John Paul Dejoria Success Story
Early childhood was pretty rough for DeJoria, the youngest son of immigrant parents who relocated from Italy and Greece, hoping to find the
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
American Dream. Not unlike other youth growing up in the lower income barios of East Los Angeles, DeJoria soon found himself part of a street gang. But upon graduation from high school, he chose a different path, and enlisted in the U.S. Navy with aspirations of attending college. After his discharge, a brief marriage left young J.P. alone to raise his son as a single parent. “It was one of the most frightening times in my life,” says DeJoria. We lived on a very simple diet of rice, potatoes, lettuce, cereal, canned soup, and macaroni and cheese, but we managed.”
He took on a variety of odd jobs to make ends meet from pumping gas and repairing bicycles, to selling encyclopedias door-to-door, then copy machines, and even insurance. As luck would have it, he was offered an entry-level marketing position with Time magazine. By 1971, he went to work for Redken Laboratories, then the leading professional hair salon product company in the U.S. Then in 1980, DeJoria jumped at the chance to join forces with longtime friend, and famed hair designer, Paul Mitchell, who had carved out a niche for himself by catering to New York’s upper echelon of rock-and-rollers, models, writers, artists and celebrities before moving to the opposite end of the spectrum — and landing in Hawaii. Today, DeJoria heads the multi-million dollar hair empire of John Paul Mitchell Systems with annual retail sales well over $800 million, offering more than 90 products sold in 105,000 hair salons throughout the U.S. and in 75 countries abroad. When not working to expand the JPM brand, JP travels the globe with wife, Eloise and son, John Anthony as stewards of the planet.
So, what is the secret to this tremendous success? DeJoria’s golden rule of “Success unshared is failure,” runs true throughout the company. Sources from within say that it is a place where people joyfully show up for work as opposed to merely showing up to collect a paycheck. Always a trend setter in corporate negotiations, DeJoria admits that “leisure hours are my working way of life. DeJoria considers himself lucky to be surrounded with so many high-powered, fun-loving friends in life. “The difference between successful people, and unsuccessful people, is that the successful people are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people won’t do,” he confidently states. You have to go with your gut feeling about people. As one of the first cruelty-free companies, John Paul Mitchell is a leader in the fight to ban animal testing.
Estimated Net Worth: $4.2 billion
Sources: Entrepreneur.com, Wikipedia.com, Bizjournals.com
