The street-savvy New York team that founded the black-owned clothing label, FUBU, a multi-million dollar operation with sales worldwide, offered WSSU students some simple yet sage advice during a recent lecture on campus: “Make sure you’re doing something you love. Trust me the money’s not worth it.” This advice came from Carl Brown, who spoke to students as part of the third installment of the James A. Gray Lecture series. He was the featured speaker, along with his business associates John Fullard and Alleycat, who is also his cousin. FUBU is an acronym that means For Us, By Us. The company is a $470-million operation based in New York City. Brown and his associates started the business in 1991, selling homemade tie-top hats on the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, New York and Staten Island. The hats were a hit. “The one thing we had,” said Brown, “we had a dream.” Among other things, the trio spoke to students about black entrepreneurship and finance. Brown also stressed the importance of a college degree. None of the founders of FUBU had degrees when the company started, so Brown said they networked with former friends who had been to college and had valuable resources. Fullard is a college graduate. He graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 1993 with a degree in financing and radiation therapy. But his first job had nothing to do with his degree. For $6.50 an hour, he worked in a law office as a clerk during the day, and shoved snow for $20 a driveway at night. He became discouraged. “That was the toughest period in my life. I went home, looked at my degree and cried,” Fullard said. “I was probably suicidal. I just couldn’t understand how I didn’t land a job when I’d done everything I needed to do.” Eventually, Brown and Fullard teamed up and Fullard began promotions and finance work for FUBU.