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New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

You come back to New York with $300,000 worth of orders. How are you going to finance that?

That was a big question right there. I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't have an financial education.

I didn't even have an accountant at the time. So I went to all the banks I could, and I got turned down my 27 of them.

Yeah, it was so bad loan sharks would turn to me down.

From NPR, it's how I built this. A show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

I'm Guy Ross, and on today's show, How Damon John went from waiting tables and red lobster to building Fubu.

One of the biggest hip-hop clothing brands ever created.

So as with any history, there's some disagreement over what I'm about to tell you, but by and large, lots of people will say that hip-hop was born in the Bronx, probably in 1973.

And the Bronx was the center of hip-hop culture for most of the rest of the decade. But by the early 80s, hip-hop center of gravity started to ship to Queens, specifically a neighborhood in Queens called Hollis.

This is the neighborhood where some of the most influential names in hip-hop grew up. Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, and of course all three members of Run DMC might even remember their song Christmas in Hollis here.

To you the favorite.

Okay, so Hollis is kind of crucial to understanding how Damon John was able to build a global brand of hip-hop apparel.

A brand he started from the trunk of his car. Because his hip-hop culture started to explode, so too did Damon's little clothing label called Fubu.

It's a brand that to date has sold over $6 billion in apparel.

Now today, you might know Damon as one of the sharks on Shark Tank. He's confident and smart and always well dressed, but you might not know about his backstory. His childhood in Hollis and the challenges he faced from a very early age.

Right around my about 11 years old, a 12 years old, my parents separated, I had a divorce and I would never see a speak to my father ever again.

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