by Rose Spotts

Created on: June 25, 2008   Last Updated: July 14, 2008

Sean "Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Diddy" Combs is what many people like to call a Renaissance Man. He wears many hats as an entrepreneur. He is not only a rapper, but a record producer, actor and clothing designer as well. He emerged from the ashes of a life that many might have given up on to become one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry and worth an estimated $315 million. It didn't happen overnight and it wasn't handed to him. So just how did he do it?

Sean was three years old when his father was shot to death in his car after a party. Growing up without a father was not easy on young Sean. His mother and grandmother worked hard to keep him off of the streets, determined not to let him get involved in a lifestyle like his father's. He kept himself occupied growing up by participating in sports. At quite a young age when he made a deal with the paperboy in his neighborhood in which he offered to help the paperboy part time if the paperboy paid him. This helped him to see the potential he had with more money. After graduating from high school, he attended Howard University where he majored in business but gained a reputation for throwing parties and events.

While attending Howard University in Washington, D.C., Sean could not give up his business mindedness and between classes he ran a shuttle service for other students. When he met rapper Heavy D, he begged him to call Andre Harrell, executive of Uptown Records in New York City about an internship. Harrell gave him a chance and for some time, he traveled between the two cities, attending classes and working on his internship. He eventually dropped out of Howard University in 1989 without a degree, but continued to pursue his possible career through Uptown Records where he was eventually promoted from intern to A&R, enabling him to work with artists like Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. This inspired Sean to start his record label, Bad Boy Records, in 1991.

Sean became rebellious while working at Uptown and running Bad Boy Records, so much so that Harrell had to fire him. "He was hot tempered, very passionate, very creative," says Harrell, who now is a consultant to Bad Boy. "But Puff was like Dennis the Menace. Every now and then something would get broken." His rebelliousness was the result of seeing his successes with his own label so Sean enlisted the help of his friend Christopher Wallace a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G. and together they managed to make Bad Boy a successful label and by 1994, Bad Boy

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