John Paul DeJoria, Co-Founder and CEO, John Paul Mitchell Systems
Might this story be something out of the latest Hollywood movie? Perhaps it should be. Boy grows up poor in the concrete jungles of East L.A., works his tail off, battles homelessness, conquers business and life, marries a beautiful wife, raises a great family and becomes an entrepreneur, mega-billionaire and philanthropist and earns his very own version of the American dream.
For John Paul DeJoria, co-founder and CEO of John Paul Mitchell Systems, all this and a whole lot more has come true. In 1980, DeJoria and leading hair designer Paul Mitchell scraped together $700 which started the JPMS hair care empire.
JPMS currently is celebrating its 25th anniversary and is the No. 1 privately owned hair care company in America with their estimated salon retail sales approaching $800 million. More than 90 different hair care products are sold exclusively in over 90,000 top hair salons worldwide.
"It’s been 25 years and we are still growing," states DeJoria. "I am very excited about our future. I owe it all to our exceptional staff. We have great people from our warehouse to our marketing and sales and educational people, all the way to our associates.
"The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people do all the things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do. Remember, it is out there, but you just have to keep plowing away, and it will soon work."
Over the years, DeJoria has helped or created many successful businesses, including The Patron Spirits Company, which is headquartered in Las Vegas and is the No. 1 ultra-premium tequila in the world. DeJoria also has several homes, including Las Vegas and Austin, Texas, among others.
"I really love Las Vegas, truly the entertainment capital of the world. The people are all really nice here. My favorite places to go to are the House of Blues and the Foundation Room. Good friends Isaac Tigrett and Danny Aykroyd came to me at the beginning and said they had this great idea for House of Blues. They said even if it didn’t take off, at least we will have a place to hang out. I said, great idea, so I invested some money. I’m one of the original investors of House of Blues and still am to this very day which I’m still real happy with."
DeJoria’s philanthropic reputation of giving back to the community -- and to the planet -- is legendary. "Recently, I was on Leeza Gibbons’ show," recalls DeJoria. "I mentioned I had donated several houses to the Tsunami survivors and said during the show if anyone would contribute $10,000 I would cut off my ponytail. We eventually raised over $58,000 for the Red Cross Tsunami Relief. The Red Cross made sure every penny went to the widows and orphans of the Tsunami survivors.
"Also, right now we have a big push toward Mine Seeker. It is headed up by patrons Nelson Mandela, Brad Pitt, Richard Branson and me. Our goal is to remove 70 million land mines from the planet over the next 10-15 years."
John Paul DeJoria shares his winning philosophy on giving back. "Success unshared is failure. If you make it to be successful and you have more than you can take care of, it’s kind of like a giant barbecue. You have all the food in the world. You feed your own children, your friends and your loved ones. Yet, there’s still a lot of extra barbecue left. You should pass it on a little bit and share and let others have a good time with it too."
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Might this story be something out of the latest Hollywood movie? Perhaps it should be. Boy grows up poor in the concrete jungles of East L.A., works his tail off, battles homelessness, conquers business and life, marries a beautiful wife, raises a great family and becomes an entrepreneur, mega-billionaire and philanthropist and earns his very own version of the American dream.
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