Before building Patrón tequila and John Paul Mitchell Systems hair products, John Paul DeJoria was homeless at two separate times in his life.
"I know what it's like to have absolutely nothing and be homeless and go through the struggle to make it," he says in the new documentary "Good Fortune," which details his rags-to-riches rise.
Today, the entrepreneur is worth more than $3 billion, but when it comes to defining success, he says wealth has nothing to do with it: "It's not where you are today and how much money you have or what kind of a big position you have. Success is, are you the best at what you do?
"And success unshared is failure. You may not have a lot of money, but you do something to help somebody else out. That's success."
DeJoria isn't the only billionaire whose definition of success has nothing to do with money. Take Richard Branson, who defines success by how happy he is: "Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are," he writes on LinkedIn.
"It's a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur's metric for success," the Virgin Group founder and chairman continues. "It's not, and nor should it be."
Happiness isn't just a way to measure his level of success — it's also the key to it, he says: "Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness. But I know I am successful, wealthy and connected because I am happy."
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