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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