FROM HAVING NOTHING TO ACHIEVING EVERYTHING

By Author: Mr. TEAM MENTit (MENTit Both)
Affiliation: MENTit

You must have surely heard of Daymond John Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FUBU. FUBU stands for ‘For Us By US’, it is a sportswear brand. Daymond John is currently the investor of the famous reality show ‘Shark Tank.’ He wasn’t successful from the beginning, he had to work very hard to reach where he is today.

DAYMOND JOHN’S YOUNG LIFE-

Daymond John was from a lower-middle-class family in the city of New York. His parents got divorced when he was around 10 years old. It was only Daymond and his mother from then on. At a very young age, Daymond had to step up to help his mother.

From the age of six, Daymond had started earning by doing a couple of odd jobs here and there. He used to sell stationery at school sometimes, shoveled snow during the winters, raked leaves during the fall, and many more. By the age of 10, he was an apprentice electrician.

HIS MOTHER IS HIS BIGGEST MOTIVATION-

The biggest supporter and motivator in Daymond John’s life was his mother. Even when he was very young, his mother would always motivate him and push him to work harder. Not only that, his mother herself would work twice as hard to support Daymond and help him achieve his goal.

He was turned down by more than 20 banks, that was when  Daymond’s mother mortgaged their home twice to raise loans to support his business. That got him a sum of $1,00,000 to invest in his clothing business. 

LOVE FOR CLOTHING-

His passion for clothing started very young, when he was young he learned to sew simple items from his mother in his childhood home. Then he would sell those items in the neighborhood for $10 a piece or so. 

A couple of years later, Hip-Hop music was spreading very much in the States during the time, and Daymond found that type of music very refreshing. He liked the way the rappers dressed and how they would carry themselves and wanted to be a part of that culture.

STARTING OF FUBU-

Daymond did not have enough money to go to college; he had to work as a waiter to earn money.. One of the owners of a famous clothing branch refused to sell their clothes to them saying their clothes are not meant for drug dealers. This made him a little upset 

This is when he decided to start his own clothing brand called FUBU. Daymond and his friends got along to start their business.  FUBU produced only 10 shirts initially. They would offer artists these shirts to be worn in the music videos and later would offer these same shirts to the other artists. 

LL Cool J, a famous hip-hop singer, was great friends with Daymond as they were from the same neighborhood. LL Cool J to help Daymond’s company wore FUBU’s clothes in an ad commercial. That gave the clothing brand a great start. 

DAYMOND JOHN’S KEY TO SUCCESS-

To achieve success, Daymond John had laid down “Five Shark Point”-

Set Goals- To achieve anything in life, the first and most important step is to set a goal. That will help the person to make a path to achieve it.

Homework- To achieve your goal, one must have an ample amount of knowledge about the field and area they are working on.

Love What You Are Doing- Hard work, determination and passion is all important to attain the objective but is equally important to love what you are doing. 

Remember You Are A Brand- “An entrepreneur should be honest and transparent about what he wants from the business and his employees will follow his example,” said Daymond John. 

Keep Swimming- No matter what problem a person faces, working hard is very necessary. If you stop working, you will definitely fail.

LEARNING-

Working hard is no doubt very important in whatever a person does, but it is also okay to rely on our close ones for support. It may be our friends, family, or even our mentors. People close to us are the ones who can be very honest with us on the initial stage of our plan. Building networks is essential, that is what close people help with. 

Just like in Daymond John’s case, his mother and his friends were the first ones who actually believed in him and supported his business. 

 

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