John Paul DeJoria, Guest Shark Tank Investor
Today, my guest is John Paul DeJoria, a Greek-Italian-American billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist.
He is best known as a co-founder of the Paul Mitchell line of hair products and The Patrón Spirits Company.
He is the founder of numerous other companies and businesses, including Aubio Life Sciences, and has appeared as a celebrity guest investor on the hit television series Shark Tank.
In this candid conversation, John Paul shared the real stories behind his early struggles as an entrepreneur, his massive success with Paul Mitchell, and his current focus on ventures that change people's lives.
1. Embracing the Rejection. John Paul revealed that his entrepreneurial journey started at age seven when he built and sold flower boxes, but his most profound lessons came from selling encyclopedias door-to-door in his early twenties. He explained that entrepreneurs must be prepared for constant rejection, learning to be just as enthusiastic knocking on the 41st door as they were after having the first 40 doors closed in their face. He emphasized that a true salesperson doesn't just push items, but helps customers make the right decisions, ideally creating a service so good that they are ultimately in the "reorder business" rather than the selling business.
2. A $700 Leap of Faith. His entry into the hair care industry was actually a total accident that occurred after his boss at Time Inc. told him he couldn't become a vice president because he was only 26 and lacked a college degree. An employment counselor eventually pointed him toward a low-paying job in the professional beauty industry, leading him to eventually start John Paul Mitchell Systems with a mere $700. When his expected financial backing fell through, he was forced to take a massive risk, living out of his car for a couple of weeks because he was simply too proud to tell his mother things weren't going right and ask for his childhood room back.
3. Financial Discipline for Founders. John Paul stressed that successful people are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people won't, like working seven days a week and sacrificing nights out at the club. He strongly advises new entrepreneurs not to immediately mortgage their future by upgrading their lifestyle as soon as they start making money; instead, they should maintain their current standard of living for at least six months. Furthermore, he recommends that the very first thing founders should do with their initial profits is stash six months' worth of living expenses in a bank account so their lifestyle is protected if business suddenly takes a turn.
4. Ventures to Change the World. Now a billionaire and active philanthropist, John Paul focuses his efforts on companies designed to significantly improve people's everyday lives, such as launching Aubio, a highly effective, plant-based cold sore treatment that he spent millions putting through rigorous double-blind studies. He is also developing an incredibly affordable $49-a-month mobile phone lifestyle plan that includes telemedicine, life insurance, and 20 million songs, while simultaneously working with NASA on a revolutionary low-radiation cell phone. His notoriously generous nature even extended to his guest appearance on Shark Tank, where he acted as a "good shark" and was told he might need to negotiate more in the future instead of just giving entrepreneurs exactly what they asked for.
