50 Cent: Selling Drugs at 12

50 Cent - Believe in Yourself

50 Cent discusses his rough childhood and how he went from nothing to something just by believing in himself.

Transcript: 

Speaker 1: Your mother has you when she's 15.

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Speaker 1: Your mother is selling drugs.

Speaker 2: Yes.

Speaker 1: She's dead when you're eight.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 1: At 12, you start selling drugs.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker 1: At 15, you're the drug kingpin of your neighborhood.

Speaker 2: You know, when you point out that my mom had me at 15, the only option at that point is welfare or the street. You know, the things you go through make you who you are, so because I don't regret where I'm at, I can't regret my experiences. It makes me feel like, without having everything that comes out of my mouth be something that you say, "That guy's a role model," I'll be an inspiration and inspiring to the people who come from the circumstances I come from.

It gives me a bigger responsibility. Not just myself, but for other people, so they can have an example of how they can make it and not living in a house with both your parents isn't an excuse for you not making it, or not having anything, initially isn't an excuse to not make it. You know, for me, at this point, I tell them good luck if they think they can make me feel like I can't do something that I set my mind on. I already come so far from where I come from, that it's impossible for you to discourage me.

When I started writing, it was full-time. Every day I was writing music. Because, for that time period I had to be running on my own energy. I had to convince myself that I'm going to make it, regardless of how people felt at that time. But what it does is it makes you feel like - well, it made me feel like there's going to be parts that people are going to mistake my confidence for arrogance. Because I've had to, they don't understand the process I went through and how much I had to believe in myself in order to make these things happen.

I feel like you can will yourself into a good space. If you believe in yourself, things that are meant to happen will.