Robert Herjavec on ‘Shark Tank,’ politics, & poverty

QUOTES FROM THIS 'LARRY KING NOW' INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT HERJAVEC:

*Posted Online on Ora.TV on June 8th 2016:

“This is my third book, and the reason we wrote the first book was I'm Eastern European, and Europeans respect education and authors more than money. So my mom used to think maybe one day you'll write a book, it wasn't make a million dollars or buy a big house.” — Robert Herjavec on why he felt the need to write a book

Robert Herjavec: "My dad wanted to come to America, but America wouldn't take us."

Larry King: "Why not"?

Robert Herjavec: "It was really hard to get into America, we applied and the immigration wouldn't let us in and Canada took us in with open arms. That's why I'm so touchy about the whole immigration thing. Everybody in this country an immigrant from somewhere."

Larry King: "That's right we all are, except for the American Natives."

Robert Herjavec: "Absolutely, so I'm always about open the borders, let the people in, to a degree, this is the land of opportunity. My dad always thought [imitating his dad’s Yugoslavian accent] ‘America, one day, one day we go to America’."— Robert Herjavec on how he ended up in immigrating to Canada

"Back then there was no english courses. They took you to school, they threw you into a classroom, and just started speaking english to you." — Robert Herjavec on learning English

"Good and bad. As people say to me, I'm a great guy to know, I'm a little hard to live with at times. I always have this chip on my shoulder about being an immigrant. I think that once you don't fit in, you always have this need to fit in. I always feel like I'm working towards something that is probably never going to get there, so I always feel this need to work harder, run harder, push harder, do more." — Robert Herjavec on if having an immigrant mentality has been a force for his success.

"My goal was lack of poverty. Mark Cuban and I had this talk, when he was 12 years old he said he knew he wanted to be rich, I just didn't want to be poor. I think they're different things. I think Mark wanted to make a lot of money, and he's worth more than I am so maybe there's something to that, I just didn't want to live like we were living."— Robert Herjavec on his drive towards success.

"I think it's an honor and a privilege to do the show. I mean I think back to where I started, we were talking about immigrants, and when I think back to where I started and I'm on TV and the show is so inspiring for so many people, especially kids." — Robert Herjavec on ‘Shark Tank’

“Why do you think most people are afraid to do sales? They're afraid of rejection. They take it extremely personally. People would rather wallow in mediocrity than get to a point where they hear a yes or a no. I want to hear a no. If you're not going to buy something from me, don't waste my time."— Robert Herjavec on why people will benefit from his book ‘You Don’t Have to Be a Shark’

Robert Herjavec: "Somebody in Canada said to me what's your favorite TV show? and I said my favorite reality show is American politics. They're amazed. The whole Trump aura and the election is really incredible, it's fascinating from the rest of the world."

Larry King: "What do you think of him as a successful business man into the world of politics and the impact he's made?"

Robert Herjavec: "I've met him a number of times, I've met Hillary a number of times, regardless of what you feel about Donald Trump you cannot deny that man has a persona and a character. You get him in front of a large group of people, it's a party. He reminds me of the cool kid in high school, everybody wants to go to his party. It's incredible to us."

— Robert Herjavec on American politics and Donald Trump

"Perseverance . The ability to absorb failure. You're going to hear 'no' way more than you hear 'yes', and that's when I started out that's what I thought, I thought that you go out, good things happen. You learn pretty quickly in life, crap happens. It's not your ability to be happy when the sun is shining that determines success, it's your ability to absorb failure on the days where everybody hates you, it's raining, people are mean to you, your dog doesn't even like you, if you can be happy on those days and move forward, then you've got something."— Robert Herjavec on what characteristics someone needs to be successful in business

"The path to success is not spotted with failure, the path to success is constant failure spotted with some success. You gotta let your winnings ride, and you've gotta absorb your failures quickly... I never think of anything as a failure, I think everything you do gets you to this point. I think the minute you think of failure it's over. I've never thought I was a failure, even in the worst, crappiest, days I never thought of myself as a failure in anything." — Robert Herjavec on the failure and the path to success.

"There are no pitfalls to being rich. Rich is good. I've been poor and I've been rich... Greed is not good, but rich is better than poor. I always think Larry, that people think that when you become rich, you become a jerk. The people that I've met that are wealthy, were jerks before they had any money. Great wealth amplifies who you are.”— Robert Herjavec on being rich

"All the wealth I talk about is earned. When you earn something, when you accomplish something, when you create something from nothing, and you make it happen, nobody can ever take that away from you. Even if the money goes away. Earned wealth is a completely different game, you didn't earn that, you lose the sense of accomplishment and without accomplishment you have no stamina and you have no confidence. You can't fake accomplishment." — Robert Herjavec on earned wealth vs. inherited wealth