How Daymond John Became a Huge Success

Daymond John, also known as Daymond Garfield John is one of the world’s most recognizable CEOs and one of the most successful business owners of his kind. In addition to being an entrepreneur and investor, he is also an author, television personality and motivational speakers. However, most people know him as being the founder and CEO of FUBU and for his work as an investor on the ABC television Shark Tank. To date, he has invested millions of dollars into startups on the show. Every week, millions tune into the show to see Daymond John not only vie for the opportunity to invest in up and coming companies, but to hear his professional advice for potential entrepreneurs. This is because in the world of entrepreneurship, very few people can compare to the success of Daymond John.

The New York City native isn’t just successful financially and with his own clothing company, he has managed to garner a great deal of respect and a strong following thanks to his motivational works. In addition to speaking around the country, he has also authored several works aimed at helping to motivate individuals into achieving their desired level of success. There are so many people today who look to Daymond John as a role model for success in business, and it is easy to see why. However, if you don’t have time to sit down and read one of his books, one of the best ways you can learn from Daymond John’s success is to look at his resume, so to speak, and see what real world experiences led him to become the successful individual he is today.

How Much is Daymond John Worth?

Daymond John has been a beacon of success in the fashion world for decades and hailed by many for his business savvy and impressive bank account. This bank account is so impressive, it is what helped earn him a “shark” status on Shark Tank. It is estimated that the CEO is worth approximately $250 million when it comes to his book deals, work at FUBU. The organization has made more than $4 billion in revenue since it was first established.

He has also earned a great deal thanks to his various investments. In fact, John attributes so much of his success to these investments after claiming that he made a massive $20 million mistake early into his success. The entrepreneur claims that he failed to make smart investments with an early $20 million he had to his named and after realizing much of this money was gone, he vowed to start making his money work for him so he could build an empire of his own.

First Venture: Commuter Van Service

Daymond John’s first big venture was a commuter van service, which the entrepreneur started shortly after graduating from high school. John owned his own commuter van and he drove it about 16 hours per day. At the time, the CEO says he was coming home with around $300 a day with his little business. However, it was this business that really opened his eyes into what it takes to run a company. According to John, after doing the math on what running the van was really costing him, he realized that he was working as hard as he was, to earn about $50 per day.

After this realization, he started working at Red Lobster, and actually enjoyed his restaurant job more, finding it to be a better use of his time. According to John “I made maybe a hundred dollars a day, but I know exactly what I got paid for my time and went home stress free.” While he would eventually go back to the world of entrepreneurship, John took a great deal from this experiencing, realizing that return on investment can be misleading. He learned with this situation the importance of understanding what your time is really producing, and used that lesson for his other professional ventures.

His Big Break: FUBU

Today, Daymond John is perhaps most known for his work with his biggest company to date: FUBU. As the CEO and founder of the clothing giant, John has garnered a great deal of respect in the market. The company started when John noticed that wool hats with tops tied with fishing line were becoming popular in the city. He also noticed that these simple hats were being sold for around $20 each in his area. This inspired him to make his own and to start selling them for $10 each in front of the New York Coliseum. This strategy netted him $800 in a single day and helped him come up with the idea for FUBU.

Daymond and his mother mortgaged the home they were living in for $100,000, getting the startup capital needed to begin FUBU. To pay the bills, John continued working at Red Lobster. Finally, when Daymond convinced his former neighbor, LL Cool J to wear one of his shirts in a promotional campaign, the company took off. Now the brand is worth a reported $6 billion.

Daymond John’s Books

With so much success and business savvy to his name, the CEO decided to pen several, now very successful books. To date, the multi-faceted CEO has written three different works, each of them as successful as the last.

Display of Power: How FUBU Changed a World of Fashion, Branding and Lifestyle- Daymond John’s first book discusses the founding and development of FUBU. He also talks about his unlikely rise to the top of the fashion industry. John takes readers through his history and talks about his old neighborhood, his struggles and how he made it to the top of corporate America. In addition to discussing his story, John also talks about what it takes to harness the power that everyone has inside of them in hopes to help others reach their own level of success, just as he did.

The book focuses more on FUBU than any of his other works, as John claims he hopes that he can offer young business owners with a blueprint for success that they can follow in their own futures.

The Brand Within- The Power of Branding From Birth to the Boardroom- Daymond John’s second book focuses much more on business than his first work. The best-selling author focuses on motivating and empowering young entrepreneurs by looking at the loyalty relationships that entrepreneurs, companies and celebrities are able to establish with their customers and fans. Daymond John discusses not only the idea of branding in this book, but what customers have come to expect when they buy into a brand.

The Power of Broke- How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage- Daymond John’s latest book, which debuted in 2016, discusses practicing “the power of broke” something he has been doing since he first started selling home-sewn t-shirts on the streets of Queens. Daymond learned this strategy when he had to think of unique ways to promote his products, since he had no money to do it.

The idea is that starting a business from broke forces you to think more creatively in order to come up with the successful strategies. John promotes this way of thinking in his book and encourages others to adopt a more “broke” approach to starting their own business.

Whether you are reading his books, a fan of his clothing line, or if you are watching him on his show Shark Tank, there is no denying that there is a lot that can be learned from the multi-faceted Daymond John. Today he has proven to be one of the most successful CEOs in the company and one of the most innovative entrepreneurs in the world of fashion today.