LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — What does it take to build an empire from the ground up and keep your values intact along the way? In the newest episode of Perception Box: Corner Office (click here for episode), entrepreneur, investor, and cultural icon Daymond John opens up about the experiences that shaped his hustle, his worldview, and his success.
As the founder of FUBU, a hip-hop inspired sportswear and apparel company, John defined the look of hip-hop just as it emerged as a major cultural force. The brand’s jerseys and hats have taken on an iconic, quintessentially American quality—one that’s echoed in John’s own rise to success. It’s easy to see why he’s spent 17 seasons as one of Shark Tank’s patron saints of entrepreneurialism.
In reality, John’s path wasn’t smooth or scripted. Raised in Hollis, Queens, at the height of the crack epidemic, he learned to hustle early by shoveling snow, breakdancing for tips, and selling handmade hats in front of the Jamaica Colosseum Mall. The business wins came later, after years of failure and moments where everything he’d built nearly collapsed.
In this episode, co-produced with the nonprofit organization Unlikely Collaborators and Custom Content From WSJ, John examines his Perception Box™ framework, the internal set of beliefs and biases that shape how we see ourselves and others. For him, the most painful experiences of his youth, his parents’ dissolving marriage, and friends lost to gang violence or prison, also instilled a deep sense of self-reliance and urgency. There was no safety net, no second chance. Just the belief that if he didn’t make something happen, no one else would.
This newest installment joins three other compelling episodes of Perception Box: Corner Office, which take viewers on a journey inside the personal and professional lives of some of today’s most influential entrepreneurs:
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Sophia Amoruso
(Founder, Nasty Gal) — From selling vintage clothes online to creating a $350 million empire, Amoruso reflects on the highs and lows of her meteoric rise, exploring how fame, failure, and resilience shaped her journey. -
Bob Stiller
(Founder, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters) — After navigating personal loss and insecurity in his youth, Stiller built two iconic brands, including Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. He reveals the pride of pioneering mindful workplace culture and the pain of watching that culture evolve as the business scaled. -
Jim McKelvey
(Co-founder, Square) — A childhood marked by social isolation and tragedy gave McKelvey a unique lens on life, which fueled his rise as an innovator. Despite his success, McKelvey opens up about his discomfort with the mythology surrounding his achievements.
At a time when leadership requires both innovation and emotional intelligence, Perception Box: Corner Office is a timely reminder that great leaders are shaped not just by their wins but by their struggles. This series encourages viewers to reflect on their own limiting beliefs and consider how they can transform their perspectives to lead with greater purpose.
All episodes of Perception Box: Corner Office are now available for streaming here on the Unlikely Collaborators website.
Unlikely Collaborators is a nonprofit organization, founded and chaired by Elizabeth R. Koch, dedicated to fostering transformative storytelling, developing human connection, and resolving internal conflict. Unlikely Collaborators’ perspective is that external conflict arises from unconscious, unresolved internal conflict within each of us. Founded on the belief that the way we perceive the world is highly subjective, Unlikely Collaborators supports projects that challenge assumptions, spark meaningful dialogue, and invite people into deeper self-awareness in community.
Central to this mission is the groundbreaking Perception Box™ framework developed by Koch. More than just a metaphor, it represents the often unseen matrix of biases, beliefs, and personal narratives that influence how we interpret reality. Rooted in cognitive science and psychological research, this framework illustrates how each person’s unique mental model shapes their understanding of the world, often limiting their ability to connect with new perspectives and ideas. By investigating and untangling our Perception Box beliefs, individuals and communities can unlock compassion, creativity, and new ways of thinking.
Perception Box: Corner Office was created in partnership with Custom Content from WSJ which is a unit of The Wall Street Journal Advertising Department. The Wall Street Journal news organization was not involved in the creation of this content.
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SOURCE Unlikely Collaborators
