Daymond John is the founder of Fubu, a clothing brand he started in his mother's home 1992 which is now sold worth over 6 billion dollars of products. He has a net worth of about 350 million dollars and has invested close to 9 million dollars in emerging companies as an investor on Shark Tank.

But he was not always a millionaire and he has admitted that he was not financial intelligence in Fubu's early days when 27 banks turned him down for a loan. That's why John says it's important to build strong financial intelligence early on.

“This is the most important part: financial intelligence, creating a structure and a business so that when you want an investment, I can invest in you,” John told CNN Business. “(If) your bills are in a shoebox, how am I going to get back? Where is my money going?”

Related: These are the 3 things that make Daymond John want to give you money

In 2022, John explained that when he was starting out as an entrepreneur, 27 banks turned him down because he didn't know what he was doing financially. He did not know what forms to fill out and had no collateral.

“I look back on those days and say, 'How stupid was I?'” John said. “Because I didn't have financial intelligence, and I think that's something we should teach kids in the third grade, not when they go to college. .. We don't talk about money at all.”

^{Daymond John. Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images}

Use other people's money

John said the “power of breaking” can also help businesses, or the idea that they have nothing to lose, so they'll figure it out no matter what. And he is a big fan of using “other people's money” or as he calls it, ZKM. The “M” can also stand for other resources, he says.

“Usually it's about thinking outside the box and using OPM, which has to be before other people, manufacturing, brainpower, workforce, marketing and mentoring,” he said.

John said that if he were to start a business today, he would use other people's resources first before using his own money.

John said The entrepreneur in an interview last month that he asks founders to answer three questions before investing in them: Why me? Why now? And why this?

Related: How Daymond John went from selling t-shirts on the street to running a $350 million company