But how have you learned how to recognize when ambition is more purpose-driven and versus when it's being driven by fear or validation?

You know, [sighs] we each have to take an individual ver- journey of finding our purpose, and that is something that speaks to you deep- on a much deeper level than the external and surface-level accolades that many people are chasing.

It feels different when you are living in, walking in, and working towards your purpose than doing something for an accolade or an external validation.

I have got, you know, 10 number one movies at the box office.

When I have a number one movie at the box office, it's incredible.

It's a great feeling.

I get a lot of calls and pats on the back and congratulations.

Yeah.

Mm.

That is Hollywood.

Hollywood, and I got a lot of great peers that work in the industry.

There's a lot of mediocre people.

There's a lot of people that were getting stuffed in the lockers in high schoolI was, I was- You saw that ...

I was not one of those dudes.

[laughs] So when I run into one of those dudes, and they telling me what they not gonna do and how I'm wrong, and I'm going, "I know they stuffed you in the lockers." [laughs] I'm looking at them and I'm going, "I know they was on your ass." [laughs] And it was...

Learn more at americanexpress.com/business-platinum.

[laughs]

Like, all of a sudden, the average height went from human to neanderthal.

[laughs] I'm looking like, "Who is these niggas? What the fuck is happening?" "Aw, shit," the DJ.

"We got Melo in the house." Soon as he said this dude's name, everybody goes crazy.

The sparklers come up.

Kev sits down.

He didn't even, like he was on his way out.

[laughs]

Mm-hmm.

And oftentimes just because you are close with somebody or get along with them, that doesn't mean that that's the right person that you wanna be in partnership with.

You wanna be in partnership with somebody that has a skill set that benefits whatever it is the ultimate goal is for the movie.

And then if you happen to get along with them, like Kat and I are always laughing and having fun, that's even betterBut you have to be very, um, unflinching in terms of picking the right people to attain your goals, and I do believe that.

Why the, why the name change?

It was marketing, actually.

So when we got the script, it was called Italiana, which, you know, was, uh, great from our writer Ryan Engle, because her name is An- Anna.

She ends up in Italy.

y'all making me sound thirsty and awful hold on wait a

minute It was at Atlanta airport where, you know, I got some connects.

I know some people.

So I was able to sneak through TSA on what they call unaccompanied minor pass.

Like I was picking up a child, got to the gate, right? Waited until like everybody was born and went up.

You know how it's always that one mad woman that's working the counter.

So I went up to her right when it was like crazy and everybody was trying to get on.

So how do people recover from a bad first impression? How does that happen?

And I'm the dude that showed up with the expired passport.

So.

It was at Atlanta airport where, you know, I got some connects, I know some people.

So I was able to sneak through TSA on what they call unaccompanied minor pass.

Like I was picking up a child.

So I got past there.

True story.

Yeah,

What do you look for with directors and what did you see in cat obviously we can tell our amazing back catalog but for you as a producer what is it that you try and find within each project

Clarity of vision and appropriateness for that project.

Everybody is different.

Every director, every producer, every actor.

And you have, you know, some incredible people that can do everything right.

That can do, you know, comedies, dramas.

And I'm talking about in front of or behind the camera or it doesn't matter.

Just touch on that a little bit about how you did it just for inspiration for us.

Yeah.

So my because is because I feel an obligation in the situation and in the seat that I sit, in the situation I'm in and the seat that I sit, meaning, um, the privileged seat that I sit in.

I've worked very, very hard to be in this position.

But because I am here, if I am not paying forward, and that is not just to my immediate nuclear family, my extended family, but also my community family, right? If I am not paying it forward, the ability that I have to touch people and hopefully inspire people, but certainly the ability I have to deploy resources in a certain way, uh, to deploy power in a certain way-

Yeah.

But you do have to build it by constantly reminding yourself of those positive attributes that you have.

Ask yourself who better than you? And continue to ask yourself that question and realize that the answer is no one.

And that leads to the subtitle, Healthy Arrogance and the Art of Dreaming Big.

Yeah.

But you do have to build it by constantly reminding yourself of those positive attributes that you have.

Ask yourself who better than you, and continue to ask yourself that question, and realize that the answer is no one.

And that leads to the subtitle, Healthy Arrogance and the Art of Dreaming Big.

I've been around some of the most successful people in the world, man, and one thing that the most successful people in the world have in common that people who I see who are trying to be successful often don't, is that the successful people, when they walk into a room, they do not question whether or not they belong there.

They don't have that imposter syndrome.

Yeah.

If you do it right.

(laughs)

And she's very sweet, and she said, "Listen.

I appreciate you making changes to your project, but I'm not promising you, if you make all the changes, that I'm ever gonna do it.

So don't do it for me.

Do it for you." And I told her, I said, "I am doing it for you." I said, "Because you're giving me actually really valuable feedback, because from your perspective as a big star who's considering this, like, I- I may end up with somebody else, but hearing why you won't do it is helping me to adjust my project and it's actually making it better." And it did make it better.

And I took it back to her, and she was nice enough to consider the project five times.

By the sixth time, I had removed all the elements that stopped her from saying no, and I wish I could say I just wore her down.

(laughs)

Right.

... that we pitched the movie and we said, "You know what we're gonna do? We been selling it as a black college movie, now we're gonna go and we're gonna sell it as a dance movie that happens to take place at a black college."

Right.

We got that one yes, Stomp the Yard, right? That was our very first number one movie.

Number one at the box office two weeks in a row, absolutely.

And nobody wanted to make it, but we made it happen.