll always prioritize information over a check. Recently, I got a very nice check to play a show in Israel. I didn’t have to show up until the day of the show, but I told my people to book me to arrive a day early. “You want to see the sights?” they asked. “That’s not it,” I explained. “I need to meet the motherfucker who can write a check like that!” I didn’t know what this guy did, but I knew I could learn something from him.
Then a smart person hits me with a new perspective on it—an insight I hadn’t considered before—and everything changes.
had been seeing the issue in black and white, and he helped me see it in Technicolor.
with how she was losing out despite doing nothing wrong.
live for moments like that, when I can identify where I’ve been wrong about a subject and start to evolve my thinking. I don’t live to be right all the time or to have a bunch of yes-men tell me, “That’s right, boss,” when I say some dumb shit.
Smart people give away so much information through their words or their actions. Grab every single one of those gems that you can. Hip-hop has brought about a lot of positive changes
We need to change that up, to say it’s okay to admit you don’t know things. That you don’t have all the answers.
Always challenge yourself to be around people who might be informed in different ways than you are, who have had different experiences, and, most important, aren’t intimidated to share that information with you. Those are the people who are going to supercharge your evolution into your best self.
the way you see you. And treat you the way you treat yourself.
I can now use the persona of 50 Cent—the persona I earned the hard way—to my advantage, to both protect and elevate Curtis Jackson.
When you pattern yourself too closely after another person, you’re putting weak, ineffectual energy out into the world. You’re running away from your most inexhaustible power supply: being yourself.
Influencing how people perceive you doesn’t make you fake. It doesn’t make you phony. It makes you someone who knows how to control energy—to your advantage.
The only thing they changed was how it was utilized. Try to view harnessing the energy of how you are perceived in the same way. The fundamental essence of who you are doesn’t change—you’re just using its innate power in a smarter way.
“But I gave her all the money to stop her from looking at things that I couldn’t give her. Instead of having her head filled up with fantasies, I let her work with reality. Having that piece of mind at home was worth more to me than a few extra dollars in my pocket.”
Lol
If she wanted the nicer pair of shoes or the more expensive dress, she was going to have to justify that purchase to herself. Not him.
Wise move
“Please keep Curtis safe from himself, because he has a temper. Lord, it’s not his fault because that boy has been through a lot.”
Awee :'(
was becoming known as someone you didn’t want to cross, as someone who was going to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.
HAahaaha
Training and staying in shape made me feel good all of the time.
lot of women were attracted, not only as eye candy, but to what my muscles said about me—that I was someone who was disciplined, that I wasn’t averse to putting in consistent work on something they were focused on. The indication of those qualities, even more so than rubbing on a man’s biceps or broad shoulders, is extremely attractive to women.
Hell yeah
vowed never to compromise myself like that again.
Working out and getting in shape speaks about my consistency
I asked Jay if he was about to go into Bentley’s. “No doubt, I’m about to run up in this spot and see what’s up,” he said. I decided to decisively seize the moment. “Yo, we coming witchu,” I told him. Jay looked at me, thought about it for a second, and then said, “That’s what’s up. Let’s go.” Just like that, we were past the bouncers and inside Bentley’s. We would never have gotten in without him—he literally walked me into the music business. That night Jay and I formed a friendship, which eventually led to me signing with JMJ Records and everything else that followed.
Amaaaazzing
But the moment Jay saw my car and thought I was Kenny Anderson, I was operating under a powerful perception. Even when it turned out that I wasn’t an NBA player, I was still somebody to him—somebody who deserved his attention. Once I had it, it was up to me to capitalize on it. Which I did.
Perfectexample
You come into a room with an ill bag, a lot of antennas go up.
Lol
I will tell you straight up that I judge every single person I meet on their appearance. As I’m shaking your hand, I’m also scanning your entire outfit for whatever clues I can glean from it. Especially if we’re meeting to conduct business for the first time. Before you open your mouth, your appearance has already initiated a conversation with me. Make sure it’s saying the right thing.
I pay particular attention to the people who dress casually around me. Let’s say you come to our meeting wearing a T-shirt and some jeans. That tells me you’re comfortable. Not necessarily a bad thing. If I sense you’re going to do great work, then that comfort level is appropriate. If you don’t transmit a competent air, however, then I’ll view it as a liability. It suggests you’re not taking the situation seriously enough. You’d be surprised how many people do that.
As I told him, when you clean up, people will notice.
When I see someone has put effort and thought into their choice of attire, it tells me that they value our relationship.
look at you and go, ‘He’s a smart guy. He put those glasses on so he can fucking see!’”
HAhaahha
