Daymond John Quotes

102 Daymond John Quotes

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[On his mother] She taught me that being poor was a state of mind, and I grew up thinking we were rich even though we didn’t have any money. We were rich in what mattered.
Daymond John

My mother used to say that real estate was the most important thing you could own.
Daymond John

At [the age of] eight, I could make a mean plate of spaghetti, or a mess of scrambled eggs…
Daymond John

You adapt. You recognize that the deck is stacked against you, but you play it anyway. You work a little harder, save a little more aggressively, plan a little more diligently.
Daymond John

We were a good team, me and my mother… I learned by example.
Daymond John

Your kids are watching. Always. Whatever you do, they’re taking notes, so you better do it well, and get it right, or they’ll repeat the same mistakes somewhere further down the road.
Daymond John

I bought my own clothes. And a funny thing happened: the older I got, the more I started to strike out on my own, the more it became important to me to be respected in any room I entered.
Daymond John

I’ve met a lot of successful businessmen and women, and if I had to pick one common trait that links most all of them it’s their ability to interact with people. All kinds of people.
Daymond John

My idea of rich was a million dollars. I didn’t stop to think how I might make that much money, or what I’d do with it once I got it, but that was the figure I had in my head. That was the time frame. Being rich was having a million dollars. Didn’t get more specific than that.
Daymond John

I had it in my head that I would be rich. Million-dollar rich.
Daymond John



I realized you could be a genius artist and a genius businessman at the same time. And putting those two impulses together – that was the real genius move.
Daymond John

By 1999, the FUBU thing had happened in a big way. I had money. I had connections.
Daymond John

You have to focus, one hundred percent.
Daymond John

You’ve got to keep your eye on the prize.
Daymond John

[On Donald Trump] I mean, this guy had more bling than anyone in my neighborhood, except he wore it on his cars, his boats, his planes, his buildings.
Daymond John

[On Donald Trump] He was a kid from Queens, just like me, so I had to see for myself what made this guy tick.
Daymond John

[More on Donald Trump] He had his name on everything, but he made sure his name stood for something.
Daymond John

[At age 20] I thought I knew everything, but of course I had a lot to learn.
Daymond John

I never believed in statistics. Nothing was inevitable, far as I was concerned. My circumstances might have had it in for me, but it was up to me to see that I didn’t head down the same wrong road as most everyone else in my neighborhood. I wanted something better for myself, something more.
Daymond John

[On the foundations of FUBU.] I didn’t plan on doing this, or think it through, but I started to realize that everywhere I went outside of the city, kids wanted to buy whatever I was wearing, right off my back.
Daymond John



I thought, well, if this kid wants my jacket, maybe someone else will want my sneakers, or my jeans. Right away, I started thinking like a wholesaler.
Daymond John

It’s good to be from Queens.
Daymond John

I didn’t want to be a waiter for the rest of my life…
Daymond John

It was one thing to dream about making it big, but to actually go about it with a viable plan… that was something else.
Daymond John

Inner city kids are extremely status-conscious.
Daymond John

I read a lot of books. My favorite, ‘Think and Grow Rich’ [Napoleon Hill] I try to read at least once a year. It taught me to write down my goals and to read them back every morning and every night. It also taught me desire, which the author says is the key to everything else.
Daymond John

I thought I could make a business. I think I was probably drunk at the time, but I’ve since realized that being clear-headed has nothing to do with clarity of vision.
Daymond John

I had some of my best ideas when I was out partying with my friends…
Daymond John

By Us, For Us. It had a certain pride of ownership to it, a certain simplicity. It commanded respect. [Later FUBU – For Us, By Us]
Daymond John

I was content with my bridge able and FUBU backdrop. We might have looked like a band of amateurs, but hundreds of kids came seeking us out, looking for our shirts.
Daymond John



Whatever we were putting out there, people wanted in.
Daymond John

[On FUBU] I couldn’t run this operation from the back of my van forever.
Daymond John

The thing about branding is it isn’t etched in stone. A brand is a mark or an image or a perception we stamp on a product, a concept or an ideal, but it doesn’t last forever. Like anything else, it needs to be nurtured and reinforced, or it will start to fade.
Daymond John

It’s a fluid thing, this branding business.
Daymond John

X doesn’t always mark the stop – but something always will.
Daymond John

If you mean for your product, concept or ideal to get and keep an edge, you need to mark your territory with care.
Daymond John

If small is the new big, then maybe we should also consider that black is the new white.
Daymond John

Throughout my life, I have met the full gamut of billionaires, murderers, activists, icons, devils, angels, leaders, followers, priest and pimps. They all had one thing in common – something they had, something they lost, or something they wanted. And that something was power.
Daymond John

I only exist because of all the people who have laid the groundwork for me to walk in most doors and kick in some others…
Daymond John

There’s no way you could ride around on rims you don’t like.
Daymond John



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