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

Episode Date: August 17, 2026

#998: Join us as we sit down with John Paul DeJoria – entrepreneur, philanthropist, co-founder of Paul Mitchell and Patrón, and author of Success Unshared is Failure. John Paul shares the extraordinary story of going from being homeless twice to building some of the most recognizable brands in the world, including launching Paul Mitchell with just $700 and living out of his car. In this episode, he breaks down the scrappy strategies, resilience, and mindset that helped him turn setbacks into billion-dollar businesses, and why he believes rejection is simply part of the process. John Paul also opens up about building a blended family, raising children without spoiling them, the role of philanthropy in his life, and his perspective on wealth, happiness, and success. He shares the lessons he learned from being fired, starting over, and betting on himself, along with his philosophy that "Success Unshared is Failure" and why focusing on the next step, rather than the obstacle, can change the trajectory of your life.   For Detailed Show Notes visit TheBossticks.com   To connect with John Paul DeJoria click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Head to our ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of the products mentioned in each episode.   To learn more about John Paul Dejoria and his book "Success Unshared Is Failure" visit https://bit.ly/JPDejoria-Book-Success.    This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential Shop your nightly ritual now at https://shopskinnyconfidential.com.   This episode is sponsored by ARMRA Go to http://armra.com/SKINNY or enter SKINNY to get 30% off your first subscription order.   This episode is sponsored by Wayfair Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5% back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to http://Wayfair.com to shop all things home.    This episode is sponsored by Nutrafol For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping when you visit http://Nutrafol.com and enter promo code SKINNYHAIR.   This episode is sponsored by Function Health Check your health the way I do. Function provides 160+ lab tests for $1/day and member pricing on advanced imaging. Join at http://functionhealth.com/SKINNY and use gift code SKINNY25.   This episode is sponsored by Revolve Shop at http://REVOLVE.com/SKINNY and use code SKINNY for 15% off your first order. #REVOLVEpartner   This episode is sponsored by ThirdLove Use code BOSSTICKS15 for $15 off your first purchase at http://thirdlove.com.   This episode is sponsored by egglife Find egglife wraps chillin' in the fridge at Aldi, Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, Walmart & more. Visit http://www.egglifefoods.com to find a retailer near you. Produced by Dear Media

Today we're joined by an absolute legend. John Paul DeGioria, the founder behind two of the most iconic brands in the world, Paul Mitchell and Patron Tequila. In addition to being one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, he's also a philanthropist and one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs of our time. But long before building industry-defining companies, John Paul experienced poverty, foster care, and homelessness twice. His journey is a powerful reminder that where you start doesn't have to determine where you end up. He went from being homeless to becoming a self-made billionaire. What makes him so inspiring isn't just what he's built. It's the resilience, generosity, and optimism he's carried with him every step of the way. Today we're talking about perseverance, purpose, leadership, giving back and what it really takes

to build a meaningful life and lasting legacy. This is not only a business playbook. It's a life playbook. It's about perseverance. It's about pulling yourself up when life gets tough and much more. With that, John Paul DeGioia, welcome to the Bostics. Let's get the lay of the land with you. You mentioned off air that you were homeless.

Correct. In our research, we saw that you were homeless twice. Is that true? That's correct. Okay, talk to us about that. Oh, you bet you. Well, the first time I was homeless, I was in my early 20s, and had a baby when my wife was 19 and I was 20.

So anyways, after a couple of years, she was just too young and came home one day and big note there on the floor with a pile of clothes, my little two and a half-year-old son sitting there and saying, I can't handle being a mom anymore. He'll be better off with you. Good luck, guys. By the way, there's no more money left. And she took our only car. had I known about this, you know, I would have made some changes.

However, she'd set this up three months in advance, wiped out her account, didn't pay any of the rent for three months, didn't pay the utility bill. So she kind of timed it where we're within days of getting everything shut out and being evicted. So there I was, you know, with a little kid and no money and no car. She took her only car. Why do you think she did it that way?

Was she angry with you or was she just an angry person? Because that sounds very, you know, vengeful in a lot of ways. She was a little bit of an angry person. Sometimes when you're that young getting married, you shouldn't even be allowed to get married that young. But it's just one of those things she had to do in those days. And she just was just frustrated with everything. You know, the responsibility of being a mom tied up all the time. And, you know, who knows the other details.

But it was many, many years before I saw her again. And how did you personally manage that at the time? Like, where did your head immediately go when you read that note? Well, first thing was, oh, my God. Holy shit. I was like, whoa. So immediately, I just. looked, well, I need money and I need a car. So that was my whole thing. I need a car and money.

And happened to have a relative of hers, by the way, that had this old Cadillac, 1950 Cadillac with a blown water pump. You'd have put water in every four hours. But I called her up. She says, you could have the car just sitting here, as you know, for years doing nothing. So I had a car. And we needed money. Well, I didn't have any money. Wouldn't get a paycheck for things I was doing for another week. So what I did was, in my day, if you went and took a soda pop bottle, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, dad's roof here, whatever. All grocery stores and all liquor stores had to buy it from you. Two cents for a little one, five cents for a big one. Put my kid in the car, went to vacant lots, and at night when the gas stations were closed, took their bottles, went cashed them in, and that's so we

survived. And that first time around, after a short period of time, very dear friend of mine who was all in the book of, you know, a biker guy, heavy-duty biker guy, found me and said, Johnny, you know, we went to school together. He said, I heard you were down and out. I have an extra room in my house. Why don't you move on in. His name was Lee Meyer. Move on in and some of our biker mamas will take care of your kids while you work. And you're able to work.

And that was really good. And so what at this point are you working on? At that point, I'm not working on anything. I'm in between jobs. I just finished being the announcer, a very young kid, as an announcer for the sportsification and recreational vehicle show in Anaheim, California. So it was a master ceremonies. But a week from then, a check was coming in.

And then from there was a matter of now I've got to get a job really quick here because what money I had was going to last me to I was able to go out and look for another position. I was in between jobs at the time. So how do you go from being homeless and you maybe could walk us through this journey to being a multi-billioner? Sure. Be very, very happy to. I mean, that's an inspiring story. I'm sure it happened overnight. Well, no, then I will go from the second time I was homeless.

Okay. I'd worked for several companies in the professional beauty industry and had very high management jobs with them. So with a friend of mine who was the top hairdresser, the most avant-garde guy around named Paul Mitchell. This was in the 1970s. We're the best of pals for nine years. And he tried to start a product line himself. And it failed, unfortunately. It wasn't the right quality.

There was no program set up. So I said, Paul, you're a friend of mine. I've just been involved in consulting for companies. I said, let me give you a helping hand launching this. And then I realized it would have gone under. One, I could reformulate all of his products, I had the people to do that. Second of all, I could run a business. I'm not a hairdresser.

And he didn't know anything about business. Just a really great guy. So we decided, you take 30%, I'll take 30%. I could do this with half a million dollars. We'll give the investor 40%. So a friend of mine at Citicorp got us an investor for half a million dollars. That's what I needed to start the company with. So everything's going really great.

My relationship I was with at the time wasn't going really good. So I left her with the newer car, a whole bunch of money, took a few hundred dollars in my pocket, and went down the hill in the used car. It was an older used car, but a nice one. So I went down the hill to get the money. It never came in. So a friend of mine, Dick Holthouse, who arranged it all, and I finally got together later that evening, he said, JP, and this is a good thing for your listeners to know.

inflation in the United States in 1980 was, and 81, was 12.5%. Unemployment, 10.5%. Interest rates, if you could get a loan, minimum interest rate was 17%. Wow. And you could imagine that. People are complaining about interest rates right now. Oh, my God. And we waited in a line for gasoline.

Not the best time in the world. So the guy said, hey, there's too much at risk right now. These guys aren't going to make it, you know, just one of those things. I'm not going to invest. pulled out the last minute. I went down the hill there. The money did not come in. And it was, oh my gosh.

And he told me why. So here I am with no money, we're ready to take off with this company, and there's no money, no nothing. However, before we knew there was no money, because I was known in the industry, I went to the bottle maker, the silk screener, the filler to work on a new formulation with friends of mine.

It was all set to go on 30-day billing. Well, we have no money now, but nobody knew that. So that same exact day when I found we had no money, I instantly called up the bottle man and said, look, instead of 100,000 bottles, could I have 10,000? 3,000 shampoo one, 3,000 shampoo, 2, and 4,000 are unique conditioner, 10,000. They said, of course, the sample order, no price yet, just a sample order. I told the same thing to the silk screener, the same thing to the filler. And again, we had 30-day credit with all of them.

So they shipped them on over. We had one thing missing, and that was the artwork. He wanted $1,000 for it. I had a few hundred dollars in my pocket. My friend Paul came over from Hawaii where he was living with his girlfriend, Gene Bra. And he was totally disappointing. So he wanted some money.

He was a little older than I was too. And I said, man, we don't have it. How much money do you have, Paul? Can you spare? He said, 350 bucks to the JP, I need the rest. That's like a spare. And I had a couple hundred bucks in my pocket, but I had to live.

So I went to my mom's house. And I was just too proud to tell her what happened, could have had my old, room back. She could have fed me and all that, but I was too proud. So stupid me said, Mom, can I borrow $350 from you? She said, Johnny, you make so much good money. What do you do with $350? New business, mom, I'll tell you'll pay it back in a month. Of course, son, here you go. That left me a couple hundred bucks. So I had my car. I've lived in it before. So you had to live in a car. So I lived in my car for a few weeks there. You know, I had a blanket. I had a pillow,

whatever clothes, Griffith Park in Los Angeles wasn't far away. That's where I would shower, get it together. And then I found out how to live off $2.50 a day. There was a freeway cafe that if you went there after nine in the morning, but before 11, and you want a breakfast, they gave you the 99-cent trucker breakfast, okay? What do you get? One egg and your choice of either one piece of bacon or one piece of sausage, right? Okay. One piece of toast that you also get right? And the orange juice or a coffee, whatever you wanted. Well, I took the biggest thing. I took the egg. I took the sausage. It was bigger than the bacon. And then, of course, I took the orange juice and one piece of bread and, of course, ate it all up. So that lasted me until the early afternoon.

And then later on in the day, El Torito in Tolucale, California was a big chain called El Torrio mixed in restaurants. They started something called happy hour. You get there after 4.30, but before 6, to try and get some traffic. 99-cent margaritas. Now, they weren't patroned margaritas, so, you know, but it was okay. So I had enough money to be able to do that and at the same time leave a very small tip,

but they would give you free little postadas, little enchiladas, just little teeny ones, right, and a whole bunch of salsa. Well, after about 20 of those, you're pretty full, and the salsa, of course, was the vegetables. So after a few days, they kind of caught on and said, are you down and out or something you're eating here every day you're eating everything in sight,

And I told them the truth. And they said, well, you know, we'll do what we can for you here to help you out. We wish you luck. So a couple of days later, an enchilada would arrive or a taco would arrive. That was nice. And when I found them, when I made money a few years later, they got the biggest tips they've ever had in their life. Because they gave me not knowing whether I'd be making it or not. So anyways, going back to Paul Mitchell and our set up there.

So I called up every single person, right, but I had to go to the guy to get our art. So we went there to get the art, and we told them the truth. We have $700. That's it. The artwork is $1,000. Can we give you $300? And as we sell products gave you some more? His answer was, nope, because I'll probably never see the other money.

He said, $700. He says, I'll take it. I said, but that's all we have. He goes, I'll take it. So there I am with a couple hundred bucks in my pocket. I have my artwork. So I immediately had called anyways up. SETCO, the bottle company, the screener, immediately went to the screener, gave it to him.

From the time the bottles arrived to the time they were silk screened, to the time they were filled at the filler with our formulation, right? All that took two weeks. I had two weeks left before the first spill was due. So I went up a big street called Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley of L.A., knocking door-to-door beauty salon, beauty salon to sell my products. I finally ended up with about 12 orders. And it's in the book, How to Do Something Like This, or how I did it, got 12 orders.

but I left the top blank where you put in the name. Just left a blank. They were anywhere from around $30 to $130. And it took me a week and a half to get it. So I went down to the biggest, but I knew this in advance. I've been in the industry. I knew that number one, he's not going to take me on a new line, no money, no people, no advertising, no promotion, only three products.

So I had to get over that. And I'll show you how I did it a second. That's why I left the top blank. And the second thing was, I needed money right away. my industry paid in 45 days. The biggest, the smallest, 45 days was normal. So what I did was I went in and gave my presentation to the owner, Jim Hendrietta, Parasai, Speedy Supply.

Biggest supply house in Allivalee County for beauty supply. And I said, here's our product, blah, blah, blah. He says, well, wait a minute. You have no advertised. You have no staff. You don't have anything. You want me to build your line for you with no support, no people, no nothing? It's just you and your hairdresser friend.

He says, I can't do it. You're a nice guy. love to help you out, but man, you have nothing other than me building your line and you out to try to sell it with me. If you, you have to give me another reason. I can't do it. I'm sorry. So I went in my pocket and I pulled out 12 checks and laid them out like a fan. Those are your first 12 customers. I've already sold them for you. I've already delivered them for you. Just fill in your name. Smart. He goes, wow, I've never had a pitch like that. Now, we were really hard up. So I said, if you'll only order $2,000 from us, you could have, and this is 1980,

you could have all of L.A. County and half of Orange County, because we really need the money. He goes, okay, but you better show up the next day to help me sell this stuff. I said, okay, no problem. I said, but there's one more thing I'd like to ask you. Could you please give me a check when we get here? And he laughed. He said, Paris A beauty supply. We pay our bills in 45 days.

He says, okay, give me another reason why I should do that. And I knew this in advance. I said, because I'm going to give you a 5% discount for doing it right now. And his words were, that's 60% a year. That's pretty good. Okay, but you better show up. Then he went to our 25th anniversary, which is 20 years ago. And he told everybody, so JP walks out of my office within a minute or two, I get a phone call from my loading dock.

And my manager says, there's some guy here loading his car wants to check for $2,000. And that's how he got going. Jim came back, laughed his head off, had to be the check. And that was enough to kind of go over the hump. But since we had no money, no promotion, no nothing, it took us about two years to actually pay our bills on time. So when people asked me, when did you know you made it? I said after two years, because it was the first time we could only pay our bills on time,

but at $2,000 left each. So we thought we really made it. So you've obviously been down and out and knife heads. It's such tremendous success. What would you say to someone who's in that survival chapter? right now and doesn't necessarily see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's an excellent question. It's all about what do you do?

And that's why America needs it so bad right now, this book, is number one. There's nothing you could do about what happened yesterday the month before the year ago. You cannot change yesterday's newspaper. So why sit around and think about, oh, my God, if I would have done this differently, I'd never be where I am or so and so screwed me over every reason in the world. You can't do anything about it. What you've got to do, the same thing I did is, what's your next step? You got to be fed.

You got to have a place to live. What is your next step? Then when you get to the next step, what's the step above that? It was always look ahead what the next step is. And then that's how you do it. And then you wait it out. I tell people that two things you've got to remember in life, especially if you're really down and out.

Number one is be prepared in life, even if you're not down and out. Be prepared in life for a lot of rejection. You're going to get it. Now, I learned this selling encyclopedia's door-to-door for Colliers Encyclopedia, commission only. No salary, no leads, just bang it on doors. But they said something to me that stuck with me. It was this. Very few of you are going to really make it. Those that'll do okay, you'll make some good money. But you've got to know this. You've got to know that you're going to get rejection. So you've got to knock on door number 51 with as much enthusiasm as you did on door number one.

No matter whether they were closing your face politely or not politely, you just got to. Well, for me, it was door 100 and something, but I believed what they said. So I was just as enthusiastic being prepared for rejection. A lot of people aren't. The average lifespan of an encyclopedia salesman selling door to door on commission only is three days. And you're gone, because you give you no money. You got to do it. I lasted about three and a half years. So it's one of the best lessons I ever learned in life. And I tell people that today that no matter whether you've made it, whether you're poor, no matter what the situation is, if you're ready for a lot of rejection, even when you're dating in life, be ready for a lot of rejection.

Because if you are, it's not going to hit you the same way. Oh, yeah, that's some of the rejection I was waiting for. Also, the second thing would be this. Make sure your service or your product does not go into the selling business. Go into the reorder business. Okay. What do I mean by that? So good.

Your product is so darn good. They'll want to use it again through word of mouth or through a service or a one-time product. They'll tell other people about it. And most people don't do that. What do I have to do to sell it? But the thing with me was like Paul Mitchell, the product was so good. If we get enough people's hands,

they're going to, you know, they're gonna get it and want to reorder it. When I started Petron, you know, nine years later, same thing with Petron. We started it, we knew nothing about the industry, but when you had the best tequila in the world. And of course, it became number one in the world. I was so inspired by reading that you are,

you love the rebuild business, you love the subscription, business. I'm trying to build my whole brand right now around daily habits that are consumables that you have to be on subscription for. Good for you. So that was really interesting to me. And I guess what I'd like to know about that is, is there the right price point? Does it need to be a certain category or can it be anything? It could be anything. As long as whatever it is that you're making is so good, they'll want to use it again or they'll want to buy it again or even tell people about it. I'll give you an example. My daughter, Michael Lean, is the CEO, and she just turned 42, she's the CEO of Paul Mitchell globally, and we're in 128 countries.

Michaelina's had every kind of a SUV, because she's got three beautiful kids, every kind of an SUV you could ever imagine. And then she found this one SUV, you would call it a medium price. And she said, that's the best one I have ever had. I'm not going to be reordering all these expensive cars anymore. This is the best one I've ever had. Well, what is that SUV? you have to tell us with the SUV. There's a Volvo.

Oh, so she just bought, that's the best one. Volvo is a great car. She says it's a great. And she'd had, you know, not to put anybody down, but she's had everything above that you could ever imagine, you know, in your life. She loves it. She said, I like the performance of it. I like the way it works.

I love the safety. I love everything about it. So when you say, and you said this off air and on air, that everyone in America needs this book. Oh, yes. What state is American entrepreneurs in for you to say that? The majority of those that I've spoken to or I love. lecture at universities or even at high schools. I get the majority of people when I ask them,

what are some of your biggest concerns? And a lot of people say, you can't do today what you guys did yesterday. Okay, you can't. Or America doesn't work the same way. And then obviously in some areas, which is very infrequent, is it's the 1% of America that have all the money. We don't have anything. But when I tell them, guys, I was homeless and I made it really, really well. And you can still do that. And that's why I wrote the book. because I can't tell that story over and over again. It takes probably two hours to tell the story minimum. So that's why I wrote the book,

because people need to know that if I could start with inflation and unemployment and the disasters we had when we first started and no money leaving my car, today you could do a lot easy, okay? Over there for an office, my office cost me $16 for the year. It was the smallest peel box available in the Universal City, California for $16. But I had an address and I had a place to send things to.

An answering machine those days was $49 in her friend's house and a lady that I knew quite well with a big British accent was the voice on it. So it seemed like we had an office, you know, we had more than one employee because her voice was on it. You know, hello, John Paul Mitchell's systems. And we're so busy right now. I'll try and get back to you. I'll try to have JP call you personally. I got to go now, goodbye. Of course, I called everybody because there was nobody there.

So we figured out how to do it. Today it's so easy because, yes, you get a PO box, but you have two things today that we didn't have, okay? You have computers. For me to get stationary, I had to go to a print shop where they set type, right? It was under five bucks. They set John Paul Mitchell Systems, P.O. B.O. Box, blank, blank, Universal City.

So they gave me that for that. And then for four cents a copy, they made a photocopy of it on top of where the letterhead would normally go and the envelopes. So I instantly had stationary. I had envelopes. I took the stationery, drew lines in it, and I had an invoice. So, you know, with minimum means, it's amazing what you could do these days. I think, so one of the great things about social media is you get to see a lot and we're also connected

and you communicate so easily and email and all these things. One of the bad things is there's a lot of room for negative talk. Oh, yeah. And I think if you get enough people in a shared environment that can speak negatively, it's easier to find the negative voices a lot of times than it is to find the positive. You actually have to seek out the positive. And because of that, I think that people sometimes lose fact about where the world is. And I spend a lot of personal time reading about a lot of history, not just, you know, but a lot.

And what I try to remind people on this show is we are the luckiest generation ever. Ever, that's right. Because people don't realize, like, if you lived in a different time, people could come and just kill you, take your place. That's correct. You know, they could rape your family. I know that's really vulgar. They could, sickness could come. We had no way to heal.

You could get an infection in amputations and disease that kill you. You could have all sorts of things that happened to just take up. Also, it was much harder to make a living because there was only a few people who controlled a lot of the world. And even, like, I'll give you a small example. We've been doing this show now for a decade and you just walked into our offices, one of our offices. If we wanted to do this same thing that we started 10 years ago in your time and just sit on a mic and start talking to the world and start getting people to pay for us to do that, the barrier to entry to even just do something as simple as this was so much more challenging in your time. I would have had to go to some radio company. I would have had to get approved.

Good luck. Like all of these things. And you're talking about a small, small sliver. Now anyone can jump online and start creating anything or selling anything or producing something online with AI. And I think if you start to look at the world like that, you start to realize there's endless opportunity. But if you look at it and start to tell yourself, oh, I mean, even what you were talking about, interest rates and loans and inflation. Distribution. All of these things. Michael, may I cover that with you, distribution?

Sure. That's why it's so easy today if you have a computer where my day I was knocking on doors begging someone to buy my product basically, but in a nice way, of course. There's something now when I invested in this company. It's called Global S-K-U, like Global S-K-U, like in South, K-L-K-L-E-L-L-E-L-U-L-L-U-L-U-L-U. Here's what it is. You take this. It's the greatest thing in the world for an entrepreneur.

It starts at, I believe it's $15 a month. You take your camera and you take a picture of anything. Okay, let's say, for example, a t-shirt, a used one hanging up in your closet, half a bicycle, someplace, take 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 it? 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 $2 t-shirts.

One had Illinois across it. The other one had some weird artwork. They paid the $2, one outside and hit 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 $100. One of the T-shirts. The other guy, it took a few months, but sold it for almost $20. just to see how this works.

So I wanted to see it work. So when I was in their office, there was a clock. I 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. I'll love it. 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 I 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. But the point of you saying this, like I think there's 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. Do 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 that the root of that is?

Not having the knowledge. And a lot of times the wrong press gives you the wrong mess. 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, okay, and they wanted me to represent the 1%. It was during the sit-in in Wall Street. I said, okay, big station. So I went on down there to represent, as they say, the 1%, and the minute they got me on,

they said, well, JP, you know, you're representing the 1%? What 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. You knew nothing about alcohol when I started a 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? Am I going to fight anybody? They can't fight me because I was homeless. So I am the 99% and on 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 struggle to get there. They want to 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. My purpose was, and I realized that a few years back, is to, if I ever make it in life, well, and then you one day would somehow, that I would do something to change the world. It's like your epitad. 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 be for it. 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 1 and 03 to go on trial, and they did. I'm the guy that went into North Korea in the late

mid-90s to convince Kim Jong-il in 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. Even went over there in North Korea and was invited as their 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. But 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 Loves 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 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 it spent a lot of money, you know, way over a million dollars, put it that way, okay, to build us at Mobile Loves and Fish is in East Austin. And 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. It's called Toof, the other one's foundation. All people have medical challenges. So we immediately got an area where we could build TIEP, you got to see this one. It's called Toof, the other one's foundation. All people have medical challenges. So we immediately got an area. We could build TIF. 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 we're never working before. For them, I had to build a skill center where they can learn skills that they could take care of regardless of what their mental challenges might be. So it's, and then keep Austin fed. My God, you know, there's a group of people as one lady going around collecting food during COVID and trying to find people that needed. to old folks, people that were homeless, you know, houses, whatever, just give them food.

And that's, she was doing the best she could with a couple volunteers. Well, when I got a hold of her, today she has trucks, she has 170 some of my volunteers, and she has a working staff. So we're able to take care of people here locally and that are veterans, 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 Patriots Hall where they could come, show them all the benefits and most of them 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. So 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 it one day with Paul Mitchell. So it took me two years before I even knew we 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 be able to be able to be able to be able to, 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've got to leave everything behind you and just go and march forward. You've got to have faith in yourself, and you've 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. I 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 were 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, you 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 Kent and 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. It makes us look good. Your upper management, go along with it. So I went out kind of with my head down. Oh, geez. 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. I said, because it is. She says, you just can't fall in line with a corporate person. You should be an independent, go sell airplays 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, it just purchased Firmidol, a hair care company. And they immediately found out that I was leaving Redkin. Immediately they grabbed me to go into and the two owners of the company, not owners, the two managers, president, brought me on to train their entire staff there on sales, things of that nature, sales management, everything else. I 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, J.P., you do not play Canessa's with us on Sunday.

We know you don't go to synagogue with us because you and you're not Jewish. We are. So you don't hang out with the group. You're like, you come to work, you do your job, and you're in Griffith Park. It's some loving 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. Now, today I could sue them 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. He 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 best. 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. There is something much more powerful than we are. Had I not learned from Redkin, one part of the beauty industry, from Cintyx for a adult, 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's

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. It'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. It's over.

Quick break to talk about egg life. Guys, I've got to be honest. This summer's 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. This time of year always feels chaotic. I know it does for me. Everyone talks about getting back into a routine, but nobody talks about how hard it is actually make those routine stick. By the time you've made it through meetings, workouts, school pickups, making a nutritious meal feels like a chore. That's why we've been keeping Egg Life, egg white wraps stocked in our fridge because it's quality protein we can take on the go. These

wraps are made from egg whites, not flour, are a total game changer. They're packed with protein, low in carbs, and I love the clean ingredients. Lauren and I are constantly on the lookout for healthy habits and healthy swaps that we can make. Things are going to help us hit our macros and achieve our goals. And this is definitely one of them. It's available in six versatile flavors. And we use egg life as an easy swap from bread, tortillas, or any carb-heavy meals. So if you've been having a busy summer, maybe you've been letting loose a little too much and you want to make that change, this is a great option for you. Whether it's a breakfast before the first meeting, lunch between calls, or a post-workout meal, I like to take them as post-workout and hit my protein goals. They're

convenient, they're easy. Egg Life, egg white wraps, make it easy to sneak high-quality protein into your favorite meals and snacks. And they're for people that have busy lives that are constantly on the go, which I know is many people, especially the parents out there. You can find egg life chilling in the refrigerated section at Aldi, Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, Walmart, and more. Just visit aglifefoods.com to find a retailer near you. One of the places to look if you are moving or if you just want to refresh in your home is Wayfair. If you want to shop for furniture and decor that's built to last, then you have to shop with Wayfair verified. This is your shortcut to durable pieces hand vetted by product specialists using a 10-point quality inspection. They

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Wayfair, every style, every home. All right, I have had quite the hair journey. My hair used to shed postpartum after I had Zaza, and I started to take everything with my hair so seriously, and my hair looks completely different. Okay, it used to be short, blonde, fried, bleached, all the things. and I have transformed it. It is now long, burnet, healthier, thicker, and doesn't shed. And that is thanks to scalp massage, microneedling on my scalp, organ meat, amino acids, and an amazing supplement. And if you are

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Listeners, $10 off your first month subscription and free shipping when you visit neuterful.com and enter promo code skinny hair. That's neuterful.com, spelled n-U-T-R-A-F-O-L dot com, promo code skinny hair. Quick break to talk about function health. We are so lucky to live in a time with modern technology, with tools that we can use to continually enhance and monitor our health. This is why Lorne and I love function health. August is National Wellness Month, but most health trends equal buying random gadgets and guessing at what actually works. This includes supplements as well. I wanted to stop guessing and actually look at the data behind my body.

Ever since we've discovered Function Health, this has taken all the guesswork out of the supplements we take, out of the things we want to do to make change. This is actually one of the first times in modern history that we're able to look under the hood to see what's actually going on. So whether you're in a busy travel season or you're wondering what's going on with your baseline health, function health can help you figure it all out. What I love is that functional takes your blood and then figures out what's going on behind your energy, your immunity.

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There's so many things. What I love about this company is this gives you the exact input so you know exactly what you need to do to change your health. This is so important because so many of us are just using guesswork to wonder what we're taking. We're buying supplements we may not actually need. We're spending money on things. That may not actually give us a benefit.

This gives you all the data you need to actually make change. So check them out. I use this and you should too. Check your health the way I do. Function provides 160 plus lab test for $1 a day and member pricing on advanced imaging. Join at functionhealth.com slash skinny and use gift code Skinny 25. Again, that's functionhealth.com slash skinny. When you say you've 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, girlfriend, or significant, whatever, that left us, right? And 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, 10 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 and 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 it all night long, right? And 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 2006, 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. Fine, is that what you like? We'll peek out and giving 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. It's 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, motivated him and say, well, no, no, here's what you could think about that. And 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 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 the size 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, if 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 out 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 if the company grow, but when did we first notice it really exploding? November to December, January, February, March, April. Come five months later, all of a sudden, everything turned into good luck. 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 and 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. And 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. Correct. 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? a little bit of my history, just some research on me, but they don't think in their heads. It'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 they're were 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 I've, you know, we've been doing this for a long time now.

And, you know, when we started doing this, we were doing it literally out of our kitchen closet together on equipment that costs us two or three hundred bucks. And I think what people they see now, they see like the offices and the, in the different in the lifestyle. But what it's been is it's been one foot out. Like we're coming up in two weeks on our thousandth episode, 1,000, which which is a lot of, whoa. But it's, but what I say, like,

you made it. 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, but 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. Right. Right. Because you're going to say, like, oh, if I'm unlucky or if I don't have those circumstances, is 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? When I was in high school, I always had a job after high school.

And before, if I had what 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, brush the blankets. I was a janitor, basically. Okay, after school every day. One day went in and Stewart said, come here, Johnny, want to talk to you?

He said, okay, what's up? He said, last night I stayed here after closing hours and I went up to the mezzanine, had a mezzanine there with one of our old type cots that is out of metal little cut on top and you can see underneath it. He says, I put my watch on the table that fell on the floor, I reached down and grabbed it

and I looked under the cot, it could help it. It was no dust under there. He says, so I pulled the cot out. There was no dust behind it. then the filing cabin next door, 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. We didn't have a lot of jobs where I went to school. Okay. Anyways, so Stewart 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 for anybody like this before. I'm going to give you a raise to $1.50 an hour. I was the last. 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 raise. 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, is how far have you come in life with what you do have. A lot of people say, give me a few million dollars. I'll be the happiest person in the world. I'm out of dead. 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. 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 a Ramco, 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. He found out someone was doing toll calls on his home phone. This is a richest man in the world. Put a pay phone in his house. It is crazy. So one of the very few interviews he ever did, very few interviews, the lady asked him, Jay 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 than I have already. But your question, no one's ever asked me. Would I change something in my life 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 was DiCaprio made a movie about that 10 years ago. He said no, right? Yeah, exactly. That was Jay 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 why I do, yeah, come on and yeah, go with us, I'm very dictatorial, dictating with them. He says, but I've never been happy. So she asked them 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. Yes, we do. Okay. What is, 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, if 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, when he was in Trinity grammar school here in Austin, And we started, we went all the way through school here, down to college. But he came home one day. I think he was at the end of 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, 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. you're probably rich too. Rich is being happy and healthy. Another example of this to give you is when John Anthony, same kid, okay, I'll just use 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, 11, because he came to me when it was $13. I gave $13 for the week. That's going to the movies, do whatever he wants, right? He says, Dad, can we sit, dad? I said, Dad, you're too old-fashioned. Do you have that $13? dollars you give me, it's God at the movie theater. I got to pay the movie theater get in, the popcorn, the soda pop. I 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. That's how I kids I'm gone. My daughter is one of the top race car drivers in the world right now, Alexis DeJoria. My daughter, Michael Lane, is CEO of John Paul Mitchell's system. John Anthony. My son has two different businesses going right now. So they all have to do some. 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.

And he's got a beautiful business in Portland, Oregon, just outside of Portland, doing extremely well. Quick 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 Colossum 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,

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That's Bostick's 15 for 15% off your first purchase. One product that has transformed not only my sleep, but my jawline, is mouth tape. I mouth tape every single night. There is not a night that goes by that I miss mouth taping. And the first thing that I notice is I wake up with way more energy. When your nose breathing all night, you get so much more oxenie. It's incredible. And also it supports your tongue posture while you sleep, which sculpts your jawline and makes it stronger. So what I've noticed is better tongue posture, better sleep, more energy in the morning. I cannot live without it. The other night I actually fell asleep for like two hours without my mouth take and I woke up with a dry mouth. I felt like I was almost like hung over. I can't explain it. I have to have this as my nightly routine. So what I do is, After my skincare, I put the skinny confidential mouth tape on.

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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. And 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 to, 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 billioners, they're just busy all the time, you know, busy all the time because they want more, more, more. Why, I don't know. You got so much. Whatever more I get my other businesses, one, I'm hiring lots of people and 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 Molly,

the probably worst country in the world for money. They are impoverished like you wouldn't believe, landlocked, Molly. 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. They don't have to go a mile or 10 miles for water. They could have agriculture that you'd 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 can do. But people are not aware of that. You can do these things. And again, another reason for that book, success and sure it 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, 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 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 God inheritance. And 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 troubles 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 those kind of resources. They 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 bad way. I have two friends that lost their kids. Two people that I know.

They were good people. they spoiled the heck out of their friends. Both were suicides. Both were suicides. One, they think maybe drug-related, but they were all suicides. You know, you see that a lot. 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 of 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. They're in Malibu. Malibu, high. And we built them like a small salon, so they can 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, someplace to go, a place to hang out. And all of a sudden, the abuse of drugs or the police reports dropped almost overnight. It's because a lot of them have nothing to do. There was nothing for them to do. Where you take people like myself, we had a job. When 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 you a little word to say about that too, okay? Okay. What's more, let's call it negotiating with people, okay? Got it. Okay. My motto is this, being nice works.

even with jerks. So 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 what? I could appreciate why you want that.

However, I could appreciate that however, and then I tell him the other side of it. Michael's going to use that. I can see it. No, it's fine, with the smile, with the smile, you know, I can 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 can appreciate that. That's great advice. You really 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 you 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 thing. I would do. For example, in my case, being in the industry, I knew I had no sales force, no advertised or nothing, but 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 did it for you. And then knowing Darwellie 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. 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? Not 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 is 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 give you our bills on time. But we figured away through it knowing we've had the best hair care products there are. We just do 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.

Yes, 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 fall up with an opinion at some point after you've acknowledged that she's right. Well, if it's a little thing, who cares? It was 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.

I 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, you know, I think like, like, as it relates to relationships, I do, I like the point.

I think sometimes people take the little issues and they make them into big things, and that starts to, that takes, 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? They could go on to Success and Sharedness Failure, I guess.com.

They could go on Amazon. It's on Amazon, Success and Sharedness 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 the first, there's a little bit left of the first edition. Grab the first edition, because it'll go to second and third edition. And it could be a real keeper for you. But you are correct. It is something that everybody needs. And I wanted to ask you all, how old is your oldest child? Six. Six. Okay.

Well, whenever they're able to, they can read, right now. Yeah. You 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 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 them. It'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'm going to, I'll have it delivered to you. That's so cool. It's called Mr. Mrs. Squirrel and gratitude. I'm so inspired by you. In fact, a good suggestion is Mr. Paul Padgett, who wrote the book with, and he's right, this is the third of 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. It'd be somebody you'd really good to have. You 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. That was so good.