Tyler Perry has forged a highly successful career in the entertainment industry — and he has joined the billion-dollar club for all his efforts. He just wants to make it clear to his extended family that it’s his success, not everyone’s.
The Madea star moved to Atlanta at 21 with $12,000 saved up and one written play. He staged it, and it failed. He rewrote it and staged it over and over again until it finally paid off seven years later. So, you can fully expect that he would be the type of person who finds great pride in hard work, whether it results in a great fortune like his or not.
Page Six reports that Perry was a guest on Kirk Franklin’s YouTube series Den of Kings, and the topic of mixing finances with family inevitably came up. The media mogul shared an anecdote about how, when his mother passed away in 2009, he sent a letter to family members who were reliant on him for financial support, letting them know they had 60 days to find a new job.
He explained that all of his family members were able to find a job in that time, returning to the “pride” aspect, saying, “It was something else for them to do, feel some pride in. That’s the same thing I would want someone to do for me.” Perry said he holds the same standard for his son Aman, who is just 10 years old. If Aman wants something, he has to do chores for it.
That’s not to say this approach has always worked out for Perry. He shared with the hosts that sometimes this principle has led him to make difficult decisions that didn’t exactly leave him looking like the “good guy.”
Perry recounted the story of an aunt who would always call asking for money until, one day, he finally offered her a proposition. Perry recalled telling her, “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.”
Unfortunately, his aunt kept missing work, and Perry felt he had to let her go. The recently, legally embattled Madea creator felt that if you want money, then you should also want to work for it. One without the other simply doesn’t work for him.
Perry is so serious about this principle that his son apparently doesn’t even fly private alongside him — he flies coach — because Perry doesn’t want to raise yet another spoiled rich kid who doesn’t understand how the real world works. This whole “earn your keep” mindset seems very important to the multi-faceted producer, and to be fair, it has gotten him quite far in life. He’s gone from a struggling playwright to a close friend of the royals.
There’s a thin line between being frugal and being smart with your money. Often, when wealthy people say they don’t help out family, it raises concerns or at least invites judgment. But in Perry’s case, it seems he genuinely wants the best for his family and aims to foster a sense of independence in all of them. Some people, however, will definitely see it another way.
