While most entrepreneurs are trying to find the keys to success, Daymond John, co-star of ABC’s Shark Tank and CEO of the fashion brand For Us, By Us or “FUBU,” came to the Hammer Theatre Center Tuesday night to say he has the answers.

At the age of 20, John turned a $40 deposit into a six billion dollar business before joining Shark Tank, a reality TV series that stars five industry “titans” who choose whether to invest in people’s ideas, in 2009. 

“We’re all born like entrepreneurial thinking people,” John said to about two hundred community members, most of whom were San Jose State affiliated.

During the Insights Speaker Series event put on by the university, John spoke to attendants about his five shark points to success and how young people, including SJSU students, can truly accomplish anything.

Mechanical engineering senior Max Rothe said the panel was quite engaging.

“I’m in the ideas club for entrepreneurship and I was really excited to listen to an entrepreneurial speaker,” Rothe said. “I think overall it was exactly what I wanted to hear out of this event.”

John highlighted how education and his first shark point, which is to set a goal, went on to help him when creating the fashion brand FUBU.

The words “For Us, By Us,” imply that the product was created by Black designers, for Black consumers, according to an article by Culture Crypt. Culture Crypt is a media company that aims to promote the history of Black culture.

John said that the name was not exclusionary, everyone can wear the FUBU brand. 

“The dullest pencil will remember always more than the sharpest mind,” John said during the event.

During the first half of the panel, John talked about how he grew up in Queens, a borough in New York City, where he juggled multiple jobs trying to help pay the family bills. 

He said he saw how hip-hop culture exploded and artists including The Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC and The Beastie Boys wore hip brand-name clothing.

John said that inspired him to create a clothing brand that made the new look accessible to people in his neighborhood. 

“I didn’t see any heroes, all I saw were pimps and drug dealers driving by in fancy cars,” John said.

He said after his mother taught him to sew hats, he turned his new hobby into a small business, in which he sat outside of a local mall to sell his hats.

“In one hour, I sold $800 worth of hats,” John said.

He said after some guidance from his mother, he learned how to market his business, acquire strategic partners and turn his small business, at the time, into a global empire.

John said it was through his mother’s guidance and experience that he had realized his second shark point: do your homework.

He said soon enough, he saw his brand all over the world, thanks to the endorsement of rapper LL Cool J.

John said as the brand grew, he realized that he was officially a rich man but noticed he lost sight of what really mattered most.

He said he realized he had taken his wife and his kids for granted, barely getting to see them while living his lavish entrepreneurial lifestyle.

That realization became his third shark point: stick with what you love.

“We do not invest in companies, we invest in people,” John said, quoting himself from Shark Tank.

Since the show started to air in 2009, “Shark Tank” has won four Emmy Awards and received 22 Emmy Award nominations. After joining the show, John made millions of dollars in sales through investments in companies that were featured on Shark Tank.

He said through his expanded professional experience, he learned his fourth shark point: you personally are the brand.

John said if someone doesn’t know what they stand for, it’s left up to the consumer to interpret.

Kinesiology senior Michael Chadwick said he resonated most with John’s fifth shark point, which was “to just keep swimming.”

“I get caught up in so much of my life that sometimes I forget what the hell I’m actually trying to do,” Chadwick said after the panel.

John said in the grand scheme of things, brands must market themselves in two to five words.

“What’s the new one?” he asked the crowd regarding SJSU’s market brand. “ ‘We are all Spartans.’ ”