Hip hop living legend Jay-Z sat down for lunch with the most successful investor of all time Warren Buffet in Buffet’s home state of Nebraska for the first Forbes 400 Summit. The motive was to explore the different perspectives the two men have on their success, wealth, and the inherent responsibilities that come along with it all.
The end result found the Brooklyn bred rapper and 80 year old investor at a place with a lot of common ground.
Jay-Z on Maturity
“I was around music my whole life. My mom and pop had a huge record collection, so I started out listening to music early on, and I would just write.”
“We’ve never seen the maturation of hip-hop in this sort of way. I’m just going to make the music I love to make and I’m going to mature with my music.”
Read on for some of Jay-Z’s and Warren Buffet’s quotes from their interview with Steve Forbes.
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Jay-Z on the Music Business
“For a long time a hit record solved all your problems because there was no Internet, YouTube and so many other factors. It was just the music. At Def Jam I wanted to bring the entire culture into it. I wanted a fund so I could do other things aside from signing artists, like buying a television station or a club where we can develop these artists, or putting out some headphones, all these different things. So I started my own thing, Roc Nation, and that’s what we do.”
Jay-Z on the Future
“I hope to inspire. I guess Obama took this thing already but just the hope of how far we can make it and the hope in knowing how far you can go from where you started if you really apply yourself and stay true to who you are.”
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Warren Buffet on Luck
“Jay said it perfectly when he talked about how he’s in there recording for himself, and the money comes afterwards. I got to do what I love, and it doesn’t get any luckier than that. I’ve had all kinds of luck. I had the luck of getting turned down by Harvard, which meant I got to study under Ben Graham at Columbia, which changed my life.”
Warren Buffet on Charity
“Ten years after my estate’s completed the money has to all be spent. I came up with the idea of splitting among five foundations, the largest of which is the Gates Foundation.
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Warren Buffet on Success
“The first rule is don’t lose, and the second rule is never forget the first rule. It isn’t so much having a lot of brilliant decisions, it’s just not having some terrible ones.”
Jay-Z on Success
“So for me, it’s just having the discipline, and the confidence in who I am. If I go into a studio and find my truth of the moment, there are a number of people in the world who can relate to what I’m saying, and are going to buy into what I’m doing. Not because it’s the new thing of the moment, but because it’s genuine emoti
