(Simultaneous) So when did you catch up in the grades?$$So I was in third grade, I did about a couple of months in third grade [at P.S. 69 The New Visions School; P.S. 69 Journey Prep School, Bronx, New York] and the teachers were, so I was doing really well and they decided to give me an IQ test and I took a bunch of these IQ tests and basically kind of a couple of months into third grade they're like, "We're moving you to fourth grade." And what was tougher about it is at the time, so I grew up in the Bronx [New York] so we're in the Bronx so I'm at a school where I can walk to the school, this is third grade, and I walk with my brother [Gregory Ferguson] and sister [Robbin Ferguson] went there, so I, you know, walked with them. And they wanted to move me to the fourth grade, but they also wanted to move me to a special program, which was at a different school [C.S. 232, Bronx, New York]. So now, I'm gonna be younger than all the kids, I'm in a different neighborhood, which is, you know, the Bronx is still the Bronx, right, so you don't know what you're walking into. And I had to take a bus to school, public bus, and I was eight years old or something, you know. So, back then, I look at it now and I'm like wow, my parents [Roberta Lewis Pieck and James Ferguson] were really, really trustworthy because they kind of showed me how to get to the school once and then I was like, I was taking the bus, like public bus myself to go to school in this new kind of foreign area to me with all these kids I didn't know, and it was like really, like there's a lot of times when I'm just like wow, you know, God was just on my side because the kids were so nice, they were so helpful, they were so friendly that they kind of welcomed me in and helped me out and like literally, you know, you had this program, there was a lot of kids that were, that were accelerated but the rest of the school was just the school. And so there was a lot of, you know, fights and, you know, everything you would expect in an inner city and I just had, I just had kids that just decided to protect me, like for no reason, like oh no you can't, don't bother him, you know like big kids that would just literally step in and diffuse any issue that anybody would have towards me. It was just like literally like kind of angels protecting me, but that, that's, but that's on the side so I did third grade, so third to fourth and so then I was a year behind my sister and then I did a program in junior high school [J.H.S. 125 Henry Hudson, Bronx, New York] where I did seventh, eighth and ninth in two years, versus three years. It's called an SP program, pretty popular program in, in the cities at that time, so at that point, so going into high school I, I basically caught up with my sister.$So what are the things that you play an instrumental role in, let's say your first two years [at Combs Enterprises]?$$So I think it was, you know there was always major initiatives that were going on, right, so I may not have the timeline right, but you know, so negotiations with Arista [Arista Records] always ongoing. After every deal there's a new deal you're working on, and then eventually negotiations with other record companies. When I first came on board, we really finalized the initial deal with Sean John, where we brought on a partner to partner with us and actually fund the launch of Sean John, so I was heavily involved with that.$$Now who was the partner?$$The partner was a company, an Indian family that was based out of Queens [New York] and their fashion, the name of their company was Fashion Ventures. The family was the Soni [ph.] family, great family. They were like kind of garmentos, but not your traditional Garmentos in that they learned that business but they were highly educated, highly sophisticated, you know not the kind of people that grew up in the garment world. They were also in real estate. I learned a lot from working with them. The key guy there, a guy named Ashok Soni [ph.]. I talked to him every day. He was a meticulous kind of business person, organized, analytical. Unfortunately died suddenly at the age of fifty, very young. About, that was maybe about eight, eight years ago or so, but, but he, so that was a great experience I had. So early on I would say, you know, probably Sean--and then know also figuring out the magazine which I knew was gonna be an issue, and eventually we ended up closing it down. But, you know, I knew how much money a magazine required, and just didn't think, you know, at the time I didn't know if that was the best use of funds. So we, so I sat down immediately with the magazine, Sean John. We opened a new restaurant [Justin's] in Atlanta [Georgia], and the ongoing negotiations or renegotiations with the record company [Bad Boy Records].$$Okay, so when did he, from the beginning would he [Sean Combs] bring you in at the beginning, or did, did it take time? Were you really a deal was sort of cut and then you were trying to figure out how to make the deal the best deal or, or how, and, and who was running, then who also was brought in to run these various enterprises?$$So several questions there, I think the--$$So, so let's start with the first question, so at what point is he, you know, do you get, are deals already in place and then it's your job to sort of figure that out.$$Right, so, so when I came on board there may have been some things in place, but I jumped right into the center of whatever was going on. And once I was there, as things initiated, either I would be initiating things, or as they were initiating I was always kind of front and center, you know, me, his attorneys, the business head, or him, depending on whose driving the deal, and at some point he would always get involved once we got it to a certain point. But yeah, so I mean at the end of the day we were a small company so anything significant going on, I was pretty much involved in.$$And what are you learning about yourself and the business, because Sean John became very, it probably put a different face on him, you know in a very, almost a classic, you know, kind of, it took him from hip hop--$$Yeah.$$--you know, urban music to respectable member--$$Yeah.$$--you know, or whatever.$$What's amazing is being around this environment and being around Sean at the time, you always had this feeling like we could do anything. You always had this, you know and like having had my own company, African American owned company, I knew the barriers we ran into and things relationship wise and how when we sat in a room, I know it felt. When we sat in a room it felt like we were really asking for a favor, you know what I mean? Whereas when I as in the room with him it was kind of like, we had the power, you know. So like you, you're either gonna wanna do this with us, or we're gonna go to somebody else. But we're getting this done. So it was a great feeling of empowerment and being in a position of power in these rooms, largely because of the mentality he created and really believed, and really because he was able to do a lot of these things and he proved he could do them, but you're right, Sean Jean was the first major one where he showed he could take something from other than the record company, take something from really zero to being a significant success.
