Once I tried to find myself as a musician and a composer, I went back and saw that there was something special about Puerto Rican music. I knew that before, but had never sat down and thought about it. The more I learned about it, the more it found its way into the music I was writing.

In Puerto Rico, I played in all kinds of bands that played salsa and merengue. That's how I saved the money to come to the U.S. We used to play El Gran Combo tunes. Half the band was my friends - we were around 15 - and the other half was my friend's father and his friends from the hospital where he worked. They were all, like, 50.

As a composer, I'm basically trying to represent myself through my music in an honest way.

I feel that, as a Puerto Rican and Latin American musician, a lot of the stuff that I write, even if I mean it or not, is gonna have some elements of that.

I think there are so, so, so, so many things you have to be... to do this... you know, to keep going in the music business. Of course, you have to play well with others, you know, and you have to be smart with business and be good at your craft and be healthy.

I want to inspire through example. I hope my books motivate others to open doors and windows that will help them to embrace their own truth, light and joy.

Everyone who achieves success in a great venture, solves each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They keep going regardless of the obstacles they met.

You've got to know how to hustle. I got a lot of inspiration from my parents. My father was definitely a hustler. With six kids in the house, you always got to be hustling. And my mom, she's got sick work ethic.