From High School Drop Out & Homelessness, Tyler Perry Becomes a Black Billionaire

Where to start? Let’s start when Tyler Perry was poor and with a dream, a dream in the form of entertainment that he worked hard and made a reality. In his reality, he learned early on and quickly that “Ownership changes everything.”

“Ownership changes everything.” is the quote from the Forbes interview where he is stated to be a billionaire. Tyler Perry is one of the latest black billionaire entrepreneurs of our generation.

He has dedicated his career to bringing entertainment his way and for the black public when for years, Hollywood turned their noses up at his style which resonates with black audiences. This is the drive he used to catapult himself ahead in his career.

He found his niche and he ran with it, taking him from the poor house to billionaire houses as well as the largest film production studio in the United States of America called Tyler Perry Studios.

Tyler Perry is the first African American to own a major film production studio, and it being the largest, is the icing on the cake.

Where most people enter college to learn film, production, theater and more, not Tyler Perry. He learned through sneaking his way into venues and learning the skills as he worked.

One can say that one of the reasons he is so multi-talented is because he didn’t start at an elevated point, whether it be schooling or internships. Instead, he started at the bottom, having to learn everything, from business to theater, film, directing and more, including learning what common people want in entertainment.

When one starts at the bottom, nothing is skipped. Everything is a lesson, including failures. One of the major reasons why his failures didn’t outweigh his successes is because of ownership.

Tyler knew that ownership lands him the money. With more money, there is more power, and with more power, one can leverage it, make mass purchases and move forward without having to ask anyone else. His career was and still is on his terms.

Future endeavors, according to the Forbes interview, include building restaurants, theme park and more attractions along with housing for people caught up in sex trafficking as well as providing them, and other children who grew up poor, with a financial education.

He won’t be a black man that will be “kept in his place”, even on the Confederate dirt he bought right from underneath them, making it Tyler Perry Studios.