Page 10 - FHM - USA (January 2020)
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Trailblazer
A Dime A Dozen more than we do because they caretaker to insurance A Time for
John Paul Jones DeJoria represent a lot of people that salesman, to door-to-door Change
was born the second son of are worse off than we are. shampoo salesman. In that Fast forward a few years
an Italian immigrant father And just remember this, boys. time DeJoria married and had later and a 26-year-old
and a Greek immigrant That in life, there will always a son of his own but in 1966 DeJoria now had a steady
mother on April 13, 1944 in be people that are worse off his wife left him and their job at Time Inc working as a
the Echo Park neighborhood than you. So no matter what two-year-old son. She took circulations manager for the
of Los Angeles, California. By you have, try and share a all the money they had, as Lifetime, Fortune and
the time he was 2 years old, little bit with people.” Well, well as the only car they Sports Illustrated divisions,
his parents got divorced and that’s always stuck with me. owned. As a result, DeJoria yet DeJoria felt it was a
the financial and emotional Success unshared is failure.” couldn’t pay rent on his dead-end job and soon
pressure of raising fell apartment, and was forced to resigned from the position.
squarely on his mother. Yet it However, success would vacate it and live on the street A good friend suggested to
was at that early age where still be a long way off for the with his infant son. What to him to perhaps make the
his mother instilled the young boy from California as many may seem like a down leap over to the professional
now-famous ethos of the financial pressures on his and out situation, DeJoria beauty industry, an industry
“Success Unshared is Failure” single mother became too reflects back on as something many considered to be quite
when John Paul and his much and she had to send her that shaped him into the man open at the time. DeJoria
brother learned a valuable two boys off to East Los he is today and in a very flourished in this new
lesson. In a recent CNBC Angeles to live in a foster candid interview with CNBC environment and quickly
interview John Paul tells the home. As with most foster he reflects on his past moved up from a sales
story “When I was a little boy home children from that struggles. representative to the
around six years old, we time, DeJoria got involved in “Well, it’s not that often national manager of two
didn’t have any money. It was street gang activity during these days that I run across divisions, the Scientific
my mother, my brother and I his high school years and was someone who doesn’t know a Schools and Jane Salons. A
and we would go to downtown heading down a much darker little bit about my year later DeJoria would be
Los Angeles – they had path. Fortunately, DeJoria background. But when I do at a large convention in
streetcars at the time – on a saw the error of his ways and they say, “You were Florida when he was
streetcar. And one time at when a math teacher he actually living in your car? introduced to Paul Mitchell,
Christmas, my mom gave us a greatly respected approached You were homeless on two who at the time was a
dime and told my brother to him and warned him that he occasions? Even collecting flourishing hairdresser. The
hold half the dime each and would never succeed at soda pop bottles so you and two hit it off immediately
walk over to that person with anything in life if he your two-and-a-half-year-old and nine years later the two,
the bucket ringing the bell continued on this journey. son at the time could live?” I tired of irking their way in
and put the dime in. So we DeJoria listened and cleaned said, “Yes, I did.” And it various jobs, decided to
held it half each, walked over up his act. Graduating from shows you that you could do launch their own company,
and popped the dime in. And high school in 1962 and with whatever you have to do in John Paul Mitchell Systems.
then, uh, we said to mom, no real life goals , a life – don’t have to steal from Of course neither of them
“Mom, that’s a lot of money.” 17-year-old DeJoria joined the anybody, don’t have to knock had any start-up capital and
And it was in those days. Ten United States Navy on the anybody over the head, you when their financial backer
cents. That could buy, you USS Hornet and served for could do whatever you have to pulled out things looked
know, three donuts in those two years. In 1964 he in life to make it happen and bleak. In the now-famous
days. It could buy so much returned to civilian life but along the way, if you don’t CNBC interview, DeJoria
stuff. She says, and I said, without the required funds give up, things will get better. fondly looks back at the
“Mom, don’t we need that to attend college he had to And at your very, very humble beginnings of the
money?” She says, “Yes, we revert to various odds jobs to bottom, the only place you can now multi-billion-dollar
do. But that person needs it make ends meet. From go is up anyways.” company.
8 JANUARY 2020
