Tyler Perry has always had a no-nonsense approach to how he runs his business. But if you had any doubts, his latest revelation about the time he tried to mix family and work together– and what happened in the aftermath– will definitely make you a believer.
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Perry shared his personal stories during the latest episode of Kirk Franklin’s new series, “Den of Kings,” released on Sunday. In it, the Madea creator was joined by Franklin, rapper Jeezy and Big Dave’s Cheesesteaks entrepreneur Derrick Hayes as they sat around the table to discuss their respective success and struggles in their life. In particular, Perry reflected on the moment he once had to fire his aunt after bringing her onboard of his company in order to give her a leg up.
“I fired my aunt. I fired my aunt, she said she wanted a job. She would always call, asking for money. I said ‘OK’ and I’d send her the money. I said ‘listen, I want to help you. I want to help you build this thing, not be welfare to you. So let me give you a job,’” Perry explained.
He then revealed that after some time, his aunt stopped showing up to work and called out too frequently. This, in turn, led to him ultimately having to let his aunt go so she could go find somewhere else to work.
“You want me to hand you the money but you don’t want to work for it. See that’s not, that doesn’t work for me,” he said.
The “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” creator then went on to share that the same rules apply to his now 10-year-old son, of whom he makes earn certain things that he wants by doing chores around the house. Explaining his reasoning, Perry said that he didn’t believe in giving people things that could “handicap them” instead of actually helping them grow.
What’s even more interesting is the next tidbit he shared in which he said that after his mother passed away, he told all the relatives he’d given financial help to that they had 60 days to become “gainfully employed” before he would stop sending them money–something he was only doing at the behest of his mother. (Spoiler alert: all those family members got jobs.)
In another shocking moment, Perry revealed that he ended up falling out with a family member because he wouldn’t just willy-nilly give him $1 million. He then made an apropos analogy about building a boat to bring family along but the efforts being in vain if you have people in your life poking holes in it while you’re working.
“Sometimes you build the boar by yourself. Y’all all wait over here on the shore, stay here. I’m building this boat, I’m building this and then I’m gonna come back and see who’s worthy to come. Because anybody who’s going to drag you down or put holes in the boat or try to destroy you man, why bring them over?” he said.
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