Young Jeezy's five lessons on the path to success.

As told to Toshitaka Kondo 1 Watch the company you keep.
Choose cats who really understand how to make that sacrifice. They can't be in the streets and trying to do this. You can't have both. You got to go cold turkey, baby-either you're in or you're out.

2 Build a network.
Everybody is trying to get money, so the more people you can network with, the better off you are. Like me and T.I. might swap out a verse, but if we wasn't cool, we would have had to pay each other. I have a record on my new album with Luda on it. When you cool with people, you do business with them.

3 Market yourself.
Anything to represent you is a good marketing tool. The Snowman started in the 'hood, and when things are new and fresh everybody jumps on it, especially when it's some real shit. It definitely got me noticed because it was like an icon. Everybody saw the news and was talking about me.

4 Write things off.
When you're trying to pay taxes, if you can write some of that shit off as business expenses, then why not? My business manager keeps me on point about shit I could write off. I keep receipts for my clothes, dinners, and flights.

5 Have good mentors.
I would hope to be in [Jay-Z or L.A. Reid's] position. I think it's very important when cats like that let you do what you need to do to get your shit done. At the same time, they been in the business long enough to know when something ain't the right move, so obviously they ain't gonna let you crash.

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