John Paul DeJoria was homeless. Twice. Today, he sold his company, Patron, for $5.1 billion.
Here's John's incredible story of perseverance:
“My parents were divorced before I was two years old. My brother and I started selling Christmas cards and newspapers when I was nine years old. I’d get up at three in the morning with my brother, to fold and deliver papers every morning just so we could live a little better.”
When his single mum could no longer support him, he went into a foster home.
His high school math teacher told him he’d “never succeed at anything in life.”
In 1966, at 22 years old, his wife abandoned him and his two year old son.
She took the car and rent money, and two days later he was evicted.
John says “It was one of the most frightening times in my life. I was homeless twice, mainly because I was too proud to ask anybody for help. In my early twenties, when it was just me and my son, we had no place to live. I used to go out and collect Coke bottles at night, then cash them in at the corner drugstore for two to five cents.”
He got jobs as a janitor and door-to-door encyclopedia salesman.
Then, while living in his car at 36 years old, he helped his friend, Paul Mitchell, start a hairdressing company with $700 they had between them. Soon after, Paul Mitchell died of cancer and John ended up running the whole company.
10 years after starting Paul Mitchell, at 45 years old, he created Patron Tequila.
Paul says of his startup experience: “The first two years, we lived hand-to-mouth. We should have gone bankrupt every day for two years. After that, it started going up and just continued to grow. And, of course, Patron did the same thing.”
Today, 28 years later at 73 years old, Paul has just sold Patron Spirits to Bacardi Ltd for $5.1 billion. Asked how he feels, he said “Having gone from minus $5 to $5 billion… there’s a big difference there.”
Now that he’s made this money, what’s he doing with it? Giving it away. Paul is part of the Giving Pledge, and has committed to donating his wealth to charity.
He says "I have been so down and out in my life. It makes me feel really good to be financially blessed and give back.”
“Success unshared is failure.”
Perseverance. No matter how tough it gets, keep on going.
Leave a Reply