Top 22 Daymond John Quotes

When looking at trends I always ask myself basic and timeless questions about business, and the one I seem to always come back to is, ‘How is this different than anything else in the marketplace?’

The things that I’ve learned is, try to make all the mistakes with your own money and on a small level so that when you are responsible for a partner’s money or assets, you’ve learned, and you don’t make bigger mistakes.

The only thing that scares me in the tech area is that it moves so fast that you have to be ready to invest in 20 things. Because if you just invest in one, next week, somebody has a better mousetrap, and you get taken to the cleaners.

I like to look at things that have been developed and re-developed over the course of time so I know the bugs are worked out of it. And in the business itself, I like to look at sales, by far. I want to see that there is a vetted track record of sales to show the price point has worked.

I’m the kind of person that when I saw a lack of African Americans in the apparel business, that was something I set out to do, and I lead by example.

You don’t have to work for a big corporation if you don’t want to.

Poor people put a low value on themselves and their efforts.

If you go out there and start making noise and making sales – people will find you. Sales cure all. You can talk about how great your business plan is and how well you are going to do. You can make up your own opinions, but you cannot make up your own facts. Sales cure all.

I value an entrepreneur I can get behind and trust, because I know they are attempting to move forward in life.

When you have a large amount of the workforce being laid off, some of them have no other choice but to go out there and invent something.

An entrepreneur needs to know what they need, period. Then they need to find an investor who can build off whatever their weaknesses are – whether that’s through money, strategic partnerships or knowledge.

I consider each business investment based on concept and revenue.

I’ve come to learn that my initial investment is more about the person versus the product that I am buying into. I’ve also learned that I really do enjoy giving worthy people an opportunity of a lifetime.

In my mind, there are too many copycat web products out there that are doing the same thing.

I’m a big advocate of financial intelligence.

Mentors don’t have to be the Daymond Johns or the Mark Cubans. A person running a successful bodega or a tax firm in your community for the last 20 years, that person is working just as much as the individual who’s running General Mills.

I believe the last thing I read at night will likely manifest when I’m sleeping. You become what you think about the most.

A lot of times, I can put a product together with a distributor when I go into my Rolodex for distributors. I can then put it together with a face, such as an artist. And then I can go into my databank of retailers and people that I’ve been working with through the years of retail, and then also manufacturing.

I look to work with businesses that know what they are doing but need larger distribution or exposure.

I think that in the earlier days, when I was a ‘wantrepreneur,’ I was really doing things because I thought what I wanted was to be rich.

Mentors, by far, are the most important aspects of businesses.

I’ve learned, like with anything else, business is only as good as your connections and your resources. And some of the resources that I have are the fact that I work with huge artists.