"Shark Tank" investor Daymond John turned $40 worth of fabric into a $6 billion urban clothing brand, FUBU. The route to success, however, didn't come without significant struggles. At one point along the journey, he was rejected by 27 banks when he needed capital.
No path to success is a straight shot up, as this "Day in the life of an entrepreneur" chart from John's co-working space, Blueprint + Co, shows.
So what about the bad times? What does the Queens, N.Y. native recommend to go-getters who are in a rut?
"Practicing goal-setting. It's not simple," says John in an "Ask Me Anything" public chat on Reddit on Wednesday.
"Read your goals every night before you go to sleep, and then read them again when you wake up."
The advice was in response to the question: "I've been feeling extremely sad and unmotivated lately and leaving my projects and business unfinished. What motivated you during the tough times in the beginning?"
Read your goals every night before you go to sleep, and then read them again when you wake up.Daymond John"Shark Tank" star
In addition to checking in with your goals regularly, John also recommends anyone feeling "sad and unmotivated" read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, a classic business book published in 1937.
John himself has read the book at least 20 times.
Hill spent 20 years studying the most successful businessmen of his time, including the likes of Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, so he could learn from their success. The lessons of the resulting book are inspirational.
"More than 500 of the most successful men this country has ever known told [me] their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them," writes Hill.
"Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost within reach."
Hill also emphasizes the power of positive thinking.
"Our brains become magnetized with the dominating thoughts which we hold in our minds, and ... these 'magnets' attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts," writes Hill.
"Before we can accumulate riches in great abundance, we must magnetize our minds with intense desire for riches."
Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to "Shark Tank."
See also:
When 27 banks rejected Daymond John, his mother's advice saved him
5 secrets of success from 'Shark Tank' investor Daymond John
