(ThyBlackMan.com) Daymond John is a prime example of a self-made entrepreneur. Raised by a single mother for most of his childhood, Daymond was born in Brooklyn, New York and set up shop in his hometown to launch his famous clothing and apparel line, FUBU. He learned and understood the value of a dollar at a very young age which helped drive and guide his entrepreneurial spirit. Daymond was and still is a work horse who stopped at nothing to become successful and continues to be one of the most imaginative and profitable African American businessmen today.
Daymond John exhibited aspired to be a mogul even during childhood. In his first-grade class, he would scratch the paint off pencils in order to etch the names of the prettiest girls in his class, but not without charging them a fee. Throughout grade school, he would bring in candy not available in the cafeteria and sell them to his classmates during lunchtime. Even though he was very well liked by his teachers and peers, John was never a great student. He had difficulty with reading and writing on his grade level and struggled to graduate high school, yet he always demonstrated a great understanding of how businesses operate and displayed a yearning to someday have one of his own (Elkins, 2016).
At age ten, Daymond John’s parents divorced, and he moved to Hollis, Queens to live with his mother. Realizing the situation she was in; a poor, single, African American mother trying to raise a child in a disadvantaged system; John’s mother wanted to give her son as much as she could to provide him with the tools to be a success in life. Observing his fondness for fashion, John’s mom taught him how to sew wool caps. That same day, he bought cheap fabric, sewed together 80 hats, and sold them for ten dollars each. John came back to his mother with the $800 in hand eager to make more. John’s mother witnessed how much of a liking her son took to this type of work and saw the passion instilled in him (Elkins, 2016); (Daymondjohn.com, 2019).
John’s mother was an essential reason why John was able to succeed with his company and continues to be one of the wealthiest self-made men in the nation. After continuing to witness her son’s fervor with designing clothes, she decided it was time to help her son make his dream become a reality. When he turned 18, John’s mother mortgaged her home in Hollis for $100k so that her son could obtain the necessary materials to start a clothing and apparel company. John set up shop in his mother’s house, dividing his time between spending endless hours creating new designs and continuing to wait tables at a Red Lobster. It was in the basement of that home where FUBU was born (Elkins, 2019).
FUBU’s popularity caught on very quickly. Daymond John had huge names in the mainstream artist community donning his gear in music videos; names like LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. Even with the quick success he saw coming to him, John refused to quit his job at Red Lobster until he secured his first million dollars. His drive, commitment and intellect would not allow him to settle until he was certain about the success of his company and had enough money set aside to comfortably forfeit the salary of a server. “When I made my first million, I realized how poor I really was. It takes about a million to get you out of debt”, he says. John recognized the value of a dollar, and how much is necessary in addition to sacrifice and devotion in order to become a successful entrepreneur. The $100k loan from his mother, money reinvested into the company, advertising, paying employees, manufacturing and more were all required to make the company become profitable. But with the proper infrastructure set up and having all debts paid off, FUBU became one of the largest and most successful clothing and apparel companies and helped put Daymond John’s name on Forbes’s list of millionaires (Elkins, 2016); (S.V., 2019).
To this day, FUBU has generated over $6 billion in worldwide sales revenue. But like many businesses, FUBU hit a peak in popularity and soon began to fade in the early to mid-2000s. Instead of accepting defeat, John’s ambitious character found him in search of new opportunities to grow his name. His next step was joining the cast of Shark Tank, a reality television series which allows contestants to pitch ideas and inventions to a panel of wealthy businessmen and women in hopes of obtaining an investment in exchange for a share of ownership in their company. While John admittedly lost over $750k in the first season alone, he says he learned of new, savvy investment strategies which helped educate him as a hungry entrepreneur. Now, each of his small businesses generate millions of dollars per year, creating John a hefty net worth of $300 million. He maintains a certain feeling that he says helps drive his success; a feeling of being broke. He says, “When you become creative, that’s when you think outside the box—and that’s utilizing the power of being broke” (Elkins, 2016); (S.V., 2019).
In addition to the personal success he has seen over the years, John is actively engaged in philanthropy work. His desire to help others reach similar goals like his is greater than his desire to better himself. He believes the causes of these groups he is involved in are much bigger than he, and strives to better the conditions and available opportunities for families living similar to how he grew up. There are two organizations that he holds dear to his heart. John is the cofounder of “Daymond John: Success Formula” which helps mentor young and prominent business owners, and also he is a judge for the “Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship” which is a non-profit organization that helps young individuals from under-resourced communities build requisite skills a successful business with the hopes of bettering society (S.V., 2019).
In 2014, Daymond John received the Hennessy VSOP Privilege Award. This award is given to people who go above and beyond for their community, and “honors individuals for outstanding work and leadership…. those that embody strength and sophistication”. His advocacy against gang violence and his push for more educational outlets in underprivileged communities helped him earn this well-deserved award. Other winners include Spike Lee, Carmelo Anthony and Magic Johnson (HHSYC, 2014).
Staff Writer; Ben Akerman