Sean “Diddy” Combs Turns 50, Life After Death

Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy…whatever you want to call him, you have to call him successful. Love him or hate him, Diddy is an incredible example of how a persistent, obsession-like approach to business growth can create amazing results.

At age 50, he often offers advice and motivation to the masses. And, he provides a seemingly never-ending source of inspiration to his social media followers, many of which are today’s generation of entrepreneurs. For Combs, it all started when he was young.

At age five, Sean Combs’ father was murdered and he was raised in Mt. Vernon, New York by his mother. Fast forward past high school, Combs attended Howard University. While attending classes, he produced dance parties and operated an airport shuttle service. He pursued an internship with Uptown Records that led to a position as talent director. Combs rapidly rose to vice president and enjoyed great success producing a number of Uptown’s key artists, ultimately leaving the company in the early 90s.

In 1993, Combs founded Bad Boy Entertainment, his own production company. No doubt as the result of connections he made while working at Uptown Records, he worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and pop music. A short four years later, after $100 million in sales, he inked a multi-million dollar deal with Arista Records to manage the label. Later, he recorded several albums, launched his own clothing line and launched a reality TV series titled: I Want to Work for Diddy and created an entire cable TV music network, REVOLT.

In an incredible and lucrative move, Diddy entered into a partnership with Diageo to create and manage all marketing processes for Diddy’s brainchild, Ciroc Vodka. The deal dictated that Diddy and Sean Combs Enterprises make all brand related decisions and share future profits and growth with Diageo. This unique collaboration for a USA based spirits company, is set to last several years and will be worth an estimated $100 Million for Diddy.

In the early part of last year, Diddy ignited another partnership with Diageo in order to kick-start a joint venture to purchase DeLeon, a luxury Tequila brand. DeLeon is currently selling for $1000 per bottle in Los Angeles bars. It is currently selling around 10,000 cases per year in only 18 states so Diddy’s famous ability for business growth is destined to take effect for the brand.

Now, Combs has even opened a school, Capital Prep in New York, to help the next generation be successful as well.

“My mother taught me the importance of education at an early age,” says Combs. “I was able to gain tools, secrets and knowledge about what it takes to be a leader, what it takes to win and what it takes to make your dreams come true!! That’s what we’re doing with #CapitalPrepHarlem!! We’re empowering our inner city youth with the knowledge they need to be great.”

“I was able to be successful because of education,” he said.

Located in Harlem, New York, Capital Prep has enrolled 160 sixth and seventh graders, this school year. The charter school currently has plans to expand to high school grades in the future.

Now, Sean “Diddy” Combs holds hip-hop’s 2013 top spot for the industry’s wealthiest player and his net worth is estimated by Forbes at $580 million. “But how did he go from intern to CEO?” is one of the most asked questions the mogul receives. He describes three key steps below:

Passion – Do What You Love

Clearly, Sean “Diddy” Combs is a talented individual and music lover. He built his fortune on a love of music and an eye for fashion, which he likely acquired from his mother through her work as a model in the fashion industry. Both…