‘I’m not a billionaire — by choice’: Shark Tank star Daymond John says he turned down the three-comma club due to a pull on his heartstrings

“I’m not a billionaire,” he said. “I’m not a billionaire by choice.”

A top-tier bank once offered him a $1.3 billion line of credit. He said the bank counts the world’s 1,000 leading companies as clients, and it wanted him to use the money to buy businesses that make rugs, lighting and furniture. A credit line is borrowed money, not a gift, so any fortune would have had to come from growing those companies.

Still, John said the bank assured him he’d likely come out ahead.

He said no because of his 9-year-old daughter. By his account, he worked so much that he wasn’t around for his two older daughters’ childhoods. Now they are 26 and 31, and a deal that big would have meant repeating that with his youngest.

Plenty of dads agree that work cuts into time with their kids, too. In a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, 63% of U.S. fathers felt they weren’t getting enough time with their children. Of that group, 62% named their jobs as the biggest reason.

Putting family ahead of money before

He went into further detail on that loan offer in a March 2024 Jetset Magazine interview; he recalled the large international bank offering him $2 billion in credit to bring a group of minority-owned companies together under his leadership.

Ironically, in 1994, John couldn’t get a bank to lend him a cent. FUBU had landed $300,000 in orders at a trade show that year, he told Inc., yet 27 banks rejected him when he tried to borrow money. His mother ended up taking out a $100,000 mortgage on her home to fund him. Half a year later, he had just $500 left and hadn’t paid her mortgage in three months.

That theme of family is pervasive in John’s mindset. At 56, he doesn’t want to make the same mistake a third time.

“[My daughter] will never see me again if I go back to doing that,” John said. “Why would I do that? So somebody could see me on a yacht?”

His thinking has shifted since his first marriage, he opined in a 2024 Success magazine interview. Back then, he figured piling up money as quickly as possible was how he’d look out for his two oldest girls. Now, he says, the way he treats his family shapes his legacy.

John also told hosts on the Real Leaders podcast in 2025 that his kids won’t be getting an inheritance from him. He described blocking off family moments, like Peppa Pig tea time with his daughters, and treating them as seriously as any meeting at work. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has gone a similar route, telling podcaster Raj Shamani in March 2025 that his kids will inherit under 1% of his wealth.

He still defends billionaires, though

On TMZ Live, he once dismissed calls to do away with billionaires. In his view, the ultra-wealthy do good, from philanthropy to employment and investing in infrastructure. Passing on millions in revenue for a company, he argued, is something no sensible business owner would do.

The average American probably won’t get a billion-dollar loan from a bank anytime soon. But then they might still get offered a promotion with longer hours, a weekend side gig or a better-paying job with a longer commute.