Welcome to the best collection of Jay-Z quotes on business, life and success.
Shawn Corey Carter, known professionally as Jay-Z is an American rapper, songwriter, producer, entrepreneur, and record executive. He is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time.
Born and raised in New York City, Jay-Z first began his musical career after founding the record label Roc-A-Fella Records in 1995. What’s so inspirational about Jay-Z’s story is that he would sell his own records on the streets and because he struggled to get a record deal, he decided to create his own record label.
The rest, as they say, is history. Jay-Z is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with over 50 million albums and 75 million singles sold worldwide. He has won a total of 22 Grammy Awards, the most by a rapper, and holds the record for the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the Billboard 200, with 14.
His early struggles forced him to be an entrepreneur from day one and he has achieved phenomenal success in business too. His clothing line Rocawear and chain of luxury sports bars, the 40/40 Club are both multimillion-dollar companies. In 2015, he acquired the tech company Aspiro, and took charge of their media streaming service Tidal, which has since become the world’s third-largest online streaming company.
In June 2019, Jay-Z officially became the first hip hop billionaire, making him the 3rd wealthiest African-American and the wealthiest American musician. Together with his wife Beyoncé they are a true definition of “power couple”.
I hope the inspirational Jay-Z quotes below help to motivate you to a new level of success in your life.
Inspirational Jay-Z Quotes
1. “Life is all there is. And if that’s true, then we have to really live it — we have to take it for everything it has and “die enormous” instead of “living dormant.”” – Jay-Z
2. “I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me.” – Jay-Z
3. “I believe everyone in the world is born with genius-level talent. Apply yourself to whatever you’re genius at, and you can do anything in the world.” – Jay-Z
4. “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!” – Jay-Z
5. “All I got is dreams. Nobody else believes. Nobody else can see. Nobody else but me.” – Jay-Z
6. “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools. Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.” – Jay-Z
7. “I’m not afraid of dying, I’m afraid of not trying.” – Jay-Z
8. “We change people through conversation, not through censorship.” – Jay-Z
9. “I believe you can speak things into existence.” – Jay-Z
10. “There are 2 possibilities: 1 is that there’s more to life than the physical life, that our souls ‘will find an even higher place to dwell’ when this life is over. It that’s true, there’s no reason to fear failure or death. The other possibility is that this life is all there is. And if that’s true, then we have to really live it – we have to take it for everything it has and ‘die enormous’ instead of ‘living dormant’, as I said way back on ‘can I live’. Either way, fear is a waste of time.” – Jay-Z (This is one of my favorite Jay-Z quotes. It’s very similar to a stoic way of thinking and something the likes of Marcus Aurelius or Seneca would say.)
11. “May the best of your todays be the worst of your tomorrows.” – Jay-Z
12. “Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow.” – Jay-Z
13. “Only God can judge me so I’m gone, either love me or leave me alone.” – Jay-Z
14. “Truth is you don’t need some external demon to take control of you to turn you into a raging, money-obsessed sociopath, you only need to let loose the demons you already have inside of you.” – Jay-Z
15. “They talk. We live. Who cares what they say?” – Jay-Z
16. “We all have the same fear, the fear of failure. We all have the fear of failure…as someone successful the weight of all that you’ve done is on you.” – Jay-Z
17. “If the beat is time, flow is what we do with that time, how we live through it. The beat is everywhere, but every life has to find its own flow.” – Jay-Z
18. “The more society treats drug addiction as a crime, the more money drug dealers will make “relieving” the suffering of the addicts.” – Jay-Z
19. “Money and power don’t change you, they just further expose your true self.” – Jay-Z
20. “People look at you strange, say you changed. Like you worked that hard to stay the same.” – Jay-Z
21. “You can want success all you want, but to get it, you can’t falter. You can’t slip, you can’t sleep. One eye open, for real, and forever.” – Jay-Z
22. “I’m feeling like the worlds against me Lord, call me crazy, cuz strangely I love the odds – they gunning for me, they want to see me fall, they know my story, I been through it all, nights I felt like dying, but I ain’t crying, what didn’t kill me, made me strong as I am. I am. I am.” – Jay-Z
23. “Some said ‘how’d you fly?’ I said from not being afraid of trying to fly.” – Jay-Z
24. “The responsibility is to keep pushing it forward, and not relying on the same old gimmicks. You have to push it forward.” – Jay-Z
25. “Do things that are true to you. Most things that I’m involved with is being creative and things that I like. Get involved with things that you love and be sure to have a standard and integrity with what you’re doing.” – Jay-Z
26. “Told me don’t wait on nobody, go get your own, so it’s me, myself, and my Microphone.” – Jay-Z
27. “A wise man once told me luck isn’t some mystical energy that dances around the universe randomly bestowing people with satisfaction and joy, you create your own luck.” – Jay-Z
28. “The truth about talent is first, that it’s God-Given. When you want to unleash that talent, your mind lets it go. Because its there. You have to have that belief that when you draw from that well of talent that it’s going to be there.” – Jay-Z
29. “I believe that the energy you put out in the world, you get back.” – Jay-Z
30. “Only two things can get you through this: that’s patience and persistence.” – Jay-Z
31. “You have to find your genius level talent, and then to apply it in a way that supports that genius level talent.” – Jay-Z
32. “I’ve never looked at myself and said that I need to be a certain way to be around a certain sort of people. I’ve always wanted to stay true to myself, and I’ve managed to do that. People have to accept that. I collect art, and I drink wine… Things that I like that I had never been exposed to. But I never said ‘I’m going to buy art to impress this crowd’. That’s just ridiculous to me. I don’t like my life like that, because how could you be happy with yourself?” – Jay-Z
33. “Always be inspired.” – Jay-Z
34. “Whenever inspiration won’t find you, you have to find it.” – Jay-Z
35. “By far for me the most important thing is inspiration.” – Jay-Z
36. “I couldn’t even think about wanting to be something else: I wouldn’t let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn’t stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane.” – Jay-Z
37. “It was drive: we toured the whole eastern seaboard…we would just drive ourselves and do a show with just 20 people in the show.” – Jay-Z
38. “You have to realize what’s behind it (criticism), because I don’t know these guys (critics), but I know it’s more of a competitive thing, and it just comes with the job.” – Jay-Z
39. “It’s the discipline to not get caught up in the moment (fads), people tend to get caught up in emotions and jump on the next hot thing. So for me just to have the discipline and the confidence in who I am, and if I go into a studio and I find my truth for the moment, there are a number of people who can relate to what I’m saying, and what I’m doing. Not because it’s the new thing, but because it’s my genuine emotion, and how I articulate the world.” – Jay-Z
40. “I have a lot of happiness, but that doesn’t mean that the two (money and happiness) equate to each other…they’re not tied to each other…” – Jay-Z
41. “Life is about balance, you have to have time for work, and time for play. If you don’t allow these two things to co-exist you have an imbalance.” – Jay-Z
42. “Instincts are really important in business. I didn’t go to any business school 101 or anything like that, I pretty much just followed my instincts.” – Jay-Z
43. “I’d rather live enormous than live dormant.” – Jay-Z
44. “It just got to a point where it was, like, “Make this decision, because this is something you really love and you love to do. It’s time to really focus on and then get serious about it, give it your all.” And once I did that, it was no looking back from there.” – Jay-Z
45. “The thing that distinguished (Michael) Jordan wasn’t his talent, but his discipline, his laser-like commitment to excellence. That’s something I always respect, especially in people who have great natural talents already.” – Jay-Z
46. “What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something.” – Jay-Z
47. “It’s always been most important for me to figure out ‘my space’ rather than trying to check out what everyone else is up to, minute by minute. Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself – and that’s essential for any artists, I think.” – Jay-Z
48. “When you step outside of school and have to teach yourself about life, you develop a different relationship to information. I’ve never been a purely linear thinker. You can see it in my rhymes. My mind is always jumping around, restless, making connections, mixing and matching ideas, rather than marching in a straight line. That’s why I’m always stressing focus.” – Jay-Z
49. “I come from a place where you had to keep your word, where people would stick with you no matter what…I just tried to be a man of my word.” – Jay-Z
50. “Jealousy is a weak emotion.” – Jay-Z
51. “Remind yourself, nobody’s built like you. You design yourself.” – Jay-Z
52. “Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.” – Jay-Z
53. “I believe excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over.” – Jay-Z
54. “Leave a mark they can’t erase, neither space nor time.” – Jay-Z
55. “If people don’t hate you, you’re probably not doing very big things.” – Jay-Z
56. “I’m hungry for knowledge. The whole thing is to learn every day, to get brighter and brighter. That’s what this world is about. You look at someone like Gandhi, and he glowed. Martin Luther King glowed. Muhammad Ali glows. I think that’s from being bright all the time, and trying to be brighter. That’s what you should be doing your whole time on the planet. Then you feel like, ‘My life is worth everything. And yours is too.’” – Jay-Z
57. “You learn more in failure than you ever do in success.” – Jay-Z
58. “I’m a hustler baby; I sell water to a well.” – Jay-Z
59. “Don’t tell me what was said about me… Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you.” – Jay-Z
60. “You can pay for school but you can’t buy class.” – Jay-Z
61. “I’m a mirror. If you’re cool with me, I’m cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something. If I’m standoffish, that’s because you are.” – Jay-Z
62. “People respect success. They respect big. They don’t even have to like your music. If you’re big enough, people are drawn to you.” – Jay-Z
63. “A man who doesn’t take care of his family, can’t be rich.” – Jay-Z
64. “Life is for living, not living uptight. See ya somewhere up in the sky.” – Jay-Z
65. “Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week.” – Jay-Z
66. “Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all.” – Jay-Z
67. “Don’t ever go with the flow. Be the flow.” – Jay-Z
68. “The genius thing we did was, we didn’t give up.” – Jay-Z
69. “You have to take your craft seriously every day.” – Jay-Z
70. “I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.” – Jay-Z
71. “Life is a gift, love opens it up.” – Jay-Z
72. “Those who are successful overcome their fears and take action. Those who aren’t submit to their fears and live with regrets.” – Jay-Z
73. “Do me a favor. Don’t do me no favors. I handle mine.” – Jay-Z
74. “I sell ice in winter, I sell fire in hell.” – Jay-Z
75. “When you’re truly in love. You will never have anything to hide.” – Jay-Z
76. “With education comes refinement.” – Jay-Z
77. “I’m far from being god, but I work god damn hard.” – Jay-Z
Did you like these inspirational quotes?
What are your favorite Jay-Z quotes? Let me know in the comments below and please share this post.
