Daymond John in "Shark Tank"

It's the American dream: build a life for your family based on your own hard work. ABC's "Shark Tank" is helping the best and brightest reach their goal, as the investment-based series returns for Season 3 on Friday, Jan. 20.

It's a twist on the currently popular style of reality TV, which features professionals trying to make a name for themselves in any given industry. ABC's series, however, allows everyday Americans to have an opportunity to pitch their best idea to a panel of Sharks, who may or may not bite, and invest their own hard-earned dollars to see the business idea flourish. Over its two seasons, "Shark Tank" has made television history offering more than $10 million in deals.

The panel is made up of individuals who have gone all the way themselves, building a name by following their own entrepreneurial spirit, and amassing millions along the way. This season's Sharks are Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, investment guru and financial commentator Kevin O'Leary, technology and telecommunications mogul Robert Herjavec, fashion icon Daymond John, and real-estate superstar Barbara Corcoran.

Cuban had dipped into a wide range of business models, from theaters to Internet startup businesses. His story is much like that of self-made men and women across the country, coming from an immigrant family that started with nothing, and working his way up to a net worth in the billions. According to Biography.com, as a youngster, Cuban sold garbage bags to save up enough money to buy a pair of shoes and sold stamps and coins through high school to earn extra cash. His first major business venture was MicroSolutions, known for excellence in computers and networking. The company was sold in 1990 for $6 million. In 2000, he bought the NBA's Mavericks, putting him in the spotlight for his management of the team and the resulting successes.

O'Leary had claimed his life-changing moment came while he was working at an ice cream shop in Ottawa, Ont. When his boss asked him to take on the dirty job of scraping gum off the floor, that was enough to change his mind about working forever. After he walked away from that job, O'Leary said he'd never be someone else's employee again. Today, his investment company, O'Leary Funds, manages more than $800 million in assets. He's known as the feisty, straight-talking Dragon on the similarly-modeled Canadian series, "Dragon's Den" and has found himself in hot water recently over remarks made during his co-hosted financial news program in Canada, "The Lang and O'Leary Exchange."

Herjavec is another Canadian success story and joins O'Leary on "Dragon's Den." His millions -- about $100 million, in fact -- were made creating and selling companies including one to AT&T Canada and another to Nokia. He, too, has lived the immigrant success story, arriving with his parents in Halifax, N.S., after escaping communism is Yugoslavia. As the story goes, the family had $20 and no understanding of the English language, but Herjavec had big dreams. He made his way into the news headlines when he bought his Toronto home for a reported $10 million, paid in cash.

His nice-guy demeanor is not to be taken for granted, though, and when he sees an idea he knows simply won't make it, he's not shy to say so.

"Most people never get a chance to meet a bunch of people who've done it before and get some real unbiased advice," he tells ABC.

Raised in Brooklyn, NY, John made his fortune in the fashion world, getting started with a nighttime job making hats at home and selling them on the streets of New York the next day. When business took off, he realized he was on to something and created the sportswear line FUBU, which shot to success in 1998, earning a reported $350 million.

Corcoran is a force to be reckoned with in the real-estate industry, having turned a $1,000 loan from her boyfriend into a $5-billion empire in NYC real estate. Though her educational background features less-than-stellar grades, and she reportedly held 20 jobs before she turned 23, she's put her life lessons to work both in her business, and as a speaker at various events across the country.

With this much experience and wealth in one room, entrepreneurs will have their work cut out for them this season. If all they take away from their audience with the Sharks is advice, or salvation from a doomed idea, they're coming out ahead. And for those lucky presenters who see their ideas picked up, they couldn't have a better group of investors to work with. Tune in on Friday, Jan. 20 to catch all the action.