Justin Bieber : I Broke My Family's Cycle of Poverty ...Now "Want to Create Empire"

Justin Bieber says if he didn’t commit himself to music, his family would have languished in poverty as they had before his career reached epic heights.

In a new, wide-ranging interview with the Daily Mail , the superstar talks about what he’s learned from his upbringing, why he doesn’t go clubbing, and how he believes there’s nowhere to go from here but "down."

Speaking of his family’s financial problems, Bieber says,"My family are all poor, so the cycle would have continued. My kids would have been poor, and their kids would have been too."

"I feel I broke the cycle, and when you get to break the cycle, you don’t go back," he continues, adding, "If I hadn’t found music my life would have been bad."

Now, says Bieber, he’s determined to "create an empire."

"I want people to know I don’t just sing songs," says the teen superstar.

He goes on to point out that he helped launch Carly Rae Jepsen, has movie inspirations, and invests "in start-ups and IT."

‘The education I’ve had you couldn’t get in any school," insists Bieber.

Staying on the straight and narrow, as he claims to do, certainly plays a role as well.

Noting that he hangs out with the guys in One Direction and The Wanted, Bieber says, "I keep my distance when they go to clubs to have their fun – I go home."

"Drinking is definitely one way, but it’s not for me," he continues. "I still want people to think I’m a good person, a good influence. I want to be around tomorrow."

The "As Long As You Love Me" crooner points out that he’s also seen other stars "go off at the deep end, get full of themselves, think they’re the best and end up not being anything. I’ve worked way too hard for that."

Bieber tells the Daily Mail, "Now I’m at the top there’s nowhere to go but down; for me it’s about staying standing at the top."