American Success Story

Daymond John has never shied away from hard work. At the age of 10, he earned $2 an hour, distributing flyers for a shopping mall near his home in Hollis, Queens, N.Y. Eight years later, he was selling handmade tie-top hats on a street corner in Queens. While big companies were charging $20 for the hats worn by rap artists at the time, John priced his at $10 and quickly sold out.

Today, John, 54, is a successful businessman, author, investor and co-host on the popular television reality show, “Shark Tank.” As the CEO and founder of two companies: FUBU (For Us, By Us), a hip-hop-inspired clothing line and The Shark Group, a brand management and consulting firm in Manhattan, he’s widely reported to have a net worth of $350 million. Yet John wasn’t born rich. His parents divorced when he was 10 and he and his seven siblings were raised by their mom.

“In 1992, when I was 23, I joined with three childhood friends, J. Alexander Martin, Keith Perrin and Carlton Brown to launch FUBU — a line of sportswear made by the people who wear it,” John says. “To boost our sales, I approached rapper LL Cool J, who lived in our neighborhood, and asked if he would pose for a photo wearing a FUBU T-shirt.”

That photo resulted in a barrage of orders and, although John and his friends were ecstatic, they quickly realized they didn’t have the resources needed to produce $300,000 worth of apparel.

After 27 banks turned down John’s request for a loan, his mother, Margot, offered to take out a $100,000 equity line of credit on their home. While that allowed FUBU to stay afloat and fulfill its orders, John still remembers the financial challenges he faced early in his career.

“I almost went bankrupt two times and I think my business would have been much larger if I’d learned financial intelligence at an earlier age,” he says. “I know that I made massive mistakes early on because I hadn’t mastered financial intelligence.”

John later realized that due to a lack of financial literacy, many others struggled to appropriately manage their wealth.

“Statistics show that many professional athletes and lottery winners are bankrupt three years after leaving the league or winning the lottery,” he says.

To teach kids to learn the financial intelligence lessons he wishes he had acquired as a child, John wrote his first children’s book, “Little Daymond Learns to Earn” (Random House, March 2023). He hopes that parents will read the book with their children and use it to start conversations about managing money.

“We live in the greatest country in the world, but we don’t want to talk about money, and we don’t teach our children financial intelligence in school,” John says. “If children don’t learn how to process money the right way at an early age, then at 17, they can accumulate student debt for a career they’re not even sure they want.”

John would love to see kids and teens learn basic financial lessons such as how to balance a checkbook, the meaning of compound interest and how a FICO score impacts their credit.

Although he acknowledges many colleges do teach financial intelligence, the lessons are often delivered too late.

“You don’t teach your child how to be an athlete or a musician at 18 or 20, you start teaching them when they’re 5, 6 or 7, so why aren’t we teaching them about finances at an earlier age?” he asks.

Married to his second wife, Heather, since 2018, John is the father of three daughters, ages 30, 25 and 7, and says he plans to pen more books teaching children and teens about financial literacy.

“My book hit number one on Amazon, which means the public has voted,” he says. “I’m not sure whether I’ll write a series on financial intelligence or dig deeper into the first book, but this is absolutely going to be my legacy. I want my daughters to look back years from now and proudly say their father changed the dialogue in this country about financial intelligence.”

How To Get A Shark To Bite

As one of the investors on the hit reality television show, “Shark Tank,” John says much of the secret to each contestant’s success is based on how they present their pitch.

“First, we have to hear the numbers, what they’re paying to produce their product, what they’re selling it for, how much they’ve sold and how much they haven’t,” John says. “It’s also important to see contestants who have a genuine passion for their product.”

John says the questions he asks himself, and that entrepreneurs should also ask themselves when considering a business venture are, “Why this? Why now? And why me?”

“If you don’t have explicit answers to all three of those questions, it’s not a business you should be doing,” he says.

The Secret To His Success

Thirty years after launching FUBU, the company continues to thrive.

John credits the success in part to what he calls “a little bit of healthy paranoia.”

“I think we have to regularly ask ourselves, ‘Are we doing enough and are we changing with the times?’,” John says. “I’m always trying to hack myself.”

The main mistake John says entrepreneurs make is believing money will solve all their problems.

“As an entrepreneur, you have to constantly educate yourself, try new things, fail and fail fast,” he says.

In his own life, John also recites a mantra every morning that focuses on an ever-evolving list of six to seven goals that center around family, health and business.

John believes in helping other entrepreneurs master the secrets of success. 

Four years ago, he created a Black Entrepreneurs Day (blackentrepreneurs day.com) to provide better opportunities for black businesses. This year’s event, presented by Chase, will be held Oct. 27 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y. 

“The show highlights a lot of very successful African Americans, including Kevin Hart, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Strahan, LL Cool J and Tracee Ellis Ross,” John says. “They talk about the challenges and successes they’ve faced with money.”

John says the event is livestreamed and offers resources to help entrepreneurs grow their business as well as the opportunity to obtain financial support through grants.

In addition to mentoring entrepreneurs, John also works with CEOs through the Rise Nation Mastermind Network, a network of elite investors and entrepreneurs who offer support and guidance to those who want to take their business to the next level.

“I’m noticing a lot of CEOs are facing issues such as whether their companies should go fully remote, the status of artificial intelligence (AI) and how to best utilize social media to connect with their customer base,” John says. “I take on a couple of CEOs each year and give them access to things that they’ve never had with this training. It’s like a continued education program for CEOs.”

New Season With The Sharks

This fall, Season 15 of “Shark Tank” launches and John is looking forward to meeting a new group of entrepreneurs. In past seasons, John has invested in Bombas socks and made a deal to mentor 15-year-old entrepreneur, Moziah “Mo” Bridges, the owner of Mo’s Bows. Since his appearance on Season 5 of the show, Bridges has signed a seven-figure licensing deal with the NBA to create custom bows using team logos.

“‘Shark Tank’ is one of the top reality shows, and it’s a program that parents and children can watch together,” he says. “When ‘Shark Tank’ first premiered, we were in the Great Recession, and then later viewers say how it looked when crypto was being introduced, and how business owners were coping during the pandemic, the show offers a learning experience on the challenges entrepreneurs are facing at the moment.”

While John says he can’t reveal this season’s twists and turns, he says he’s thrilled to be part of the show.

“I’ve learned from the sharks, but I’ve also learned from our contestants who often conduct business in new ways I may not have thought about,” he says. “As investors, we can learn from an 11-year-old kid on one show and then later from an 80-year-old veteran who has created a business to address a problem that’s not being solved.”