Quotes by Daymond John

I started FUBU in 1989 but ran out of money three times and closed it down.

You don't get rich off your day job, you get rich off your homework.

I've failed way more than I've succeeded.

No matter what business you're in, business is business, and financing and money are critical. I would have made a lot fewer mistakes if I had more schooling in that area.

I think that in the earlier days, when I was a 'wantrepreneur,' I was really doing things because I thought what I wanted was to be rich.

I've learned, like with anything else, business is only as good as your connections and your resources. And some of the resources that I have are the fact that I work with huge artists.

When I first got into business, I made a lot of bad decisions.

I don't care if you're my brother -- if we go play football, I'm gonna try to crack your head open. It doesn't mean that I don't love you. It doesn't mean that I don't respect you.

Most brands started from a strong base and kept a strong belief.

I never knew anything other than wanting to be an entrepreneur. I tried my first business when I was 6 years old, and I started another business when I was 8. I don't think I knew anything besides that.

An entrepreneur needs to know what they need, period. Then they need to find an investor who can build off whatever their weaknesses are -- whether that's through money, strategic partnerships or knowledge.

I value an entrepreneur I can get behind and trust, because I know they are attempting to move forward in life.

Good grooming is integral, and impeccable style is a must. If you don't look the part, no one will want to give you time or money.

I don't want to leave my kids an inheritance, I want to leave them a legacy.

FUBU is pretty well licensed out in China and Asia. In America it's a little more of a challenge, obviously, because it's a branded sport.

I had a little delivery van, and I did work around Queens. I was also a waiter at Red Lobster, so I was working on the business in between jobs.

The easiest thing to sell is truth.

If you don't educate yourself, you'll never get out of the starting block because you'll spend all your money making foolish decisions.

In the founders, I look for a person I feel is trustworthy, driven and smart. I invest in the person first, because in the event the business fails, the person and I can move forward and create another business.

I always tried to align myself with strategic partners, friends, and information to help me with the things that I did not know, and ultimately, I made it.

I'm the kind of person that when I saw a lack of African Americans in the apparel business, that was something I set out to do, and I lead by example.

One of my business partners would remind me that no fashion line lasts forever, that we would hit the down curve eventually, and that we needed to look for new brands that complement the first one.

It is very, very hard to do that ballroom dancing and I am going to be nowhere near it. Now if you have a hot dog eating contest, call me.

The thing about branding is it isn't etched in stone. A brand is a mark or an image or a perception we stamp on a product, a concept or an ideal, but it doesn't last forever. Like anything else, it needs to be nurtured and reinforced, or it will start to fade.

Success is waking up every day and doing what you want to do.

Whether people know it or not, I'm a big nature guy. I like snowboarding, I like fishing, and those are my ways to wind down.

As an entrepreneur, you love your business like a child, and you're taught to be laser-focused on the business.

It will never be a perfect time, you can only make time perfect.

If you can't come clean and tell investors how and why you failed, that raises a red flag. They need to see that you learned from it and came back stronger.

I'm not a golf player. I think golf and fishing are the same, but at the end of the day, you can't fry up and golf ball and dip it in tartar sauce. So I'm a fisherman.

The perfect breakfast is fish with grits and scrambled eggs with onions. I'm getting hungry thinking about that.

While good business ideas are plentiful, many entrepreneurs struggle to understand payroll taxes, health care and other thorny issues… In other words, they don't have the financial literacy to scale their businesses and attract investors.

Pioneers get slaughtered, and the settlers prosper.

I'm a firm believer in utilizing celebrities because they tap into people on an emotional basis.

I think the single biggest turn off is people who think that they need money and they need all these people around them so if they get the money they can just buy all the things they need to help the company... without having to put in the work themselves.

When I first came into money, I bought six or seven homes. One weekend I went to Miami and bought an apartment and a mansion several blocks from each other, which was not that bright!

Mentors don't have to be the Daymond Johns or the Mark Cubans. A person running a successful bodega or a tax firm in your community for the last 20 years, that person is working just as much as the individual who's running General Mills.

As an entrepreneur, you never stop learning.

If you aren't living your dreams then you're living your fears.

The things that I've learned is, try to make all the mistakes with your own money and on a small level so that when you are responsible for a partner's money or assets, you've learned, and you don't make bigger mistakes.

I already have enough apparel businesses that are either doing well or not really doing anything at all, and I'm looking to broaden my portfolio.

I've come to learn that my initial investment is more about the person versus the product that I am buying into. I've also learned that I really do enjoy giving worthy people an opportunity of a lifetime.

I look to work with businesses that know what they are doing but need larger distribution or exposure.

If I invest in a CEO, I need him or her to have experience in sales.

An entrepreneur must pitch a potential investor for what the company is worth as well as sell the dream on how much of a profit can be made.

Learn as many mistakes and what not to do while your business or product is small. Don't be in such a hurry to grow your brand. Make sure that you and the market can sustain any bumps that may occur down the road.

A savvy entrepreneur will not always look for investment money, first.

In my mind, there are too many copycat web products out there that are doing the same thing.

When looking at trends I always ask myself basic and timeless questions about business, and the one I seem to always come back to is, 'How is this different than anything else in the marketplace?'

You don't have to work for a big corporation if you don't want to.

I think Wall Street is very important, especially to tech companies. Wall Street will get in their rhythm and go fund tech companies, and tech companies will go create jobs and employ a lot of people, so there's that aspect of Wall Street.

The only thing that scares me in the tech area is that it moves so fast that you have to be ready to invest in 20 things. Because if you just invest in one, next week, somebody has a better mousetrap, and you get taken to the cleaners.

When you have a large amount of the workforce being laid off, some of them have no other choice but to go out there and invent something.

Five days a week, I read my goals before I go to sleep and when I wake up. There are 10 goals around health, family and business with expiration dates, and I update them every six months.

I'm a big advocate of financial intelligence.

I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue.

Mentors, by far, are the most important aspects of businesses.

Every problem can be solved as long as they use common sense and apply the right research and techniques.

I believe the last thing I read at night will likely manifest when I'm sleeping. You become what you think about the most.

Poor people put a low value on themselves and their efforts.

Good grooming is integral and impeccable style is a must. If you don't look the part, no one will want to give you time or money.

I think African Americans are resilient and hustlers by nature. I think they need to understand that you can take that hustle to the boardroom, but it has to be an education process.

My parents always taught me that my day job would never make me rich; it'd be my homework.