Daymond John didn’t become a $350 million Shark Tank mogul by playing it safe—or by cutting corners. The FUBU founder went from flipping used cars and waiting tables at Red Lobster to backing hits like Bombas, one of the show’s most successful bets ever—and he says one Ice‑T mantra about shortcuts has quietly guided every step.
“Here’s the truth: If you keep cutting corners…all you end up doing is going in circles,” John wrote on X last week. “Every corner you cut creates a problem you’ll eventually have to come back and fix. The time you think you saved today becomes the wall you face tomorrow. Real progress comes from doing the full lap.”
“Since Ice-T shared it with me, I’m sharing it with you: ‘Cutting corners doesn’t move you forward. It just keeps you going in circles.’”
Leaning in on his own team is one way John said he’s put that lesson into practice.
You can only operate a business in one of two ways: reduce costs or increase sales,” he said in 2024. “Cutting corners on team training isn’t the place to do it and investing in your team is one of the greatest ROIs you can make.”
The stakes for people who try to rush the process can be high: Only one-third of small businesses survive for more than a decade, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Work-life balance does not exist, according to Daymond John—and Mark Cuban and Barack Obama agree
John has also been blunt about the level of commitment required to beat those odds, arguing that the traditional notions of work-life balance don’t always align with the demands of building a successful company—or career.
“There’s no such thing as work-life balance,” John said.
Instead, he advises a focus on carefully structured time and finding what he calls “work-life harmony.”
“My biggest piece of advice to all of you on achieving work-life harmony is to schedule out your entire day,” he added. “Ask yourself what you are going to dedicate your time to and how you are going to steal away moments.”
For John, that can mean blending personal time with productivity. For example, when he walks for exercise, he’s taking calls on the phone, and instead of eating out at restaurants, he often eats at home so he can get back to work quicker.
He’s not the only business leader who has warned that getting ahead often requires a level of focus that stretches beyond the traditional 9-to-5.
His former Shark Tank co-star Mark Cuban has said that ambitious people can’t afford to lose sight of their goals.
“If you want to work nine-to-five, you can have work-life balance,” Cuban told Sports Illustrated last year. “If you want to crush the game, whatever game you’re in, there’s somebody working 24 hours a day to kick your ass.”
Even former President Barack Obama has acknowledged that intense focus is often part of exceptional achievement.
“If you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working and you’re single-minded,” he said on The Pivot Podcast.
Shark Tank’s Daymond John 3-step path to wealth
Ultimately, building wealth doesn’t have to start with a big windfall—those who come from little means just need to make small, disciplined financial decisions, according to John.
His rule of thumb starts with breaking every dollar into three buckets.
“If you have $3, $3 million, or $3 trillion, the first dollar goes for what you have to pay for,” John previously told Fortune in an interview. This includes necessary living expenses like rent, medical bills, heat and electricity, and any debts or loan repayments.
The second dollar—or the second million or trillion—should be invested, but that doesn’t mean it has to be made in the stock market alone.
“Investment can be into a book, into a business, or into the public market,” John added.
The third dollar, or whatever is left over, can go toward enjoyment.
“Buy what you would like to have, but don’t have to have,” John said. “And if you don’t want it, put it back in number two. And over the years, number two will start flowing into bucket number three and number one. And that’s how you really simply look at things.”
