When I look at acts, I look at the worldwide potential. And what travels wide is melody.
— Scooter Braun
The only real failure is giving up.
At 22 years old, I tattooed 'family' on my wrist to not lose sight of my true goal.
The only way you'll find out something is to fail because you only need one success to be successful.
Asher Roth lived on my couch for six months to build up a following. With Justin Bieber, I moved him and his mother to a town house a block away from me.
I surround myself with incredible, capable people, and the beautiful part about the artists I've chosen to work with, and the artists that have chosen to work with me, is that we share the same family values.
There were 10 to 12 years where I averaged two to three hours of sleep a night. There were times when I didn't go to sleep for two days, but I'd usually crash one Sunday a month for 16 to 18 straight hours, and then I'd be rejuvenated.
I believe in karma.
I never like to talk about things until we're already successful. The moment you announce what you're thinking about doing, you've already created a ticking time bomb.
Hatred will never win.
The biggest pieces of my business are not public. Maybe I'll tell all the details when I'm 50 or 60.
My job is to make sure a client doesn't have any 'what if's - to make sure, when you look back, you don't say, 'What if I had done this? What if I had done that?'
For me, the most fun times in this office are when we're listening to music. That's what you signed up for, not to just make deals.
I think 'manager' is a stupid word.
Kanye's the best listener I've ever worked with. If I interrupt Kanye, every single time, he'll wait for me to finish before speaking. It's a running joke - sometimes I interrupt him just to see. And he always goes, 'No, no, finish. I want to hear what you have to say.'
If you watch Justin's early videos, I never let him say, 'My name is Justin Bieber,' and then start singing - he always just sang. And the reason I did that was I wanted you to feel like you were in the room. Or maybe you were seeing something you weren't supposed to see.
I think people will always like intelligent TV.
People told me I was nuts when I went to sign an act from YouTube - and now, that's one of the most conventional things you can do as an agent or manager.
My company motto is 'Inspire the world to try.'
If you really love someone, you can't be angry if they don't love you the same way. You got to just love them because you love them, not because you're expecting anything back in return.
Ludacris is one of the best people in the world, and I've known him since I was 19 years old.
If you can help someone become a good young woman or a good young man, they have a better chance of surviving in this business.
Balance in general is difficult, but I refuse to go through life and just have work and not have good balance. I want to be an example, not only to my own children but also to artists and other entrepreneurs, that you can be a workaholic and also be a good husband and good father.
My wife deals with real problems. My problems aren't problems - they're inconveniences.
I think only Kanye can truly understand Kanye.
There are a lot of great albums that take a year to connect.
If my ambition was to stay a manager the rest of my life, then I'd probably follow what people think managers are supposed to be like, but my ambition was never to be a manager.
I want to build an asset-driven business, and I want to make my clients a part of everything I'm doing. Go into the branding business, consumer products, food, apparel. We need to expand in those places.
I don't think you're selling out by allowing the masses to love your art. The only curse is that, when you get so big, sometimes people forget to look at the music.
I love collaborating with other really smart, incredible people.
A lot of times in this business, we forget that we're surrounded by a lot of really good people.
I said 'no' nine times when Kanye asked me to work with him because I liked being friends with him. Then he put me in a position where I couldn't say no: He just told everyone I was his manager.
The moment our youth succeed, we try to figure out how to tear them down.
What is now commonplace was once not, and I think that's a testament to what it means to really break the mold and push the limits.
I think caring as much as we do has been our greatest asset and really allowed us to build such a great company. It might not be conventional, but that's the way I'd rather live my life.
My circle includes some of the most influential people in the world. They all occasionally suffer from depression. Our DNA is built to serve and interact, not be worshipped.
I don't know if I'm going to be a manager forever. I don't know if I'm going to be producing films or television shows.
As a music industry, if we remain in competition, then we die. We have to understand that we're all in this together. Collaboration and synergy, it's one of the most important things out there.
I want to show that you can be a successful entertainment executive, be a good husband, be a good father, be a good friend, be down to earth, be a good person, and give back. If I can push that message out there into the world and pass it on to my son, then I'm OK.
I have a rule where once a week I have a date night with my wife, and that's the time when I put my phone away and have calls forwarded to my assistant in case of emergency.
I believe we have a higher responsibility to each other.
Where I've been able to be successful in our company's path is the fact that people think that we kill it, because they don't see our failures. Because we don't talk about them.
I'm a 34-year-old man who calls himself Scooter. That describes the vibe.
I think people got this idea that I wanted to be a star. Managers of the past don't have any kind of public persona - it's all about the fame of the artist. I really don't want to be a star. I just want to have a platform.
What you see is what you get with me.
David Geffen was a Bruce Wayne to me. He was extraordinary, but at the same time, his talents were something that I could dream of and could fathom.
I love the creative process - brainstorming and coming up with campaigns.
I learned that you have a responsibility to do things when you can.
I looked at Robert Downey, Jr. and all these people - when you ask for redemption, people will give it to you. But if you're the boy who cried wolf, they'll destroy you.
I enjoy difficult tasks. What's hard is finding the people to do them and finding a team to actually enjoy success. That is the real challenge of success.
