John Paul DeJoria — From Homelessness to Building Paul Mitchell and Patrón | The Tim Ferriss Show

John Paul DeJoria recounts his rags-to-riches story, including two stretches of homelessness and being fired from three companies before launching John Paul Mitchell Systems with roughly $700 in 1980. He explains the sales philosophy that built both Paul Mitchell and Patrón: be in the 'reorder business' by selling only the very best product and telling customers the truth. He shares how Patrón pioneered the ultra-premium tequila category despite a $37 price tag versus $4-5 competitors, and how he overcame distributors who insisted there was a ceiling on sales. The conversation also covers his fitness and diet habits at 75, his deliberate avoidance of email in favor of phone and fax, his biannual solo retreats for life reassessment, and his extensive philanthropy spanning homelessness, ocean conservation, and food rescue.

• DeJoria was homeless twice: first at 22 when his wife abandoned him with their two-year-old son, emptied their bank account, and left him facing eviction; second in 1980 when a European investor pulled out of funding Paul Mitchell at the last minute.
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• The half-million-dollar Paul Mitchell investment collapsed in 1980 amid 12% inflation, 10.5% unemployment, and 17% prime loan rates; he and Paul Mitchell each scraped together $350 and started the company living out of his car.
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• To launch with only $700, DeJoria deceptively ordered a 10,000-bottle 'sample run' from suppliers instead of the planned 100,000, and negotiated 30-day billing by presenting his and Mitchell's industry credentials.
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• Jim Beam told DeJoria Patrón would never exceed 20,000 cases a year because the price was too high; he dropped them, moved to Seagram's (70,000 cases), then took over distribution and approached 4 million cases before selling.
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• When DeJoria sold his interest in Patrón to Bacardi (around 2018), it fetched the highest amount ever paid for a company in the alcohol business.
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• DeJoria does not use email or a computer; he communicates only by phone and fax machines installed in each of his homes, and carries a 15-year-old phone book full of white-out and rewrites.
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• Every six months DeJoria takes a solo three-day retreat where he cooks for himself and lists what and who he wants to keep or remove from his life, condensing pages down to about 10 priorities.
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• At 75, DeJoria can perform a full lever (planche), holding his body parallel to the ground on just his ten fingertips, a skill he learned in high school gymnastics and revived doing it once or twice a year.
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• His weekly exercise is minimal: Navy SEAL push-ups about three times a week (around 25 reps), occasional 25-lb curls a couple times a month, plus a lot of fast walking.
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• His diet is roughly 90-95% vegetarian; he reasons that elephants, whales, and gorillas are extremely strong on plant-based diets.
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• He eats oatmeal almost every morning cooked with a chopped whole apple and honey, and takes a probiotic called Daily Restore, crediting it for not having had a cold in 25-30 years.
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• DeJoria was fired from Redken for protesting that the company tested products on animals, told he 'cared more about animals than the corporation.'
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• He sold encyclopedias door-to-door commission-only for 3.5 years, far beyond the average salesman's 3-day tenure, learning to stay enthusiastic at door 101 after 100 rejections.
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• The idea for Patrón came from asking his partner Martin to find out what Mexican aristocrats drink; Martin returned with a smooth tequila and a maker, Francisco Alcaraz, who could refine it further.
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• Patrón launched at $37 a bottle when the average tequila was $4-5 and the most expensive was about $14; DeJoria reasoned that even if it failed he would have great tequila to gift friends for a decade.
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• DeJoria credits 'fate' for his success, noting that being fired from three companies (Redken, Fermodyl, Jhirmack) gave him exactly the formulating, sales, and operations knowledge he needed to start Paul Mitchell.
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• He bought the Sea Shepherd organization a Coast Guard cutter, refitted and painted it camouflage blue, to pursue ocean poachers killing whales, turtles, and sharks.
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