FEATURE STORY CONT .
S - SET A GOAL
As a teenager , John worked for small-business owners at the Coliseum Mall in Queens . These local entrepreneurs were his first examples of the people with the drive and hustle required to make a name for themselves . They weren ’ t the greedy , rude business owners who were being depicted on famous TV shows like Dallas or The Simpsons . The entrepreneurs John worked for were real people who worked tirelessly every day for their goals and valued the community where they had set those goals .
“ They were the first to the office , the last to leave ,” he recalled . “ They thanked everyone for their success , but they blamed only themselves for their failures . They were mentors in the community . They were always educating themselves . They were amazing people .” In the same mall where John once handed out flyers , he learned what his own entrepreneurial aspirations could become .
While John had cultivated a sense of entrepreneurship from a young age , his sense of what he wanted to do crystallized at a 1986 concert at the Spectrum Theater in Philadelphia . As Run-DMC took the stage , John ’ s chief passions — business and hip-hop — fused together in his mind to provide a blueprint for the years to come . “ In that split second , my life turned from black and white into Technicolor ,” John said . “ I understood , in that moment , that no matter what , I was going to live , die , and prosper in this world of hip-hop .”
As Run-DMC played , kids in the crowd were holding up pairs of their Adidas sneakers . John realized there was money to be made creating clothes specifically for the growing community of people who identified with hip-hop . He set 10 goals that night . Six of them expired in three months , while the others expired at two , five , 10 , and 20 years . He thought about those goals every night and took a step toward one of them every day . It ’ s a practice he continues to this day . “ You can ’ t hit a target you can ’ t see ,” John said . “ If you aren ’ t in control of the goals you set , you let other people set goals for you .”
H - HOMEWORK
John was already devoted to hip-hop . How could he not be , growing up in the city where the genre was born and living in the same neighborhood as some of its earliest heroes , like LL Cool J and Run-DMC . In a sense , John had been gathering data on his market demographic his entire life by immersing himself in hip-hop culture .
But John had to find a way to fit the lifestyle he and his friends were emulating in the streets of New York into that Technicolor vision he saw at Run-DMC ’ s concert . Hip-hop had found a way to create a culture from hundreds of people dancing all night with music blasting from speakers with stolen electricity into a movement that was now encapsulating thousands of people . Suddenly , John had people to look up to who weren ’ t the “ pimps and drug dealers ” driving fancy cars outside his doors . “ Through this music , the kids were communicating about their hopes , their dreams , their loves , their aspirations ,” he said . “ Hip-hop wasn ’ t something that you just listened to ; it was a way to live .”
He began broadening his understanding by studying the fashion brands adored by his peers but realized that many brands had unspoken disdain for the people who were buying their products . One of them , Timberland , even went so far as to put an ad in the New York Times declaring they didn ’ t sell or make their boots for “ drug dealers .”
John was incensed . He was working two jobs , having picked up a second at Red Lobster , in order to buy things like Timberland boots because his homework told him those were the boots his hip-hop heroes wore . But those same boots on his feet were sold by a company that was calling him and his community criminals . “ Who ’ s ever going to support , love , and value the customer who ’ s purchasing their goods ?” he thought . Well , he was .
“ I ’ m going to come up with a name ; it ’ s going to be four letters ,” he decided . “ It ’ s not going to be about a color , because I ’ m not going to be [ bigoted ] the same way Timberland is ; it ’ s going to be about a culture .” He went home and created a shirt and hat emblazoned with the letters BUFU : By Us , For Us . A few days later , John flipped the letters to FUBU , and a business was born .
John ’ s lifelong homework came in handy when it came to marketing FUBU on a shoestring budget , and his love for the business he was creating is what propelled it forward . He ’ d show up at video shoots and convince rappers to wear his FUBU clothing . He asked business owners in large cities if he could remove the graffiti on their storm gates and paint them white , slapping an “ Authorized FUBU Dealer ” stencil on them , making FUBU familiar to anyone who walked , drove , or rode by after hours . He harangued hip-hop ’ s biggest star , LL Cool J , for a promotional photo , making him the company ’ s first spokesperson . He found out about the MAGIC show , an industry event where he could launch FUBU on a wide scale . He and his partners didn ’ t even have a booth when they arrived , but they left with $ 300,000 in orders .
The thing is , he didn ’ t have $ 300,000 to spend on creating these orders . Instead , he turned to the woman who had been his business partner since he was 6 years old when he was selling pencils to the kids at school : his mom , or Ms . John as she likes to be known publicly . She was able to acquire a $ 100,000 loan against their $ 75,000 house , and John and his business partners funneled that loan and the money they had made at the trade show into creating a makeshift sewing operation in their home . They would sleep in sleeping bags
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