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Homeless To A $5 Billion Empire (The Greatest Comeback Ever) | John Paul DeJoria — Transcript

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0:00John Paul DeJoria once told Fox News,
0:02"I've been in debt, I've been homeless
0:03twice, you can still build an empire."
0:06He co-founded John Paul Mitchell Systems
0:08with $700, then co-founded Patron
0:10Tequila, which he sold in a deal worth
0:12$5.1 billion.
0:14He did it after living in his car twice.
0:17In January 2024, the US Department of
0:19Housing and Urban Development counted
0:21over 700,000 people experiencing
0:23homelessness on a single night, the
0:25largest number since they started
0:26collecting the data. So, if you've hit
0:28rock bottom, you're not finished. And
0:30John Paul DeJoria is proof of that.
0:32[music] In my first business, I owned
0:3330% of a software company. I made $300 a
0:35month. It wasn't working. [music] We
0:37were making no money. When my friends
0:38wanted to go out, $20 was too much for
0:40me. So, I told them I was busy working
0:42on my business. I was kind of lying to
0:44my friends because I was embarrassed and
0:46I was ashamed. The company wasn't
0:48working, so I thought that I sucked as a
0:50human. So, I wanted to make this video
0:52because John Paul DeJoria has been where
0:55I was and much further down. He slept in
0:57his car with his 2-year-old son, and
0:59years later, he slept in his car again
1:01while he started Paul Mitchell. His
1:03story shows you that where you start
1:04does not decide where you end up. If
1:07you're starting with almost nothing
1:08right now, or you feel like you are
1:10behind, I'm going to walk you through
1:12the whole story of John Paul DeJoria
1:14today, from foster care in Los Angeles
1:17to living in his car to the $5.1 billion
1:20sale of Patron. Now, if you've been here
1:22before, type in #believe in the comments
1:23below so I can feature you here in a
1:25future video. And if you're new, welcome
1:27to Believe Nation, the only channel
1:28[music] that helps you believe in
1:29yourself daily, one video at a time.
1:31Believe.
1:34Christmas cards at 9. John Paul DeJoria
1:37was born in Los Angeles on April 13,
1:381944. His father came from Italy and his
1:41mother came from Greece, and they
1:43divorced before he was two. His mother
1:45supported him and his brother by making
1:47hats, and they lived in a very small
1:49one-bedroom house. But he said it was a
1:50good life. For 5 years, from Monday
1:53through Friday, the two boys lived in
1:54foster care and only saw their mom on
1:56the weekends. He told Fox News, "It was
1:58difficult, but we understood that as
2:00much as our mom loved us and wanted to
2:03take care of us, she couldn't." At 9, he
2:06started working to help the family. He
2:08told Entrepreneur Magazine, "My first
2:10job, 9 years old, part-time, was selling
2:13Christmas cards door-to-door." And a
2:14year later, he and his brother had paper
2:16routes delivering the Los Angeles
2:18Examiner. They got up at 4:00 in the
2:21morning, folded their papers, and
2:22delivered them before going to school.
2:24He said, "So, I kind of pitched in." And
2:25on the Young and Profiting podcast, he
2:27said, "So, we grew up with little to
2:29nothing, but we had everything."
2:33Least likely to succeed. Life on the
2:35streets of East Los Angeles was rough,
2:37and as a teenager, John Paul joined a
2:39gang. At John Marshall High School, he
2:41was voted least likely to succeed. When
2:44EVA Magazine asked him if he ever had a
2:46mentor, he said, "No, but a couple of
2:48people, including my 11th grade teacher,
2:50told me and Michelle Gilliam we'd never
2:52amount to anything." Michelle Gilliam
2:54grew up to become Michelle Phillips of
2:56the Mamas and the Papas. John Paul
2:58graduated 1962, and at 17, he joined the
3:01US Navy. And years later, accepting an
3:03award from the Navy Memorial, he said,
3:05"I joined the US Navy after graduating
3:07from high school only to find that it
3:10would exceed all of my expectations. The
3:12Navy took him to foreign ports and
3:15taught him how to manage himself and
3:16work on a team."
3:20Too proud to go home. In his early 20s,
3:22John Paul came home one day to a note
3:24from his wife. She had left their
3:262-year-old son with him, and she hadn't
3:29paid the rent or the utility bills for 3
3:31months. He told Fox News, "I was evicted
3:34in 24 hours." And he told Entrepreneur,
3:36"And we ended up on the street for a few
3:38days there." He got hold of a 1951
3:40Cadillac with a broken water pump, and
3:42he had to put water in it every 24
3:44hours. To get by, he collected soda
3:46bottles from parking lots and Coke
3:48machines and cashed them in at 2 cents
3:51for a small one and 5 cents for a big
3:53one. He told EVA, "I was too proud to
3:55ask my mom for money or for my old
3:57bedroom back, so I collected soda pop
3:59bottles." Then a friend named Lee Myers,
4:01a hardcore biker, offered them a room in
4:04his house. John Paul raised his son on
4:06his own until the boy was 6 years old.
4:11The dime in the bucket. John Paul says
4:13he never had a mentor, but two lessons
4:15shaped him. When he was 6, his mother
4:17had him and his brother drop a dime into
4:20a Salvation Army bucket. In his giving
4:22pledge letter, he wrote down what she
4:24told them that day. Remember, boys, no
4:27matter how much you have, there is
4:29always someone who is more in need than
4:32you. Always try to give even if it's
4:34just a little. The second lesson came
4:36from selling Collier's Encyclopedias
4:38door-to-door on commission with no
4:40leads. He told Entrepreneur that he'd
4:42knock on maybe 30 or 40 doors before the
4:44first customer would even just talk to
4:46him and let him in. The set cost $369 on
4:50a payment plan of $36.95 a month, and he
4:51gave his customers little piggy banks to
4:53put quarters in. He told Tim Ferriss
4:55what his trainer said, "The people that
4:57make it and will make good money are the
4:59people that don't give up. A lot of
5:01doors can be slammed in your face, but
5:03you must be just as enthusiastic on door
5:05number 101 if 100 were closed in front
5:08of you." Then he said, "I believe them,
5:10and they were right." It took him more
5:12than a week to get his first order. He
5:14lasted 3 and 1/2 years when an average
5:16encyclopedia salesman lasted 3 days. He
5:19said, "So, I learned how to overcome
5:22rejection." Also, if you want to take
5:23real action after this video, I made a
5:25few worksheets just for you. It has the
5:26top lessons from this video, space for
5:28your own takeaways, and a simple action
5:29plan you can get started. It's 100%
5:31free. Just click the link in the
5:32description below to go grab it. I'll
5:34see you there.
5:36Come back when you're 35. At 26, John
5:39Paul was working at Time in the
5:41circulation department for magazines
5:42like Fortune and Sports Illustrated and
5:44Life. He described it as basically a
5:46boiler room, calling people to renew
5:48their subscriptions or sign up for brand
5:50new ones. He went to his vice president
5:51and asked what he had to do to become a
5:53vice president himself. He told Tim
5:55Ferriss the answer he got, "You have no
5:57college. You're only a high school
5:59graduate, and you're only 26 years old.
6:01Come back and ask me when you're at 35."
6:04John Paul said, "Well, I certainly
6:05didn't want to wait at a job I did not
6:07like and offer them nine more years." A
6:09friend of his, John Capra, worked as an
6:11employment counselor and sent him on
6:13several jobs, and he ended up selling
6:15beauty supplies. That's how John Paul
6:17got into the beauty business at a
6:18company called Redken. Within 6 months,
6:20he was a district manager, and a year
6:22later, he was national manager of two
6:24divisions.
6:27Fired three times. John Paul said Redken
6:29fired him after he complained about the
6:30company testing its products on animals.
6:33At his next company, he says he grew the
6:35business by 50% in a year, and they
6:37fired him, too. At the third company, he
6:39was paid $3,000 a month plus 6% of the
6:42sales growth, and he tripled its sales.
6:44On the Young and Profiting podcast, he
6:46said, "They fired me cuz they said, 'JP,
6:49you made more money than the owner of
6:51the company.'" Along the way, he became
6:53close friends with a hairdresser named
6:55Paul Mitchell, and looking back, he told
6:57Tim Ferriss, "Had I not worked for all
6:59three companies and learned something
7:01different from all three, I could never
7:03started Paul Mitchell with $700, let
7:05alone half a million."
7:09The half a million that never came. By
7:111980, John Paul and Paul Mitchell had a
7:13plan to start their own hair care
7:15company. John Paul told Tim Ferriss,
7:17"There's no way I could start a hair
7:18care company for under half a million
7:20dollars." So, a man named Dick Holdhaus,
7:22who worked for Citicorp, arranged for an
7:25investor in Europe to put in half a
7:27million dollars. Their supplier agreed
7:29to give them 30 days to pay because
7:31everyone knew that the money was coming.
7:33They planned the first run of 100,000
7:35bottles. The timing was hard. John Paul
7:37told DVA magazine that inflation was 12
7:39and 1/2% and that interest on a loan, if
7:42you could get one, was around 17%. He
7:44and his wife weren't getting along, so
7:46he left and gave her all their money,
7:48counting on the investment to arrive. He
7:50told Entrepreneur, "I was thinking I had
7:52everything lined up."
7:55Living in his car again. On the day the
7:57money was supposed to arrive, the
7:59investor backed out. John Paul told
8:01Entrepreneur, "That money was supposed
8:03to arrive that day. Never got a penny,
8:05so I just slept in my car." He slept in
8:07his car for the first 2 weeks of the
8:09company. Paul Mitchell had an extra $350
8:11and John Paul borrowed $350 from his
8:13mom. So, they started the company with
8:15$700. He told Entrepreneur, "She never
8:18knew how bad off I was. The products
8:20took 2 weeks to make and that left 2
8:22weeks before the bills were due." He
8:24called the bottle maker and asked for a
8:26sample run of only 10,000 bottles
8:28without telling him that they were
8:29broke. They printed the labels in black
8:31and white because they couldn't afford
8:33color. Then, he went door-to-door from
8:35one hair salon to the next the same way
8:37he sold encyclopedias. He ate on $2.50 a
8:40day starting with a 99 cent breakfast
8:43special. And he told Austin
8:44American-Statesman, "John Paul Mitchell
8:47Systems should have gone out of business
8:48every week for 2 years. There was no
8:51money for staff, so he did everything
8:52himself from the accounting and
8:54answering the phones to filling the
8:56orders and selling."
8:5912 blank checks. John Paul went up
9:02Ventura Boulevard knocking on the doors
9:03of hair salons. After a week, he had 12
9:05orders and he delivered them on the spot
9:07and came back with 12 checks. Then, he
9:10went to Paris Ace Beauty Supplies, a big
9:12beauty supply company in Los Angeles,
9:14and asked them to carry the line. When
9:17the man in charge asked why he should
9:19take an unknown brand, John Paul put the
9:2212 orders and 12 checks on the desk in
9:25front of him. He told Tim Ferriss what
9:26he said next, "Just buy 2,000 bottles
9:28from us and you can have all of LA and
9:29Orange County." The man laughed and said
9:32yes. It took 2 years before the company
9:33could pay all of its bills on time. When
9:35it finally did, there was $4,000 left
9:38over, 2,000 for each partner. John Paul
9:40told Entrepreneur, "Man, we made it.
9:42It's all downhill now." He celebrated at
9:45a restaurant and he said, "This is the
9:46first time I said I'm going to order off
9:49the left side of the menu, not the
9:51right." The right side was where the
9:53prices were.
9:5612,000 bottles nobody ordered. In 1989,
9:59Paul Mitchell died of cancer. That same
10:01year, Patron started with a favor. John
10:02Paul's friend Martin Crowley was
10:04traveling to Mexico to buy stone papers
10:07and furniture to sell to architects.
10:08John Paul asked him to bring back a few
10:11bottles of the best tequila Mexicans
10:13drank and Martin came back with a
10:14tequila, an idea, and a bottle. They
10:16made the tequila smoother, put it in a
10:18hand blown bottles, and called it
10:20Patron. John Paul figured that if nobody
10:22bought it, he would keep it because Paul
10:24Mitchell was doing well. Their first
10:26order was 1,000 cases or 12,000 bottles.
10:29Each bottle cost about $20 to make and
10:31they priced it at $37.95 when most
10:33tequilas sold for $5 to $15. He told
10:36CNBC what would happen if it didn't
10:37sell. He said the worst case scenario
10:39for 10 years, everybody I knew who had a
10:41birthday, an anniversary, or anything
10:44would get a great bottle of the best
10:45tequila in the world. And when
10:47distributors turned them down, they sold
10:50small amounts to restaurants and bars
10:52around the Los Angeles area. Martin went
10:54to his friends at Baja Cantina in Marina
10:57del Rey and John Paul went to his friend
10:59Wolfgang Puck at Spago. They also gave
11:02free bottles to John Paul's celebrity
11:03friends like Clint Eastwood. He told
11:05CNBC, "My god, they just loved it and
11:07just kept on reordering."
11:12"Your price is too high." Patron's first
11:14distributor sold very little in a year,
11:16so they dropped it and they took on Jim
11:18Beam. John Paul told Tim Ferris what Jim
11:20Beam told them, "You will one day reach
11:2220,000 cases a year, but that's about
11:25it, guys." They dropped Jim Beam, too.
11:27Seagram got Patron to 17,000 cases a
11:30year, so John Paul bought Seagram out of
11:32its agreement and took over the
11:34distribution himself. Then sales kept
11:36going up. Martin Crowley died of a heart
11:38attack in 2003 and by the time John Paul
11:40sold his share, the company was
11:42approaching close to 4 million cases a
11:44year. In January 2018, Bacardi agreed to
11:47buy Patron in a deal valued at $5.1
11:49billion
11:50and John Paul owned 70% of it. Today,
11:53Patron sells roughly 3 million cases a
11:54year and John Paul told CNBC, "I got to
11:57go into something we knew nothing about
11:59and it becomes the biggest in the world.
12:00When I sold it, we had 82% of the ultra
12:03premium market." He also told Tim
12:04Ferris, "So the lesson to be learned
12:06here is if anybody tells you something
12:08where there's limitations, you don't
12:10necessarily have to believe them.
12:12>> [snorts]
12:15>> The dime comes back. In 2011, John Paul
12:17signed the Giving Pledge, a promise to
12:19give away half or more of his wealth.
12:21And in his letter, he told the story of
12:22the dime in the Salvation Army bucket.
12:24His foundation supports more than 160
12:26charities, and homeless families are
12:28close to his heart. He told
12:30Entrepreneur, "Those who are homeless,
12:32like families, like people with kids who
12:33are homeless, I really have a heart
12:35for." In Austin, Texas, he put money
12:37into a project called Mobile Loaves and
12:39Fishes, and he told Tim Ferriss they
12:41built 240 little houses for people who
12:44had been homeless for years. When Rob
12:46Report asked him how he defines success,
12:48he said, "My motto is success unshared
12:51is failure. If I had this train and a
12:54jet and a couple of big houses, and I
12:55didn't take time to make anyone else's
12:57life better, I'd be a failure."
13:02You can still build an empire. It's easy
13:04to look at John Paul today, a
13:06billionaire with a train and a jet, and
13:08think he was always just lucky. He was a
13:10kid a teacher said would never amount to
13:12anything. And he was in his mid-30s and
13:14sleeping in his car when he started Paul
13:16Mitchell. So, John Paul grew up with
13:19little to nothing in Los Angeles, and he
13:21spent his weekdays in foster care. He
13:23was homeless with his 2-year-old son,
13:25and he learned to keep knocking, selling
13:27encyclopedias. He got fired three times,
13:30lost his half-a-million-dollar investor
13:32on the day the money was due, and
13:34started Paul Mitchell with $700. Then he
13:36built Patron into a $5.1 billion company
13:39after distributors said the price was
13:41too high, and he's promised to give at
13:42least half of everything away. That's
13:44John Paul DeJoria's story, and now you
13:46know it, too. If you're starting with
13:48almost nothing right now, or you feel
13:50like you are behind, you're in good
13:52company. Keep knocking, because door
13:54number 101 might be the one that opens
13:57up for you. Congratulations, you're one
13:59video closer to who you're meant to be.
14:01Believe. Now, this one is the Chris
14:02Gardner story and why you don't need a
14:04college degree to get rich. Chris
14:06Gardner, the founder of Gardner Rich &
14:07Co., went from being homeless to
14:09building a multi-million dollar
14:11brokerage firm with nothing but his son,
14:13sheer determination, and the belief that
14:15a better life was possible, he turned
14:18his struggle into success. In the early
14:201980s, Chris Gardner was on the edge. He
14:22didn't have a home, money, or a clear
14:24path forward. He was living in shelters,
14:26often with his son, Christopher,
14:28fighting to survive each day. He was a
14:31man who had lost everything, except
14:33[music] his will to succeed. Chris could
14:35have given up. Life had already knocked
14:37him down hard, but when he saw an
14:39opportunity to become a stockbroker, he
14:41decided to take a risk, [music] even
14:44though he had no formal education, no
14:46money for training, and [music] no
14:48safety net. He borrowed money for his
14:50course, studied at night, and worked
14:52grueling day jobs just to keep the
14:54lights on. There were days when Chris
14:55had nothing to eat, days when he would
14:58sleep in train stations or in public
14:59[music] bathrooms just to avoid the
15:01cold. But the hardest part? Watching his
15:04son, the one person he loved more than
15:06anything in the world, look to him for
15:08hope when Chris himself was barely
15:10hanging on. Despite everything, Chris
15:12never stopped pushing. Every no he
15:15received, every closed door, only fueled
15:17his drive to succeed. He took the
15:19rejection, the failure, the pain, and
15:21used it as motivation to keep going.
15:24Chris didn't just dream about success,
15:26he made it happen. After years of
15:27struggle, he finally landed a job at a
15:29brokerage firm, working long hours and
15:31proving his worth. Eventually, he built
15:33his own company, Gardner Rich [music]
15:35and Company, becoming one of the most
15:37successful financial professionals in
15:39the country. Chris Gardner's journey
15:40reminds us that no matter how dark
15:42things get, we have the power to turn
15:44our lives around. It's not about where
15:46you start, it's about how you rise, how
15:48you fight, and how you keep [music]
15:50going when everything feels impossible.
15:53What's stopping you from turning your
15:54own story into a success? The power is
15:57in your hands.
16:01Early life: breaking the cycle. Chris
16:03Gardner was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
16:05in 1954 to a teenage mother. His
16:07childhood was marked by poverty and
16:09violence. He never knew his biological
16:10father, and his stepfather was abusive
16:13to him. At just 5 years old, he made a
16:15solemn promise to himself. When he had
16:18children, they would know their father
16:20and never experience the abuse he
16:22endured. Growing up in foster care and
16:24living in a poor neighborhood, he
16:25learned early that you can only depend
16:28on yourself and that the cavalry isn't
16:30coming to rescue you. His mother, Betty
16:32Jean, was his hero. Despite her own
16:34dreams being deferred, she instilled in
16:36him the belief that he could have his
16:38dreams and that he held the
16:40responsibility and power to pursue them.
16:45Discovering purpose in the Navy. After
16:47high school, Gardner joined the US Navy
16:48and served as a hospital corpsman. He
16:51studied medicine under Dr. Robert Ellis
16:53and even co-authored medical research,
16:55but ultimately he felt his calling to
16:57business, not medicine. Once his
16:59military service ended, he sold medical
17:01equipment for a living, yet he felt
17:03unfulfilled. That's where fate
17:05intervened in the form of a red Ferrari.
17:11Meeting the man with a red Ferrari. One
17:13day in 1981, he spotted a well-dressed
17:15man stepping out of a red Ferrari and
17:17asked him, "What do you do and how do
17:19you do it?" The man, a stockbroker, Bob
17:22Bridges, explained that he worked on
17:24Wall Street. Gardner didn't have a
17:25college degree, didn't have connections,
17:27didn't have money, but he decided he
17:29wanted that lifestyle. He wanted his red
17:31Ferrari. He began cold calling brokerage
17:33houses determined to land a training
17:35slot. Persistence paid off for him when
17:37Dean Witter Reynolds accepted him into
17:40its intensive stockbroker training
17:42program. Gardner had found the right
17:43venue his mother had once told him
17:45about.
17:46>> [snorts]
17:48>> Homeless with a toddler, baby steps
17:50count, too. Gardner's success didn't
17:52happen overnight. While he trained at
17:53Dean Witter, there was no salary and his
17:55relationship with his girlfriend fell
17:56apart. She left him and their toddler
17:58son, Christopher, giving him custody.
18:01Gardner soon found himself homeless,
18:03pushing his son's stroller through the
18:04streets of San Francisco while studying
18:06for his Series 7 exam and working odd
18:08jobs. He and his child slept wherever
18:10they could, shelters, parks, even public
18:13bathrooms. Through it all, he never lost
18:15focus on being a devoted father. Gardner
18:18said he chose to embrace the spirit of
18:20my mother and refused to let his son
18:22experience neglect that he knew growing
18:25up. During this period, he attended
18:27Glide Memorial Church which operated one
18:29of the shelters. Pastor Cecil Williams
18:32told him that baby steps count, too. A
18:35phrase that became Gardner's mantra. He
18:37would whisper it while pushing his son
18:39up and down San Francisco's hills,
18:41reminding himself that as long as he was
18:44moving forward, even small progress
18:46mattered. And that mindset helped him
18:48survive months of homelessness and
18:51relentless rejection. In his own words,
18:54"As long as you are going forward, baby
18:57steps count, too."
19:01Breaking into Wall Street. Despite his
19:02circumstances, Gardner poured his heart
19:04into the training program. He studied
19:06late at night, juggling daycare and long
19:08commutes. He was the only trainee in his
19:10class to be offered a full-time job.
19:13With his Series 7 license in hand, he
19:15moved to Bear Stearns and quickly
19:17climbed the ranks. In 1987, just a few
19:20years after being homeless, he founded
19:21Gardner Rich & Co. with only $10,000 and
19:24a wooden desk. He named the firm after
19:26Mark Rich, one of the most successful
19:27traders of the era. Gardner's business
19:29thrived, eventually executing major
19:31trades for wealthy clients. Even at the
19:33height of his success, he kept his
19:35commitments to fatherhood. He would
19:38leave work at midday to pick up his son
19:40from daycare and then return to the
19:42trading floor in the evening. He also
19:44remembered to give back. He supported
19:45the Glide Memorial Church and the Cara
19:47program for job training. And his
19:49company partnered with organizations
19:50addressing homelessness and domestic
19:52violence. When he sold his stake in
19:542006, Gardner became CEO of Christopher
19:57Gardner International Holdings,
19:59continuing to invest and advise
20:01globally.
20:04Becoming an author and motivational
20:05icon. In 2006, Gardner published The
20:07Pursuit of Happyness, an
20:08autobiographical book detailing his
20:10struggles and ultimate triumph. The book
20:12became a number one New York Times
20:14bestseller and inspired a film starring
20:16Will Smith and Jaden Smith. Gardner
20:18trusted the filmmakers to tell his story
20:20authentically, even taking Will Smith to
20:22the BART station bathroom where he once
20:25slept with his son. The film's emotional
20:27bathroom scene became a powerful symbol
20:30of hope, capturing a moment he washed
20:32his son in a sink and headed to work
20:35armed only with his idea. Three years
20:37later he released Start Where You Are
20:38offering practical strategies for
20:40overcoming obstacles and building
20:42resilience. Gardner continually
20:44reinvents himself as a teacher and
20:46mentor. His speeches around the world
20:48emphasizes themes like purpose-driven
20:50persistence, spiritual genetics, and the
20:52five C's of self-empowerment: clarity,
20:55consistency, courage, conviction, and
20:57compassion. He reminds audiences that
20:59there is no plan B for passion, one of
21:01his most famous quotes.
21:05Permission to Dream: New Frameworks for
21:07Success. Gardner's 2021 book, Permission
21:10to Dream, outlines a blueprint for
21:12creating your own dream-come-true life.
21:14In it he introduces the new three R's:
21:17rep, wrap, and Rolodex, meaning build a
21:20strong reputation, rep, learn to market
21:23yourself, wrap, and nurture meaningful
21:25relationships, that's the Rolodex. He
21:27argues that success isn't just about
21:29personal gain, it's about enriching the
21:31lives of others and creating lasting
21:33impact for everyone. Gardner has
21:35formalized these ideas through the Chris
21:37Gardner Foundation and its Permission to
21:39Dream program which provides resources
21:41like resume building workshops, career
21:44videos, and mentorship opportunities.
21:46The program has reached over 400 schools
21:48and 100,000 students. Students learn
21:50goal setting, financial literacy, and
21:52the importance of breaking cycles of
21:54poverty. Gardner also partners with
21:56organizations such as NASA and
21:57MasterCard to expand his outreach.
22:02New Mission: Permission to Dream 2.0 and
22:04Transfer. Gardner never stops
22:06innovating. In 2024 he partnered with
22:08the virtual reality company Transfer and
22:11became its chief evangelist. Together
22:13they launched Permission to Dream 2.0:
22:15Pathways to Success. The program
22:17leverages VR to give young people
22:19hands-on experience in high-demand
22:21careers and offers an alternative to
22:24traditional four-year degrees. Gardner
22:26believes that education, exposure, and
22:29preparation are the keys to economic
22:31empowerment and breaking the cycle of
22:33poverty. The initiative will present
22:34annual transfer trailblazer awards and
22:36aims to reach thousands more students by
22:372025. This partnership reflects
22:39Gardner's deep conviction that the
22:41American dream is still alive but must
22:43be actively cultivated. He wants to
22:45ensure that the next generation has the
22:47tools, not just the permission, to dream
22:50big and bring those dreams to life. As
22:52he told audiences recently, "I'm
22:54encouraged by what I see of men trying
22:56to be there for their children. So many
22:58men have holes in their souls the shape
23:01of their fathers. You can pass that on
23:03to your kid or you can do something
23:05about it. And I'm seeing a lot of men do
23:07something about it."
23:11Lessons and takeaways. So, here are some
23:13of my favorite lessons from Chris
23:14Gardner's story. Number one, commit to
23:16your purpose. Gardner's story teaches us
23:17that passion requires commitment. There
23:20is no plan B. Even when he was homeless,
23:23he kept pushing towards his goal of
23:25becoming a stockbroker. Next, break
23:27cycles through intention. His vow to be
23:29a present father and to not repeat
23:30cycles of abuse shows the power of
23:33conscious decisions. We all have the
23:35ability to decide what patterns end with
23:38us. Next, baby steps matter. Progress
23:40isn't always dramatic. Pastor Cecil
23:42Williams' reminder that baby steps
23:44count, too, empowered Gardner to keep
23:46moving forward even on days when all he
23:48could do was push a stroller through the
23:50rain. Next, leverage your story to
23:52empower others. Gardner's success didn't
23:54make him complacent. He used his story
23:56to inspire students, to advocate for
23:58financial literacy and domestic violence
24:00awareness, and create programs like
24:02Permission to Dream. Next, expand access
24:04to opportunity. Through initiatives like
24:05Permission to Dream 2.0, he's focused on
24:07education, exposure, and preparation as
24:10key to economic empowerment. Next, stay
24:12humble and grateful. Even after making
24:14millions of dollars, Gardner never
24:16forgot the people who helped him. And he
24:17continues to support shelters like the
24:19Glide Memorial Church and training
24:20programs like Cara.
24:24Your call to action. Chris Gardner's
24:26journey reminds us that where you start
24:28doesn't define where you end up. Whether
24:30you're struggling in your career, you're
24:32facing financial hardship, you're
24:34dealing with some personal setbacks,
24:35remember that small steps forward do add
24:38up. If Chris Gardner could drag a
24:40stroller through the streets and still
24:42study for licensing exams, you can keep
24:44going, too. So, what promises do you
24:47need to make to yourself or your family?
24:50The power to transform your life is in
24:52your hands. Now, let's learn how Sergey
24:54Brin created a trillion-dollar company.
24:56Talking about the Soviet Union where he
24:58was born, Sergey Brin once said, "I know
25:01the hard times that my parents went
25:02through there, and I'm very thankful
25:04that I was brought to the States."
25:06>> And I know the hard times that my
25:08parents went through there, and I'm very
25:09thankful that I was brought to the
25:11States.
25:11>> I love that line because the man who
25:13built the search engine most of the
25:15world uses started out as a 6-year-old
25:18immigrant who barely spoke English.
25:20Sergey co-founded Google with Larry Page
25:22when they were both students at
25:24Stanford. Google says people now search
25:26in it more than 5 trillion times a year.
25:29Now, my mom was born in Italy in a small
25:31region called Molise. When she was a
25:33kid, her younger sister got polio, and
25:36back then polio could kill a child. The
25:38best hospital in the world for kids with
25:40polio was Sick Kids in Toronto. So, my
25:42grandparents sold their grocery business
25:43in Italy and moved the whole family to
25:45Canada. They didn't speak English. My
25:47mom was 10. My aunt lived a full life
25:50because they made that move, and my mom
25:52grew up here, met my dad, and the rest
25:54is history. So, I wanted to make this
25:55video because Sergey's family made the
25:57same kind of move that my mom's family
25:59made. His parents gave up their jobs in
26:01Moscow so their son could have a better
26:03life. My grandparents, my nonna and
26:05nonno, gave up their business so their
26:07daughter could live. In Toronto, where I
26:09live, almost everybody's family is from
26:11somewhere else. So, if you have ever
26:13been the outsider, the kid with the
26:15accent, or the one starting from
26:18nothing, Sergey's story shows you where
26:20that can lead. I'm going to walk you
26:21through the whole story of Sergey Brin
26:23today from a tiny apartment in Moscow to
26:26a garage in Menlo Park to walking away
26:28from Google and coming back to build its
26:30AI.
26:34Five flights of stairs in Moscow. So,
26:35Sergey Brin was born in Moscow August
26:3721st, 1973. The Soviet Union was a
26:40communist country and Jewish families
26:42like his faced open discrimination. He
26:44lived with his parents and his
26:45grandmother in one small apartment and
26:47he described it to Stanford students in
26:492025 like this, "I lived in a tiny 400
26:52square foot apartment with my parents
26:54and my grandmother and had to walk up
26:56five flights of stairs." His father,
26:58Michael, loved astronomy. Moscow State
27:01University kept Jewish students out of
27:03physics and astronomy counted as
27:06physics. Jewish applicants took their
27:08entrance exams in separate rooms that
27:10people nicknamed gas chambers and they
27:12were graded more harshly than the other
27:14students. Michael studied math instead
27:17and graduated with honors in 1970. Then
27:19he was refused a place in graduate
27:20school. He ended up working at Gosplan,
27:23the government office that planned the
27:25Soviet economy. His mother, Eugenia, had
27:27studied math and mechanics at Moscow
27:29State and worked at the Soviet Oil and
27:31Gas Institute. saw what that did to his
27:34dad. He said, "I've known for a long
27:36time that my father wasn't able to
27:37pursue the career he wanted." He told
27:40Moment Magazine.
27:43"We cannot stay here anymore." So, in
27:45the summer of 1977, Michael went to a
27:47math conference in Warsaw, Poland. He
27:49came home and told his wife, "We cannot
27:51stay here anymore." Eugenia didn't want
27:53to go at first. For her, she later said
27:56the decision was 80/20 about Sergey. But
27:58in September 1978, they applied for exit
28:01visas, the permission the government
28:02required before you could leave. Michael
28:05was fired right away and Eugenia quit
28:07her job. Sergey was only five and still
28:09remembers that after we had applied for
28:11exit visas, we had the police visit our
28:14house. My father lost his job. There was
28:16always a feeling of fear. The visas came
28:19in May 1979. The family first went to
28:21Vienna where Jewish refugee group called
28:23HIAS helped them. Then they went to the
28:25suburbs of Paris where a mathematician
28:27named Anatole Katok had arranged a short
28:29research job for Michael. On October
28:3125th, 1979, they landed at JFK Airport
28:35in New York. Sergey was six.
28:40The new kid with the accent. The Brins
28:41rented a simple cinder block house in a
28:44lower middle class neighborhood near the
28:46University of Maryland. They bought a
28:471973 Ford Maverick with a $2,000 loan
28:51from the local Jewish community. Michael
28:52became a math professor at the
28:54university and Eugenia went on to work
28:56as a research scientist at NASA's
28:58Goddard Space Flight Center. Sergey
29:00arrived knowing only basic English. He
29:02said, "I will say as a child I had an
29:04accent. I came to the US at the age of
29:06six and so I was teased and stuff in
29:08elementary school." His mother remembers
29:09it the same way. She said, "It was a
29:11difficult year for him, the first year."
29:13His parents also sent him to Hebrew
29:15school where he was teased again. After
29:17almost 3 years, he begged them to let
29:19him stop. Now looking back on those
29:20years, he told Stanford students that
29:21his family got to the US and were still,
29:24you know, very poor and had to make our
29:26way out of having nothing.
29:30The Montessori kid who thanked his dad.
29:32At Paint Branch Montessori School in
29:34Adelphi, Maryland, Sergey was allowed to
29:36move as fast as he wanted. He said, "I
29:38really enjoyed the Montessori method. I
29:41could grow at my own pace." The school's
29:43director, Patty Barshack, became a
29:45mentor to the entire family. In the
29:48summer of 1990, Sergey went back to the
29:50Soviet Union with his father on a
29:52two-week student exchange trip. He was a
29:55few weeks away from turning 17. On the
29:57second day, he turned to his dad and
29:59said, "Thank you for taking us out of
30:02Russia." On that same trip, he threw a
30:04pebbles at a police car. The two
30:05officers got inside, got out quite
30:07upset, as he tells it. And he finished
30:09Eleanor Roosevelt High School in 3
30:10years. At the University of Maryland, he
30:12earned a degree in math and computer
30:14science in 1993 with high honors in
30:16math. He won a National Science
30:19Foundation Fellowship to pay for
30:20graduate school and after MIT turned him
30:23down, he chose Stanford. He earned his
30:25master's degree there in August 1995 and
30:28stayed on to work towards a PhD.
30:32Two students who found each other
30:33obnoxious. This is funny. So in 1995, a
30:36student named Larry Page was thinking
30:38about coming to Stanford, and Sergey was
30:40assigned to show him around. By some
30:42accounts, they disagreed about nearly
30:44everything. He said, "We both found each
30:46other obnoxious." But we say it a little
30:48bit jokingly. Obviously, we spent a lot
30:50of time talking to each other, so there
30:52was something there. Larry started a
30:54project to download the web and study
30:56which pages linked to which. Sergey
30:57said, "Larry joined Stanford in '95, and
31:00he started downloading the web, which it
31:02turns out to be the most interesting
31:03data you can possibly mine." So, Sergey
31:06joined them. He explained why. He said,
31:07"This was the most exciting project,
31:09both because it tackled the web, which
31:11represents human knowledge, and because
31:13I liked Larry." They called their search
31:15engine BackRub because it looked at the
31:17links pointing back to each page. A page
31:19that lots of important pages linked to
31:21ranked higher. That idea became
31:24PageRank. The first version went up on
31:26Stanford's website in August 1996. Their
31:29crawler, the program that visits the web
31:31pages and copies them, at one point used
31:33almost half of Stanford's whole network.
31:36They renamed the project Google from a
31:38misspelling of Google, the number one
31:40followed by 100 zeros.
31:44The $100,000 check they couldn't cash.
31:47In August 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim, a
31:49co-founder of Sun Microsystems, watched
31:52a quick demo and wrote them a check for
31:54$100,000.
31:56Bechtolsheim was a Jewish immigrant from
31:57Germany himself. He made the check out
31:59to Google Inc. That company didn't exist
32:03yet. For 2 weeks, while they did the
32:04paperwork to set up, they had nowhere to
32:06deposit the money. And on September 4th,
32:081998, they incorporated Google in a
32:10garage in Menlo Park. It belonged to
32:13their friend Susan Wojcicki, who later
32:15became the CEO of YouTube. Sergey took
32:17leave from his PhD, and his parents
32:19weren't happy about it. His mother put
32:21it this way, "We thought everybody in
32:23their right mind ought to get a PhD."
32:25Sergey still jokes about it today. He
32:27says, "So, I'm still on leave of
32:29absence, technically. Might still come
32:31back." Now, they almost sold it anyway.
32:32Excite was one of the big search sites
32:34of the time, and in 1999, the investor
32:36Vinod Khosla got Larry and Sergey to
32:38agree to sell Google to Excite for $1
32:41million. Excite CEO George Bell turned
32:44it down. Khosla talked them down to
32:45$750,000 and Bell still said no. It's
32:49funny how we all have these exciting
32:50moments in our life that kind of make or
32:52break what we end up doing for the rest
32:53of our lives. For me, I graduated
32:55University of Toronto and I thought I
32:57wanted to be an investment banker and I
32:58had this opportunity to go be an
33:00investment banker and travel the world
33:03and do these huge deals and make a ton
33:04of money out of university or become a
33:0630% shareholder in a business and make
33:09300 bucks a month. And it was that
33:11decision that really changed the
33:12trajectory of my life. If I didn't go
33:14and be an entrepreneur in that moment
33:16and turn down the dream jobs, I probably
33:18wouldn't be here chatting with you guys.
33:20Okay, let's get back to Sergey's story.
33:23Adult supervision. Google grew quickly.
33:26"When we were at Stanford, we had about
33:2710,000 searches per day. Now we serve
33:29over 50 million searches per day," he
33:31said in a 2000 interview when the
33:33company had about 170 employees. In
33:362001, they hired Eric Schmidt, an
33:37experienced tech executive, as CEO and
33:40the press called him Google's adult
33:42supervision. Their principles got tested
33:44pretty early. A hateful anti-Semitic
33:46website called Jew Watch showed up high
33:49in Google's search results when people
33:51searched the word Jew and Jewish groups
33:53asked Google to remove it. Sergey's own
33:55family had fled that kind of hatred and
33:57he still refused to change the rankings
33:59by hand. He said, "I certainly am very
34:02offended by the site, but the
34:03objectivity of our rankings is one of
34:05our very important principles."
34:07On August 19, 2004, Google went public
34:09at $85 a share. The founders letter to
34:12the investors said, "Google is not a
34:13conventional company" and one section of
34:16it was titled "Don't Be Evil."
34:20Standing up to China. In January 2006,
34:22Google launched google.cn in China and
34:25to operate there, it censored its search
34:27results the way Chinese governments
34:29demanded. Sergey defended that at first
34:31and then he started to doubt it. In June
34:332006, he said, "Perhaps now the
34:35principled approach makes more sense."
34:37So in mid-December 2009, Google caught a
34:40sophisticated attack on its systems that
34:42came from China. One of the attackers'
34:44main goals was to get into the Gmail
34:46accounts of Chinese human rights
34:48activists. So, on January 12th, 2010,
34:51Google told the world what happened and
34:52said it was no longer willing to censor
34:55its results in China. Sergey explained
34:57his side of it saying, "Having come from
34:58a totalitarian country, the Soviet
35:01Union, and having seen the hardships
35:03that my family endured both while there
35:05and trying to leave, I've certainly in
35:07particular sensitive to the stifling of
35:09individual liberties." So, on March
35:1122nd, 2010, Google started sending
35:13searches from mainland China to its
35:15uncensored site in Hong Kong. He said,
35:18"At some point you have to stand back
35:20and challenge this and say, this goes
35:22beyond the line of what we're
35:24comfortable with and adopt that for
35:26moral reasons."
35:30Decades to prepare. In 1998, the same
35:32year Google was founded, Sergey's mother
35:34was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
35:36She was 50. 10 years later, Sergey had
35:38his DNA tested and on September 18th,
35:412008, he wrote on his personal blog, "I
35:44carry the G2019S
35:46mutation and when my mother checked her
35:48account, she saw she carries it, too."
35:50The mutation is a gene called LRRK2
35:53and it gave him somewhere between a 20
35:55and 80% chance of getting Parkinson's in
35:57his lifetime. Then he wrote, "I have a
36:00better guess than almost anyone else for
36:02what ills may be mine and I have decades
36:04to prepare for." He had the money to act
36:06on that. Forbes said he had given more
36:08than $2 billion to Parkinson's research.
36:11He says his parents shaped how he treats
36:13money. He said, "From my parents, I
36:15certainly learned to be frugal and to be
36:17happy without very many things." And in
36:19August 2015, Google reorganized under a
36:22new parent company called Alphabet with
36:24Larry as CEO and Sergey as president.
36:29The worst decision. Not every bet they
36:32made worked out. In June 2012, Sergey
36:34took the stage at Google's developer
36:36conference and showed off Google Glass,
36:38a pair of glasses with a tiny computer
36:40screen built in with a live skydiving
36:43demo. Developers could pre-order them
36:45for $1,500. The glasses never caught on
36:48with regular people and Google ended its
36:50Explorer program in January 2015. He
36:52said, "Everybody thinks they're the next
36:54Steve Jobs. I've definitely made that
36:56mistake." At Google I/O in 2025, he said
36:59he made a lot of mistakes with Google
37:01Glass. And on December 3rd, 2019, Larry
37:03and Sergey stepped back from running
37:05Alphabet and Sundar Pichai became CEO of
37:08both Google and Alphabet. Sergey had a
37:11plan. He said, "I had this vision that I
37:13was going to sit in cafes and study
37:15physics,
37:16which was my passion at the time. Then
37:18COVID closed the cafes and he said, 'I
37:20actually retired like a month before
37:22COVID hit and it was the worst
37:24decision.'" He said he felt himself
37:26spiraling kind of not being sharp.
37:30Back in the office every day. By 2023,
37:32Sergey was back in Google's offices
37:34several days a week working with a team
37:36building Gemini, Google's AI. By 2025,
37:39he was in the office in Mountain View
37:40nearly every day helping on projects
37:42like VO3, which is Google's video making
37:45AI. In March 2024, after Gemini's image
37:47tool produced inaccurate and offensive
37:50pictures, he said Google definitely
37:52messed up. And in February 2025, he sent
37:54a memo to the Gemini team, "Competition
37:57has accelerated immensely and the final
37:59race to AGI is a foot," he said. AGI
38:02means artificial general intelligence,
38:04an AI as smart as a person or smarter.
38:07He told the team to be in the office at
38:09least every weekday and he said 60 hours
38:12a week is a sweet spot of productivity.
38:14In May 2025, he walked onto the stage at
38:16Google I/O and said, "We fully intend
38:18that Gemini will be the very first AGI."
38:21That's when he told the crowd that
38:23anybody who's a computer scientist
38:24should be working on AI right now.
38:26Looking back on his time away, he said
38:28that staying retired would have been a
38:30big mistake.
38:34Challenging traditions can pay off. On
38:36October 25th, 2009, exactly 30 years
38:38after his family landed at JFK, Sergey
38:40gave $1 million to HIAS, a refugee group
38:43that helped them in Vienna. He said, "I
38:45would have never had the kinds of
38:46opportunities I've had here in the
38:48Soviet Union or even in Russia today. I
38:51would like to see anyone be able to
38:53achieve their dreams, and that's what
38:54this organization does." His mother
38:56Eugenia died on December 3rd, 2024 at
38:5976. A year later, on December 7th, 2025,
39:02Sergey went back to Stanford for the
39:04closing event of Stanford Engineering's
39:06100th year. He talked about the
39:08apartment in Moscow, the move to
39:10America, and walking away from his PhD.
39:13Then he summed up his life and said, "I
39:15guess I had had the experience of
39:17expanding my world in ways that seemed
39:19very painful at the time, but later paid
39:22off just because of my personal history.
39:24And I guess, you know, those challenging
39:26transitions can pay off." I love it
39:28because we learn the most in the most
39:30challenging situations and
39:32opportunities. When I had my first
39:34business, I struggled, I made no money,
39:35I was too embarrassed to tell my friends
39:38that I was struggling, and it was
39:40because of all of those hardships that I
39:42had to go through, and I made it harder
39:43on myself by not asking for help, that I
39:45wanted to create my website and then
39:48eventually this YouTube channel. I think
39:49your purpose comes from your pain.
39:50Whatever you struggle the most with is
39:52what you want to help other people not
39:54struggle through as much.
39:58The heart changes can pay off. It's easy
40:00to look at Sergey today on stage at
40:01Google as one of the richest people in
40:03the world and think his life was just
40:04always easy. He started as a 6-year-old
40:06in a cinder block house in Maryland who
40:08barely spoke English. The kids at school
40:10teased him for his accent. So, Sergey
40:12was born in a tiny apartment in Moscow.
40:14His father was blocked from the career
40:17that he wanted because the family was
40:19Jewish. His parents risked everything to
40:21leave, and he arrived in America at 6
40:24with almost nothing. At Stanford, he met
40:26Larry Page. They built Google in a
40:28garage with a $100,000 check, and Excite
40:31turned down the chance to buy it for
40:32$750,000.
40:34He stood up to China, prepared for
40:36Parkinson's, retired, and then came back
40:38to build Google's AI. So, that's Sergey
40:40Brin's story, and now you know it, too.
40:42Maybe you're in the middle of a heart
40:44change right now, like a new country or
40:46new job or new business. It can feel
40:49painful while it's happening. Sergey's
40:51family gave up everything to leave
40:53Moscow, and that move is what put him at
40:55Stanford in a room with Larry Page. So,
40:58your hard change can pay off, too. To
41:01learn Jensen Huang's story, the man
41:02behind the first five trillion-dollar
41:04company, Nvidia, check the video right
41:05there next to me. I think you'll love
41:06it. Continue to believe, and I'll see
41:08you there. In 2024, Jensen Huang stood
41:11in front of a room of Stanford students
41:13and said, "I wish upon you ample doses
41:16of pain and suffering."
41:18>> Students, I I wish upon you

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