Russell Simmons: All of them and everybody around me. I try to learn from everybody. I try to find a piece of God in each person, so it changes by who is in front of me. I’m looking at somebody and I’m thinking about all of the great things they contribute and then they become my mentor for that moment.

PR.com: So it can be someone who is younger, older, it doesn’t matter…

Russell Simmons: No.

PR.com: When you look at the way hip hop music and culture has exploded since the 1980s when you co-founded Def Jam, and all of the artists who have become mainstream, do you take some credit for that, or do you feel that it would have come about one way or another?

Russell Simmons: Of course it would have come about by itself, it had already come along. I feel like I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

PR.com: How did you recognize that you were in the right place at the right time?

Russell Simmons: I loved it and I had passion for it. That’s what I recognized, that I loved doing it.

click to read interview with Russell Simmons