Daymond John: Rise, Grind, and Accomplish Your Goals | E24

do. We all have different backgrounds, personalities and surroundings. And we all have different routes and how we hope and want to get there. My guest today is Daymond John Damon is an incredible entrepreneur, Best Selling Author, motivational speaker and branding expert and is often considered the godfather of urban fashion, is a co founder and CEO of the clothing brand FUBU, which he started with a $40 budget and grew into a company with $6

billion in sales. In 2009, David became one of the original investors on the incredible Emmy award winning TV show Shark Tank. Damon is also a generous philanthropist and is the author of five books, including The New York Times bestsellers, the power of broke and rising grind, which profiles people who have succeeded against the odds, and which is one of the central themes of this podcast. Damon, it's an incredible pleasure to have you on my show. Welcome to In Search of Excellence.

when you were 10 years old. And after that you never saw him again. After your dad left your mom, Margot were two and three jobs at a time. But she could still barely cover expenses. And when you're growing up, there are months in the winter when you couldn't turn the heat on. Can you tell us what you learned from watching your mother's

struggle? The three foot can opener on the wall that looked like a back scratcher what it said her trips to the library to read the Wall Street Journal in the values that she instilled in you.

I always share with anybody that lives in the United States were probably top three a percentage of the world when 1.4 million people don't even have access to electricity. But seeing my mother work that hard was never really, it wasn't challenging them. Because that's all I knew. My mother and my father when they were together work extremely hard. So I only understood work and educating myself because that's all she did was work in educating

ourselves. So it was a lesson that I learned just by seeing, you know, you got your kids don't do what you say they do what they see. It was great. And I learned a lot of lessons from that I learned that there is always an answer. There is always a solution to whatever issue. I learned that I at the end of the day was responsible for my actions and outcome of

what was going to happen. It was not up to anybody else mom was going to be around a little bit but mom could only maybe open some doors or give me advice other than that the world and my future was up to myself. And the back scratcher the big can opener it said think big on it. And I just didn't understand it for years until I finally got it about Mom always said a lot of things and i i also story about we were driving and we you know we grew up. I grew up as you said formula Boulevard and

formula Boulevard is right. It leads into JFK, John F Kennedy Airport. Many of the people that grew up in Hollis Queens worked at various different places, either the ideal Ideal Toy Factory, awkward racetrack or Belmont racetrack or JFK, or LaGuardia, and then some people either live or work at Rikers Island. I remember seeing the Concorde landing one day, and I asked my mother, How do men and women build massive machines

like that? And she said to me, everything in this world started with one person, one idea that took one action and why can't it be you and I had no answer for her. If I would have said because I'm black. She would have said what is that got to do with anything? If I would have said because I'm poor. She You would have probably said 65% of the fourth 1000 and wealthiest people started as self made men and women, so I had no answer

for her. And plus, if I would have been sarcastic she would have slapped the shit out of me. I think Mom is the one, you know who influenced me and those are the things I learned from her.

you're six years old. And in the first grade, you started your first business, you painted pencils, with the prettiest girls names on them, thinking you could sell them to the boys who in turn, would gift them to the girls, the guys did not go for it, but the girls did. And they're willing to pay twice as much for the same product, which is one of your first lessons in business. When you were 10. You swept the floors at a corner

store to get candy. You're an apprentice electrician and used to wire PEX cable and abandoned buildings in the Bronx, you handed out flyers for $2 Each

the equivalent of $15.76. Today, he shoveled snow in the winter, you raked leaves in the fall, when you were 12, you went door to door selling chocolates for your Catholic school and you would go to the beach and sell nerf Super Soakers as another business, you would go out into your neighborhood looking for abandoned bike parts, and you would assemble them and sell them. But let's go back to the entrepreneurial gene, which I was also born with. You said that entrepreneurship is in

everybody's blood. And it's just that sometimes the people around us tell us that we can't do what we're dreaming about doing in our search for excellence. Can you learn to be entrepreneurial. And in order to succeed in your career with whatever you do? Do you need to be entrepreneurial in some way, whether you start a company or not, I believe

pleasantly surprised. And I'm and I understand now why you don't say strive for excellence. And just say it you do it. Thank you. Appreciate you. Absolutely. And so you need to be entrepreneurial, no matter what, because the Daymond John's of the world every Daymond John's need entrepreneurial way of people of thinking, because I can't scale any of my businesses or any of my ideas if all you're doing is sitting around waiting for me to give you the

instruction. And also I'm one person and I do not know everything I probably know about 1% of what I should know. And if you aren't bringing your education knowledge and we're learning collectively together, then I will never be able to

scale or grow. And often, as you see founders, we've seen a lot of founders that start businesses, but sooner or later, the board kicks them out or various other people coming in now whether you got to get kicked out or whether you got to leave to say you know what, I'm not at this level, let me let another person run the business and I'm on the chair or whatever the case is. So entrepreneurial thinking is absolutely a must.

You are not born like that. But the question becomes, do you have a sense of worth and a sense of understanding that everything can be accomplished? So as I look at things out, and when people tell me it can't be accomplished? And I guess maybe because I just looked at this whole new thing where LinkedIn says that being a dyslexic is an asset, and that you clear a lot of the clutter are the way you get right to things. I never

looked at it like that. But I think once you clear a lot of the clutter out of your life of thinking things cannot be done. And you look at all the people that did it. I think you realize there's always going to be a way to succeed. And there's going to be various different ways to accomplish your goals. And that's the critical way about entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs don't look at what they don't have to accomplish the goal. They don't say, well, obviously I can't do that because I don't

have money. Obviously I can't do it because I don't have an education in that space. Obviously I can't do it because I don't know anybody. Obviously I can't do it because I don't have any time. Entrepreneurs look at what exactly do I have? I don't have physical money, but I got an army of people ready to work for me. Well, I would have to pay them anyway. That's money. I don't have the time. Well, let me look at my time when you know what I should stop

binging on Ozark. And the amount of time I spent on Ozark I could have probably read two or three books on the topic is just really cutting through the clutter.

investment bank at the time. And your credit, that Job was continuing to instill an entrepreneurial spirit in you. You tell us more about that program, how it influenced you, your interaction with Tony Randall on the street one day, and the importance of being kind to others.

today. And I worked in a room with messengers, and there was probably about 20 of us and messengers, and we'd get boxes and packages to take different places. I would go upstairs on my Friday my payday. And I would treat myself to one of those $6 cheeseburgers, because that would mean splurging. And I will see brokers or investment bankers or whoever they are, they would mainly be stressed out and they complain about how many homes they have, or the way the market is. And I would

listen to them. And I didn't know necessarily all the details of what they were talking about. But they didn't seem to be happy people. But in that little messenger area where we had, like I said, maybe two dozen people there were very happy people who made a little bit of money, but they enjoyed their quality of life. And I realized that happiness didn't come with money. Money was definitely nice to have. And we needed it for important things in our lives. But it really wasn't the

necessity of happiness. And I learned that early age, I was walking down the street one day and the old show The Odd Couple. Felix, I think the name was the actor's name was Tony Randall and Felix was always known on the show of being a little pompous, a little Loctite, or whatever the case may be. I don't know what you would call it today. But he's walking down the street and I yelled out, Oh, my God, Tony Randall. I remember him looking down on me and saying something to the effect,

though. Yes. What is your name young man? I said Damon, nice hat. Oh, what are you doing? I'm taking the packages. And he said, I hope he's something all packed up. I hope those packages arrive safely, or I'm sure you're going to take them there safely. And he looked at me just for I felt like it was two minutes, but probably 20 seconds. And he took that time. And I remember that for the rest of my life. And it also happened with a a woman who passed away

named Phyllis Hyman. And those interactions that I had out, always remember that for the rest of my life, and he made me feel special. There was nobody on Broadway and 53rd Street in Manhattan. At that moment. It was just me and Tony Randall. And I look at that today is when I talk to other people and see other people that it just takes a second to make somebody feel special. That's what he taught me.

yelled louder. When you couldn't get certain words right no matter how often the two of you would study them as an example. He couldn't spell the word because for four or five years, you also wouldn't know how to spell your middle name, which is Garfield and which was his first name. When you read a book you get tired as you mentioned you were C or D student and language

in the arts. And even though you spent far more time working on the subjects eventually saw professional a doctor said that a learning and behavioral issues something that did not sit well with your mom. In fact, she didn't believe it because she thought you were brilliant and thought that you just weren't applying yourself as much later in life that you learned the proper diagnosis for your learning disability dyslexia.

For our readers or viewers who don't know dyslexia is a learning disability that makes it very difficult to read, write and spell no matter how hard a person tries or intelligent he or she is. It's estimated that five to 15% of Americans have dyslexia which equates to 14.5 to 43 point 5 million people. People who have it are often called dumb or lazy, which is very cruel to young kids or whoever has it for that matter. Out of the regular sharks in the guest sharks on Shark Tank.

There are 12 In total, who have an eighth of you are dyslexic, and there's a fascinating statistic is estimated that 35 to 40% of all entrepreneurs are dyslexic. Can you tell us how you've overcome dyslexia and how it has contributed to your success as a entrepreneur and on

our path to excellence? What's your advice to the more than 80 million Americans who have dyslexia, ADHD, which my son has, and other learning disabilities who struggled to learn struggling to pay Attention, and who have to work harder than most people and who still may not achieve their desired results. Yeah, so

little bit different. Because the ATD and ADHD at least there's a drug that hopefully can improve or help with that. And if there is money being processed through the system, then it's easier to advertise and advocate for it, because people will be aware of it dyslexia is a little more challenging, because to process information different way if a kid says I'm dyslexic, who they probably will never say that, it just means you have to learn harder, or you have to spend

more time reading. So that's the challenge. And like you said, a large amount of entrepreneurs are however, I was just speaking to Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, didn't realize that he grew up a couple of blocks away from me also went to Bayside high and is also dyslexic. And he shared the stat that also 35 to 40% of incarcerated people are also dyslexic. And why is that fact because like you said, kids are cruel. And if you're dyslexic, it's not something very obvious, as well as add

ADHD. But you don't want to be in class going, huh. And what happens is, often you shied away from society, and if you are around people that may not have the proper resources, they may say, I don't know what dyslexia is, but you seem brilliant, stand on this corner and make some money with me. So those are the challenges with dyslexia. And it really is about being honest with yourself, you know

what your challenges are. And a lot of times, we don't want to show our vulnerability, but I think it leads into whether you're dyslexic or whatever's going on with you entrepreneurs, I found that I need to show my vulnerability so that people can tell me where they can help me. And I can concentrate on what I do best.

you didn't have the money. So you start a commuter van service called Queens van plan that picked up people from bus stops and then took them to the subway and then back towards their homes. You liked it, but you're working 18 hours a day. And by the time you paid insurance, department of transportation fees, fines, maintenance, you're netting only $30,000. Net at the end of the year, you did that

for three years. And being in your van all day wasn't great for your health, you were extremely heavy at the time from all the fast food you ate, and you were sitting on the road and you were tired. So this war on you and then you got a job at Red Lobster as a waiter and you were miserable there as well. You don't have a plan for your future. You're anxious and scared about what's ahead for you. We're going to talk about

FUBU in a minute. But before we do, I'm going to play the second verse of one of my favorite songs of all time. So that was one of my favorite lyrics, one of my favorite rap groups of all time. Can you tell us about this song Russell Simmons Run DMC and how the hip hop craze spoke to and rung your bell and honor path excellence?

What's your advice to the 10s of millions of people who hate what they're doing have tremendous anxiety, don't have a clear path forward and are worried about their future and what they're going to do for the rest of their life.

it? That's the problem. I think I think I see a lot of people and they say they don't have the reason sources are our assets or they make mistakes, and they don't learn from it at the end of the day, the reality is, if we really think about it, and if we take ownership over something, we know why we are not the place we want to be. If you are not great at your job, you know why it let's say it's all in the, in the hands over

the things you can control. And I always say there's only two things you can control in life, the lens that you look at something through and then the actions that you take, if you aren't happy at your job, and you're saying, Why am I not there? So first, you have to ask yourself, Do I get up on time? Am I a team player? Have I read everything that the company wants to wants to accomplish? Do I know exactly my role? Am I a

good communicator? And if you have all that, and you're doing really well and the boss is holding you back? Well, then you have to look at yourself and say, Do I really want this job? And am I value enough to quit this job and get hired by somebody else? I have a lot of friends and or people who go like, you know, I'm not really doing well over here. So you know, I don't think there's any place for me. So I think I

should probably leave. Okay, well, what are you going to do after that, if you're not going to change careers, if you bring the same attitude to some other place, you still going to have the same outcome. And a lot of us don't want to take ownership. And I know it's not easy to take ownership by hacking yourself. And knowing what's going on in your life is very difficult. I mean, listen, you want to lose weight, you eat less calories are burned more calories. I'm not doing either one of those,

but I know what I need to do. So if you really understand and you look at all the people, you know, when I was growing up, I didn't have the internet to see all the people who were successful, and really successful. I'm not talking about the ones who are highlighting this. But now that you see people in all walks of life, I mean, if you just see me on Shark Tank, there was nothing that I did that is special,

nothing. It's just that I would analyze what was going on look at my assets and my liabilities. And where can I apply myself and be a little vulnerable and start and maybe fail? If people laugh to me, who cares? So we all really generally know what we should do. I mean, people all over the world are like, Oh, I'm in this area, I can never get out of this area. Why? Why? And they just make excuses. And maybe that's because society has put that on them their parents started and it's a very deep

rooted issue. But I just don't understand why people don't know where they can you know how they can struggle. I mean, don't get me wrong, you see people out there who go I know I could do that. But you know what, I don't feel like it or I don't want I just want to live my life like and if you accept that, that's fine. But this point, I'm

rambling. It's just I just never understand why if you really hack yourself to ask the questions of why you aren't where you want to be in your relationship, health wise, all this other things, you know the answers, you just don't want to face them.

people buy clothes. Can you tell us what one of the reasons was? And still is and key? Also, tell us about the boot company? Timberland? The company's comment in the Wall Street Journal, the name FUBU. And what you were trying to create.

I'm the man makes the clothes or the woman makes the clothes, not the clothes make the man or the woman. And some people just really dress down and go. I'm a

simple everyday person. I don't need to spend all that money because I'm using my money elsewhere for whatever reason, so but they always feel like they're part of a community and almost everything you do and are by is supposedly transitioning you from one place in your life to another and somebody who I really respect who shares that in details, a guy named Ryan Deiss. So that was what I first

learned. And then I realized at first I was thinking to myself, Well, I heard this comment from timberland about they don't make things for African Americans and for drug dealers, they said, but in my neighborhood, and primarily in the Northeast people, the kids were buying timberland it was like the kids buy Yeezys and Jordans these

days. But the real reason the kids were buying the Timberland was not because of his technical ability, but his fashion sense, because the Timberland you know that the nice comfortable suede they have, it can hold a die very well. So you could buy one pair of timberland and you die and read six months from now and you die on blue six months from now. So really it was not only looking good, but it was also a way for kids to maximize something they will purchasing.

But most of the clothing come Benitez would either not admit that they had a large African American following, or they would actually say we don't want people like that wearing our clothes, for whatever reason, not sure, I'm not going to assume. And that's what I came up with a word, the words FUBU.

For us by us. Initially, I was going to use the instances that would happen like a Rodney King or Mike Tyson or whatever would happen to have that across make you buy that because of your passion for the instance and then have a FUBU somewhere on it. And at the same time, take a ride on that by growing the company, but I realized FUBU itself when I started saying, for us bias, people gravitated

towards that and wanted that. So for two years, I would take 10 T shirts, literally 10 and go to every video that I could, because I grew up in Hollis Queens so as we saw Run DMC blow up, you would see their cousin, their brother, the uncle, the sister go on tour with them with the bodyguards or soundcheck people. And a lot of people started do that with lol was salt and pepper as well.

dorm and get kicked out. But the cold calling skill was invaluable to my future as well as the ability to get turned down and go to the next sale because you forgot about their previous sale, when you made money. How is cold calling been an important factor in your own success.

is crap, I don't want this. I mean, you don't know what they're gonna say, because you don't know what moment you're going to cash them in, they may just insult you. So you have to have a strong rejection muscle, you also have to be able to after that you have to perfect your approach. Because every time you get to know, you learn what you shouldn't say or what may not be appealing to the people. And every time you get a yes, you learn what is appealing to people and what triggered the

response. So I think it is, it's critical. And you can only do that once you put yourself out there in real time in real action. If you sit there and just look at books and only and wait for the perfect time to happen, you're never going to get that interaction with somebody else. So you can never improve. You can only think in your head that you have

everything. But sooner or later, you got to get out of the gate and cold calling is and knocking on doors and standing on corners is the ultimate way to see if you have something of value. And a lot of us, we're not going to have anything of value, we're going to have to close it up and then restart over again a little more wisely.

Very important to success. Let's go back to you starting FUBU with three friends Alexander Martin, Keith Perrin and CARLTON BROWN, who had barely finished high school, didn't have any money, didn't have a career didn't have any knowledge of the fashion industry and didn't have any connections when you started was just a hobby and you didn't think it would be anything bigger than maybe a clothing store. You just wanted to dress people on the side because you love rap music and the culture

in the fashion. You had seen people wearing a type of ski hat that was selling for about $20 in stores and you thought you can make these for three to $4 each and sell them for $10 each. So you went to the fabric store bought $40 worth of fabric used a sewing machine in your mom's house to make them. Your first product was basically a wool beanie with the string nodded on the top then on March 24 1989. It was good Friday, two days before Easter Sunday you went

out to Jamaica Avenue. You stood outside and 40 degree weather in front of the New York Coliseum and started selling your hats to random strangers on the sidewalk and then boom, you sold about $800 worth of hats. You were super stoked, so stoked that when you were driving home you started counting her cash and rear ended a driver and you didn't have insurance. So you

lost all of your profits. But it didn't matter where you had success on that first afternoon, the light bulb went off and at this point you're 20 years old and you realize You did not have to wait for an incident to happen like Mike Tyson or Rodney King. People love the product. And people love the idea behind FUBU. When you sold out that day, what was the emotion you were feeling? And on our path excellence? Do we need that boom moment to realize what we want to do? And what should we do

with our lives? And how long did it take you to get your first sale? Do you remember the exact person who bought that first hat?

trade show. So it's always you know, I think as an entrepreneur, it's almost like Christmas every time you open up a box and you figure a better way to do something you're doing. And you feel like, why didn't I know this before? And I think that that creates your thirst for education and thirst for information. So but yeah, it was the greatest feeling ever, because now I wasn't dependent

on anybody else. It was purely my ability to make these SLDS has to show value to the potential customer on why this hat was for them. Maybe that was for them because it was cold outside. Maybe it was because it matched their sneakers. Maybe it was because they wanted to look fashionable and have the new type of hat that was on the videos. But whatever it was, I had to find ways to express to them and communicate to them where the value was to them.

for the video. So you would loan them that shirt for the shoot, then you would take it right back and at that time, there are only about 12 rappers in the world. It started with brand Nubian and one of their videos and old dirty bastard wore it

and Mariah Carey video. Then Busta Rhymes wore in one of his videos and LL Cool J, who was one of the top four rappers in the world back then were FUBU in the hate lover video he did with boys, two men, and after that he wore FUBU and a gap commercial that got the person that got fired for not catching the FUBU hat in the commercial. As you're getting all of these amazing rappers you had your first big break, which is something we all

hope to get in our careers. When I was 27 years old, I had mind. Eli Broad at the time was only one of three people who had created to Fortune 500 companies and he hired me as assistant to the chairman. Even though I was completely unqualified, I just had a lot of heart and I done my prep in the interview. For those who are still hoping for their big break. What's your advice for those thinking? It's just gonna fall in my lap and happen one day versus going after it

and getting it. And as part of this, he tell us about a friend from your childhood named Hype Williams.

have happened. But there was a lot of small little breaks that happened it was I used to take shirts and sell them to the 4x and 5x dyes, or six guys in my neighborhood because they had no other opportunities to buy really fashionable clothes, they went to Rochester big and tall and got a white shirt or a black shirt, or they paid a lot of

money for custom apparel. But if I sold it to them or gave it to them, they would wear it 10 times a month instead of a cool, super fashionable kid who wore at one time and wanted and those big guys were in front of red ropes and in front of all of their bodyguards. And they were obviously respected or feared in the community because nobody can do anything to him. But that influence a lot of the rappers a lot of other people. So to wait for that perfect time, the perfect time is never going to

happen. It is never going to happen. It is making these mistakes and these attempts as small as you can. So for the all those people who are thinking that you gotta wait for the perfect time. And entrepreneurship is all about making money and it's about bossing people around. They're just not doing their homework on it. And maybe they're not built for that some people don't need

to be an entrepreneur. Some people may want to know that I just want a nine to five and I want to work at a company for a couple of little money years and retire. But if you are thinking about the big breaks, the big breaks happen when a lot of small breaks culminate to one big break.

bills. So you wake up at seven or eight in the morning and you'd so the HAST yourself, you would tag them answer a call Couple of purchase orders that came in overnight, take the house, package them again and begin to ship them out that took you till about noon or 1pm, then you would hit up the Red Lobster around for work there until midnight, come back home, make more has tally up any purchase orders until about one or two in the morning. Then you'd start

the routine all over again. The next day, you did this for about two years straight, you finally quit Red Lobster in 1995 and went full time with FUBU. I could be here all day, talking about food, booze growth, and some of the amazingly cool things and smart things you did along the way. But 10 years after you started, the company was doing $350 million a year in

sales. There are a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs listening and watching this podcast who are thinking about starting their own business, and are wondering when is the right time to do it, or if they should do it. They don't have savings to live off over there. Or they are not starting a sexy technology company where they can raise venture capital financing and pay themselves a salary, which means you're going to have to work 18, seven, seven days a

week like you did. Like you there are long periods of my life where I worked 100 hour weeks, and it was brutal, and exhausting. At what point should future entrepreneurs give up their day job and how important is work ethic and where does it rank on our path to excellence.

four of those in place. I don't personally believe you're gonna succeed. You may have short bursts of success, but I don't think you're gonna succeed. So those are the critical things work ethic, is it I mean, because if it was that easy, everybody would do it. If your vision if everybody understood it, then there'll be no place for you. So all those things are critical to what you need to do.

And if you're an entrepreneur right now, well, then you got to take inventory, what do you have, right in between the Rodney King shirts and FUBU, I realized I had a phone available to me. And I said to myself, I'm gonna make 50 calls a day. 50 calls a day. And that's it for six months. And 50 calls a day where the two manufacturers, two stores, distributors to a place to educate myself to get more on understanding a way this industry works to met potential mentors to hope to mentor me,

whatever it was. So if you want to do this, it really starts with an education before anything and everything. And normally it especially with Listen, you're watching us right now you're educating yourself, you're putting time in on that.

I think people think too literal that they need to have X amount of dollars X amount of time on hand, if you have to pay the bills, and the only thing you have is two hours extra a week, then put the two hours extra week into it for six weeks, eight weeks, two years, I don't care. But you have to start with what you have at hand.

product placement. Now it's 2008. We're in the middle of a major market meltdown and recession and a guy named Mark Burnett calls you up and says he would like you to be a host on a new show called Shark Tank where contestants would sit in front of five judges and pitch their companies and if the judges were called sharks, like the companies, they could invest their own money in them. But Mark called you you told them you couldn't do the show because you had a contract with the

Kardashians. But fortunately for you, Khloe Kardashian learned about your conflict of interest and conveniently fired you. When that happened. You had the freedom to do it if you wanted to do it. But you hated the idea. You thought the show was garbage, and thought Who in the hell wants to see five businessmen do that? You also hated the idea of investing your own money in these companies, which is which the show

required. For those listeners and viewers who don't know Mark Burnett was and still is the king of reality TV before Shark Tank, he had created the incredibly successful reality shows the apprentice and survivor. So you hated the idea. But you wanted to go out to Los Angeles to hang out for a little while and see some friends and you agreed to shoot what you thought was a crappy little pilot on one condition that Mark Burnett would meet with you. Mark didn't know it at the time.

But your plan was to pitch in what you thought were three smoking hot TV show ideas that you thought were going to change the world. So you got to breakfast and mark you pitched them on your three great ideas and before the eggs came, he shoots them all down. You still weren't convinced you want to do the show. And Mark Cuban then called you and told you he wanted you to do the show. Over

the years in my career. I've seen so many people and mentees have the opportunity to take meetings or or interviews with companies or in cities where they're 100%? Sure, they don't want to work. And they turned down these meetings because they tell themselves, they're a complete waste of time when in fact, they're passing on opportunities that could and often do change their future forever. Why did you eventually do the show? And our search for

excellence? How important is it to keep an open mind and take these kinds of meetings, because any one of them, it only takes one could change your life forever.

entertained. People get insulted when people offer them, what they don't believe is the value that they are worth for whether for your house or anything else, I you know, my house is worth 200,000, I'll give you 150 And people get insulted. Don't ever get insulted if somebody is offering you $1 for dollar more than everybody else is offering

you this. And when people are offering you meetings, I believe that you should take the meetings as much as you can, even if you don't necessarily know what you want, because it's all about opportunity. How many times are you taking meetings or working with people that you don't even want to catch up to? You're entertaining yourself there, too. I think that is all about looking at all the opportunities and just gathering

them. What's the worst scenario that happens with a meeting you take with somebody that is interested in hiring you, you don't want the job, alright, you spent a half an hour, 45 minutes, but you don't know what that person is going in the future. And maybe that person has an offer, you know, that you would like so I entertain any and all information. There's a saying that don't start building an umbrella when it's raining.

And I look at when people say how do you run your businesses, about 10 to 20% of my time I'm educating myself one of the things I like when other things that are happening in the world. So let's say I don't want to jump into crypto at the moment right now. But I don't mind putting that on my, my Instagram feed where the other 500 people things I follow. They could be exercise. It could be stupid little videos, why not just put

crypto on there. I may jump into it a year from now but or two years or five years from now. But it's worth me just looking at and I feel the same with all opportunities when you see them. It's almost like being kind right? When you walk down a street. It doesn't hurt when somebody says something new and you say hi back. That's just the way I look at it. I think you don't know what you don't know. Until that opportunity comes you really don't know.

understanding goal setting. And the reason I read it the first time three separate times is because I'm dyslexic, I wasn't sure if I absorb all the information properly. The reason I read it every other year is because sometimes we forget what got us here and ego comes into place, money comes into place, other people come into the place, or we just think we were doing it wrong. And it kind of brings me back to understanding

what I need to do. And so we talked about five years, 10 years and 20 years, I also have six month goals, the more important ones or the six month goals that I read. So I read them every night before I go to bed. And every morning when I wake up and their six month goals that expire in six months. And I never hit those goals. I set them so big and off their list and I will I read them every night. No Do I forget for

two or three days? Yeah, do I read six goals and and they vary from health to family to

business. And maybe after three months, I scratch one off and I go I'm not sure I'm not that passionate about this one the way I am about all the other ones, the ones that whether two years, five years, 10 years, 20 years, I have to see myself there the 20 year one is obviously me looking over my family and being 53 me being an average of around 75 Where do I want to be and and that probably helps me reduce some of the negative foods I'm eating and various other things to think

about my health. Also sort out what I'm buying or things I'm doing that I know that I won't be entranced in the company itself and I have a little more freedom with my life to see my beautiful kids. So I look at myself whether on a boat or in a home or someplace As in 20 years, the tenure ones are different in the five year ones that are what I have to see

myself. They're the ones that are five and 10 and 20 years, they don't normally have materialistic things around it has me being in a place of content, and appreciating my life.

younger, that failed. You borrowed a lot of money for a cruise party, and then lost it that we didn't talk about, you had a used car business which closed, you had to shut down FUBU, three times in your first three years after you started it, because you ran out of money. Three years after you started the company, just as it was taking off, you didn't have any money to fill $300,000 of

purchase orders you received. At the magic clothing Show in Las Vegas, it was a huge break for the company and you needed a capital and fast can you tell us about the ad your mom took out in the New York Times getting turned down from 26 banks. And as part of this in our search for excellence? How important is persistence and creativity and our success?

machines out there. So can you be agile and then move slow or do better customer service or when you're finding somebody that everybody's pitching, and they're not realizing what's in it for the person on the other side of the table? Do you do your homework and realize this is where the person may resonate. Or maybe even the person doesn't even realize that this is where they're falling short and in business or in life and that you can add some value. So I think creativity is

extremely important. And persistence is important as well. But when we talk about persistence, persistence with homework is important. Because if I keep making the same attempt, you know, when I did the little boat ride, I spent $10,000 on that, and I was able to survive, I had to be responsible, I had about $10,000 that I borrowed and I knew that I can pay that off. worst scenario within maybe two years,

but I can survive from it. The reality of me borrowing $100,000 On my mother's home because I had $300,000 in purchase orders. Well, a lot of people don't know that I was going to be bankrupt and homeless because I spent the $100,000 not knowing the proper way to spend it not on lavish things, but on equipment, paying for real goods ahead of time and my accounts receivables were 3060 90 days out, and I was about to lose my mother's home, lose my business be homeless.

And so that was a really big gamble that I do regret taking. But the level of comfortability was the fact that I have $300,000 in orders. It wasn't like I was like my mortgage the whole home because I got an idea. And then let's have my mother also, again, being creative. And this is where I got it from. She said, Well, if the easiest thing to sell is the

truth. And you if you have a good product or a good idea, there's a lot of people out there where you basically can add value to what they're doing. And let's take an ad in the New York Times, and we took the New York Times $1 million in orders need financing. And that's what the ad set and 33 people call that add 30 of them. We're not the type of people that you wanted to call that out. Or we were smart enough to know that high level interest with people

like that was not safe. And also not something you can dig yourself out of a hole with we ended up doing a deal of manufacturing and distributing with the with Samsung's textile division. And that's when we really started to able to apply all the things we had done for the first eight years to FUBU. And now have a way to deliver on our promise.

great preparation? I'm talking about the kind of preparation that you spend 30 or 40 hours on for a single event or meeting.

that. I feel that if I did that I was suffered from a little bit of analysis paralysis, I would feel that I don't think I'm ever well prepared enough or if I over educating myself on something I may not see outside or whatever else can be done because I'd be so laser focused on the route that I'm going to take and Don't be able to pivot. But on the flip side, I know that I need somebody who is over prep person around me to back me up. Because I also can't come in

the room. Without information on the topic or the person or the industry, I also can't come out and say some ridiculous things that even if I had a great concept or an idea or value, the things that I said prior, they would say, This person doesn't know what he's talking about, or doesn't know our industry or me. And even though this sounds great, I don't want to do it with that person. So preparation is key. But I know my weakness, and I know that I need to help

other people. Now, that being said, when I did not have anything, taking the small little steps of standing on corners, and selling hats or cold calls, that gave me the preparation to be able to talk and convey what I was doing, because I had actual boots on the ground, and can relate what I had experienced. So when I didn't have anything, the experience was really vital to try to do it. And then now where I'm at in this part of my life, I have a little bit of both experience as well as bringing

people in to back me up. But no matter what preparation is key, you can't walk in there and just winging it, people will know you're winging it.

about being successful. Most people are talking about if they're successful in their careers, and they're really talking about if they make money or if they made a lot of money or how much money you said, you don't equate money to success and that money provides you with more problems and limousines that there are a lot of filthy rich people who are miserable. And that money just drives your problems in a Bugatti. How do you define success and being

rich? And what's your advice to others about where making money should rank and choosing their careers and deciding what to do with their lives?

point in my life. I just said I pass on that I rather just be a waiter, and I don't take the job home with me. And maybe I would understand how to invest a little better in the market and have the market work for me. And I enjoy my quality of life. What has driven me from that time has been passion. And every single thing I got into it wasn't passionate when I was I learned earlier, when I tried to sell crash cars, I didn't like it. I didn't like working with my

hands. And I didn't like dealing with the dark side of the business of buying a crash car and putting it together. You had to get pieces from people that weren't, I don't know, steel, I don't know where they will get them from, but it definitely wasn't the dealership. So I learned that money is really not as important. And I guess that's because when I come into the room with other people who are way, way wealthier than I am, like I said about First Boston I saw, I see people that are still

miserable. And then I see other people that are don't have two pennies to rub together. And they're the happiest people in there in the world. But I do understand you have to be able to pay your bills, and you want to be in a safe place where your children, your husband, your wife, and everybody st and we have to take care of our parents. So I always say it's your day job and then work on

your passion. But you got to be the best at your day job first in case that's the only thing you're ever going to make money at.

six months a year for work. And the other half of the year you are partying with celebrities and rappers your wife at the time says she saw you on TV more than she saw you in person because you were in commercials. At the time you were not there for your kids. If your youngest daughter fell off her bike and had to get stitches she never

got on a bike again. Because you consoled her by phone your wife called you on it and told you that you were asleep at the wheel and she eventually left you You said she took everything from you her love and your two little girls, which meant you weren't going to be around at Christmas to watch them open their presents. But your wife relented and told you she wouldn't take your girls away completely. If you would deal with your success by start to pay it forward and start giving

back to other people. Something she said was non negotiable. So fast forward a few years you've done a tremendous amount to get back to your community and 1000s

of other people. You were remarried four years ago and your wife Heather, who you proposed to on the side of Shark Tank is also an entrepreneur and media personality and you're still crazy busy, you're remarried, you have a young daughter, you do Shark Tank, you run an investment firm, you're a motivational speaker, among other things, on our path to excellence as we move forward with our careers and take on more personal and professional

responsibilities. What's your advice on how to find the right work life balance?

right afterwards. And soon as we started opening back up, I was on the road three months straight. And I said, What the hell did I do to myself, and I had to reevaluate that. So I think it's about stealing away time. I think, again, the same way is we talk about entrepreneurship is not this way to the perfect moment. Neither

is your work life balance. If I can steal away an hour with my wife, I'm going to steal away an hour with my wife, that hour that I steal away walking on the beach talking, watching Ozark together, whatever the case is still that that the hour adds up to 70 or 100 different moments over the year. I've been in, I think, maybe eight cities in the last five days. And I'm going to be in another city tomorrow, tomorrow evening. But I'm going to drive my daughter to school

in the morning. And we have people are fortunate enough that we have people who help us with that. But she's got to remember the times that I drove her to school, if I can, I'm going to try to see away every moment. And that's critical. I think people keep saying, we'll get to a let's schedule a vacation. No, let's go to the movies next

week. But if we don't get to go to the movies that week past, I'm going to play with you know, What's that song cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon the cat anymore, now, and he talks about how he blinks his eyes and his son has grown. That happened to me in the past. And I'm not gonna allow that happen anymore. So I tried to steal away as much time as I can, whether from my my health, my faith, my wife, my daughter, my friends. And I never regret stealing away those

moments. But I do often regret having to travel someplace for a meeting and various other things. And we usually put those before we put the family thing. So I just say the first thing to do is stop stealing away the moments and then you turn around and you see how much joy you get out of them and they start to grow. And that's all I can really say. But that is going to be everybody's biggest challenge in life is work life balance.

their sophomore years in college. And what I've done is we've gone on one on one trips every year, I turn my phones off. Now with the older kids, I bribe them by taking on nice vacations, places they want to go just so I get the time with them. But it's one of the best things I've ever done in my life. So for those out there, who are crazy, long hours and have all these responsibilities,

I urge you all to do it. And the second thing I heard from my friends, I've heard this now from a lot of people, when you're on your deathbed, you never ever say I wish I had worked harder. It's always the opposite. I wish I spent more time with my kids, my family. And that's something that helps guide me when I get caught up in my own moments.

excellence. How important is it to give back to others. And our community,

education. If you are of service, I think that people recognize that and I can't it's not something that you're supposed to expect the reward from because not necessarily everybody will respect it. They may not follow it. But are you of service as just something I

firmly believe. And I think I believe that more because not only in my community, but we see people every day especially after we what we've been through we see people every day that have nothing and they are giving everything to people and they're going out there going to war zones and helping their doctors Who went to school and paid all this money to go to school and they just want to go to third world countries and help those and not get paid anything and help people, we see teachers, we

see veterans, I mean, they didn't, are amazing men, men and women, they didn't decide on if they want to start a war with somebody, but at the flick of a switch, they will go around the country and across seas and risked their lives and no longer be with their families and risk their lives for us. So I think we see people that are of greatest service all the time. And you don't have to again, you don't have to go all the way to

this level. But if you start and just do this, and then do this, and do this, at least you're doing something. And maybe I'm too optimistic. Most people I see how do care about something and they do give or, or roll up their sleeves. And I just, I don't know any other way to live. If you don't think like that. You've given advice

people set goals for us. And if you don't know what you want to accomplish, and you can't hit a target, you can see, we set goals all the time. Every day, we set a goal to be on a plane train automobile Atlas, I'm gonna go to the store, how you going to get there, you're going to walk there, what are you going to buy? Are you going to drive a car or bicycle, we set the goals all the time. But often we don't pay attention to setting goals for ourselves

personally. The next one is homework, we already talked about that it's education, every single thing that you're thinking about doing has been done one way or another. And there's a lot of people that have lost doing that. And you

can learn from them. You and I are talking about thinking grow rich, but there's hundreds, maybe 1000s of books that have been written over the last 200 years that you'll find the same type of content in there or same define, you know, the same line of what successes or whatever

you are into. You think all these people over 100 200 years didn't know each other, I have this master plan to just get together and sell you a bunch of crap, no. And listen, even if you don't follow what they say in there, at least you know that this doesn't work. And don't try that a is a more it's love. That's exactly what you touched on. I loved what I was doing my my job, I love my career. But we often get caught up too much

with what we're doing. And we forget about who we're doing it for our families, our loved ones, our health, our faith, and we get caught up. I think there's two aspects to it, love what you do, but love what is important to you more than ever before. Are is and we did not touch on that. As always remember that you personally know the brand people are buying

into you. on Shark Tank we buy into people we don't buy into the companies, and we're buying into you and through your references or through we know that we want to do business with you. And so I tell people, they got to be able to put themselves in two to five words their Apple, think different Nike, just do it FUBU for us by us. Because if you don't understand what you stand for, and then you leave it up to other people to

interpret. And we touched on the other one is you got to keep swimming rejection muscle, you when that door gets slammed in your face, what else are you going to do, you can quit your job. And if you're not doing well at your job, you can't quit yourself, you are still the same person that's going to take those same things over to another position. Now, maybe that job wasn't where your passion was, and you will bring something else to wherever else

you go. But if you're going to try to be in the same area, you can't quit yourself. Just because your boss says something you you don't like or whatever the case or maybe the bosses is not a great person. You cannot quit yourself. So you got to

keep swimming. You got to keep building your education, learning from your mistakes, learning the opportunities that are out there, and learning how to find other great people around you that are going to uplift you instead of say, Yeah, you know, drink some beers with us. So yeah, boss was a whole you should have never done that. You don't eat those people you eat, you want people who are going to challenge you. And

that's how you keep swimming. So that's short, set your goals homework, or more, aka low. Remember, you're the brand personally it always comes back to you personally and keep swimming.

to accomplish it. And once you set those goals, you can acquire the education books, podcasts, or anything else to educate yourself how to accomplish those goals. But if you are not honest with yourself about your why you'll never set the right goals and you'll never get the right education to reinforce them.

and your philanthropy. You've made an immeasurable contribution to changing our culture and the way we think about it today. I'm very grateful for your time today. Thank you very much for sharing your story with us. Randy, this