Texas has produced some of America’s best entrepreneurs, though few stories rival the journey of John Paul DeJoria. He went from living in a car with his young son to building John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patrón into billion-dollar brands.
DeJoria says resilience, optimism, and generosity helped him survive rejection and financial collapse before succeeding — and shaped his belief that “success unshared is failure.”
DeJoria grew up in a small house in Los Angeles after his father left the family when he was young. He says his mother “was one of the most positive human beings on the planet” and taught him to focus on what he had instead of what he lacked. He started working as a child, first building planter boxes with his brother and later selling newspapers and Christmas cards. After high school, he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War era before working in sales and eventually entering the beauty industry.
Teachers and employers underestimated him early in life. DeJoria recalls a high school teacher telling classmates that he and a friend “will never amount to anything.” He says rejection later became one of his greatest lessons. “Be prepared for a lot of rejection,” he says. “Be just as enthusiastic on your number 150 as you were on door number one.”
He was accustomed to financial struggles. After his first wife left unexpectedly, DeJoria says he cared for his young son with almost no money and eventually lived out of a car while trying to rebuild his life. Years later, he faced similar hardship while launching John Paul Mitchell Systems during the recession and inflation crisis of the early 1980s. “We started the company with $700 between us,” he says. “I lived in my car.”
The company eventually became one of the world’s largest privately owned hair-care businesses. DeJoria says he learned crucial lessons after being fired from several earlier jobs in the beauty industry. “Had I not worked for those three companies and got fired and learned something from each, I couldn’t have even started John Paul Mitchell,” he says.
Persistence and creative problem-solving allowed the company to survive its first years. DeJoria says he and co-founder Paul Mitchell persuaded suppliers to extend credit, sold products directly to salons, and convinced distributors to take a chance on an unknown brand. “Two years after we started, we were finally able to pay our bills on time,” he says. “We thought, hey, we made it.”
DeJoria later entered the tequila industry with Patrón after tasting premium tequila in Mexico and realizing the market lacked a luxury product. Distributors initially rejected the concept because of its price. “They said, ‘It’s too expensive. You’ll never ever sell more than 20,000 cases a year,’” he says. Patrón later became one of the largest premium tequila brands in the world before its sale to Bacardi.
Texas eventually became home for DeJoria and his businesses. He moved to Austin with his family 20 years ago and later relocated major company operations to the state. “Texas is the best place in the world to start a business,” he says. “It’s business friendly and the people here are friendly.”
Philanthropy remains central in his life. DeJoria says the title of his new book, Success Unshared Is Failure, is about how wealth and success should benefit others. “The one that benefits the most is you because you did something for somebody else,” he says. “You got the greatest high of all highs.”
He supports programs in Austin to address homelessness. He became involved with Mobile Loaves & Fishes after seeing efforts to create housing and job opportunities for homeless residents. “Give someone a break,” he says. “Give them an opportunity.”
DeJoria says adversity ultimately helped shape his life and outlook. “I wouldn’t change anything,” he says. “Those were all lessons learned along the way.”