The Power of Broke: How Empty Pockets, a Tight Budget, and a Hunger for Success Can Become Your Greatest Competitive Advantage by Daymond John and Daniel Paisner

When I started reading this book I didn’t know Daymond John was on Shark Tank. I’ve seen the show before but only a couple times. I am not a fan of reality TV because I know they dramatize reality shows to the detriment of accuracy. They jack up the entertainment value, and in doing so they portray events inaccurately. I’d rather watch this kind of show to learn rather than to be entertained.

Books on business and entrepreneurship are great not only for business types but also for anyone who wants to improve their performance in work or their personal life. The principals of smart business practices translates to all aspects of life. I believe in the entrepreneur, and in the employee who can be an entrepreneur inside someone else’s business. They can use the entrepreneurial spirit to innovate and achieve, an intrapreneur.

Daymond would use his van as a bus.

Daymond John started his business FUBU (short for “for us, by us”) with $40. He made knock-off hats at home that were similar to more expensive ones, and sold them out of his trunk. He later grew the brand making it a lifestyle. FUBU is now a 6 billion dollar business.

The main theme of the book is: a lack of resources can motivate you to be innovative in growing the business. The idea of being “broke” will cause the entrepreneur to work really hard to be creative in coming up with ways to advance the business. The author is against large infusions of cash into the business. He says that the the entrepreneur becomes lazy, dependent on the cash – when the cash runs out, the business goes under. Also when you receive cash for the business it comes at a cost, usually in the form of control or ownership of the company.

The author tells a story of not financing 200K to an athletic shoe duo , they diversified the product line too far. Having a couple styles of shoe is ok. However considering the fact that they needed 12+ different sizes of each shoe type in inventory at all times led to problems when the owners grew the shoe style lineup to several different models, this 12x’s or more their manufacturing and inventory requirements.

Daymond John was one of the sharks who rejected the deal. Ouch. Nobody’s perfect and this isn’t the first deal to slip through Sharktank’s fingers to go on to become a blockbuster hit. However, the author’s tips in the book are still quite valid. Hindsight is 20/20.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/27/amazon-buys-ring-a-former-shark-tank-reject.html

The author uses several case studies in making his points.

Tim Ferriss – Multi-NYT best selling author, podcaster, performance optimizer, etc. In 2001, Ferriss founded BrainQUICKEN and sold the company to a London-based company. Ferriss is an angel investor and advisor to startups.

Acacia Brinley – one of the top influencers on Tumblr and social media “Selfie” Queen. Sponsors and endorsements.

Harvey Finkelstein – made t-shirts for his college to put himself through law school. He was one of Shopify’s first customers sh he had experience building an online store on their platform. He became their Chief Operating Officer.

Kevin Plank – played fullback at the University of Maryland, invented better moisture-wicking fabric and started Under Armour.

Rob Dyrdek – world-renowned skateboarding star, built identity and used his passion to build a multimillion-dollar brand. He is the founder of the Street league Skateboarding (SLS) Skateboard competition.

Loren Ridinger – founder of Market America, a fashion business and internet merchant.

Moziah Bridges & Tramica Morris – started making bow ties at nine. At 13 he’s sold 200k worth of handmade ties.

Mark Burnett – Worked as a nanny, sold t-shirts by using a fence at Venice Bea