John Paul DeJoria On Going From Homeless To Billionaire, Mastering Rejection & The Rules For Lasting Success

22:57Take a picture of anything. instantly through AI, it tells you exactly what it is. And the last time it was sold for, and for how much money it was sold, right? Wow. You push a button, you just push one button on your phone and all of a sudden comes up for you. Do you want it sold through eBay? Do you want to sell all these different platforms you could sell it on? You push the button, you're on that platform. Now, does something like this work? You better believe it. I wanted to test it. So we had two guys walk into a thrift store and bought two dollar t-shirts one had illinois across it the other had some weird artwork they paid the two dollars went outside and hid it on their global sku.com anyways they put it on there and one of them within a matter of that same day sold it for almost a hundred dollars one of the t-shirts the other guy it took a few months but sold for almost twenty dollars just to see how this works so i wanted to see it work so when i was in their office there was a clock.

23:51I took a picture. I had them take a picture of the clock because I don't have email, so I'm computer illiterate by choice. I do texting though. Okay. And I'll phone you. Anyways, I said, so could I take, could you take a picture for me of that clock? Sure. He did it. What's it worth? And came out, the clock was made in 2004. The last time it sold was for$52 used. That's available today. That was never my day. Even for big corporations, I think it goes from$15 where you sell 20 or 25 of them all the way up to if you're a big company, you sell a lot of stuff. I think it's only like$400 a month. That's it.

24:27But the point of you saying this, I think you can be wired in one of two ways. Some people can look at a guy like you and say, easy for him. I'll never be able to do it. He had to look at me. No, it wasn't easy. No, I know that. I know that. But some people can look at you, and this is how I look at someone like you, and say, if he can do it, I can do it too. And I can figure it out. And if it works for somebody who came from the circumstances that you came from, down and out, homeless, to being a multi-billionaire, then it is possible for anyone to do that if you're clever enough, and if you have enough tenacity, and if you're willing to go through failures and rejections, you just have to keep going.

25:00Do you think that people's narrative of, oh, it's only for the 1%, do you think that that's an excuse? What do you think the root of that is? Not having the knowledge, and a lot of times, the wrong press gives you the wrong message. Unfortunately, we're very polarized, very, very polarized right now. And a good example of this is several years ago, I went on one of the major television news stations. OK, and they wanted me to represent the one percent. It was during the sit in in Wall Street. I said, OK, big station. So I went on down there to represent, as they say, the one percent. And the minute they got me on, they said, well, JP, you know, you're representing the one percent.

25:41What do you think was going on there on, you know, sit in on Wall Street? I said, well, first of all, I'd like to correct you. I am the 1%, but I'm also the 99%. You must remember, I was homeless when I started Paul Mitchell. Knew nothing about alcohol when I started Patron, etc., etc. I am a person of America. I am a man of the street that came along. So I represent the 100%, not the 1%, because it's all of us together. And the others just have to know you can still do it in America. The whole narrative of that entire interview, instead of half an hour, It only lasted 15 minutes, but they had to stay on point with me because what are they going to say?

26:18Am I going to fight anybody? They can't fight me because I was homeless. So I am the 99 % and I'm the 1 % and everyone has that opportunity. So you're saying in that particular instance, they wanted to paint a narrative of what someone that's had your success looks like, but they didn't want to hear the side of it where you struggled to get there. They want a 1 % versus 99, not realizing we are the 100%, the 99 and the 1 % combined together. What's, out of everything you've done, your biggest accomplishment? When you lay your head on the pillow at night, what are you most proud of? That I had the opportunity in life to make the American dream come true, and that I am already, with the extra revenues I'm getting right now, the money that I make right now, able to help change the world.

26:57My purpose was, and I realized that a few years back, is to, if I ever make it in life well, and I knew one day would somehow, that I would do something to change the world. It's like your epitaph. You know, he came with nothing and he did something to make lives of millions of people better. I've already passed several hundred million people right now making their lives better. You'll see some of the things I do in the book here. And also that you can do anything you want. When you take a look at the book, there'll be a few surprises that I'm able to talk about now. I couldn't before. Just with the experience of being a good human being and helping people out, I'm the guy that went into Libya to convince Omar Gaddafi to release the two suspected terrorists to Pan Am Flight 103 to go on trial, and they did.

27:38I'm the guy that went into North Korea in the late mid-'90s to convince Kim Jong-il and his group to go to the four-way talks with North Korea, the United States, and China. So there's a lot of things that I helped with that one in a big way. I even went over there in North Korea and was invited as her guest. So you can do amazing things when you believe in yourself. And again, another reason for me writing the book, how do you do those things? And once you know how you do them, you could do it yourself. And then several other businesses I've already gotten involved in and started that also have enormous contributions.

28:11But I would say if I have to really zero it down to some of my aha, these are some of the greatest things in the world. I've lived in Austin for 26 years now. And when I was able to help a group called Mobile Loaves and Fishes have a goal of 2 ,000 homeless people have a place to live, good food to eat. and I was able to be a major contributor to that. Even built many houses for them there and built them an entrepreneur center. And I spent a lot of money on that. But people said, JP, they're homeless people. They're not going to go to work. Are you kidding? I said, just watch. So I spent a lot of money, you know, way over a million dollars, put it that way, okay, to build this at Mobile Loaves and Fishes in East Austin.

28:49And in the first 18 months, taught them different things, how to do ceramics, how to do art, jewelry, a variety of things, art, all kinds of things to do. And in the first 18 months, they made about$200 ,000. They got to keep it all. And then the other problem we had here in Austin, these things gave me the greatest joy is we have a lot of people here that are mentally challenged. Let me put it that way. They have medical challenges and you can't really put them in certain areas because they have certain challenges and certain things. So another thing started that Constance, the head of my Peace, Love and Happiness Foundation, discovered, said, JP, you got to see this one.

29:26It's called TOOF, the other one's foundation. All people have medical challenges. So we immediately got an area where we could build 200 homes. I built the first 50 homes and kitchens, everything else. And then we got people in there already. I don't know if it's half of them, but a good percentage of them are working right now that were never working before. For them, I had to build a skill center where they could learn skills that they could take care of, regardless of what their mental challenges might be. And then keep Austin fed. My God, you know, there's a group of people, there's one lady going around collecting food during COVID and trying to find people that needed it, old folks, people that were homeless, you know, houses, whatever, just give them food.

30:09And she was doing the best she could with a couple of volunteers. Well, when I got a hold of her, today she has trucks, she has 170-some-odd volunteers, and she has a working staff. So we're able to take care of people here locally than our veterans on Patriot Hall. We needed a place for veterans, especially disabled, to go. If you're a disabled veteran, most of the time, for most of them, they spend at home watching TV. It's a real bummer. So we built a big center for them called Patriot's Hall where they could come, show them all the benefits, and most of them don't even know all the benefits they get, you know, from our government and other places, and give them a little obstacle course they could go, no matter whether they're this way or that way, a place to hang out with fellow veterans and all kinds of cool things to do.

30:50So it's things like this that really, really get me going and make me really, really happy. That's just a few of them. You'll see a few others in there. You talked about tenacity. What other traits do you believe successful people have or need to have in order to be successful? Successful people have to understand that whether you're successful in life financially or successful in life just as a good human being, you've got to do the things that other people don't want to do. It's like that's a big difference. successful people work Saturdays, they'll work at night. Or like me, I knew we'd make one day with Paul Mitchell.

31:24So it took me two years before I even knew he made it. We actually had a profit off of it. It was hand to mouth and hey, the checks in the mail type of a thing. So you've got to be able to believe in yourself. And there are ways to do that. And why I believe in myself and how to leave everything behind you. That's the biggest thing. You got to leave everything behind you and just go and march forward. You got to have faith in yourself and you got to know that there's all kinds of opposition coming in. I was fired by three companies before I started my own. For every one of them, it was no good reason.

31:53I was national manager of one of them. Another one, I was their executive vice president. Another one, I was vice president teaching all their people sales and things like that when somebody had bought them, and it's in the book. And I was fired from each one, each one of them. My sales were up unbelievable, and everybody liked me. Why was I fired from these three jobs, and what did it mean later on? Another good lesson for your people to learn. First one was with a company that I asked them, we're a hair care company. Why are we testing on animals? You've got a dozen marmosets in this little room, these little monkeys, and there's one door.

32:29You look outside and you see the hallway, a white hall. Can I take it for a little walk outside? No, JP, you can't. You got to ask Paula Kett Meehan. She owns the company. I went in there and I said, why are we doing that? It's just not right. We're making products for hair, not for skin. so we just put on our own hair like we've done all these years and she said to me no she says because it makes us look good we are redkin the scientific approach i said you got to be kidding i said just for the name because they don't do any good she says it makes us look good your upper management go along with it so i went out kind of with my head down oh gee so anyways two weeks later i'm back in her office jp you've been telling other people you still think it's wrong when they ask you.

33:08I said, because it is. She says, you just can't fall in line with a corporate person. You should be an independent, go sell airplanes or something. You'll make a lot of money. But JP, you're not a corporate person that follows what the corporate wants to do, not what you think is right or wrong. Okay. Syntex, it just purchased pharmaceutical company, just purchased Fermidal, a haircare company. And they immediately found out that I was leaving Redken. Immediately they grabbed me to go into and the two owners of the company, not owners, the two main managers, president, vice president, brought me on to train their entire staff there on sales, things of that nature, sales management, everything else.

33:43I was with them for one year. I took the company in sales up 50 % in the millions, okay? They called me in one day and said, JP, you do not play cannesse with us on Sunday. We know you don't go to a synagogue with us because you're not Jewish. We are. So you don't hang out with the group. You come to work, you do your job, and you're in Griffith Park at some Lovin' with hippies. I said, yeah, because that's what I like to do. That's my days off. And he said, you're just not one of us. You just are not one of us. You don't hang out with us. You're upper management. And we don't like you. So you're fired.

34:21Now, today I could sue him for it. But it was just like, hey, I don't belong here anyways, right? Went to work for the Institute of Trichology, and I was their vice president. Tripled their sales in one year. They called me in after one year. It's all going to make sense in a minute. They called me in and said, we have to fire you. I said, why? They said, we got David Chapman here to do your job for one third of what we're paying you. Now, this is in the late 1970s, okay? I said, but guys, you're only paying me$3 ,000 a month salary and 6 % of all new sales that I bring on board. So it really cost you almost nothing to have me there.

34:58He said, well, that was the problem with the 6 % of all new sales. You made so much money, you made more than the owner of the company. And David Chapman said, I can do that same thing and you don't have to give me that extra percentage. It's okay, just give me a little more salary. JP, we got to let you go. Anyways, I consulted for a while and then started my own company. Now, I want to tell you the aftermath of all this. It took two years to be able to pay our bills on time. Two years. We didn't pay them off, but we paid them on time, right? Shortly thereafter, an epiphany came to me. oh my God, there is a God.

35:30There is something much more powerful than we are. Had I not learned from Redken, one part of the beauty industry, from Syntex Firmadol, another part of the industry, even from the Institute of Trichology, where to buy the bottles, where to get the screening done, where to get the filling, I could have never started John Paul Mitchell Systems, even with $10 million. I wouldn't have known everything. In other words, it was my time to move on and I didn't push the button, somebody helped me get out of there. Or I'd be probably president of one of those companies and bored to death right now. So I say to everybody in life, if you get fired from a job or something happens bad, maybe it's because you need a lesson to learn of some sort to move on to whatever your destiny actually is.

36:12That's a great lesson. You can turn anything into gold if you're clever enough. I would say if you have the right heart and you're doing the greatest good for the greatest number. If you're bullshitting somebody or you're ripping them off, then that's not good. Then you're not going to make it. Eventually it's going to get you and it's over. Quick break to talk about egg life. Guys, I got to be honest, this summer has been a busy one. I have not been as on my health as I'd like to be, but it's time to get back in action, whether you're sending your kids back to school, getting back into your work schedule after a busy summer, or just trying to build healthier habits.

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42:24Join at functionhealth.com slash skinny and use gift code skinny25. Again, that's functionhealth.com slash skinny. When you say you got to leave it behind, what do you mean by that? Well, example, the majority of all human beings, and we're human, okay? let's say maybe in our life we had a boyfriend girlfriend or significant whatever that left us right we think about oh my god if only I did this differently it would be okay or I just lost my job a month ago ten years ago the best job I ever had but if only I didn't show up at this meeting if only did something different I would still have it you know in the words regret people go to bed like god I wish I didn't do that I don't like that person their mind goes spinning and when you have a problem you're low on money I can't pay that bill what do you do when you go to bed you think about all night long, right?

43:10And it doesn't do you any good. So I say that you cannot change yesterday's newspaper. Okay. So leave it behind you. Every time it comes into mind, leave it. You are the power of your thinking and your voice. And I will give you, if I can, exactly an example of the power of your voice and your thinking. How often do you hear people say in 2026, for example, I'm going to try and lose 10 pounds. I'm going to try and lose 20 pounds. I'm going to try and learn how to ride a motorcycle. I'm going to try and get a sports car, all this stuff, right? And it never happens, right? The universe thinks and looks at you and hears your being, the entity inside of you, in black and white, no emotion.

43:51Fine. Is that what you like? We'll peek out and give it to you. We'll keep on having you try and try and try. That's what you're saying. I'm going to try and do it. Universe will give that to you. So whatever you think it comes out of your mouth works. One of my business associates for three years was telling me on one particular business, is this one of my newer ones. JP, I have the worst luck. This should have sold a lot better. This could have done a lot better. And this barely got off the ground. I have the worst luck. He's been telling me that for three years. And then I, of course, motivate him, say, well, no, no, here's what you could think about that.

44:20And it's not really that, you know, everything you come up with to motivate the guy. Then I said, you know what? I think I should talk to him about the power of his, what he's saying, what he's thinking. So I sat down with him and I said, I know why you have such bad luck over all these years. You do? Yeah. I know he's responsible. JP, who's responsible? I said, you. Open his eyes and just look to me. You've been telling me for three years you have bad luck, which means you're thinking about it all the time too. But bad luck I have, you blame it to that. You are creating your own destiny. Do something immediately.

44:53If it doesn't work, tell me I was wrong. Whenever it comes to your mind, I have the worst of luck. Immediately say that to yourself. That's the old me. I'm a new guy. I have the best of luck. I am the person with the best luck now. And when you talk to anybody, say, I am the best person now with the best luck. I am going to have nothing but great luck this time, right? This is November, a year ago. November to December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August. Okay? During that period of time, going along, okay? Actually, not only did the company grow, but when did we first notice it really exploding?

45:29November to December, January, February, March, April. come five months later, all of a sudden, everything turned into good luck. Nine months later, we can't even fill the orders on one of our product lines. We can't fill them. It's too many. We went to the millions of orders. In other words, he had a lot of good luck. So he said, the only difference is I did exactly what you said to the T and I changed my life. I'm a happier person, everything else. That's the power of thinking in your mind. So my thinking from selling encyclopedias door to door, knocking door to doors, just be as enthusiastic as you can and never give up.

46:03And that's what I did. And that's how I made it that far too. I think what people don't realize too, is when you say I'm so broke, I'm so unlucky. That's an affirmation. It's an affirmation. You're affirming that you're broke and you're unlucky. And I think to your point, like switching the affirmation and literally almost brainwashing yourself creates different results. But why is that so hard for people to understand? It's almost too simple. No one's ever told them. Yeah. It's just like me going on television for the 1%. And she knew I was homeless at one time, right? And a little bit of my history is just some research on me, but they don't think in their heads.

46:40It's not exposed to them. Hey, you're taking me on as a very wealthy person. Okay. But I was homeless twice in my life and I struggled to get here. And my thinking is this more than, way more than half the people that became millionaires or billionaires, you know, more than half of them started with nothing or very, very little. There's an imagination, I think, for people when they see successful people that it was easy or handed to them or there was some kind of piece of luck that came out of the sky. A lot of people think that. Right. And I think like we've not had nearly the success that you've had, but, you know, we've been doing this for a long time now.

47:17And, you know, when we started doing this, we were doing it literally out of our kitchen closet together on equipment that cost us two or 300 bucks. And I think what people they see now, they see like the offices and the, and the different lifestyle. But what it's been is it's, it's been one foot out. Like we're coming up in two weeks on our thousandth episode, 1000, which is, it's a lot of, right. But it's, but what I say, like, it took a thousand episodes to be lucky. Of course. Right. And I, and I say that not to be arrogant. I say it because I want people to understand that it's very possible.

47:51But if you live in the narrative that it was easy for somebody that's had your success or that it fell into their lap or that they got lucky, you're constantly going to give yourself a reason why it can't be done by you. Because you're going to say like, oh, if I'm unlucky or if I don't have those circumstances, it's only possible that instead of saying, hey, this guy was homeless and he became a multi-billionaire by putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. May I give you another example of what success is? Please. When I was in high school, I always had a job after high school.

48:19And before, if I had a paper out when I was a kid in grammar school. But anyways, I worked for Stewart's Cleaners. And I was sweeping the floors. I put the drapes on the hangers, the sleeve, brushed the blankets. I was a janitor, basically, okay? After school, every day. One day, went in and Stewart said, Come here, Johnny, I want to talk to you. I said, Okay. You know, what's up? He said, Last night, I stayed here until after closing hours. And I went up to the mezzanine. had a mezzanine there with one of her old type cots that's not a metal metal little cut on top and you can see underneath it he says i put my watch on the table it fell on the floor i reached down and grabbed it and i looked under the cot i couldn't help it there was no dust under there he says so i pulled the cot out there was no dust behind it then the filing cabin next to it there's no dust behind it either then i looked around you're cleaning my place up as if i'm watching you every single minute and i was making a dollar and a quarter an hour probably one of the highest paid kids in my high school.

49:15We didn't have a lot of jobs where I went to school. Okay. Anyways. So Stuart said, because you're doing that, he says, you're doing what you should do when nobody's watching. He said, I've never worked with anybody like this before. I'm going to give you a raise to$1.50 an hour. I was the highest paid kid in my high school, other than the teachers, of course. What did I do? I just did my job right when nobody was looking and fate just came my way and I got a race. To me, it was a beautiful race. I was the most successful janitor maybe anywhere at that particular time. So success isn't just how much money you have, it's how far have you come in life with what you do have.

49:56A lot of people say, give me a few million dollars, I'll be the happiest person in the world. I'm out of debt if I make a few million. My God, I'm on top of the world. In 1950, before you and most of your audience were born, there was a guy named Jay Paul Getty Jr. year. He was the richest man in the world at the time, 1950s. He was from Oklahoma and American, went to England, had a major mansion there and started Aramco, the big Arab oil company. He had probably the first billionaire without us even knowing what a billionaire was or what the word meant. Anyways, with one of his very rare interviews, and he was just really a squeaky man.

50:32He found out someone was doing toll calls on his home phone. This is the richest man in the world, put a pay phone in his house. It's crazy. So one of the very few interviews he ever did, very few interviews, the lady asked him, J. Paul Getty Jr., you are the richest man in the world. Is there anything you would do differently in your life if you could? You are the richest man. His answer was, Madam, I'm not only the richest man in the world, I am the most powerful man in this world. Maybe the most powerful man that's ever lived, okay? I could change governments and I have already. But your question, no one's ever asked me.

51:04Would I change something in my life if If I could right now, he said, yes, I would give up the majority of my wealth, the majority of all my power to have been happy in my life. I had a grandson that cut off his ear and sent it in with the mafia for ransom. I believe it was DiCaprio made a movie about that. You said no, right? Yeah, exactly. That was J. Paul Getty's grandson, whatever. Anyway, she says, and, you know, and people around me and I'm very powerful. So I know they're around me because they fear me. And that's how I do. Yeah, come on in. Yeah, I'll go with this. I'm very dictating with them.

51:38He says, but I've never been happy. So she asked him a question any good journalist would ask him. Why don't you just change right now? It's never too late. His answer was, it is. I only have a couple of years left. It's too late to change. So what's really important? Happiness is first. If you're not happy, you're not going to be healthy. Happiness, health, and wealth, and everything else comes afterwards. And that's what I try and let people know. You have a wife who you've been married to for a long time, Eloise. We've been together 35 years, married 33. Okay, and you guys have two kids, or six kids between all of you.

52:09Yes, we do. Okay, how have you raised these children to be upstanding humans with everything they have? How do you guys think about that as partners? That is such a great question. Okay, I don't want to spoil my kids. We're around a lot of people that have a lot of money, and they spoil their kids rotten, man. I mean, everything they want is horrible, right? So I'll just give you a couple of examples. Growing up, we share with our children what it was that we do and what we give to. Very little about the business. Just what we do, but not the amount of money we make. And one example is our young son together, John Anthony.

52:46When he was in Trinity Grammar School here in Austin, we went all the way through school here, down to college. But he came home one day, I think it was either the first or second grade, and said, Dad, one of the boys I was talking to there said, we're real rich. Are we real rich? You know, I mean, we live in a nice house, but not over the top, right? Anyways, but nice. I said, well, son, let me tell you what rich means. Rich means if you're happy and healthy. Are we happy? Oh, yeah, Dad, we're happy. Are we healthy? Yes, we're very healthy. Then we're rich. You go back and tell that boy there that we're very rich, and you're probably rich too.

53:19Rich is being happy and healthy. Another example of this to give you is when John Anthony, same kid, okay? I can do it to every one of my kids. We'll use John Anthony. He's 29 now. When he was 13 years old, his allowance was$13. When he was 12, it was$12,$11, because he came to me when it was$13. I gave him$13 for the week. Let's go to the movies, do whatever he wants, right? He says, Dad, can we sit down? I said, sure, son. What is it? He says, Dad, you're too old-fashioned. Do you know what happens at$13 you give me? It's God at the movie theater. I got to pay the movie theater to get in, the popcorn, the soda pop.

53:53I don't have any money left. So I said, son, you know, I never thought about that. Things have changed inflation. So I gave a race to$20 a week.

54:03My daughter is one of the top race car drivers in the world right now, Alexis DeGioria. My daughter, Michael Lane, is CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems. John Nathie, my son, has two different businesses going right now. So they all have to do something. They all have to do something, and they're doing very, very well. And my oldest son, John Jr., who went through my early 20s living with bikers and so forth, right? Anyways, he came out okay. It's amazing. He came out okay with the life we lived in those days, but he came out okay. He's got a beautiful business in Portland, Oregon, just outside of Portland, doing extremely well.

54:35Quick break to talk about one of our favorite supplements, one of our favorite products, actually, and that is Armour Colostrum. Ever since we had the founder of Armour on this podcast years ago, we have fallen in love with this product, and that's because we love supplements that pack a punch. We also love supplements that go a long way when it comes to your dollars. Armour Colostrum is definitely one of those, and here's why. If you're looking for a product that can help strengthen your immune health, fortify your gut health, ignite a healthy metabolism, something that can help you with healthier hair and healthier skin, as well as fuel performance and recovery, ARMA has you covered.

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59:48And then I sleep with it all night. And then in the morning, I missed my face. I remove it. And it is the sleep hack of a lifetime. I know anyone who is looking for a better sleep, more energy in the morning and a more sculpted jawline will love it. You can shop it now at shop skinny confidential dot com. That's shop skinny confidential dot com. You talked about being around people that have money and you also talked about how some people think that money will solve all their happiness problems or their life problems. One, I would love to hear more commentary on that and just, you know, what perceptions you think people have wrong about money.

1:00:22And then two, why you think so many wealthy people are so unhappy? Well, I think a lot of people that are unhappy, there's a lot that are happy too, that are unhappy, are those that put wealth and getting more, M-O-R-E more than they are hanging out with their family. And hey, I've got plenty now, let me take a little easier and hang out with the family a little bit, enjoy the kids. That I think is the number one reason because I see a lot of people there that have made a lot of money, even some billionaires. They're just busy all the time, you know, busy all the time because they want more, more, more.

1:00:54Why? I don't know. You got so much. Whatever more I get in my other businesses, one, I'm hiring lots of people in new jobs and creating partnerships with other people. They, for the first time, have something. I make a lot of extra money there that I don't need from my family, my kids, kids, kids, kids, let's say three or four descendants down the line, I could help change countries. But for the better, take a country like Mali, the probably worst country in the world for money. They are impoverished like you wouldn't believe, landlocked Mali. But I was able to, because of the funds that I make now, is able to go to 50 different villages, drill them all wells, give them water for the first time in their life.

1:01:32They don't have to go a mile or 10 miles for water. They could have agriculture they never had before, no water. They could bathe, which they were doing maybe in a river once a month. They could wash their hair. They could cook with it. And then we booked, made for them, nine academies. First one for girls only. It's a Muslim country. It was so well, the government let us do the next eight for boys and girls alike to teach them skills, you know, teach them about loving themselves and the power of loving yourself and positive thinking. So that's just some of the things you could do, but people are not aware of that, that you could do these things.

1:02:03And again, another reason for that book, Success Insured is Failure, because it shows you how and what and why. And the people have this conception that these people, as you said earlier, either inherited it, got lucky as can be, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay? In other words, and that's probably true, but in very few cases, the majority of people really get out there and do something different for it. And you put some action in. In order to get something in return, you got to have some action in there. I have a controversial take where like, you know, we grew up in a nice area and we were around privileged people that got inheritance.

1:02:36and I almost pity some of these people because they get given something without the understanding of what it took to get it. And I've seen so many instances where they either lose the fortune or, you know, start having trouble for themselves or don't feel like they have the value that maybe the person who earned it had. And I've seen, and I'm sure you've seen a lot of people who have spoiled their kids in that way. And I think it's of no fault of the children, but they get set up for failure in a way because they just, they don't know what to do with that kind of, with those kind of resources.

1:03:08They never got it. They never had to do anything for it. And I think there's a lot of people that sometimes they see that, oh, too bad for them, lucky for them. But imagine, you know, your whole life, you just, you get spoiled in this way. You have no sense of reality. And then you get given something, you run into the floor, like what that does to just the psyche. And again, nobody's going to cry for people that have been given money, but I've just, i've seen it so many times go the odd way i have two friends that lost their kids two people that i know they were good people but they spoiled the heck out of their friends both were suicides both were suicides one they think may be drug related but they were all suicides you know you see that a lot uh i know when before we moved to texas 26 years ago when we were living in malibu california they had a big problem there with drugs why very wealthy community kids got out school had nothing to do so they got really into drugs in a big way so david foster who's a great producer okay share myself and a few others pitched into the high school there in malibu malibu high and we built them like a a small salon so they could learn how to do each other's hair a little studio to record in everything else all of a sudden the kids after school had something to do some place to go a place to hang out and all of a sudden the abuse of drugs or the police reports dropped almost overnight.

1:04:23It's because a lot of them have nothing to do. There was nothing for them to do. When you take people like myself, we had a job. Whether it was a paper route, you know, no matter what it was, we had a job. We had something to do. Where are you a hard ass? And what I mean by that is where in business do people see your hard assness? Is it in the contract phase? Is it in who you're hiring? I wouldn't call it the hard ass place. What I would call it is more, and I'll teach a little word to say about that too, okay? Was more, let's call it negotiating with people, okay? Got it. Okay. My motto is this, being nice works even with jerks.

1:05:05So there's some magical words. If somebody tells me something I don't want to hear in business or something in an agreement I don't want to, I'm not really excited about, then the magic words I found is this, you know I could appreciate why you want that. However, I could appreciate that. However, and then I tell them the other side of it. Michael's going to use that. With the smile, with the smile, I could appreciate where you're coming from, why you'd want, I could appreciate that. However, it wouldn't work for me. This is what would really work. Okay. But I could appreciate that. That's great advice.

1:05:36You immediately jump to their side. What are they going to say? You don't understand me? No, I understand. I appreciate that. However. That reminds me of your dad, what he just said. If you were to start a hair care company today, right now, what would you do in this climate? Well, I'd probably, first of all, learn how to use a computer, have something around me that does to use all the assets that one could have on a computer. Right. But the same technology and the same thinking I would do. For example, in my case, being in the industry, I knew I had no sales force, no advertising, no nothing.

1:06:09But I did know that what would motivate the distributor. That would be, why should I sell your product? Well, here's 12, your first 12 customers have already done it for you. And then knowing Darwilly wasn't going to pay me for 45 days, wouldn't think about it. I had to plan. Well, that's the objective of what he's going to say no to. So how do I overcome? And it took me a little while to figure that one out, but I did, and it worked. You see a lot of pitches, a lot of businesses, you've met a lot of entrepreneurs. What do you see as the biggest mistakes young entrepreneurs are making right now?

1:06:40Not believing in themselves and leaving it at the river. Leave everything bad behind you. Look straight ahead in your life because you can't change yesterday's newspapers. And learn from every mistake you have or every disappointment you have. And know the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people. Successful people do all the things unsuccessful people don't want to do. Especially follow through. If you've got the best product or the best service, eventually it's going to happen. It took us two years, again, before we even pay our bills on time. But we figured a way through it knowing we've had the best hair care products there are.

1:07:16We just, you, we did. I have the best mouth tape and the best ice roller that I got you. So have you ever taped your mouth shut at night? You and Eloise, I'm going to get you on this mouth tape. You tape your mouth shut to encourage nasal breathing while you're sleeping. Really? Yeah. Are you selling this? This is encouraging to me. Yes, I'm going to give it to you. That is so cool. Before you go, Michael and I are married. We've almost been married for 10 years, but I want to know advice from you of what the secret to marriage is for 35 years. That's a long time and it's very impressive. Michael, the secret to it is this.

1:07:52Yes, honey, you're right. I can really understand that, sweetheart. I see where you're coming from, okay? Can you hear that? And then, you know, wait a little while and then say, can I give you my opinion though? Would that be okay? So you do get to follow up with an opinion at some point after you've acknowledged that she's right. Well, if it's a little thing, who cares? If it's something, you know, you wanted to paint my car pink, which he doesn't, by the way. Okay, honey, whatever you want. And then, by the way, sweetheart, can I talk to you for a second on second thought? You know, they could send the wrong message to people, you know, that, you know, it could send the wrong message.

1:08:27I don't know, you know, but what do you think? So I was right. I told him to get a tattoo of yes, dear, on his ass. Well, then I said, I'll never see it. I'll never see it. Exactly. Maybe you get it on your arm. No, but I think as it relates to relationships, I like the point. I think sometimes people take the little issues and they make them into big things and that starts to - That's correct. It chips away at a relationship over a long period of time. Every single person needs this book. Right. Oh, yeah. Everyone who's listening, to me, this non-negotiable, tell us about it. Where can they find it?

1:08:58They could go on to successandsharedisfailure, I guess, dot com. They could go on to Amazon. It's on Amazon, Success Insured is Failure. It's on, what is that, Simon & Schuster and several other of those. But Amazon's a good example. Go right up to Amazon. And there's a little bit left of the first edition. Grab the first edition because then it'll go to second and third edition. And it could be a real keeper for you. But you are correct. It is something everybody needs. And I wanted to ask you all, how old is your oldest child? Six. Six. Okay. Well, whenever they're able to, wait, six, they could read right now.

1:09:30Yeah. She can read now, yeah. Let them read the book after you're done with it. It lets kids know that America still works and what one has to go through to be happy while you're going through it. How can you be happy at four in the morning waking up folding papers for the LA Examiner when you're just a kid, right? But why? And what did you do with it? You had the happiness of work. I think your next endeavor maybe is to turn this into a kid's book. We have a kid's book, by the way. The first word we're putting out here is called Gratitude. I'll get one to you. I would love that. And the gentleman that Eloise and I wrote it with him.

1:10:01It's all about kids three to seven years old, a story about Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel, and why you have to be grateful every day and how to do it. I'll have it delivered to you. That's so cool. It's called Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel and Gratitude. I'm so inspired by you. And we just released it. In fact, a good suggestion is Mr. Paul Padgett, who wrote the book with, and he's wrote, this is the third in the series. He's someone you could get on your show because he is something that's all about children, young children, making them think about love, about gratitude. He'd be somebody you'd really get to have.

1:10:32You are so inspiring. Thank you for coming on the show. My pleasure, guys. I have stalked you for a long time to come on, so I'm really happy that you made it. And Michael and I just think everything you've done is incredible. So congratulations. And not only that, but I think your message for young people and just the world in general is incredible. So thank you for coming on the show and spreading it. Thank you, man. Thank you. Peace out to the Nappos, guys.

1:11:01Thank you.