He Lived Out of His Car and Started a Business With Just $700. Now He's a Billionaire. Here's His Best Advice About the Power of Grit.

A billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist traces a path from homelessness to major business success. He emphasizes treating “no” as expected feedback rather than a final judgment, staying enthusiastic through repeated rejection while pursuing sales and product adoption. He advises founders to focus on the reorder business instead of chasing only the first sale, believing that strong products earn repeat customers. He connects relentless drive with social responsibility, framing persistence as an operating system rather than a slogan. His experiences include launching a haircare company from limited resources and later building a premium spirits brand despite skepticism about pricing and growth targets.

"DeJoria says entrepreneurs have to stop treating "no" like a verdict. "Be prepared for rejection," he advises, and recalled the importance of staying just as enthusiastic on the next try, even after getting dozens of nos while selling encyclopedias door-to-door. That try, try, try mindset helped him keep going when he was broke and living in his car. It kept him going as he launched Paul Mitchell and was trying to get people to try a product he knew in his heart was excellent. His larger point is simple: persistence is not motivational poster b.s. - it has to be a part of your operating system."

"DeJoria said something every founder should tape to a wall: "Make sure that you don't go into the selling business. Go into the reorder business." He believed Paul Mitchell would survive hardship because "if I had enough people trying my product out, it was so darn good they would reorder," and he carried that same logic into Patrón, even when people said a $37.95 bottle of tequila was too expensive. The experts told him the brand would never top 20,000 cases a year. By the time he sold it, the"

"His memoir, Success Unshared is Failure, comes out June 30 and traces a life that spans homelessness to mindblowing success, digging deep into his philosophy of social responsibility and relentless drive."

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