Sean "Diddy" Combs may have received backlash for being chosen to make a commencement speech at Howard University on Saturday, but the hip-hop mogul delivered a motivational speech to the Class of 2014. His main message to the graduates was in the form of a question, which he reiterated throughout the speech: "Do you know how powerful you are?"

Although he dropped out of the Washington D.C. school after only two years, Combs made sure to let the students know just how important their degree is. The 44-year-old, who left school for an opportunity to work for Uptown Records, said that had he completed college he "would have been more prepared" in the beginning of his career.

However, even without a degree, the entrepreneur accomplished an impressive list of goals and even topped Forbes list of the wealthiest men in hip-hop with an estimated net worth of $700 million. The owner of Revolt TV explained what qualities are needed to succeed while speaking about his past failures.

Below are his most motivational words from the speech.

On chasing after your dreams: "I want you to take the craziest dream you ever had -- that dream that you were too embarrassed to tell anyone about. And, I want you to go out there. I want you to make it a reality. I don't want you to dream, I want you to do."

On being fired from his first job in the '90s when his girlfriend was almost nine months pregnant and he bought a house in Scarsdale, N.Y. that he couldn't afford: "I had two choices. Either I was going to sit in that failure and give up or I was going to make a decision to step out of the darkness. You see, when you're in that darkness, you want to sit there and wait for the light to come. When you're in that darkness, it feels uncomfortable. But you can't wait and sit in that darkness. The only way out is to step forward, to face your fears, to become your own light."

He added, "There's going to be a lot of times y'all about to fail. I'm still failing every day. We are all a work in progress."

On the time he decided to run the 26.2-mile New York City Marathon in order to raise money for the public school system and fell to his knees from exhaustion: "Nobody is going to take you to the front of the line, unless you push your way to the front of the line." (He completed the race and raised $2 million.)

His big life lesson: "One of the biggest lessons that I learned in life, is that you cannot achieve success without failure... Some of my biggest successes come from some of my biggest failures."

On always pushing forward: "Don't be afraid to close your eyes and dream, but then open your eyes and see. For a lot of people the distance between their dreams and their reality is intimidating and they get stuck, they get paralyzed, just like I was in that marathon. And the only way forward is to be real about what it's going to take for you to achieve those dreams."

"I want you to be fearless. I want you to be decisive. I want you to make a decision right now that when you fail and you fall to your knees, I want you to remember the power of you. And I want you to get back up on your feet."

Finally, he reminded the crowd of his motto: "Can't stop, won't stop." Thanks for the inspiration, Mr. Combs!

Tags: Diddy