‘Shark Tank’ Star Daymond John: The Worst Business Advice He’s Received
Today, Daymond John is known as the stylishly dressed “Shark Tank” investor worth $350 million, but he started with just a $40 budget for FUBU, the urban clothing company he co-founded which turned into a $6 billion game-changer fashion enterprise. The 55-year-old entrepreneur and mentor has become the face of helping small business owners skyrocket to success and is sharing what he’s learned working his way to multi-million dollar status, including the worst business advice he’s received.
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Don’t Discard People
In a recent interview with The Root, John revealed the worst advice he’s received was more of an attitude.
“The person was something like they had the money they could lose. A lot of people think like that. No, it’s not money they can lose or because somebody is super wealthy or they’ve lost a lot of money. It doesn’t matter. When you discard people I think that is horrible.”
Learn Financial Intelligence Early
John admits he’s made mistakes along his journey to success such as not understanding finances and how to manage his affairs sooner.
“As African Americans, many of us haven’t come from legacy wealth. We don’t have a grandfather or grandmother to maybe tell us that,” he said. “When I was coming up, maybe there was the Encyclopedia and some other stuff that was 10, 20, 30 years old. It’s not like today where you can go on immediately and see what’s happening in the market. So my information was limited.”
He added, “I didn’t have financial intelligence and almost went bankrupt three separate times. Two times when I didn’t have money and one time when I did have money.”
Don’t Blame Others for Not Having Financial Intelligence
John believes the importance of teaching others how to manage finances is crucial and stated, “If you notice, 65% of athletes and lotto winners are bankrupt three years after leaving the league or winning the lotto. We look at them and [people say], ‘Oh you blew it.'”
But he doesn’t agree with that mindset. “No, they were the best physical specimens in the world and they competed against millions and millions and millions of people to be somebody that we can value and respect. They weren’t taught financial intelligence. There is nothing wrong with what they did. You don’t know what you don’t know.”
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John is on a mission now to teach kids about financial intelligence with his latest project “Little Daymond Learns to Earn.” “It’s not about a book, it’s about creating a dialogue and watching our school systems change in certain areas because of this product and having other celebrities and banks and educational systems saying, ‘All right, we need to do that in Atlanta, we need to do that in San Diego,'” John told Fox 5 San Diego.
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