After finding self-made success at a young age with his clothing and lifestyle brand, then building influence as an entrepreneur and mentor, "Shark Tank" investor and FUBU founder Daymond John decided he wants to leave behind a learn-to-earn "legacy" for America’s future leaders.
In order to do that, John said on "The Claman Countdown" Tuesday he’s embarked on his "most exciting" investment yet, writing a children’s guide to financial literacy and explaining monetary concepts at their most basic levels.
"I'm about to teach children magic," John told host Liz Claman. "I'm going to teach them how to get out of their parent's house at 18 years old. I'm going to teach them how to make $1 into $3. I'm going to teach them how to make their money work for them… there's no book like this in schools at all."
Growing up, not many picture books told stories of how to start your own business or become a successful entrepreneur and innovator – but John expressed he’s trying to change that.
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"Think about it, no financial intelligence is taught to these kids, and at 18 years old, they can get $750,000 worth of debt for a career they're not even sure they want, and they won't pay that off until they're late into their fifties or even sixties, or maybe never," John explained.
While overseeing more than $6 billion in various product sales worldwide and previously writing five best-selling books, according to his agency The Shark Group, John claimed his kids' book strays from the industrial "old system" of work and promotes creating careers for ourselves.
The "Shark Tank" star also gave a big takeaway for parents, encouraging them to contribute to their children’s future success by gifting stocks from their favorite companies or brands, as opposed to the physical or material products.
"Here’s what I would do for my grandson: he loves Tonka trucks," John pointed out. "I buy him a little Caterpillar truck, I buy him a share in Caterpillar at the same time. I then take a picture next to him with the Caterpillar truck and the share, and later on, six or seven years later, I do that with Disney and everything else... all his toys, he realized, are worth crap. His stock's over $20,000."
Another investment option into your kids’ future, John suggested, is by reading the new book with them while "their minds are sponges."
He then went a step further to discuss how America got itself into monumental debt "because we are not teaching our kids."
"This is going to be my legacy because I want all of celebrities, all of the financial institutions because it's not a scam, I want them all to say, I want my kids to say: my daddy started a conversation where it became popular or the trend to create books for little children who aren't like us or tainted with what to do in life," John said.
"I want everybody who's watching this to compete with me, top me, and make sure we have all these kids of ours, our future, they start to understand how to process money," he continued.
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Parents can’t give their kids everything, John noted while quoting Claman’s late father, but they can help them overcome some of life’s most common challenges.
"Look at the Fords, the Carnegies and the Mellons, none of their kids own any of the Teslas and the Instagrams of the world, why? First generation makes it, second enjoys it, third destroys it," the investor said. "So if you don't have any kind of financial intelligence, I don't care who you are, if you're getting trust fund money, you're done."
