'Shark Tank' star worked at Red Lobster while building his business: Your 9-to-5 can be 'your first investor'

As Daymond John built the business that made him a millionaire, he didn’t hastily quit his day job. Sticking it out made him more successful, he says.

“I worked at Red Lobster for years while building FUBU,” John posted to LinkedIn on Monday. “Not because I didn’t believe in my dreams. Because it was smart.”

In 1992, the Queens, New York, native co-founded the clothing brand — an acronym for “For Us, By Us” — following a humble upbringing with his single mom. John launched the company with just $40, and the money he made as a waiter at the chain restaurant helped keep him afloat and invest in his business.

“That job taught me sales and inventory, paid my bills [and] bought fabric and materials for my business,” wrote John, 56.

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