John Paul DeJoria: The Business Mindset That Turns Setbacks Into Billion-Dollar Success | Entrepreneurship | Lost Files

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How did John Paul’s impoverished childhood and his mother’s teachings shape his mindset?

Hala Taha 0:00
What's up, young and profiters? Today's episode is a special audio exclusive bonus just for you guys. So here's the backstory. I had the absolute honor of sitting down with John Paul DeGurio. He's the incredible self made billionaire behind Paul Mitchell and Patron Tequila. Unfortunately, the video files got corrupted. I was so bummed. We had to re-record the interview, but the first conversation was just so magical. And we're finally gonna release it to Because I feel like it's something I want you guys to hear. You're gonna hear him open up about his journey from sleeping in his car to becoming a billion-dollar brand and why he believes success means nothing unless you share it with others. So stick around because there's a lot of wisdom packed in this conversation.
Hala Taha 0:41
Now, here's my original sit-down with John Paul DeGuria. Enjoy. John Paul, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.
John Paul DeJoria 0:50
Well, thank you, Hall. It's really a pleasure being here. I like the focus of your podcast helping others out.
Hala Taha 0:55
Thank you. Well, we are so honored to have such a successful entrepreneur on the show like yourself. And you have an epic rags to riches story. And so when I was learning about you, I found out that you grew up in Echo Park, Los Angeles, which is now like gentrified. But back then it wasn't such a nice town to live in. You grew up in poverty with a single mom. So let's start there. Take us back to your times in Echo Park. If we walked into your home, what would we see? What would we feel?
John Paul DeJoria 1:23
Well, the first thing you would feel if you walked in my house is, wow, this is a little box. The house I grew up in is just a little bigger than your studio room here. And it was a little one-bedroom house. My father was a deadbeat dad, so by two years old, we really didn't have a dad, my brother and I. But my mom did a good job raising us. So you would find a very small place with a very humble means. For example, we did not have a refrigerator. We had an ice Icebox. Ice boxes were real where the ice man would come around for 25 cents a week, I remember, and put a big giant block of ice in there. It would last the entire week. We had the vegetable man blowing a horn as his truck went up and down Scott Avenue or Furbanks Avenue there.
John Paul DeJoria 2:03
I mean, it was just really unusual times. We never had a television. So this is 1949, 1950, 51, 52. We didn't have a TV. So we didn't have a TV. Know what it was like in, shall we say, the outside world, but our community was made up in those days of a lot of Europeans and Hispanic people, mostly Europeans. Yeah. And everyone just got along with everybody. It was just an interesting thing. Everyone from every race, color, creed, whatever, kind of lived in the neighborhood. And my mother gave us love, nothing but love. So we grew up with a lot of love. That's one thing my mother gave us. And with thought we had everything in the world. We didn't know any better. And then along the way we had many great experiences.
Hala Taha 2:44
So you could have grown up with this victim mindset because you didn't have a lot of money. Your dad had left when you were two years old, but your mother really instilled confidence in you. And she taught you so many lessons about generosity and positivity and the meaning of wealth. Can you share some of your favorite stories with you? I would love to.
John Paul DeJoria 3:02
And then around five years old, my mother became very, very ill. So my brother and I went into foster care. So we were foster children until the time I was about nine and a half years old, but we were the lucky ones because we got to come home almost every weekend and see our mom. Or many other just kids couldn't. So we kind of experienced that. But my mom did something different. She'd made sure that we had to experience a lot of things

What early sales experiences (door‑to‑door, paper routes, Christmas cards) taught him about rejection and persistence?

John Paul DeJoria 3:26
A lot of people experience that we consider to be wealthy. They have much more money. One great example of it was this. My mom, I can remember, brought home once a little small piece of filet mignon steak. And she cut it in three pieces, just about little just square inch hunks or something. And she couldn't.

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