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The EastAfrican Date: 15.08.2015 Page 47 Article size: 488 cm2 ColumnCM: 108.44 AVE: 162666.66 Technology aside, you must work harderand longer FUBU founder and one of the hosts of the TV programme Shark Tank, was in Nairobi for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. He spoke to WALLACE KANTAI about how to make j^t as an American entrepreneur. He began his business in his mother's garage — even mortgaged the family's house. Daymond, you're famous here because of Shark Tank which airs on local station NTV. The story of how you started FUBU sounds like a myth, but is reality. It's absolutely true. I had a cou ple of hats and shirts and I would put them on these new things called videos which weren't really popular at the time, and people thought I was a huge company. We went out and started getting a lot of orders. To make a long story short, I asked my mother — can we mortgage our home? This is all we had to our name. We'd actually rent out half the home to a bunch of strangers because we needed to pay the rent. She said sure, since you have a bunch of or ders. You know, sales cures all, being an entrepreneur. She said, once you make all these sales, you can put the money back into the house. And that's how we started the business. Now, I almost lost the house — I didn't have financial intelligence — but that's a whole other story, still I found great partners, kept selling the goods, and that's how I'm here with you now. What about fear of failure, though? You were mortgaging your mother's house! It was a very big step, but I tell eve rybody that I had to close FUBU three times from 1989 to 1992 because I ran ship. It is on television, it's very quick, and the whole back story may not necessarily be there. Well, it's very quick because it's tel evision. The shortest pitch on Shark Tank has been 20 minutes, the long est was two and a half hours. You only see eight minutes of that on television. It then takes us anywhere from three months to six months to close the deal, because I have to find out whether you were telling the truth; Did you really have that amount of sales? Do you have the trade mark? It looks simplistic be cause at the end of the day you have to be able to digest it in an hour. But it's not simplistic — it's very hard work, it's real work; these are real entrepreneurs, and this is our real money. Are we getting to the point where we're too quick to want results? That if people do not make it in a month, they want to move out of that business? One hundred per cent. People want to read in 140 characters, they want to wake up like in a music video: Where at the beginning of the video they're poor and at the end they have the car, the girl or the guy and the mansion! It's not like that. Even though technology has changed a lot of things, the fundamen tals of business are still the same. You have to get up before everybody, you have to bust your butt, and go to bed af ter everybody. You can thank everybody for your success but only blame one person for your failure yourself. That's never going to change. There will never be a shortcut to success. out of money, but I kept on trying be cause entrepreneurs will fail. But it's only failure because you put the label "failure" on it. I didn't really fail — it was a process for me to get to a better level to make more sales to make more money to create a bigger business. In Kenya, we know you best for Shark Tank. For Shark Tank, the argument is that it shows a simplistic picture of entrepreneur Ipsos Kenya Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road Lavington Nairobi Kenya The EastAfrican Date: 15.08.2015 Page 47 Article size: 488 cm2 ColumnCM: 108.44 AVE: 162666.66 You're in Africa, you've come here as part of the GES, and you sit on an important presidential panel in the US. What has your experience been like? What sort of entre preneurs have you spoken to? I'm coming here as a PAGE ambas sador — Presidential Ambassador of Global Entrepreneurship. I have seen amazing entrepreneurs here. I have seen people who have created things such as $5 solar lamps that will hope fully replace kerosene; I have seen peo ple who have helped develop land for agriculture; I have seen the conversa tion about bringing back textiles to this amazing country. I have seen amazing things and more importantly, I have seen people who have inspired me, who have way less than I had to start a busi ness, and I believe they'll go on and suc AWARDS: Brandweek Marketer of the Year, the NAACP Entrepreneurs of the Year Award, the Advertising Age Marketing 1000 Award for Outstanding Ad Campaign, the Essence Award, Crain's Business of New York Forty Under Forty Award, Ernst & Young's New York Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the Brandeis University International Business School's Asper Award for Excellence in Global Entrepreneurship Source: Internet/http:// daymondjohn. com ceed and be way more successful than I have been or I am. I have heard too many great things about this country, and I have also heard bad things that I ignored, and I'm glad that I came here. I've met amazing people, and I had no idea that Shark Tank actually played here. I go down the street and see so many amazing people who talk about entrepreneurship, how they want to empower themselves and change the world, and it's an amazing high. I'm glad that President Barack Obama and the White House have appointed me as an ambassador for global entrepre neurship because I think instead of inspiring people here, I have got more inspired than anybody else. BIO AGE: 46 POSITION: Entrepreneur; founder, president, and CEO of FUBU. Investor in reality television series Shark Tank. OTHERS: Presidential ambassador for global entrepreneurship; motivational speaker AUTHOR: Display of Power: How FUBU Changed A World Of Fashion, tells the story of Daymond's journey and provides a roadmap for those who aspire to succeed in business and in life. In The Brand Within: How We Brand Ourselves, From Birth To The Boardroomn, Daymond argues that branding relationships have now seeped into every aspect of our lives. Ipsos Kenya Acorn House,97 James Gichuru Road Lavington Nairobi Kenya