Analysis of Entrepreneurial Attributes: John Paul Dejoria's Success

This report provides an in-depth analysis of entrepreneurship and innovation, using the successful entrepreneur John Paul Dejoria as a case study. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, defining entrepreneurship and highlighting Dejoria's achievements. The report explores the attributes of a successful entrepreneur, such as passion, risk-taking, hard work, adaptability, product and market knowledge, money management, effective planning skills, connections, exit preparedness, and humility. It then delves into Dejoria's personality and personal approach, detailing his consultancy work and the founding of John Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron Spirits. The report examines Dejoria's businesses, products, and market segmentation, followed by a breakdown of the entrepreneurship process, including opportunity identification, business plan development, capital raising, and customer acquisition. Finally, it addresses the challenges Dejoria faced in starting his businesses and concludes with a summary of key findings.

RUNNING HEAD: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 1
Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 2
Executive summary
Entrepreneurship drives the world. The concept of entrepreneurship started hitting people's ears
around the 1920s. This report explores deeply the attributes a successful entrepreneur should
possess, using John Paul Dejoria, who is one of the most successful American entrepreneurs of
all time, this paper will look at his personality, personal approach to his business and also the
paper will tackle on the process of John Paul Dejoria's business right from identification of the
business opportunity to the point of commercialization. Before concluding the paper, challenges
that John Paul Dejoria faced while pursuing his identified opportunity will be dealt with in depth.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
1.0 INTRODUCTION…………………………………............................................................…4
2.0 DISCUSSION…………………………………...…………………………...………………4
2.1 ATTRIBUTES OF A SUCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR……………………...............……5
3.0 PERSONALITY OF JOHN PAUL DEJORIA……………………………………..…..........7
3.1 JOHN PAUL DEJORIA PERSONAL APPROACH………………………………………8
3.2 BUSINESSES, PRODUCTS AND MARKETS OF JOHN PAUL DEJORIA……………8
4.0 ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROCESS…………………………………………………………9
4.1 CHALLENGES FACED BY JOHN PAUL DEJORIA IN STARTING HIS BUSINESS….9
5.0 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………...10
6.0 REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………….11

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 4
1.0 Introduction
Before looking deep into the major parts of this paper, it is important to first understand what
entrepreneurship means. Entrepreneurship has been defined by many scholars, but the more
sophisticated definition is, the process of transforming the world through the act of solving its
major problems (Martins, 2018). This is achieved by means of bringing a societal change
through creation of an innovative product or giving the world a revived life-changing solution.
John Paul Dejoria is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time with an approximated
net worth of 3.1 billion US dollars. He has several businesses comprising of patron spirits co.
Which makes tequila and Paul Mitchell Systems which deals with hair care products. He
achieved his wealth from a startup capital of $700. His personality and personal approach to his
business will be tackled and the challenges he faced while starting his business will be dealt with
in depth.
2.0 Discussion
The major discussion of this paper will be the attributes of a successful entrepreneur, using John
Paul Dejoria, the paper will look deep into his personality, personal approach to his venture and
process of his business venture right from the introduction to the last stage which is
commercialization. Also, the paper will look at the challenges John Paul Dejoria faced while
doing his business and then the conclusion will be the last of this paper.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 5
2.1 Attributes of a successful entrepreneur
One of the most important attributes of a great entrepreneur is passion and motivation. An
entrepreneur should have the passion and motivation to do his business in order to achieve his
main objective. Passion and motivation are seen in an entrepreneur when he does something
repeatedly without getting irritated and bored with it, feeling uncomfortable or uneasy when he
or she has not finished it when desiring to continue improving his business and lastly when he
enjoys doing it for all his living time. Secondly, a successful entrepreneur should be a risk lover
or a risk taker. Entrepreneurs take risks (Adams, 2017). A good entrepreneur does not avoid
risks, but instead, he or she dives directly into the risks without minding the outcome. The most
important different between an entrepreneur and other people is that entrepreneurs are always
ready to risk their resources, i.e., money and time to what they have no idea on. Even though he
or she risks his or her resources, he or she always keep some to deal with uncertainties that may
occur in the course of doing their business. When an entrepreneur is evaluating risk, a good
entrepreneur will always ask himself or herself whether the risk is worth his or her career and
resources and also he or she will ask himself or herself what he or she will do in case the
business fails to pay off.
Another attribute of a good entrepreneur is hard work, self-esteem and also disciplined
dedication. A good entrepreneur should always believe in himself or herself and forever be
confident that his or her project will pay off. In most cases, their strict focus and confidence in
their business idea may be misunderstood and regarded as being stubborn but it is through the
willingness to work tirelessly and ignoring people’s perception that make them achieve their
success level (Berry, 2014). Subsequently, a good entrepreneur should always be adaptable and

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 6
very flexible. Passion and dedication is very important if the venture has to succeed, but without
flexibility and adaptability will lead to total failure of the venture. A great entrepreneur always
accommodates other people’s suggestions for the purpose of optimizing those suggestions that
may improve his offering and satisfy customers’ needs and the market in totality.
Having knowledge about the product and the market is another attribute of a successful
entrepreneur. A good Entrepreneur has full knowledge of the product has from all dimensions. In
addition to product knowledge, he or she has full knowledge of the market. Failure to possess
this knowledge, it will be hard to know changes in market needs which will give room to
competitors to move in and take over the market. In addition to competitors' moves, external
forces such as inflation, changes in technology, government policy, and interest rates can cause
the failure of a potential product. So it is very important for a good entrepreneur to have all this
information in his or her finger tips to facilitate the success of the venture. In addition to product
and market knowledge, strong money management is paramount to the success of any business
venture (Bortz, 2016). Therefore it is important for a good entrepreneur to possess the attribute
of strong money management. This is because it takes time before an entrepreneurial venture to
start paying off. Before it starts generating profits, capital should be efficiently managed and
wisely utilized as it is a limited recourse (Seth, 2018). A successful entrepreneur always plans
effectively financial obligation of the business in the present time and the future and ensure that
precautionary fund is set aside to cater in the event risk occurs or additional funds required in the
business. Cash flow should be handled carefully because it is the most crucial aspect for the
success of any business venture.
Effective planning skills should be another attribute a successful entrepreneur should possess.
This entails starting a business from scratch and managing resources which are always limited

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 7
that always require effective planning. For planning to be effective, a business plan should be in
place and be on toes to deal with unforeseen contingencies (Malinowski, 2018). In addition to
effective planning skills which are paramount to any business venture, right connections become
key too. A good entrepreneur should associate with more experienced mentors to help him
develop his business through the advice that they will give him or her. In case they lack the
necessary skills, they will always look for someone with the skills to help you develop your
business. A good entrepreneur should always have the attribute of exit preparedness incase the
business fails. Not all ventures succeed at the first time; many successful entrepreneurs tried
many businesses before becoming successful. So a good entrepreneur should always be prepared
to exit or quit in case the business venture fails to pay off and try another venture. Last but not
least, a good entrepreneur should always be humble. A good entrepreneur should always be
ready to admit the mistakes he or she commits and learn from them so that the same mistakes
don't happen in the future. This is crucial for any entrepreneur.
3.0 Personality of John Paul Dejoria
John Paul Dejoria has a natural leadership gift and the ability to aggregate great wealth. His
management talent, especially in financial matters, made him what he is right now. He
understands the material world better and has full knowledge of what makes any business work.
There are many fields that best suits John Paul Dejoria (Forbes, 2018). Among them include
business, finance, management of large corporations and many others. Another personality of
John Paul Dejoria that made him accumulate all his wealth is the ability to inspire others. This
makes those around him need him all the time for his encouragement. He is very adaptable and
flexible which makes him have a humble time to fit into many vocational fields. He has good

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 8
skills for solving personality conflicts. His personality greatly contributed to his business
success.
3.1 John Paul Dejoria Personal approach
After he got fired thrice, he started a consultancy firm in the year 1978 which he did for a couple
of years though it did not pay off well. Then he discovered that he wanted to have his market
segment and owner of a business that dealt with a physical product (Shlomo, 2016). In
collaboration with the late Paul Mitchell, who was a superstar hairdresser by that time, they
started Paul Mitchell system, a company that deals with hair care products with a startup capital
of $700. After two years of operation, they would be able to generate an extra $2000 after paying
all operational costs which they distributed to themselves as dividends (Lebowitz, 2016). At the
moment, the company generates over one billion US dollars turnover a year which later turned
out to be one of the most profitable businesses dealing with hair care products in the world.
3.2 Businesses, products, and markets of John Paul Dejoria
John Paul Dejoria has invested in many businesses but the one that made him what he is at the
moment is the John Paul Mitchell systems that specialize in hair care products and Patron spirits
Company that produces tequila. In addition to his two businesses, he has invested in life science
and telecommunication. John Paul Dejoria products include hair care products, tequila just to
mention a few. John Paul Dejoria has segmented his markets effectively (Dutta, 2018). The hair
care products serve both men and women from all age sets; tequila product serves adults that
consume alcohol. According to geographical segmentation, the products in most parts of the
world. This was all along his most important desire to own his own in the market.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 9
4.0 Entrepreneurship process
The very first stage of entrepreneurship is the identification of the right business opportunity.
Without a viable business idea, a business cannot be started. John Paul Dejoria identified hair
care product as a viable business opportunity and then committed himself along with the late
Paul Mitchell to pursue it even though at that time inflation in the United States was 12%. After
identification and evaluation, what follows is development of a business plan (Hikkerova et
al, .2016). This does not necessarily mean writing a whole booklet just in the name of a business
plan. For startup, one can write few points which he or she intends to achieve. John Paul Dejoria
along with Paul Mitchell, had a business plan and estimated the cost of starting the business to be
one million US dollars but due to inadequate capital, they started the business with $700
The third step is raising startup capital. Capital can be raised from individual's savings, family
friend, bank loan, and others. John Paul Dejoria and his partner, from their pockets, they
managed to raise $700 which they used to start John Paul Mitchell systems (Kuratko, 2016). The
forth step of the process is getting paying customers. Identification of a market segment for your
product is important. They should be paying customers (Johnson, 2016). The last step is the
success or failure of the business. Starting a business does not mean you will succeed, in case
your business fails, it's important to go back and find out where you messed and rectify.
4.1 Challenges faced by John Paul Dejoria in starting his business
One of the challenges John Paul Dejoria faced was financing. Inadequate capital made him start
his business with Paul Mitchell with a starting capital of $700. The second challenge was time
management. This is the biggest challenge all entrepreneurs face. If time was enough one
accomplish a lot. Another challenge faced by John Paul Dejoria was the delegation of duties.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 10
Every time he delegated duties, something went wrong (Day, 2017). Also choosing what to sell
was another challenge John Paul Dejoria faced. He had to collaborate with Paul Mitchell to start
selling hair care products (Jaskiewicz et al, .2016). Last but not least, a strapped budget was
another challenge that this entrepreneur faced.
5.0 Conclusion
Entrepreneurship is a process which entails five major steps which include identification of a
viable business opportunity, development of a business plan, raising startup capital, finding
paying customers and lastly failure or success of the business. For a good entrepreneur to
succeed, he or she should possess certain attributes that distinguish him from the rest. Examples
of this attributes include hard-working, positive self-esteem, and preparedness to exit in case the
business fails among others. John Paul Dejoria is one of the key entrepreneurs of all time who
have succeeded from a startup capital of $700 to approximately 3.3 billion US dollars. In his
starting stages, he faced some challenges among them are inadequate capital, time management
and others

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION. 11
6.0 Reference
Adams, J. (2017, April 6). 10 Qualities of a Successful Entrepreneur. Retrieved from
http://under30ceo.com/10-qualities-of-a-successful-entrepreneur/
Berry, T. (2014, March 19). 35 Common Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs - Bplans
Blog. Retrieved from https://articles.bplans.com/35-common-characteristics-of-
successful-entrepreneurs/
Bortz, D. (2016). Here are nine traits you should possess to be successful as an entrepreneur.
Retrieved from https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/entrepreneur-traits
Day, K. (2017, September 27). 4 Major Challenges Faced By Entrepreneurs. Retrieved from
https://www.avisualbusiness.com/4-major-challenges-faced-by-entrepreneurs/
Dutta, A. (2018, June 21). Market Segmentation – Definition, Bases, Types & Examples.
Retrieved from https://www.feedough.com/market-segmentation-definition-basis-types-
examples/
Forbes. (2018). John Paul DeJoria. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/profile/john-paul-
dejoria/#50e47fc924a4
Hikkerova, L., Ilouga, S. N., & Sahut, J. M. (2016). The entrepreneurship process and the model
of volition. Journal of Business Research, 69(5), 1868-1873.

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Jaskiewicz, P., Combs, J. G., Ketchen Jr, D. J., & Ireland, R. D. (2016). Enduring
entrepreneurship: antecedents, triggering mechanisms, and outcomes. Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 10(4), 337-345.
Johnson, W. J. (2016). Strategies That Make Entrepreneurs Successful On A Second Business
Launch
Kuratko, D. F. (2016). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Chimucheka, T., & Mandipaka, F. (2015). Challenges faced by small, medium and micro
enterprises in the Nkonkobe Municipality. The International Business & Economics
Research Journal (Online), 14(2), 309
Lebowitz, S. (2016, June 3). Billionaire John Paul DeJoria reveals the tricky leadership quality
that helped catapult him to success. Retrieved from
https://www.businessinsider.com/john-paul-dejoria-reveals-the-most-important-quality-
of-a-leader-2016-6?IR=T
Malinowski, R. (2018, July 29). 6 Core Attributes Of Every Successful Entrepreneur. Retrieved
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successful-entrepreneur/
Martins Ferreira, N. (2018, July 25). What it Means to Be An Entrepreneur. Retrieved from
https://www.oberlo.com/blog/what-is-entrepreneurship
Seth, S. (2018, March 14). 10 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneurs. Retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/101014/10-characteristics-
successful-entrepreneurs.asp

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Shlomo, T. (2016). John Paul DeJoria. Retrieved from
https://www.celebrities-galore.com/celebrities/john-paul-dejoria/home/