Daymond John has advice for families of students navigating today’s turbulent economic landscape.

John is a “Shark Tank” judge, investor, and entrepreneur who put skin in the game through his foray into FUBU (For Us, By Us), a streetwear brand that catered to Hip-Hop culture when it launched in 1992, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. He was rejected by 27 banks, but had the support of his mother early on, who took out a $100,000 loan on her mortgage to invest in the business. In the company’s early days, he even worked as a waiter at a Red Lobster.

By 1998, FUBU was generating more than $350 million in sales, and it has earned over $6 billion today.

John also did this without going to college, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t see the merit of higher education.

“Most of my employees have come from college,” John told CNBC in 2018. “because as an intern, you can come into my company and get credit [for] college. Those people then out-work the people that are already working there, and I hired most of the interns. You wouldn’t have that opportunity if you didn’t go to college,” he continued.

John still sees value in education today, but he emphasizes that people should consider pursuing trades given the current economic landscape.

 “A lot of jobs are gonna go away. The trade business is going to rise … Invest in that education if you can,” he said during an interview at Yahoo! Finance’s Invest event.

For students who are preparing to enter the workforce, today’s economy brings fundamental uncertainty. Many companies continue to announce job cuts — most recently, Verizon shared plans to eliminate 15,000 roles, which is the company’s largest reduction in its history, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Tech giants, including Meta, Amazon, and IBM, have also trimmed their workforces in recent months, with some citing AI as a driver of more efficient operations.

This year alone, over 300,000 Black women have also lost their jobs, with some turning to entrepreneurship, notes a separate AFROTECH™ article.

John suggests that family units embrace a holistic approach to navigate the economic realities ahead.

“How are you looking at your children? That’s one of the issues. How are children today in high school and college, how are they taking [$400,000] to $600,000 worth of student debt for a job that’s not going to actually exist in another year or so,” John said during the Invest event.

“So sometimes you have to look at the entire thing as a family. What are you doing? Where are you putting the money? Are you looking at assets? Are you looking at long-term assets like bonds? Are you looking at crypto? Are you looking at buying in Apple, buying in blue chip,” he continued.

“It’s almost like cash is trash. So you have to look at all of these things. But if you’re looking at a career, you need to start understanding how do you gain attention? Even if you’re a plumber, you need to make sure that everybody knows about your plumbing services,” he added.