Hip Hop Mogul, Russell Simmons reflecting on his early downfall

 Starting to promote was great for my spirit, though it had a terrible, ultimately fatal effect on my schoolwork. I actually did more schoolwork while selling drugs. Maybe i started f**king up in school because i felt I'd already found my life's work. What was the point of chemistry when i knew my job was to sell tickets?

Eventually i left City College in my senior year, just four or five credits short of sociology degree. This really upset my father, who thought i was a fool. Over and over he lectured me that the only way for a black man to make it was to get a degree and a job. For a while there i felt like i was a failure in my father's eyes, which hurt a lot, but promoting felt right in my gut. I knew that to be a man i had to follow my heart. My mother was always more open to Danny, Joey and me pursuing more nontraditional, entrepreneurial way.

Early in promoting career i lost all the money I'd saved putting on a show in Harlem no one cam out to. I came out to Hollis and no one would help me. My father just wanted me to go back to school and told me so. What could i say? I had no money. Then my mother went back in the house and came out with $2,000 in crisp $100 bills from her personal savings. It was that money that kept me afloat until Kurtis Blow broke and i entered the record business. That act of love and faith, which is what kept me in business at a key time, is my favorite memory of her.