Jesse Itzler a.k.a Jesse Jaymes is a 53-year-old entrepreneur, author and music artist. He is mostly known for being the co-founder of the world’s largest private jet card company Marquis Jet which was sold to Berkshire’s NetJets in 2010. He is also famous for his successful business ventures and his partnerships with famous companies like Zico coconut water.
He currently lives with his wife and four children in Atlanta, Georgia and often shares pictures and videos of him and his family on social media.
Let’s Do Some Calculation
He has numerous businesses which earn him millions of dollars every year. Let’s calculate Jesse approximate net worth.
Earning as an Entrepreneur
Jesse Itzler, along with Kenny Dichter, co-founded of one of the biggest private jet companies called Marquis Jet in 2001. By 2007, the company was doing $700 million per year business with 3,500 customers.
Later in 2010, Berkshire Hathaway, parent organization of NetJets bought Marquis Jet and Itzler earned undisclosed amount, in millions of dollars. Marquis Jet had more than 4000 customers at that time.
Here’s a video on interesting story of how Jesse got his 1st customer for Marquis Jet.
Jesse did not stop pursuing business deals after Marquis Jet.
He founded a creative design agency and brand incubator called 100 Mile Group. The company announced partnership with ZICO Coconut Water and the Coca-Cola. To help promote ZICO Coconut Water, Jesse ran a 100 mile in a celebrity endorsement of the brand.
The 100 Mile Group has established partnerships with many other famous companies as well. Considering how big these companies are, these partnerships must have earned Jesse a lot of money.
Jesse is also a part owner of the Atlanta Hawks, an American professional basketball team along with his wife Sara Blakey.
Earning as a Musician
What helped Jesse pursue his business endeavors successfully was his impressive music background.
One of his first successes as a music artist was his first single Shake It (Like A White Girl) which reached number 84 on The Billboard Hot 100 chart. It was also featured in the 2004 movie White Chicks.
In 1996, Jesse launched his own record company Alphabet City Sports Records which he co-founded along with Kenny Dichter. The company mainly worked on creating arena songs for professional sports teams, mainly basketball including the Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks, and Los Angeles Lakers.
Three years later in 1998, he sold Alphabet City Sports Records to SFX Entertainment. According to Wikipedia and an interview with Mixergy he said that it was sold for $4.3 million in stock and cash along with a percentage of the future earnings.
Earning as an Author
Apart from being a successful businessman and music artist, Jesse Itzler is a successful author as well.
He released his first book ‘Living with a SEAL: 31 Days with the Toughest Man on the Planet’ in November 2015. The book has 4+ rating at goodreads.
This book was a New York Times bestseller.
These are some of his major business ventures which earned him millions of dollars. Apart from this, he has partnerships with multiple other businesses which earn him a good stream of revenue.
As of 2022, Jesse Itzler’s net worth is estimated to be about $200 to $220 million.
Jesse Itzler – Music Career
Jesse was passionate about being a music artist.
During college, he worked on recording tapes in his spare time. These tapes helped him secure a contract with Delicious Vinyl started his music career.
He took on Jesse Jaymes as his stage name and worked on recording and songwriting for his label. He released his debut album in 1991 called Thirty Footer in Your Face.
During his music career he worked with more than 50 artists and even co-wrote songs for Tone Loc.
Later he started working on songs for sports teams. His song I Love This Game won an Emmy award which made him more popular. This song was written for Inside the NBA. He also made a fortune from the famous theme song he wrote for the New York Knicks called Go NY Go.
Jesse Itzler – Books
Apart from being a successful businessman and music artist, Jesse Itzler is a successful author as well.
He released his first book ‘Living with a SEAL : 31 days training with the Toughest Man on the Planet’ in November 2015. You can buy this book from Amazon.
In this book, Jesse invites a US Navy Seal David Goggins to live with him. He wanted David to train him and establish a proper workout routine for him.
Jesse first met David at a 100 mile race. David ran the 100 mile race without any support staff and Jesse was fascinated by his endurance and strength. So he wanted to know David’s secrets and ended up inviting him to stay with him and train him. This book is hilarious and interesting because David makes Jesse do a lot of crazy things like jumping into a frozen lake and going for a run in a snowstorm.
Jesse ended up facing a lot of challenges and David pushed him beyond his limits. He was made to work out every day without fail and go for many runs. After a month, Jesse made progress by increasing his running speed by a whole minute and a half faster per mile. David made Jesse go for runs no matter how tired he was or how bad the weather was outside.
Overall this book is very humorous and will not fail to give you a good laugh. It ended up being a New York Times bestseller and topped the LA times. Here’s an interview with Jesse & David by CBS NEWS on ‘Living with a SEAL’.
Jesse also released another book in 2018 – Living with the Monks: What Turning Off My Phone Taught Me about Happiness, Gratitude, and Focus. You can buy this book from Amazon.
In this book, Jesse decides to take time off from his phone and get away from his hectic work life. He goes to a monastery in the isolated mountains of Upstate New York. He even shaves his head to fit in with the monks. However upon his arrival, he finds that most of the New Skete monks have their hair.
New Skete is an eastern Orthodox monastic community located in the Town of White Creek. These monks have years of experience raising dogs, especially German Shepherd breeds. They focus on cultivating healthy relationships between humans and dogs.
Jesse definitely experienced feelings of homesickness and even felt compelled to check his phone for updates. However at the end of his experience, he ended up learning a lot of things from the monks and stated how much wisdom and knowledge they had.
He realizes the importance of having quiet time and the necessity of taking a break every now and then.
Jesse Itzler – Early Life
Jesse Itzler was born on 22 August, 1968 in Roslyn, New York to a Jewish family. His mother Ruth Itzler was the president of the board of education in Roslyn. His father Daniel Itzler was an inventor. Jesse says that he looked up to his father for inspiration as a successful businessman.
Jesse completed his high school education and went to the American University to get his bachelor’s degree. He graduated in 1990 with a degree in Justice, Law and Society. After graduation, he decided to pursue his music career.
Jesse Itzler and Sara Blakey – Relationship and Kids
Jesse’s wife Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx.
According to Dun & Bradstreet, Spanx, Inc. made a revenue of around $40M in 2021.
According to Forbes, Sara’s net worth in 2018 was $1.06B and in 2022 is $1.2B. She has a consistent net worth of over 1B since 2012.
She is a popular American entrepreneur and philanthropist. She graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Communications and worked at Walt Disney for a short time.
In 2000, Sara started Spanx with the $5000 she had in her bank account. She wanted an undergarment which was seamless, comfortable and undetectable underneath her clothes. This was her motivation for creating Spanx.
After she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, her sales skyrocketed and her brand took off.
She expanded her brand to include many more clothing items like swimwear and active wear. She also has a foundation in her name called the ‘Sara Blakely Foundation’ to help aspiring women entrepreneurs.
Jesse Itzler first met his wife Sara Blakely at a charity poker tournament in 2006. Both of them did not know much about poker and bonded over their lack of knowledge about it. After this, they emailed back and forth and sent messages to each other for more than 6 months.
Jesse planned the proposal a year later. The proposal was very creative and involved a scavenger hunt in which Sara collected seven hidden presents along with three rings. They finally got married in 2008.
Below is an interesting video on how they met.
And you really don’t want to miss this funny animated video of Sara & Jesse, First Date.
The couple travelled even after marriage since Sara had to run Spanx in Atlanta and Jesse had to work in New York. However they managed to settle in and find a good work and family balance.
Sara is 50 years old and have been married for 12 years and have 4 kids together.
- In 2009, they had their first son, Lazer.
- In 2014, Blakely gave birth to twin boys, Lincoln and Charlie.
- In 2016, they then had a cute daughter, Tepper.
Here’s an interesting comparison of Jesse with Tom Hank in Cast Away.
Some Inspirational Quotes by Jesse Itzler
from his book Living with a SEAL
I don’t stop when I’m tired. I stop when I’m done.
Most of my successes in life have come from learning how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
If you don’t challenge yourself, you don’t know yourself.
Every day do something that makes you uncomfortable.
It doesn’t have to be fun. It has to be effective.
Don’t get too comfortable. Ever.
SEAL, I have a problem, “I say to him. “I didn’t bring any extra underwear.” “So what?” “I can’t run without underwear.” “Nah, bro, you can’t run without legs. It’s on.
SEAL says to me: “It’s not what you do, it’s when and how you do it. It’s all about the conditions. Remember that.
