Paul Mitchell’s John Paul DeJoria: From Homeless to Billionaire

I came across an interesting Executive Street article this week about John Paul DeJoria one of the co-founders and CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems.  I never realized quite what a rags to riches story he had and thought it was such a great inspiration and a great example of how you don’t need a strong economy to found an enduring economy.

When John Paul DeJoria and Paul Mitchell founded the company in 1980 the economy was much worse condition than it is today.  Inflation was at 12% and interest rates were around 18%!

When their financial backer reneged on a $500,000.00 investment JP had to resort to living out of his car with his son and collecting cans and bottles to pay for food.  He was able to borrow a whopping $350.00 to match the $350.00 that Paul Mitchell had, they invested it in founding the company and the rest is history.  Now he is the 66th richest man in America with a net worth of $4.6 billion.

He has some great tips for business founders:

1) Be prepared for rejection and don’t give up, just keep on going.

2) Do all the things unsuccessful people don’t want to do: work late, work weekends and make sure your product is of the highest possible quality.

3) Focus on how to survive right now and get to the next step.

4) Believe in yourself and your product and tell people about it!