Today’s Show Recap

Thanks for listening to Makin’ It. This week, MJ Morgan teams up with Melinda Inks and Brittany Dorsey for Makin’ It. On this week’s episode, they talk about grading on a curve, whether you should work on vacation, two new profiles in the Makin’ It Success Stories featuring J. Darius Bikoff and John Paul DeJoria, and, finally, on Makin’ It or Breakin’ It, whether online shopping will eventually take over for shopping at a store.

It’s time for some girl power!

MJ, Melinda and Brittany start the show talking about the trend of grading on the curve. In a recent poll, it was documented that in the past year across 200, 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities, 40% of grades were As. This trend is largely in part to grading on a curve and perhaps stems from the culture of everyone getting a trophy for participating in addition to parents who shelter their children from failure. However, teachers could be doing a huge disservice to students by grading on a curve because once they reach the real world, businesses do not operate on a curve, and they don’t pay on one either. A parent’s role would be to teach a child how to navigate effectively in the world and that includes learning how to deal with failure. If you are protected from ever experiencing failure in life, the likelihood of your success can greatly diminish because failure is a huge part of success. Additionally, teachers are giving As to increase their own performance, giving the impression that they are better at educating than they really are.

If a student can successfully compete for high grades, they may feel motivated to strive for that goal, and achieving a goal would greatly benefit their self-worth. But for those who are less likely to compete for top grades, self-worth can be preserved by successfully not trying. To these types of students, failure can be perceived as a lack of effort, and many do not want the wake-up call that they may not be as intelligent as they believe themselves to be.

So what is a solution? A college professor has taken a new approach to preserving self-worth by offering in his class different types of test options to prove whether a student has learned the material, not because they want an A. He encourages taking a test for the mere reason of liking what they were taught, which promotes that there is no one-sized way that a person can succeed or fail. What do you think of grading on a curve? Do you think that this generation of students is prepared for business today? Let us know in the comments section.

Next up, the ladies discuss working while on vacation. More than half of small business owners don’t take a vacation. For the top levels of business, work never really ends. Much of their business requires thinking and strategy, and even if a trip is taken, an entrepreneur will often look for ideas and inspiration. If you love what you do, it’s not even truly work. However, if you don’t love what you do, you are going to want to escape it. Ideally, a line of work should be something that you are naturally good at and passionate about so you don’t feel the need to escape. But can you completely shut off anyway while you are on vacation with all the technology that is available? Europeans are often given a month’s paid leave and seemingly switch off easily. However, many of those people who can shut off are working for established businesses that are running smoothly and can run without them. This is often not true for a start-up business. What do you think of working while on vacation? Are you able to switch off while on vacation? Let us know in the comments section.

OMG Fact of the Week:

Women started removing hair from their legs in 400 BCE. They either plucked them with tweezers or singed them with a flame.

In the next segment of the show, MJ, Melinda and Brittany do another installation in the Makin’ It Success Story Profile Series. This week, they feature two profiles: J. Darius Bikoff and John Paul DeJorgia.

The first Makin’ It Success Story Profile for the show features J. Darius Bikoff. Growing up in Queens, whose father owned an aluminum import business that sold to beverage companies, Bikoff showed early signs of entrepreneurship while working in his father’s company, taking it from a $30 million in revenue to $300 million. In 1993, disturbed by rumors that his neighborhood tap water had been contaminated, Bikoff researched the purity of the bottled water available and decided to create his own. He developed his own niche by adding electrolytes to the water, thus creating Smartwater as a part of Energy Brands.

In 2000, he added Vitamin Water to Energy Brands’ line-up when he had an idea appear under his nose. While eating a vitamin C wafer and taking a sip of water, Bikoff decided to combine the two, creating Vitamin Water. He designed the brand to look like a pharmacy label, and it worked, drawing not only customers’ attention but also that of Louis Vutton’s marketing company. This all led his company to gain the attention and eventual sale to Coca-Cola for $4.1 billion in 2007, which is what he had initially designed the company to do. After taxes and paying off his investors, Bikoff got paid the sum of $325 million.

Bikoff is another example of an entrepreneur who knew how important branding can be when it comes to taking his ideas to market, which led him to financial success. What do you think of Bikoff? Let us know in the comments section.

Girls on the Go: Workplace Beauty Secret

Busy/Working Girls don’t have time for a complicated beauty routine! You can look fantastic — even glamorous — faster – by adding a few simple beauty tricks to your daily routine. Buy makeup with two — or even three — uses! Multi-function makeup helps speed up your beauty regimen when you only have a few minutes to get ready. Purchase mascara that lengthens and curls so you can eliminate the time it takes to use an eyelash curler. Use a tinted moisturizer over foundation for moisturized, beautiful skin in less time. Get your eyebrows shaped for a groomed and glamorous look — even with little or no makeup. Go for a quick hair style and use a serum. A simple hairstyle helps save time and a smoothing serum can tame uncooperative hair and hold it in place. Organizing your makeup and arranging your beauty products in the order you use them also saves time. For more information about this and other GIRLS ON THE GO Workplace Beauty Secrets, visit beautyresearchinstitute.com.

Our second Makin’ It Success Story Profile for the show features John Paul DeJorgia. The man behind Paul Mitchell and Patron Spirits Tequila, DeJorgia’s story is a true rags to riches story and a fine example of true entrepreneurship. His story is even included in “The Way of the Rich,” by Tommy Runfola, and you can get your copy below.

DeJorgia, like many entrepreneurs, showed signs of becoming one early in life. When his life started to take a turn for the negative, he joined the Navy, and when he got out, after a stint at being homeless, he teamed up with Paul Mitchell. With $700, they started Paul Mitchell hair products in 1980, which went on to be one of the largest hair product companies in the world. Mitchell and DeJorgia barely had enough money to package their products, not even having enough money for color labeling, which is why their bottles are still black and white today. When Mitchell died in 1989, DeJorgia took over Paul Mitchell as well as starting Patron Spirits Tequila.

What is most notable about DeJorgia is his attitude toward success, claiming that success unshared is failure. DeJorgia himself has many celebrity friends and even works with the Dalai Lama to create peace in the world. He ensures when he hires people for his businesses that they are the type of person he likes and who joyfully show up for work, not just there to collect a paycheck. And, in turn, because his employees give 110% to the business, he compensates for their service, paying them more because he truly values them.

DeJorgia once had a dream to make $150 a week, which would provide him with a home and a car. Now, he with worth $3.1 billion. He is smart in business and not a pushover. He truly is a winning package in the business world and in life. What do you think of DeJorgia? Let us know in the comments section.

Finally, MJ, Melinda, and Brittany end the show with the Makin’ It or Breakin’ It segment. This week, the ladies talk about online shopping and whether it is becoming the new status quo. Many people believe and therefore utilize online shopping believing it saves them more time. However, many of those same people spend the saved time doing some other online activity such as Facebook. Traditional shopping, in a store, is a human and emotional experience, which many people still enjoy. And, while it will never truly go away, online shopping is more convenient, time-saving, taking a huge chunk of the business from traditional shopping, and is the way shopping is truly going. Do you prefer online shopping or traditional shopping and why? Let us know in the comments section.

Thanks for tuning in to Makin’ It. Let us know what you think of the show and if you have questions about your business, send us an email at info@makinitnow.com or leave us a comment below. We love to hear from our listeners and we read comments on the air. We just might choose yours for next week’s show (so don’t forget to tune in!).

Visit us on social media!

Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs:

To learn more about J. Darius Bikoff, click here.

To learn more about John Paul DeJorgia, click here.

Order Tommy’s new book, The Way of the Rich at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, booksamillion.com and buybooksontheweb.com.

Makin’ It is social! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Check out the Makin’ It website to listen to past shows anytime at www.makinitnow.com

Be sure to tune in every week to the Makin’ It Radio Show on your local station or listen to past shows anytime on iHeart Radio, TuneIn or the Makin’ It Now Archives section on our website at www.makinitnow.com.