Daymond John Quotes & Sayings

The easiest thing to sell is truth. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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

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

When you sell a product or service, you're making a promise to your audience. If you don't understand your audience, you'll never be able to keep that promise and you'll ultimately let them down. — Daymond John

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! — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Product is always king. — Daymond John

I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

When you succeed you have a million people to thank, but when you fail there is only one person to blame. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Money is a great slave but a horrible master. — Daymond John

There really is no shortcut just because you have a name, or you have some kind of access or some way you can solve all the problems. And I think one of the things I learned with FUBU, you have to understand that there's really only two ways of operating a business: more sales, or lower overhead. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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

Most brands started from a strong base and kept a strong belief. — Daymond John

Everyone has an idea, but it's taking those first steps toward turning that idea into a reality that are always the toughest. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

You can make up your own opinion, but you can't make up your own facts, go sell. — Daymond John

I think it's only failure if you put the word failure on it. I think it's part of the process of learning where you're going to go and what doesn't work. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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?' — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Fortunately, right now 'entrepreneurship' is one of the business world's biggest buzz words and so many young people in our country are looking up to this new generation of CEO's as their modern day rock stars. Whenever you have that effect, it makes the job of promoting entrepreneurship much easier. — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Life is like business, 20% of what happens to you is 80% of how you react. — Daymond John

Make sure you're doing something that you love, that you're willing to do for the rest of your life. If you're doing it for money, that's the only thing you won't make. — Daymond John

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

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

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

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

If you go out there and start making noise and making sales - people will find you. Sales cure all. You can talk about how great your business plan is and how well you are going to do. You can make up your own opinions, but you cannot make up your own facts. Sales cure all. — Daymond John

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

Pioneers get slaughtered, and the settlers prosper. — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Truth is the easiest thing to sell. — Daymond John

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] hav[ing] to put in the work themselves. — Daymond John

In entrepreneurship, you decide to give up your day job at the point where either (A) the hobby/new business is at least making some form of ends meet, or (B) you feel that you need to dedicate yourself for a certain amount of time to it and give yourself the last hoorah. — Daymond John

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

As an entrepreneur, you never stop learning. — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. Try to go as far as you can without anybody else's help first. — Daymond John

I'm a big advocate of financial intelligence. — Daymond John

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

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

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. — Daymond John

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

I like to look at things that have been developed and re-developed over the course of time so I know the bugs are worked out of it. And in the business itself, I like to look at sales, by far. I want to see that there is a vetted track record of sales to show the price point has worked. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Strategic partners are way more important than money. — Daymond John

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

Always dress to what is accurate to who and what you are. — Daymond John

I don't want to leave my kids an inheritance, I want to leave them a legacy — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

A lot of times, I can put a product together with a distributor when I go into my Rolodex for distributors. I can then put it together with a face, such as an artist. And then I can go into my databank of retailers and people that I've been working with through the years of retail, and then also manufacturing. — Daymond John

I do today what people won't, so I achieve tomorrow what other people can't. — Daymond John

Life is a cruel teacher. She loves to give you the test first and the lesson later. — Daymond John

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

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. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John

Success is waking up every day and doing what you want to do — Daymond John

I've failed way more than I've succeeded. — Daymond John

It takes the same energy to think small as it does to think big. So dream big and think bigger. — Daymond John

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. — Daymond John