John Paul DeJoria, co-founder of John Paul Mitchell Systems and The Patrón Spirits Company, tells Daily Report that he starts each day with a few minutes of silence.
“What I try to have go through my mind is absolutely nothing,” he says. “I try to clear my head and just be. No thoughts of the day.”
And twice a year, he goes off on his own for a few days. He says the practice gives him a chance to focus on the big picture and review his work and life with a fresh perspective.
“Rarely does anyone have a chance to spend time [alone] with themselves,” DeJoria says. “That gives me a couple days to write down what I like in the last six months, who I’ve liked in the last six months, what I’d like to change in my life that I didn’t like in the last six months.”
DeJoria, who was in Baton Rouge Saturday to celebrate the recent opening of the new campus of Vanguard College of Cosmetology, has a net worth of about $3.5 billion, according to Forbes. With hairstylist Paul Mitchell, he converted $700 in 1980 into what is today the largest privately held salon care line, with more than 100 products and a presence in more than 100 countries, according to his official bio. In 1989 he co-founded Patrón, which says it produces the world’s first, and still leading, “ultra-premium” tequila.
DeJoria also co-founded several other ventures, including John Paul Pet, JP Selects, ROK Mobile and Marquis Yachts. He says the key to making sure that everything runs smoothly, without micromanaging, is working with “darn good” presidents and partners.
“I look for their ability to communicate,” DeJoria says when asked his criteria for “darn good” people. “They like what they do, and they have the ability to talk to people and treat them how they’d want others to treat them.”
In 2011, DeJoria signed “The Giving Pledge,” started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, and has launched several philanthropic projects. DeJoria likes to say that “success unshared is failure.”
One of DeJoria’s interests is food, which led him to start Grow Appalachia. Instead of feeding the hungry, it seeks to give participants the skills and resources to grow their own food. He says executives and entrepreneurs who also want to give back should pick a limited number of causes that they feel passionate about, and try to make a sustainable difference.
“I’ll never retire,” he says, noting that he put his first company in a 360-year trust 11 years ago. “Paul Mitchell will never be sold.”
—David Jacobs
