How To Go From FAILURE To SUCCESS By Understanding THIS SECRET| Daymond John & Lewis Howes

I knew that they were alive, but they didn't know I was alive. And now she's. Now I love her to death. And I have a new form of love in my life. I never knew how. I was an only child. I never knew the love of a sister and a brother.

Right, you were an only child. Now you have sisters.

No, I have two sisters.

Three years ago.

Yeah. Yeah. We hang out all the time, so.

For almost 40 years, you didn't.

No.

Well, welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got my man Damon John in the house.

Brother.

I think this is the third time you've been on now.

I think so. And, you know, you move.

We've moved, we've upgraded. We're, you know, we're building it up. We're shifting the power. You are, you know, you are creating the power shift.

Like a full staff when I came in here, you know, something like that. I don't know if those are props, but.

Yeah, you never know. Just trying to impress you. I appreciate you, man. It's been a journey for you. I saw you in Greece, I guess, a couple years ago when I was getting married.

You were randomly there in Greece.

Randomly there. I saw you that you had posted something on Instagram. I was like, oh, I'm here. I wonder if you're the same place and we're at the same club or something.

Yeah, yeah, it was fun.

And you also have been through some stuff in the last couple years.

I have. I have. I've been through. Yeah. All my life, I think all of us, everybody watching you too.

Yeah, of course.

We get to see what, you know, what life has for us and doesn't have for us.

But you went through some. Some health stuff in the last couple years.

So I. I went and got an executive physical, which a lot of people don't know what that is, you know, because usually we get physicals and I go to the doctor, he grabs something known as hairy and tells me to turn.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's it. Then I had a little nodule on my thyroid. I went to go and get it removed. It was a one hour surgery, turned to three and a half hours of removing. What I didn't know at the time was stage two cancer. The doctor knew what it was. It was the size of a golf ball. But thank God it was the slowest growing cancer, which is thyroid cancer. But if you don't treat it, it can go to your lymph nodes and then move to your brain. And when they sent that rock that was in my throat. When they sent it away to get tested, it was about two weeks until I would get the actual test. So I had to really negotiate with myself. And I went to. I'm not going to call it a dark place, but reality is that I said to myself, am I prepared to die? And I said, you know, listen, I lived the life of 10 men and women, right? My oldest girls are beautiful. They're old, older now. My 27 and 22 year old, they're great contributors to society. My ex wife raised them really well. My mother let me be selfish. I don't want to see her die, right? So maybe if I die before her by something that was not in my power. I got a young daughter, she's three years old. Guess what? She won't even remember me. You won't remember me. And then my wife, my current wife is super hot. She's going to have another man with no problem after she gets over whatever it is. So I said, let me start. Let me think about unraveling the businesses that I have, spending more time with my kids and really accepting that whether two, five or 10 years, I won't be on the rock no more, right? But then the other negotiation was no. No mother should bury her son. My two oldest girls, I want to still be around to protect them. And maybe I want to have grandkids one day. My littlest baby, she needs to have the best father who loves her the most that can be there for her. And my wife is super hot and I get to go to sleep with a super hot woman every night of my life. And so one week out of the two weeks waiting for the diagnos to come back had passed. But after I decided and I negotiated with myself, what's my why? Why am I doing this? What am I willing to put in to fight this thing? I forgot I even had it. I forgot that.

Really?

Yeah. In the one other week that I was. When they finally, the doctor finally called me and he told me that it was cancerous, but he said, let me come and check your lymph nodes and everything else. I have forgot that I even had cancer. I forgot that was even waiting for the call.

How'd you forget?

I was so focused on resetting my goals and adjusting them. My goals have always been very aggressive. Resetting them, adjusting them, telling the ones that I love how much I love them and understanding that, you know, they loved me and they needed me. And I just started looking at all the best things in my life, the people that I Get to motivate the fact that a little brown boy who's dyslexic from Queens with no money, no nothing came up in the world. And hopefully I can empower the next little brown boy, little brown girl, or anybody of any color, culture, or sexual preference to be not the next day and John, be the next Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or President Barack Obama. If I can do that, then maybe that's what my life was. That's what God put me on this earth for. So it was a power shift. It was a mental power shift that I had to do myself. And I've always done that over the course of many years of my life. But I didn't realize that there was a method to what I was doing. And so when I met a couple of people, it happened in a very short period of time. And they were telling me, I can't get nowhere in life or I don't have money, I have this and that. And I realized the only difference between me, them, or any of us is what we negotiate through life. Right. If we're not born in silver spoon, and how many born with a silver spoon in their mouth? 5%, 2% of the world?

Very few.

2% of the world. So the rest of us have gotten to a level of success or broken the cycle in our families or even just become a better person by purely negotiating with themselves and then with others.

How do we negotiate with our mind to achieve something we've never achieved?

Yeah. So the first thing to achieve is why do you want to achieve it? Like, what is your outcome? Many of us walk into the room, even into the room, we're talking to ourselves, and they're not honest about the outcome. What is the outcome? Are you. Why are you going through the motion? Is it because society has told you that that's what it should be? Or is it that your parents always wanted that from you? Or is it that you have been neglected in some way and you're trying to please a bunch of people that you can't stand? Or is that you want to change the world? Is it that you know that you being healthier is going to be able to be around in your family's life much longer, or you're going to be able to stop some social injustices? Like, what is your why?

First of all, that's the first step. Figure out why you want that thing.

That's the first step. I always use this example, but people always say, well, I want to be a millionaire. What are you going to do when you get a million dollars, what are you going to do with the money? Some people go, I'm just going to keep making money. Well, how are. Okay, you're going to be a millionaire. So if over 65% of the Lotto winners are broke three years after winning lotto, same thing with athletes and football players. Yeah, and football players. Three years out of league, they didn't know their why. The football player knew his why. Or you know, knew his why. Oh, I want to get that ball or run that play. I want to become part of a championship team because I love it or.

Because it makes me fulfilled or it's.

Fun or I love going to the gym. I love. I love the. I love. I'm there for competition. You know, better than I do. Because obviously you are an athlete. But if you don't know your why for a million dollars. Well, when you get the money, you're going to buy a Bugatti. Mm. You're gonna buy 10 cars, and then what? Yeah, but then you just have the Bugatti, right? So now what else you need? Right? Are you gonna buy 10 cars? Are you going to move to Bali and live off $30,000 a year for 10 years? Carve canoes, save the turtles, and invest in some stocks? Because stocks are going to average out 12% every year, and you're going to turn the $600,000 into. Whatever the case. And then when you come back, what.

Are you gonna do?

Yeah, right. Are you gonna buy investment properties and keep doubling down? Many people go through life without their why. And so when they're working at 9 to 5 that. That they're sick of, they're going home and complaining. And I forgot what I was. I was watching a show where a girl was. She was like. She was now living in nature, but she said, I lived in Ireland, and I was fighting every weekend in clubs and bars, and I realized I was working, and I was so miserable. So that was my release, and so I was working to fight because I was so damn miserable with my life. And then she started to find causes that she liked. She stayed the job, but she would go home at night and put some time into causes that she liked. And she got able to get out of that circumstance and move to someplace else. And now she's doing what she loves, but people don't know their why.

Yeah. What's your why right now? You've been doing Shark tank for what, 11 years now?

Is that what it is? 11 years?

Going 12 years, you've been investing in A billion businesses helping entrepreneurs grow. You've got, you know, amazing kids.

Yeah. So my why is, as I said before, first of all, you know, it's to take care of my family and my wife and my youngest daughter. Because my oldest daughters, when they were born, I was poor and all I knew was I gotta go out and make as much money as I can to get these girls in an area where they're more protected, where they can have a good education and have medical and things in case something happens to them. And to break the cycle. In my family of people who were just average people, my mother helped break that cycle by being one of the first to go to college. And me, I'm gonna break that cycle next. But then I said to myself, but the little girl, now that I have the resources available, it's more, how much love can I give her? Because I never had experienced the wanting to come home purely for love. I was just so focused on trying to make money because if I wasn't successful, then like most parents, I'll sleep in a refrigerator box on the street if I have to, to make sure those girls had just one place to live. So that's one of my whys also, you know, I've been on a show for 11 years that has changed the way that people have understood or get to educate themselves on being entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. I'm invested in various companies on these people's, you know, they allowed me to invest in their dreams. So who am I to give up? And also I'm on the Petco board and Petco foundation, you know, saving animals. I want to stop human trafficking. I have much more to do. And if I have a public platform that I can come and sit with you or go on GMA and stuff like that, and I can help change people's perception of whatever the case is, sex, gender, religion, whatever the case is, to make them realize that if I can do it, they can do it, then I'm doing my job.

You know, where do you think you'd be had you not had your two oldest daughters? Do you think you would have been as hungry to go earn, make a, build a business, earn money, grow? Or do you think like, okay, well, I have, I've got enough money for.

Me, I don't know, you know, I, I was worth many millions of dollars by the age of 30 years old. I was absolutely broke and poor and sleeping on the ground at 27, at the ground, in my house.

And how, how old were you when.

You had your daughter, your first daughter, 20, 27, 26.

Got you.

Right. And because of my daughters and my ex wife, I think that they leveled me to some extent because you don't give a 30 year old guy from the hood millions of dollars in the bank at 30 years old. Because I think I would have, I never tried cocaine or any of that stuff, but if I didn't have my girls, I probably would have been a huge supporter of cocaine because it looked like it was fun with the people having it. So I think that they, they governed me in a certain way. Positive way, in a very positive way. And it made me also, it made me also want to live, to leave my daughters a legacy. I wanted them to be proud of their father. So I refrained from doing and having a lot of the temptations that I've seen a lot of people fall short and get caught up in there. Nothing wrong with that. We're all human. Sure, sure. So.

I've interviewed a lot of people and there's one side of the spectrum where the successful entrepreneurs say, you know what Louis, the key to growing your business is going all in on one focus. That's the key. Right? That's what some say, but there's others like yourself who invested in every business in the world, it seems like, and seen lots of them grow and been successful in that way. Do you feel like, is that just like your creative nature where it's like you want to invest, this is your part of your path right now where you want to invest in lots of brands because you did so much in one thing for so long?

No, I think I'm more towards the person here. So when I invest in brands and companies, I invest in them because they're allowing me to be part of their dream, but I'm also learning from them which is in return allowing me to go back to my special skill set and improve it. So I'll give you learning from the.

People you invest in a lot.

I'm constantly learning every single day. So in Power Shift I highlighted my investment bomba socks. Now these guys are the number one soc, the number one investment in Shark Tank history. The only, the only ring who did not get an investment when it did really well, did a billion dollar, they did a billion two sale.

Crazy, right?

Yeah. And good for Jamie were there when. Yeah, I said no. And you know, Jamie ended up becoming a guest shark one time and he said, he said when he came in the tank he was asking too much money. And, but, but I believe that because we tenderized him like that and he Went out and raised money. I think we deserve 5%. But that's just. I'll leave it up to him. Yeah, exactly. But I think that. That I sent him an email every other day saying just 5%. All right, I'm willing to go four and a quarter.

But the socks.

But the socks is the best investment, and it's the number one. It's the number one product in Shark.

Tank history, really, in terms of how.

Much it's grown, how much has grown, and how much is gross. Now, I want to make sure that you want to. Because I know you interview a lot of people. So if you ever interview the underachievers that sit next to me in the tank, I want to make sure that.

You remind them that you're the number one investor.

I am King Kamehameha in the tank. All right. Just make sure it was clear. But give you that example.

What was that deal? What was that deal? And how big has it grown?

They've done over $200 million. I think it's $280 million. More importantly, they're very. So their deal is a sock. And every time you buy a pair of socks, they give a pay away to the homeless because they have a big challenge. And we don't normally talk about the number. It's more important that we've given away 30 million pairs of socks. Right. That's pretty cool. Thank you. Thank you. And it's really Dave and Randy's company, and they've done it all. They've gotten very little to almost no advice because they're so great. But I'm gonna give you an example on the negotiation. They come into the tank. The only shark that doesn't want clothes is somebody who has 10 clothing companies and eight are dead. My reason of being on a tank, besides investing in other people, is to diversify my portfolio. So when I talk to a retailer, I go, well, I'm already taking up real estate in the clothing area. I want real estate in electronics area. I want real estate in lotion. Da, da, da. The last thing I want is socks. Also, I have, I don't know, 20,000 units of socks that I can't sell. You know, when I can't sell socks, I just send people over to people's houses. They steal one, and then you have to buy a pair because you just think you lost it. Right? So I still can't sell it. Plus, if I do the deal, I'm the logo whore. You can't. If anybody in this room or in this building were wearing Bomber socks, you couldn't tell. So how do I get the advertising out of it? But they managed to make me understand that today's generation wants to give every time they purchase instead of at the end of the year. They want impact, they want impact. They don't want to buy from people who are just making money. They want to know, what did you do for somebody else? So that's one thing I learned that I applied to all my businesses because you couldn't do that before social media. You could, but you can't get the.

Word out that much.

And then plus you'd have to advertise off of people's hardships. You wouldn't have self generated content of people saying thank you. So I learned that. I also learned that because the consumer purchased and it was part of a movement, they talk about it at the dinner table, at the water cooler and that's your advertisers. You don't need the traditional form of advertising because people want to brag when they're doing something well. And then last but not least, they were showing me how to sell directly to my consumer and not being at the mercy of a retailer who still doesn't know what they're doing. So they shifted the power in the room to get me to do a deal.

So you weren't interested?

I wasn't interested.

Everyone else was.

Everyone? No, not all. Not everybody else was interested. But I was the last shock to be interesting because I'm too jaded by the fashion industry. Lo and behold, I do the deal and that's what a power shift is. Being able to know your target, know what's beneficial for that person, know where you're willing to draw the line and know, you know, really know how to relate to that person and communicate with them.

What is it that they said that shifted the power inside of your mind and say, okay, I gotta get into this?

Well, they showed me that the technology on socks were really good because they didn't have the toe, the seam in the toe. When me being a manufacturer, I didn't know how they did that at first. It was a simple change. But I used to get irritated and toes when I'm doing that. They then.

But more importantly, you have to put it on a certain way.

Yeah, of course. More importantly, they showed me that the data they received from their consumer was able to give them the ability to keep selling their consumer and keep talking directly to them. And that they no longer were at the mercy of if a retailer makes the best decision or puts your socks out over here or advertises your socks or discounts them or anything else. Right. So they were showing me how to control the business. It's very much like content sending it out and getting to know a dashboard of your consumer. And I learned so much from them, but it was them understanding that. Damon, I'm going to take you out of the old way of you doing business and move you into the new way of doing business. And guess what? If it doesn't work out, we're going to do another business together and we're going to make some money or change the world and more than likely have some fun.

That's cool. Who has taught you the most in the last 11 years of this show?

Them.

Them.

They have. I learn. I learned. You know, I joke about my fellowship, but I definitely learn from them.

Is that just because they pay you the most every month, you get a check every month?

I see the business opportun. I see them being laser focused. I see a lot of things that they do. They have probably taught me the most.

Yeah. Who was someone that you didn't invest in that taught you the most? Whether it be like a good lesson or a lesson, you're like, okay, that's not what. That's what not to do.

Somebody that I didn't.

Or maybe someone inspired you, but you didn't see a right fit for you, and they taught you something.

Listen, I learned. I'm not saying to be warm and fuzzy. I learned from every single one of these entrepreneurs how they operate the business or how they fail. A lot of time when they fail, it confirms theories that I have, because whenever I fail, I look a checklist of all the things and I go, why did I do this? This is not what I do. Why did I not take my own damn advice? I can't name just one of them, tell you the truth, you know, but, you know, I look at entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos and learn and go, as big as you are, you are affecting the world. And you will still be scrappy enough to say, hey, Amazon workers, you want to make a couple extra dollars when you're going home? You can take a package home and you let. Why is that beneficial? Well, first of all, the worker gets to drive home and takes home a package and makes more money. You, you're a worker of Amazon. So Amazon trusts you with the box. And Amazon saves on shipping.

Like takes a package home that you bought for something.

No, meaning just take anything you want. You no, take it and drop it off.

Oh, drop it off. Someone on your Neighborhood.

Yeah, wherever. Hey, hey, I gotta drive two miles. I gotta drive 10 miles. But I looked in the system and seven houses on the way, the 10 miles. Wow. Let me.

Let me make extra money doing that.

You can make extra.

Yeah, that's pretty smart. I'll be picking up whole truckloads and.

It wins for everybody. Right. But when I look at a. When I look at an entrepreneur like Jeff Bezos, who does stuff like that, I go, he's still scrappy. He's still thinking, you know what I mean?

All this money in the bank, but he's still trying to still maximize.

Yeah, yeah, he's still scrappy.

Who's someone that you've been a shark with? Whether it be a consistent shark or someone who's come and gone that maybe you weren't sure about in the beginning, but the power shifted over time where you dated something or you did something to renegotiate the relationship, where you started doing more together, you started to have a respect more for.

You know, nobody's ever asked me that. And I don't think I've ever even told her.

One of the school greatest, you know.

Yeah, that's true. I didn't even tell her, but she's in the book. Bethany. Bethany Frankel. So I had met Bethany with one or two other sharks. I forgot when it was like on backstage at Gmail and I had already seen the show a couple of times and you know, of course they're drinking and cursing at each other and we say hi, and she just like brushes us off and walks by. And I remember saying to myself, I don't really like that woman. I don't get a good feeling from her. So when they casted her to come on as a guest shark, I said at first, listen, I don't want to be on the panel with her because I already have this kind of like, fuck you attitude to her. And it may come off wrong because it'll look like I'm either beating up on a new shark or I'm being too aggressive to a female.

Wow.

By mistake, they scheduled me to be on with her.

By mistake or by.

No, no, no, no. On purpose. No, by mistake. By mistake. They scattered me beyond per. Oh, no, here's what. I'm sorry. We all meet at one place for the shark dinner prior to production. I was like, you know, she seems all right, whatever. And then they scheduled me to be on with her. And when I was on her, brilliant person, like, she wasn't about herself. She really cared about the entrepreneur, which we all Do. But we thought. I thought, I'm not gonna speak for other. That she was gonna come on and be self absorbed and do the reality show thing. From where she's at, she made fun of herself. She was very, you know, she had a humbleness, a humility. And then when we left that set, she went directly to Mexico for the earthquakes and various other things. And she called all her friends and said, if you got a private jet, do me a favor, pack it up. I got supplies and food and whatever the case is. I need these jets for Puerto Rico, for Mexico. And she spent the next month going out and really being there hand to hand and giving people stuff. And I fell in love with her after that. Wow. And she's like somebody that I super admire. Yeah.

Wow, that's cool. Have you guys done deals together or you.

We haven't done a deal together, but. And we're so busy, we can't always catch up. But, you know, she's offered me to stay over at her home in the Hamptons. And my wife loves her and she's just. She's just an amazing individual that I walked in the room at first and I was like, she's an asshole. Yeah.

You wrote her off. And then now you're inspired now.

And now she inspired me. Yeah.

And who is the person who's taught you the most? Whether it be a consistent shark or someone who's come on for a couple episodes?

No single shark has taught me the most because I learned from all of them. They're all really, really. They all are really fascinating in their space. I think Barbara, though, sometimes is the one that can influence me the most because, you know, I love marketing and branding.

Yeah.

But I'm a one trick pony, you know, I'll get it on a celebrity, get it on a famous show, or get it on whatever the case is, and then I'll make inventory. Barbara will come with ideas out of nowhere. Just out. I mean, she pulls it out of the air and they're brilliant ideas and they're not. They're very rarely are they similar. Yeah. They're not a one trick point thing. She's just.

So she'll think of a creative idea for a specific thing and not just say, oh, I've got this celebrity who'd be great every time, or correct.

She is. She just. She's a genius when it comes to that.

Yeah, we had her on.

She was great. Did she touch you?

No comment.

Okay. Yeah. She's a predator. Full. Full predator.

She's a sweet woman.

Her husband Right there. When. And he's usually like this.

No, I think I actually posted that she was on. And I think that was the first thing you texted me.

Yeah, she'll touch. She'll touch it. She's great, though.

I like her a lot. So, power shift.

How did you. What are you laughing about?

I'm just remembering your text to me. I think you added the dad joke.

In there as well.

What I like about this, I went through a lot of this.

You did.

And, yeah. I usually don't read anything.

Oh. But I say, yeah, but I went.

Through a lot of this. And I'm trying to find the bookmark that I had on one of these pages. But what I like is that the end of every chapter, you talk about these kind of, like, little bullet points.

To break things down.

Break things down. And I relate that in this book. Now, you've done a bunch of books in the past.

Yeah.

Why do you need another book?

I think that's a good question. I don't write books to write books. And this is my third one in five years. And me being dyslexic, it is not an easy.

I know the feeling, man.

It's really not easy. I think that a lot of people out there are misinformed. They need information. And I think if you look at some of a lot of your books, my books, and various other people, now, we happen to know each other, but I believe that if you read a vast amount of things and you start to see that all these people don't know each other, but they're all saying something very similar. And if you're applying that to your life, that's how it happened to me. By reading Napoleon Hill, thinking Grow Rich or Greatest Salesman of Babylon or Blue Ocean Strategies, all these. And I started to see these things that come together. It gives you more power to go out and execute. So the reason I wrote this book is because a lot of people came up to me and started saying, I can't take control of my life. Or I've heard people say or act like somebody else is supposed to issue them power, or somebody took power away from them. And I realized that people always thought negotiation. First of all, you're negotiating every minute of your life. You're negotiating to get into the bathroom before your husband and wife or getting your child on the school bus.

Take yourself to the gym.

Yeah, you negotiate. Right? And I realize that people always thought negotiation is purely a transactional. When you get to one, you get to the table. I'm sitting across from you. Right. And it's not. It's about building influence. Then it's transactional. And the transaction needs to be what's in it for the person across the table, not what's in it for you. And then more importantly, it's developing that relationship and letting it grow over the course of time and doing 10, 20, 30, 40 other deals or having 10, 20, 30, 40 Other people telling other people how great you are to do other deals. And people always thought that it was like that influence. Yeah, yeah. So I end up putting it in the book.

The other book I have is marked up. Now I'm remembering the two things I wanted to talk about in here. One is a story about 6X. Now, you don't give yourself enough credit about how creative you are because you said you're a one trick pony. You'll just find a celebrity and put the merch on them and put it on a big show or something. But something you talked about was a story on how when you were getting started out, you started developing 6x T shirts with your logo on the back, which I thought was brilliant because it's the biggest real estate in the club.

Yeah. So what happened was it's amazing. So I guess. And that's a good point. So the story goes that I didn't have a lot of money for shirts and I wanted to get. I grew up in Hollis, Queens, and everybody's from Hollis, Queens. Elo cool J, run DMC, ja rule, 50 cents salt and pepper, Tribe Called Quest, JM. Okay, whatever you call. Well, JLo's not from Queens.

Where is she from?

She's from the Bronx, but a lot of these people from Queens. But if I gave you a shirt, everybody was approaching you. It's just like going up to an influencer. They didn't want the shirt. I didn't want to give it to the kids with the funny mustaches and skateboards because they would just wear it once and throw it away. Right.

But I realized and the big celebrities were probably had.

Oh, they had an entourage around. So what do I have to do? I had to build influence. And how did I do that? Well, I had 50 shirts that I could buy. So I bought 55x and 6x shirts. I realized the big guys never had fashionable clothes to wear because all they had was like big black shirt, big white shirt, or they'd have to pay a massive amount of money to get it custom made. I bought 50 of these shirts. I handed them to all the big guys. I knew where I would see those big guys. Ended up being the guys in front of the red rope at a club. The guys who were the bodyguards for people. The guys who were just big billboards and joyous, right? And they would wear the FUBU stuff ten times a month because they finally felt fashionable. What would happen at that point is after the rappers saw it on these guys for about a year, the rappers would go, yo, what's up, man? Am I shopping? Where's mine? I'm like, I couldn't get to you. You're too big of a star. I ain't trying to bother. No. Because then they would ask the big guy who normally is like the bodyguard, and he. They don't. They don't have nothing to say to them. They'd be like, hey, where'd you get that? Where's that little dude at? And the big guy feel good? I'll see if I get you.

I know, exactly.

Yeah. I'll see if I can get you one. And that is how I started building influence internally, you know, with my customer.

That's smart. Yeah. When I read that, I was like, you're more creative than you think.

No, I get it. But I generally narrow myself down to. I'm a numbers person. And at the end of the day, it was numbers to me. It was like, they'll wear it 10 times. Every one time, somebody else will wear it. There's not many of them. And there are selected number of group around a selected number of people. More about the number.

When I read that story, I was like, okay, who are all the assistants of the most iconic people that I want to know?

Exactly.

Interview.

Exactly.

And what can I send them that will make them be reminded of me? And every time I want to call or say, hey, is, you know, is Oprah ready for the interview? Or whatever, it's like, they might push it in a little.

And I take it even a step further. You know, some of your digital courses, you give to them. You give to a bunch of people. You say you're a part of a select community. I know you're the gatekeeper, but I know that also, if you find value in this stuff, not only am I enriching your life, but sooner or later, you may say to the people that you work for, if it's powerful enough, and say, if you don't say it to them, then guess what? Maybe you'll give me more information on how to make it better for you and give me some real criticism that I can do it. Because you're seeing everything across your plate. Right.

I like that.

Creating a select community.

The power of six acts. I like that story. And then I read. I think it was in the middle of the book and one of the end parts. I think you were doing research from, like, all the top universities that said that you should lead with the offer first.

Yes.

When you're making a negotiation where I've always heard that you want to wait for someone to make the offer, that.

Is a very common.

You think that it's like you never want to show your cards.

Yeah. They say that the first. The one who says the number first is the one that loses and things of that nature. I actually like the negotiation part of laying it on the table. Here's where I'm at with this. Here's what I seek, here's what I want, here's what I want, and here's what value that I could bring to you. And I think it just takes the. It takes the question out of the room.

You know, what if you could have gotten more?

Well, then you could have gotten more. But what if. What if you. What if you say something to someone? Well, we're not even in that ballpark. Right. Right. You can always upsell. You can always say, here's. Here's where I would like to be. And then someone said, and here's what I'm willing to give. And they'd be like, oh, well, we'. We want more than that. I'd be like, okay, but I gave you where I was at. But it cost me more. Right. Cost me more time or energy or product or inventory or whatever the case is, or relationships, you know?

Yeah. Sounded like an online marketer. The upsell word here.

Of course, listen, you know, there's only. What they say, there's only three ways to deal with a customer. Acquire a new one, upsell a current one, or make one buy more frequently. Two or three ways recurring.

Yeah, that's the best way right now. Exactly what's the best negotiation you feel like you did? Not where you gained the most, but where both parties won the most. Now where you're like.

When I negotiated my deal with Bruce and Norman Weitzfeld over at Samsung, I negotiated out of ignorance, but I got the best deal. At first. I was a young kid. I was 19 or 20. They interviewed me. They heard about Fubu. They were interviewing various other people because they were thinking about getting into. They were already in the outerwear space, but they wanted to get into the denim, ready to wear his face. They interviewed a couple of people. Once I got interviewed, they said, we like you we think we may do something with you. I called the guys for six months. They never picked up the phone. This is before cell phones out. I felt insulted, and rightfully so. But also, they were looking at other opportunities. It's not their job to answer my call again after that. But I think they should have said, hey, man, we're not interested. I go to the trade show, the magic trade show in Vegas. They're sitting at a table and one of the big buyers from a store was like, holy shit, is that the Fubu Gu? And he talked to his buddy and they said, you better get those guys right now. All of a sudden, my phone's on fire the next day by these guys. I'm like, hey, motherfucker, remember me? Talk to me before pimp.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. I was hungry at the time.

And that's exactly how you talk too.

I was like, yo, yo, baby boy. So a normal, like, designer deal, I'll call it in fashion is generally like, if I'm gonna put up all the money and all the resources, we're gonna split this thing 25% to you or 30% to you and 70% to me. Because I may have all inventory I gotta get rid of. You don't have any personal guarantees at hand. I gotta deal with all the risk. I'm taking a lot of risk, but you're making clean money. But because they pissed me off so much, I had said, listen, if I come in tomorrow, we better sign a deal. And it better be a real distribution 50, 50 even split deal for the distribution. You guys had all the distribution financ. Then I'll go ahead. And out of ignorance, that became the deal. We've been partners for, you know, 25 years, and we've made massive amount of money. But we always felt aware that we could see eye to eye. And it was just out of that ignorance. But I wouldn't suggest you calling people motherfuckers and all that stuff. Yeah, I would suggest that. But it happened to work in my favor. And. Yeah. And that was the best deal that I've ever received, which helped. Now I had a powerhouse behind me that can manufacture and distribute my clothes. And I created Global brand with all my partners.

That's pretty inspiring.

Yeah.

What do you think is the greatest thing holding you back from the next level of Damon? Achieving your dreams of achieving your success? Results, fulfillment. What's holding you back?

I think time. Because I know that I can do anything and accomplish anything I want. But when will I start a more Aggressive part of that journey, you know? So it's like. It's kind of like, all right, I'm gonna start working out next month. You know what I mean? I know I'm going to be in shape by so forth, but I'm gonna start next month, and then I'll be like, ah, one more month. One more month. Don't get me wrong. I'm still knocking out a lot of other goals.

But then a year goes by, you're like, oh, I said I was gonna do this right.

And then. And then I go. Right. But it's the time of preparation to get me ready. Because once I go, like when I forgot about the cancer, once my mind is shifting, I'm done. There's nothing, nothing that can stop me. So I look at it like that. That's the biggest thing, holding it back. Because it's kind of like you resting up before you run a marathon. And there's so many different marathons in our lives. There's the marathon of health, the marathon of spirituality, relationships, of, am I doing enough to. To stop some of these atrocities out in the world? Because I'm a public person. So a lot of those things are. That's really it. It's the time.

If you could imagine the greatest version of yourself walking towards you. Imagine Damon, perfect version of you, that's literally walking up towards you.

Yeah.

What would that. What would he look like? What would his energy be? When you're looking at yourself, his energy would be.

He would be skinnier. His energy would be great. He would be. He would be kind, but informative, but also stern and. And. And tell you when you're. You know, when. If you ask or be very real with you about advice. You know, I'm. I think I'm. I think I'm living the person that I want to be right now. You know, I'm very happy with who I am. Yeah.

Just gotta start working out a little more.

Start working out a little bit more. Yeah, of course. But I'm getting old. What happens if I blew my shoulder? I got. I gotta go and get some stem cells. Because that's the problem. Right. It creates a vicious.

Take time and you got to heal and you got to recover.

Exactly.

Man. Well, a couple final questions for you, and I think I asked you this last time, but I want to ask it again.

Yeah.

And see, we'll reflect back on and see if it's the same answers or not. This is called the Three Truths.

Yeah.

So imagine it's your last day on earth. Many, many Years from now.

Yeah.

You're 500 years old. You're as old as you want to be. But then eventually you got to go right? And you've accomplished everything. You've seen your kids grow up to do amazing things. You've done amazing things. You've written every book you want to write. The business has been successful. But you've got to take all the content you've created with you to the next place. I got to take everything, the books, this interview, it's gone. Sure, it goes you through the next.

Place you go to.

Right. The next world. But you get to leave behind three things you know to be true from all the lessons you've learned that you would share with the rest of us here on Earth. And this would be the only three things that we have to remember you by are these three lessons for our life. I like to call your three truths. What would you say are yours?

That I would leave with other people. That they have to constantly educate, keep educating themselves. And that education means finance, health, you know, spirituality, Keep learning. Keep learning. Yep. All right. Number two is that they have to steal away time for themselves at any given moment with themselves and with their family. Because you never know when you're going to leave or somebody else is going to leave you.

Yeah.

Number three would probably be just really learn as much as you can to forgive and to love. I think. I think those would be.

Why forgive?

Because people are growing all the time, and you may be. You may be in a situation where you have to forgive somebody who did something, but they didn't know that what they were doing to you or whatever the case is, and. Or you may. You want to be forgiven as well. Right. And how can you have love if you can't forgive? Right. And so whether it's with your family or whether with your friends or something else like that, the harbor and the hate and things of that nature will just eat you alive, I think.

What was the thing that was the hardest for you to forgive in your life?

My father left when I was 10 years old. I never would see or speak to him again. And he came back in my life. Well, he's around about three years ago and. But I'm.

You didn't speak to him until then.

Right. Because my. My sisters who didn't know I was alive found me when I was. So they're 27 years old. She found out that I was. I knew that they were alive, but they didn't know I was alive. And now she's. Now I love her to Death. And I have a new form of love in my life. I never knew how I was. I was an only child. I never knew the love of a sister and a brother.

Right, you were an only child. Now you have a sister.

No, I have two sisters.

This is three years ago.

Yeah. You met them? Yeah, we hang out all the time. So.

For almost 40 years, you didn't.

No. What? Yeah, I forgave my father a long time ago by going. I wouldn't be the man that I would be if he was. If I didn't have to do that.

That wasn't like true forgiveness fully was.

Was, in a sense. I mean, even now, I don't speak to him. I told him, I said there was really nothing for us to really talk about. Like, you knew where I was all that time. But I'm also happy that you are. You raise these two women to be great women. And maybe when you got divorced from my mother, it was just a different time in the world where you were growing up. I mean, it's just what had happened. Right. My mother also has lived a really great life with. You know, and she. So she wasn't suffering per se. I mean, of course we suffered economically, but it was really about just not harboring something. If I see him, I don't have any ill will. Yeah. I don't have any ill will.

You don't need to hang out with him.

I don't need to hang out with him. Yeah. And I think that. That forgiveness is something that everybody should get to understand. Yeah.

When did you feel like you were able to finally forgive and let go of that kind of anger or frustration towards him?

How old were you towards him? Well, that happened once I became. No, no, I forgave him. Probably about. Probably about when I was 25. I didn't have anything at the moment. Still no money or nothing. But I realized that I still had all this opportunity in my life and that. That's just what it was. People come, people go. You know what I mean? I held nothing against him in that case, you know, I could have found. I. I could have. I could have hired a detective and found him for the last 20 years very easily.

You chose not to.

I chose not to. I mean, he made a conscious decision to do that. Whatever led him to that decision was up to him. I have, you know, I. You know, and that's. That's one thing to think about with powership. You know, whatever. Whatever the case is, whatever circumstance you're in, if you're watching right now, that's a circumstance. You know, listen, I was born. I was born black and dyslexic. Neither one of those are going to change. Right? So let me get over it and do what I got to do. So when you're making excuses that dad left or I got left back in school or I didn't have any money or I'm black or I'm short or I'm a woman or I'm. I'm lgbt, it is what it is, right? So now you got to move forward. And now you have to, first of all, negotiate with yourself and understand why are you worth something and why are you special? Because every one of us are. And then how are you going to share that with other people, make them go buck? I want you in my life because we're gonna make some money, we're gonna have some fun, or we're going to grow a great family together, make an impact.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's what it is.

I love this, man. That's a great story.

Yeah. You know what? I never told anybody publicly.

That's a powerful story. Thank you for sharing. Make sure you guys get this book. I got one question left for you, but make sure you guys get Power Shift. Powerful book. I truly don't read many books, but I went through this. Went through a lot of it. Didn't finish all of it, but I went through a lot of it. And I really like stories. Really like the stories. Really like the lessons. Simple, too. You know, dyslexic guys like us, we need to make simple things into the world. You can't complicate.

I can't concentrate on the overly super scientifical technical books.

That's it. Transform any situation, close any deal and achieve any outcome by Daymond John. Make sure you check it out. You can get anywhere books are sold. Is there also a link online? We can get this or with any.

Other resources, Amazon, all that stuff. Yeah. I mean, everywhere. And where there's gonna be audiobook, too. Just so for the people like you and I who.

Yeah. You reading it?

Yeah, the audiobook.

It's hard. Are you reading out loud?

No, no, no. This is my third audiobook. And Sway, he reads all my books. I come. Yeah, exactly. I mean, this guy is a legendary broadcaster, but I'm sprinkled throughout the book. So the first. You'll always hear me say, listen, here's the first chapter. By the way, the reason I'm not reading it is because you would be here for nine weeks.

It took me like six days, even though I wrote it over and over.

It is painful, man. It is challenging.

That's great, man. Well, I acknowledge you, Damon, for constantly showing up, for making the decision to choose love, choose forgiveness, choose life, even when the situation with the cancer was a little scary. For choosing your family, for just constantly showing up with a big heart, man.

I try, man.

And I acknowledge you for your dad jokes as well. The final question. What's your definition of greatness?

Oh, the definition of greatness is, I think, knowing that you had challenged yourself and you've gotten to wherever you are in life and you left nothing on the field, and that you accepted who you are. And sometimes, unfortunately, you could be ugly and you may have foul intentions and stuff. I can't. I'm not here to want to give you a moral code. I just want you to be the best or the worst, unfortunately, that you want to be, because you're the only one that has a blueprint for yourself, and you're the only one who's going to have to look yourself in the face when you're. When your time comes, Sam.