Jay Z
Jay Z leant his business skills from dealing drugs.
Hip-hop mogul Jay-Z found it easy to set up his Roc Nation record label and build a musical empire because he already had years of experience illegally selling crack on the streets of Brooklyn in New York City.
"I know about budgets. I was a drug dealer. To be in a drug deal, you need to know what you can spend, what you need to re-up." Jay-Z was quoted Vanity Fair magazine
The 43-year-old now a family man with a 20-month-old daughter Blue Ivy with wife Beyonce regrets not getting out of the drug scene earlier and thought about the big picture instead of focusing on the instant cash.
"Not until later [did I have regrets], when I realised the effects on the community. I started looking at the community on the whole, but in the beginning, no.
"I was thinking about surviving. I was thinking about improving my situation. I was thinking about buying clothes." Jay-Z continues.
The music mogull is said to have earned $42 million during the past year, adding to a net worth of about $475 million, a far cry from his original business plan of setting up a barbershop.
Jay added: "If you want to start some sort of barbershop or carwash - those were the businesses back then. Things you can get in easily to get out of life.
"You have to have an exit strategy, because your window [for dealing drugs] is very small. You're going to get locked up or you're going to die."