Daymond John, the founder of FUBU, made a pit stop at ABC News and The Root to discuss his new children’s book, Little Daymond Learns to Earn. While discussing his latest project, John dropped gems, including his biggest financial mistake.
“Not having financial intelligence early enough in my life, because I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” he said. “As African Americans, you know, many of us haven’t come from legacy wealth. So we don’t have a grandfather or maybe grandmother to maybe tell us that. And when I was coming up, there were, maybe there was the encyclopedia and some other stuff that was written and was 10, 20, 30 years old.”
Added John, “[It’s] not like today when you can go online and immediately see what’s happening in the market or various other things, so my information was limited.”
John also sat with Entrepreneur to discuss Little Daymond Learns to Earn.
“I realized that I had read my daughter one too many princesses and pony books,” he said. “I also realized after all these years on Shark Tank the most common thread of all the people that needed to grow their company or even start a company, is they didn’t know how money works. So they could have had a passion, they could have a skillset, great idea, great invention, but it all went down to the basic fundamentals of not knowing how money works.”
When asked how to raise entrepreneurial children, John said it’s more about developing a business mindset.
“A business solves a problem for somebody or brings somebody joy,” the longtime savvy Shark Tank panelist told his daughter, according to Entrepreneur. “And if you solve a problem, you guarantee you’re gonna bring somebody joy.”
John’s book is out now, and is available wherever books are sold.