What happened in this episode?
John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of Paul Mitchell haircare and Patrón tequila, recounts episodes of homelessness and early financial precarity, including living in his car while trying to launch Paul Mitchell after an investor withdrew during the high-inflation, high-interest-rate period of 1980–81. He describes assembling a first production run on 30-day supplier credit, raising $700 for artwork, then door-to-door selling to salons and using early orders and a 5% prompt-payment discount to persuade a distributor to place a $2,000 order and pay immediately. DeJoria argues entrepreneurs should expect rejection, focus on “reorder” quality rather than constant selling, and avoid rumination about past setbacks.
He also offers contentious personal accounts from his pre-entrepreneur career, including claiming he was fired from Redken after objecting to animal testing and later dismissed from another company after managers criticised him for not attending synagogue or socialising with them. Separately, he makes major geopolitical claims, saying he travelled to Libya to persuade “Omar Gaddafi” to release Pan Am Flight 103 suspects for trial, and that he went to North Korea in the mid-to-late 1990s to encourage Kim Jong-il to enter four-way talks.
DeJoria discusses philanthropy, including backing housing and skills programmes for homeless people in Austin and describing water and education projects in Mali. The hosts also raise modern tools for entrepreneurs and discuss DeJoria’s view that wealth does not guarantee happiness if it displaces family life.
