5 Things I Learned From Daymond John About Taking Chances

Original Shark Tank investor Daymond John is a successful entrepreneur in the entertainment space, but he’s probably best known for launching the game-changing fashion brand FUBU. I sat down with Daymond to hear about how he made it big, and he shared a few amazing tips about taking chances and chasing dreams.

1. Motivation has to be about more than money.

“The people that I’ve always met that have been really successful entrepreneurs…it is money, but they still love the kill. They still love the game. They still love the way that their mind works, you know what I mean? I don’t care if you’re a professional gambler—money is the outcome, but they still love the chase, the game, the way they break things down, the way they see opportunity,” Daymond said.

2. It might take time to find your Why.

“My real Why came around with FUBU. That was when I found my love. I had loved fashion ever since I was ten years old, and I had loved hip hop ever since I was ten years old. I blended them together when I was nineteen, not realizing I could make money off of them,” he told me.

3. If you don’t know what to do, ask someone who does.

Be humble enough to know that you don’t know everything. Daymond wasn’t afraid to reach out to successful people around him. “I went through so many mentors to try to obtain the information that I didn’t know,” he said. He also read a lot to study up on various topics he was curious about.

4. Adopt a “Why not me?” mindset.

“Everybody said, ‘You can’t do it.’ I was like, well, why are all these buildings here and all these cars here—Who did it? Was it the gods who did it, or was it one person with one idea who took one action? It was common sense: You can do this.”

5. Know that failure is part of the plan.

“I went through a massive amount of failures, but I was failing small and quick, and I was learning from them,” Daymond said. “I failed a bunch of times up until 19, and I would still fail with FUBU from 19 to 22— I would close it three times by running out of capital. But then in ’92 I started it again, and that’s where the real love came—it came around when I closed it. But then people started saying, ‘Hey, I bought that shirt from you and I really wanna see it again.’ I started again. I closed it—but I kept closing it and it kept calling me back.”

Are you inspired by Daymond’s story? Hear the rest of my interview with him by listening to the full Big Money Energy podcast here.