Daymond John: This Simple Mentorship System Built Billion-Dollar Empires

I always tell every entrepreneur, I say, here's what you're signing up for. You have to be the first to work, the last to leave. Thank everybody for your success, blame one person for your failure. You walk on water. But that's. As entrepreneurs, that's what we are. We're seen as these people that we can't tell any problems to, and we have everything at risk. People think often that the motivation of why somebody's doing a job is the same reason we're doing it. No, it's not. But we too often don't ask what is the driving force of that person working for us.

Good to be doing this. This is. We've done a few interviews. And what is the latest in your world? Like, how do you keep up with all this crazy stuff?

You're asking about my world? Because everybody's been asking me about Mark Cuban.

This week we'll come to Mark Cuban. You're more important right now than Mark Cuban.

Well, I came out here to serve my lovely doctor who gives me the ibu, who has helped me, changed my life on this course. Where's Dave Asprey? Is Dave Asprey here?

Dave's over here somewhere. Right there.

Hey, I don't see him.

Dave, stand up. Oh, he's not.

There you go. And wanted to come out here, just hang out with a bunch of great people such as you and thank you, Dave, and everybody else. That's what's going on. I'm. I'm kind of finishing off the year and just thinking about all the things we have to deal with. Do we bring people back to work? How many people do we bring back to work in one sense? Am I still working virtual? How to access a lot of AI? I gotta tell you something, though. I was fully remote for many years. And if you have common sense in this country, you're gonna be okay. Cause many people working today and either coming up or not, I think because we're so attached.

Yeah.

I met some of the dumbest motherfuckers I've ever met in my goddamn life in the last two years.

I would agree. Or some there already were. You just didn't realize to what extent.

What'S wrong with these people. Yeah, it just takes a second to Google it or ask yourself why. Why is this happening? It doesn't have to be that complicated. And I barely finished high school. I mean, the thing that I did in education is notable is I like the seventh grade so much, I took it twice. But if I can figure this shit out, why can't you what's wrong with people today?

That's a good question. What do you think it is?

You know, I think the youth, if you really think about the new kids getting into the workspace, they were in college during COVID so they don't even know how to function around people. And I think that, I think what we're seeing is I have mastermind. Embarrassing. We can get into that later. When we were in our Mastermind, I had 100 people and I said, how many people in here working remotely is doing well? 95% of them said they either had to let go most of their staff or retrain them because they couldn't work remotely. But us as leaders, we sit there and say stuff like, man, it's me, I'm not a good manager. I'm not finding enough people. Because as a leader, what you do is you take the pain and all that, you put it on yourself. And I'm realizing that's just not what it is. You know, if I'm on a Zoom with 20 people, half those people want to get off. They don't want to ask questions, they don't want to interrupt anybody. But if I'm in a room of 20 people and we're having a meeting, I can see the way your body language acts. I may say when I leave the room, hey, Joe, what's going on? I don't really want to work with Tom too much because every time I work with him, you know, I gotta do this. Alright, well, we'll figure that out.

Yeah, right.

Or I got a question. But, you know, after you come from lunch, I'm gonna pop by really quick and ask you that if you have 100 people in your organization having 50 of those conversations a day, but now all of a sudden on Zoom, I can't tell that body language. And then you get off, you go walk your dog, you don't think about what's going on. Three weeks later, I find out that you had an issue.

Yeah.

And that's where all of our. It's the leakage, you know, and it's just. It's a fascinating time.

Well, I mean, even with, you know, just a few months after Chat GPT came out last year, there was, you know, I remember watching the first video on X used to be Twitter about job resumes, where the AI. Well, as you're doing a job interview in real time and it's telling you how to respond to it, I don't even want to interview people anymore on Zoom for positions or whatever because there's something about being with a real person and going to the socialization of it with growing up. I used to go out on a Saturday when I lived in this town when I was 10 years old, Alpine, Texas, with a BB gun. And I would walk out miles away from my house, no cell phone, nothing. Just be out in nature then, you know.

10 years old.

10 years old. Yeah. You know, it's also interesting too, in that same school, we used to walk through the halls to go to a shooting class carrying.22 rifles. And kids were not shooting each other back then. I think it's because of all the prescription drugs. It's because of all the trauma and stuff, you know, because you can get into the gun argument and blame it on guns, but there's a mental health crisis and I think it's a disconnection, it's a connection thing. And even shopping. I miss the days where you just go and talk to people and everything's not so damn automated because that's how you develop socialization skills is you go and talk to other human beings. And the more that you try to make everything about technology, you can create all kinds of incredible tech efficiencies in optimization, but what it's doing to the human mind and the ability to connect. So I guess I will ask you a question of, you know, you navigate a tremendous amount of relationships. You're on Shark Tank. There are people that are constantly pitching you fund my deal, fund my deal, believe my thing, endorse my stuff. How do you know? What are some suggestions you can give on just navigating being a connected human and what to say yes to and what to say no to. Who do you align yourself with stuff like that. I'd love to get your like the Daymond John rules of engagement and how you go about just developing relationships with people that you want to and how you nicely say no to the ones you don't.

Yeah, that's a great question. I don't think I've been asked that before, but you know, I kind of reevaluate my time action inventory every quarter and see how many. And my days ran on half an hour slots. I at the end of the year, it's around this time of the year and I find I started doing this about 10 years ago. I realized who I'm going to cut off in my life every year. And it can be for various reasons. Maybe I don't like them, they don't like me. But I realize when I'm not a person who's of service to These people, then there's a reason why I don't want to be of service. And also, I also realize a lot of these people who are not good friends to themselves, they'll never be good friends to me. And I need to make time and opportunity for those who maybe I have neglected or deserve my love when I deserve theirs. So I started doing that about 10 years ago, and it started off with about 10 people, and now it got down to like one or two, right? Because I pretty much cleared that out of the deck in regards to investments. You know, when I say no, I say no in various reasons. You know, there are people I have, obviously, services and places to go for those things, but I generally say, if it's a young startup, I go, you don't want an investment? You want the power broke? You want to learn this? Oh, I want to sit with you, Mr. John. I want to sit with you. Go read a book. Not even by me. Go read it by Tim Ferriss or Lean Startup or any of this type of stuff. When it gets to people who are much bigger in business, often I say, you know, I would say something in the nature of I'm not spending enough time on my own businesses. And I always got to put it back on them, on how, you know, how it is. Because people think that they're the only ones with the issue. And you're not the one with the issue. No. I'm 55 years old. I just. I just beat cancer. I have two girls that I really didn't get to see them grow up because I was running around the world like anybody else here who would, you know, even if I was one of these great people cleaning up the streets, sanitation, who was saving us from diseases, even if I was doing that, I'd be working overtime because every single parent here knows that they would sleep in a refrigerator box for their two little girls to have medicine and education. So I didn't get to see them grow up. And I'm not gonna fuck that up with the young one that I have now. So why would I give you more time? And they understand, or they say, well, introduce me to Cuban. And I say, no, I can't, because the reason I'm sitting next to him is so I can get some fucking money from him. So, you know, you always gotta throw it back on them.

Right, right. That's good. Well, and by the way, let me say to my team, I need a timer up here, so I know how much time me and Damon have. It says zero right now. So a little Backstage thing going on here, so please do that. You mentioned Cuban. So what's going on with that dude?

Yeah, you know, I talked to him over text, but he's. I believe he sold majority of the ownership of the team. He took 3.5 billion, I think, off the table. He says he's leaving Shark Tank, but it's only after the next season or even the season after. But, you know, people only read headlines. He's leaving it right now. But, you know, it's interesting because I learned a lesson. You know, I was sitting there with him maybe 10 years ago, and I went to the game and he said, come to the game. And I sat next to him at the game and he was curled over screaming at the ref. And I said, you have a cash call about 20 or 30 million a year to have an ulcer. He's miserable. I'll never sit next to him. I said, that's the stupidest thing that I. You know, I was like, why do you pay that much money to be that upset? Yeah. You know, but listen, he bought the team for around 280 million, took, you know, a big chunk of it for 3.5 billion. Hey, he's smarter than me. I guess that's why.

Well, I guess that depends, though. I talked earlier, you know, this morning when I opened up, about success and having money. You know, the how you get it versus what you get are two different things. And I know some really incredibly successful, happier, more connected humans that also contribute to a lot of people, because there's. I get really annoyed when I see people posting in some celebratory way that you can make all kinds of money with not having to produce a lot of stuff or not having to reach a lot of people. You can make. It's like, well, okay, so you have enough money. I have enough money that if we wanted to just go on vacation and do nothing in the world, we can do that. I don't need to work for a living at this point unless I do something really stupid with the money that I have, I have no debt. I can live quite well. I don't have to be having genius recovery. I don't have to run genius network. But I'm driven. It's like the guy that wrote the book Driven, Dr. Doug Brackman sitting back here. So you got these driven entrepreneurs that have to do stuff, but you can make a lot of money and leave a shit ton of scorched earth along the way, or you can be a more contributing person. I know a lot of very wealthy people. That will not have many people, if any show up at their funerals, if they die, because they're just miserable, mean people. So, Kevin o'. Leary. Yeah, Kevin o'. Leary. So speak to that. I mean, like, what. Here's what I would say. You take a hunter. So a hunter or a farmer, you know, Doug Brackman stuff here. There's 5% of the population, approximately, he says, are hunters. They have the D2, D4 gene. It's a genetic mutation. And then there's the farmers. So the vast majority of people that go to mastermind groups, type a quick start, Colby, add all the labels and all the different ways you can look at the driven entrepreneur. They're tribal, so that's why they join groups, they come, that sort of stuff. A hunter without good boundaries is a tyrant. They're the people that are doing real.

Damage in the world.

But a hunter with ethics and with compassion and with empathy, not that they can't be intense, not that they can't, but there's a certain level of. Of care and awareness of what it is they do. And when that awareness is not there, you're talking about a ticking time bomb. So when you said, you see Mark Cuban, really, like, he got all this money, like, lighting the fuck up or whatever, whatever the thing is, there's stages, though. And so how do you keep yourself in check? Because you have a lot of energy coming at you all the time. I mean, I've been around you enough where a lot of people are trying to get.

Yeah, you know what? I think that obviously there's way more people super overqualified in this room to answer that. So I think why? And they can answer from a technical or scientific aspect. I think I'm the best one to answer that, in a sense, because I've lived this weird life, right, of coming from the hood, being the only African American on television in an educational way that doesn't come from music, sports or politics, which is absolutely disgusting. Right? But I am a form of the American dream. And I am in a room full of highly educated people, often. And many of those PhDs or CEOs or billionaires come to me for advice because they want to look at things through a simple lens. So as I rehack myself and what I do, I always think is what is my latest outcome and what am I doing it for? Going down to that deep, probably here, but that deep. Why? Because what I've learned in life is when I see people succeed, it's three very specific pillars. It's knowing their why. You know, setting the goals to accomplish and doing the homework. But a lot of us have not really dug into the why. The why often is what my parents thought success was or what I'm afraid of what society's gonna think of. So think of me. So if you set those different whys like that, well then your goal is going to be the wrong goal because it's coming from the wrong place. And then how are you going to do the proper homework on the wrong goal for the wrong why? And it's really an animalistic thing. I've had to, you know, my first divorce, I had to face it. I've seen so many people go through this. Well, we're just staying together so the kids will be happy. The kids see the, see the pain and you're just prolonging the inevitable. Right. No matter how much you love your wife or husband, but you may not get along this way. Right. So I've always been a person to just immediately after I thought about it, just immediately make the decision, live by the decisions that I made. So that's really it. So I look at today, if I look at my why like today, what are the three things I'm really doing? I love, I love the children's education book. And going into that space, I want to be the new Mr. Rogers in the space because our kids don't have any more national heroes. After five years old they're online and all they have are Instagram families telling them to do shit or various other things. They don't grow up like we did when we had a lecture company, Mr. Rogers, the Muppets and various other things. And I want to teach them financial intelligence.

Is this why you're wearing a sweater?

No. Why?

Mr. Roger.

Mr. Roger?

No, but I, I mean, you're getting closer.

No, no, when I was, you know, I had the top hat on. But when I, when, when I do that. Because what's happening, happening right now in our country? Well, we're working off of an 80 year old school system that taught us how to build ships and become good employees. But a kid today who is not taught any financial intelligence or wellness between, you know, 6 to 10 years old. Well, the data is that the kids graduating today, 50% of them will have a will retire with a job title that doesn't actually exist today. That's like telling somebody 20 years ago you were going to be a drone operator or a pay per click expert. Right? So if a kid doesn't have any financial intelligence, but at 16 to 17 years old, they get marketed by predatory lenders for a career they're not sure they want to have. And they can take 700 to $800,000 worth of student debt that they won't pay off until their 50s. Well, then we're all fucked, right? Because if you don't have money, what happens? I mean, I'm in a room full of some of the healthiest people in the world, body hackers and stuff like that. But the cheapest things to consume in this country are made of butter, sugar and salt. And that's why we have gang violence. That's why we have domestic issues because of the lack of money. And it all starts from not teaching our children, you know, how to do this. And so that's one of my journeys. And so when I look at it, then I look at my old picture, what am I going to do? How am I going to cut up my life? 20% with that, 20% with this, 20% with this, and 20% with this. And I start moving forward, set goals, and I readjust.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you, if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joe'sfreebook.com and you can get a copy there. Yeah, yeah. Well, you've put a lot. So I think we went and hiked Camelback Mountain in 2014 of that video. And you've put a lot of emphasis on health and getting yourself in better shape since then. So what do you do? What's sort of like the way you treat exercise and diet and stuff? Because I know you.

Yeah, well, it's everything. Well, it's of course, going doctor on to get EBU to pull the, you know, pull the inflammation on my body.

I work with EBOO is ozone Dialysis. Cherie.

Actually, she is amazing. I, I'm, I'm telling you. And you know what's more amazing about her is that my wife doesn't travel a lot. And I think the machine she has is only like 25 of them in the country. I believe she has two of them. She said, no problem. She called the manufacturer and said, where else have you sold a machine? And then didn't know the person and called that doctor and said, I want you to check this person out. So when you're a person of giving, you said that a long time ago. When I first started getting into the public space, I reached out to. And I know his daughter's here. I reached out to my favorite person, Jay Abraham, to mentor me. And Joe and Jay both said, said, you just gotta give, give, give, give, give. You're gonna do it anyway, but give and keep giving. Because one day, I mean, we're all one tweet away from a crack house. So he said, they're gonna get us, every one of us, right? So one day, when they come for you, you will have enough brand and IP equity. And he said, but when you give and you are a service just like we are to our everyday clients, people want to give more. Good people don't like going, give me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. They like going, what can I do? What can I do for you? Come on, what can I. Is that why I'm here for free? That's why I'm here for free?

I think so.

Because you're my man. I don't even think about it anymore. Not that we wouldn't work something out, but again, down the road, where were we?

No, here's oh, my body. And so, yeah, health and fitness and stuff. And I have a follow up.

So I've been. So listen, so we are in such an advanced stage, the way medicine is moving. So whether it's this thing called a pernuvo machine where it went and scanned my whole body, no radiation. I'm heading over to Italy. What do they find in there? They find a little bump. It's called a baker's cyst. I don't know what this is. One of the doctors say, but it said something about baker's or potentially aneurysm. Now, of course, I'm going to Italy.

You sure it's not Kevin o' Leary that somehow embedded himself in your leg?

No, he's more pain in my neck.

But.

I go and get it checked out, and now it was nothing, right? But I have that right. I go to Gary, break stem cell exosomes, all these things, but it is rejuvenating my life. And you know what? Talking about goal setting, I was goal setting and I keep goal setting. I learned it from, obviously, Napoleon Hill, think and grow rich. We all know what we should do, but we don't want to do it right a lot of times. And I wasn't dropping the weight. Even when I was going up with you on that mountain, I wasn't dropping the weight until you know what I realized I literally just had to stop drinking. It was in my face all the Time. But people in this room, just like you and I, when we are traveling the world, I'm on the road 250 days, right? You don't get any release. You can't. I've seen the world 10 times prior to that, when I was 35. And it was always a boardroom, an airport, you know, a hotel and a bar. Because you can't work out. You can't. We can't shut our minds off. So what is the natural boom, right? We do this right, because you can work out, no problem. But on those. Those hours, you can. And you have to have two dinners with clients you can't stand. So you gotta drink to be numb, right? You have to. And then when you finally catch up with some friends, you wanna drink. Cause you're fucking happy, right? So. But I realized that. And when I changed my goals from, you know, just moving that piece out of my goals, I dropped 40 pounds, naturally, in six months. No nutritionist, no chef. So it really is about goal setting and really being honest with what you want. Sometimes when you're honest with it, it's gonna hurt other people, end of the day.

Oh. I mean, we live in a world of food pushing, alcohol pushing. I mean, it's just. It's just so.

Well, what would this country be if they didn't have alcohol? Think about the hotels, the bars, all the places. Think about. You gotta follow the money. Yeah, but it is, you know, we all know it's not good.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, so let me ask you. So. And by the way, we'll do two questions for Damon, Only two. And so if you got a very valuable question that would be useful for everyone, then think about it and raise your hand, and then we'll get you a mic. So what were. I mean, at this point, you have sold billions of dollars worth of stuff from, you know, your clothing brand to everything. How many deals have you invested in Shark Tank now?

I think I've invested in 112.

112. So what do you look for where it's a. Hell, yes. When. If you hear something or see something, what are some of the elements to know that this is something worth investing in?

I learned, you know, the first maybe five seasons, six seasons, I was really in everything I've invested. I'm excited about. The hardest thing on Shark Tank often is to say no. Because so many great people have made it through so many stages to get there. I mean, there's some people that are just like, I get the hell out of here. But most people and I Used to get really excited about the product and all this stuff. And I still do. It is purely the person. Most of the. You know, because if you look at all my investments, let's say out of 112, let's say I'm 90 left, I put them in buckets, three buckets, right. One third of them are the walking dead, you know, nothing to do. Right. I'm not gonna call them, ask them for the money. I'm gonna. Within three years, I'm gonna do a write off and whatever it is, another third of them, superstars, they're rock stars. If I call, I'm gonna interrupt the business. Call me when you need me for me to do some of the heavy lifting. Right. And then the one third is right in the middle. But I really looked at the founders period, and the same as we were talking about communication, Chris Sacca will say that all the biggest deals were never done in San Fran. He had 12 meetings a day. They always want something. Somebody went up to his house and they got to hang out for a while. And almost all my deals that I find value and I'm excited about is because I like the person. And we keep. It's like Christmas every time we talk. It's like when you and I talk, we don't want to talk because we got too much work to do after that. Oh, shit. I just told Joel I was going to do this, this. And you get excited about it, right? And it's always been the person. Because that deal will shift, that business will grow, or we'll just start another one. But it's always been the person.

Yeah, I want to emphasize this too, because I'm going to do an interview with Rick Sapio also, which I don't know if Rick's here yet, but is he? Because I think he was sitting over there, I saw his name tag. But anyway, he's invested in quite a few businesses. And basically I asked him the same thing when I was with JJ Virgin at her event that she did at the same hotel a few months ago. And he said, it's always the person. And I'll ask Rick so he can even add to what you're saying here about this.

But.

You then have dissolved this whole belief then when people say, oh, I could have invented that, someone came up with this idea. But I had that idea. It's not that, it's the person though.

No, it's bullshit, right? Because first of all, look, I went on the Shark Tank because the last thing I wanted to do was get pitched on the clothing company, it was 08. Nobody was buying clothing when they couldn't, you know, they couldn't make, you know, sell, pay their mortgage, right? And Jay Abraham has always said that there's only three ways to deal with a customer, right? You acquire a new one, you upsell a current one, or you make one. Buy more frequently. So try to supersize everybody's fries, right? And I was sitting there saying, well, what is my skill set? Taking inventory. Am I a great designer? No, there's nothing great about putting a big ass 05 wanted sweatshirt. There's no great design in that, right? I'm a great marketer, but now I have the pipes, I have Samsung, and I have distribution. So I'm going to go to Macy's and say to the buyer, listen, I got 10 clothing lines. Eight of them are dead. But because, you know, I'm authorized vendor, I'll take back goods, I'll support marketing, whatever the case is, right? I want more real estate. I want electronics, I want cosmetics, I want dishware or whatever the case is. I'm only getting pitched. Clothing company. I go on Shark Tank, and the only thing I don't want is clothing companies. Guess what happens? I do Bomba socks. They'll do $1.4 billion this year, right? I couldn't even sell my own socks. The way that I sold socks is when you're sleeping, I sneak into your laundry room and steal one so you can go buy another pair. That's the only way that I know how to sell socks. But these guys go out there and sell socks and do $1.4 billion. By the way, I'm the number one. I have the number one company ever invested in our Shark tank. So when you see those other underachievers I call my fellow sharks, you remind them of that bomb. The socks, though. That's what I. So, you know. So the bottom line is it was the people because. And let me tell you something. When they called me, I called them first after they do the deal. Great socks, guys. Let me tell you something. First of all, giving back. Absolutely. To the homeless, 100% what you do. All right, all right. I want to create some Flavor Flav socks. And I had all these brands, and they were like, no. I was like, why? Narrow and deep. So what would they do? They would do Sesame Street. Why? Because daddies and daughters can't dress the same. But now all of a sudden, my little girls come to my room going, daddy, put on your Elmo socks, right? My daughter and I and my Kids and I are like, oh, man, we're buying for today because we've given away to these people in Eden. We're going to buy these for Christmas gifts and tell other people, people that are giving to the people in need. So they changed my entire way of thinking. And it was because purely they were great operators, but we got to know each other and like each other, period.

Very cool. Very cool. So everyone here has their business that has their ambitions. They want to build and grow it. There's certain levels of the person in this room will endure more risk, more pain, more navigation. There's incredible resourcefulness in here, and there's a lot of. In the midst of all that, there's a lot of angst. There's a lot of navigating things that they don't know how to do, and a lot of decisions you have to make with very. Either fractured focus or just not having a lot of information. So I'd love to, you know, if you were to advise everyone here on decision making in things that you have learned that were fundamental in building and growing not only your own business, your first business, but you're now in the position all the time where you're having to guide and direct people that you can't learn everything about their business. So there's some fundamentals that are. That you have learned and that you employ that have helped you build and grow. So I'd love to have you speak about that. And as the business advice that I'm going to ask you about as the person like, you know, how do you. This fame, how do you deploy? I'll ask you some of the things you're doing, but, like, how do you deploy this fame and this leverage? Because you've now got Daymond John, the investor, the guy that looks at businesses and helps build them. Then you have the brand of Daymond John. So you've got these in. A lot of people in the room here have those two things. They have their life, and then they have this Persona that what the world views them as.

Yeah, I look at growing the business as the business. The biggest mistakes I made is actually when I had money, because I didn't trust my ego. I didn't trust my gut, and my ego got in the way. And I would think that that's why I wrote the Power of Broke is because I always say, well, the person looks good, or I can make a lot of money, or I'm Damon John or I should do this. And I made the decision because of. Purely because the ego didn't trust my gut. And out of all those, If I did 10 of those things, eight, eight of them I lost on. And the two that I didn't lose on, I'll go, thank God, I'm out of it. So it's just, you know, you can't necessarily articulate what your gut is saying. But it's not up to anybody else. It's really up to you and trusting your gut. I've also learned that prior to doing any kind of business or going anywhere, the biggest amount of investment is the time and education in it. Prior on, what do you want to do? What part of it do you want to do? What will you need? What don't what? Basically a SWOT analysis, right? But being really honest with yourself about the people. Next step is anybody that I bring in or meet, we date, you know, 30, 60, 90 days. Even when you bring in new employees or team members, you have that oddness. If you don't say, hey, I'm bringing you in, we're going to start doing business. 90 days, period. If they feel that they are not stepping up, they'll quit before that. If not, you will have that time where you sit down, you redefine the relationship in whatever capacity you want to. Also, the way that I hire people, if I try to do this, I say, this is your job and it's three pillars. The next one is you jump in where you feel you can add value. If you can't add value, don't worry about it. And if you do both of those really good, then we will do something together. Because there's so many a type personality people I do. You know, Batman always needs Robin, right? But the good Robins out there, they don't feel that they're being rewarded. And sometimes reward is acknowledgement. But more than likely, they, they want whatever they want out of life is you find that they'll be stolen or they'll become your competitor, right? And then last thing is, what is in it for the person you're serving, meaning a team member? Because I'll give you an example. I had somebody who was a great salesperson for many years at another job. I brought him over and I was offered. It was her. And I was offering her more and more money. She wasn't closing deals. And I was wondering why. And I realized the basic thing she loves to do is her little brother, who lived in Thailand, was old enough, 15 or 18 years old that she wanted to travel with him. And that was a great incentive. So I said, listen, I'm connected around the world with hotels. But I'll give you a little more time off. I will give you these credits to help you fly with him places. And her sales tripled because the motivation people all believe. People think often that the motivation of why somebody's doing a job is the same reason we're doing it. No, it's not. You may be doing a job because it's your bridge between this and becoming a doctor. You may be doing a job you want to get out of the house. You want to feel of value. You may do a job because of money. You may be doing a good job because you want to get paid to understand this business in the future. But we too often don't ask what is the driving force of that person working for us?

Right? So, okay, let's talk about your. You have built this brand of Daymond John. So you're. Now you're really in. People watch Shark Tank in a lot of ways. Voyeuristic mentorship in a lot of ways. There's also. Which I think. And I say this, I don't think it's a good thing. There's a lot of people that are fetishizing entrepreneurship or they're like, be an entrepreneur. Be an entrepreneur. Not everyone's built to be an entrepreneur.

Not at all.

You know, and so you have a lot of people that have the fantasy of, I wish I could do this, I wish I could do that. But they're not built for it, or they don't learn the skills or whatever. Whatever.

Whatever the skill. But I will tell every entrepreneur, I say, here's what you're signing up for. You know, you have to be the first at work, the last leave. Thank everybody for your success. Blame one person for your failure. You walk on water. You can't tell anybody your problems, because imagine an employee coming in, seeing you, and you're like, well, the good ones are gonna leave. It's the people like Chauncey who doesn't quit. The bad ones never quit. Right.

Yeah.

You have financial stress at home. You never take money off the damn table. I know. You know how many people I know who say, I'm the richest, poorest person in the room? I got an $800 million business. I even found out in the newspaper that Robert sold his LaFerrari. Now, he has 80 cars, but he sold it to make payroll about three years ago. Now, he just exited and sold a small piece of his company for like, 800 million. But that's. As entrepreneurs, that's what we are. We're seen as these people that we can't tell any problems to, and we have everything at risk and all. Often we will go through a business and the bell curve of the business happens here, and you realize you didn't exit at the right time and all of that shit. Everybody else got paid but you. Yeah. In the first three years of my business was booming. The person who made the most money, a guy named Johnny Wong, guy out of Hong Kong, he's like, listen, I'll make a jean for you. You know, he'll source it. He said, I'll take a dollar per jean. I don't care if you make the jean for $7 or 90. A dollar dollar per gene. Three years in, we sold 30 million jeans. I'm sitting there putting the money back into the business, worrying about warehousing staff, everything else. He's got $30 million in Hong Kong, chilling. I ain't seen him since that was 2001.

That is hysterical. Yeah. Okay, so that's entrepreneurship. Exactly, exactly. So who do you look for in mentors? Like, what do you look for? And what advice would you have? Because that's kind of what, what you. You do.

I look for mentors. I look for. I look for in very different places, you know, and so I will look at a doctor for a mentor. I will look at people who are body hacking all day. People like you, who. I don't know. I don't know what other weird shit you're on. Payo with you. What the fuck are you doing? But I look at a lot of other people. I look at my kids, you know, some of my best investments, I beat. I beat the streets on Kramer three years in a row. And people said, well, how did you call those? Well, I'm not a professional stock person or an advisor, but when I would walk in my room, I'd walk in my daughter's room and she's watching TV on her. On her iPad. She's shopping, zooming, or doing something with her boyfriend and her homework and lying to me all at the same time. And instead of going, what are you doing? I was like, what are you doing? So I got into some of the best products and. Or things just by asking them. Reverse mentorship. So that's what happened. I always find I always learn from everybody I'm in the room room with.

Yeah. So talk about your children's book and what we can do to help you with that.

The children's book is Little Damon Learns to Earn. At any given time, you know, just recommend it to people. But you know, read it yourself, you know, because a lot of people, their eyes glaze over when they talk about investing, and I understand. But when you understand financial intelligence, pretty simple. You know, I'm not up here to sell books or anything like that. I just want people to know about it. Because, honestly, the reason why I'm doing it is that it has been New York Times bestseller, got into schools, and I want other celebrities, known people to do the same thing and come up with other books like that. And now that I've broken that door open a little bit, let the smarter people, the educators do it, because I'm sure there's a million books like that. They just didn't have a public stage to push it out so we can break that system in this country and teach our kids how to have financial intelligence at an early age. You don't teach a child how to be an athlete at 19 years old and put them right on the field, or her on the field. You don't teach them how to play an instrument at 19 years old and put her right on the orchestra. You teach them at 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And the data is, if you want to be selfish about it, is, you know, the data is our kids will take care of us two times longer than we took care of them. So if you don't want to be standing outside of Piggly Wiggly in a shitty diaper, you better teach your kids some financial intelligence.

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