Speaker 1: This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber. The
Speaker 1: show is sponsored by G three Aparo. The views expressed
Speaker 1: in the following program are those of the sponsor and
Speaker 1: not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor or iHeartMedia. Who
Speaker 1: is Mark Weber. He's a self made business executive here
Speaker 1: to help you find your success from the New York
Speaker 1: City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris. His global
Speaker 1: success story in the luxury world of fashion is inspirational.
Speaker 1: He's gone from clerk to CEO twice. Mark is classic
Speaker 1: proof that the American dream is alive. And well, here's
Speaker 1: your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.
Speaker 2: Mark Weber. Those of you follow Always in Fashion, recognize
Speaker 2: that last week I was said, I changed it because
Speaker 2: this suk is happy. It's the future. I'm living in it.
Speaker 2: The future is now. It started by receiving an email
Speaker 2: on LinkedIn from a woman named Kathleen. I've been listening
Speaker 2: to your show. I think from the beginning, great show.
Speaker 2: Last week you are my appointment radio, appointment Radio. I
Speaker 2: loved it. There are people out there I know who
Speaker 2: look forward to our show every week and it makes
Speaker 2: me happy. I appreciate all of you now. In general,
Speaker 2: I've always been different. I think different, I look different.
Speaker 2: I'm my own person. I recognize that I embraced it.
Speaker 2: I did learn to compromise to play the game when necessary.
Speaker 2: I always knew it wasn't simple being me. I figured
Speaker 2: so what I liked me. I grew up learning if
Speaker 2: everyone thought the same way, why we would need everyone.
Speaker 2: I worked surrounded by some brilliant people, I reasoned in
Speaker 2: learning from them, I might not be brilliant, but I
Speaker 2: sure would get a great education. I was proud I
Speaker 2: asked questions no one else did, and often was applauded
Speaker 2: for looking at things a different way. My way marksway
Speaker 2: wasn't easy being me. Two stories come to mind right
Speaker 2: out of the box about being different. I told you
Speaker 2: the story about the way we're wired, the way we're
Speaker 2: wired differently and allowed me to remind you, those of
Speaker 2: you who listen every week, that it's okay to be different.
Speaker 2: Those of you haven't heard the show. Let me tell
Speaker 2: you the story between abstract and linear. I had a
Speaker 2: close business associate. We were fighting. We never fought with
Speaker 2: each other in our lives. It was amazing time. We
Speaker 2: were both taken aback. We weren't happy with each other.
Speaker 2: So my boss called an industrial psychologist said and he said, guys,
Speaker 2: you two respect each other. I don't understand what's going on.
Speaker 2: I want to interview you separately. So he spoke to
Speaker 2: my boss about what was bothering him, and he spoke
Speaker 2: to me about what was bothering me. A week later,
Speaker 2: he brought us back together. He said, here's where we are.
Speaker 2: He said to my boss. Listen, you're an incredibly smart guy.
Speaker 2: You're very quick. You get from here to there instantaneously,
Speaker 2: straight lying kind of guy. And he looked at me
Speaker 2: and said, Mark, you're an incredible guy. You're super smart.
Speaker 2: But you don't go linear. You meander. You go what
Speaker 2: we call abstract. You get to the right conclusions. You
Speaker 2: just approach it differently. You want to be shown that
Speaker 2: those conclusions are right. You're doing your own form of
Speaker 2: due diligence. Both of you get to the same place. Now,
Speaker 2: stop fighting, recognize that each other. One of you is different,
Speaker 2: and you respect each other and work together. And that
Speaker 2: was the first time, really that I realized how differently
Speaker 2: wired I was. The second story that comes to mind
Speaker 2: here was I was always in trouble in my companies,
Speaker 2: at least the first round of companies PVH, Philips and Usen.
Speaker 2: I didn't go from a straight line talk about linear
Speaker 2: to the top. Oh, I me and and I went
Speaker 2: up and down and up and down. But I got
Speaker 2: where I needed to get. I became the CEO of
Speaker 2: the company, and a board member and the president. But
Speaker 2: it wasn't easy. And there was a point in time
Speaker 2: where I recount the story that I referred to as
Speaker 2: the great lie talk about being different. Company signed an
Speaker 2: exclusive agreement with j C. Penny to get the venues
Speaker 2: and brand in this store. Going back, at this time,
Speaker 2: j C. Penny didn't have access to all the great
Speaker 2: national brands. They have a lot of them now, but
Speaker 2: they still don't have them all. And at that time,
Speaker 2: in order to get the venues and brand, they conceded
Speaker 2: to buy one hundred million dollars worth of product from
Speaker 2: our corporation in venues and it's some of the other
Speaker 2: brands that we wanted to launch, even in private label.
Speaker 2: This agreement was struck and it was etched in Stone.
Speaker 2: I happened to have been in another division called PVH International.
Speaker 2: I built a sourcing, a procurement arm of the company
Speaker 2: for our retail stores. We had grown to a thousand stores,
Speaker 2: and someone needed to buy all those products and import
Speaker 2: them in the United States. We were primarily a dresser
Speaker 2: company at the time, so we knew nothing about women's wear,
Speaker 2: nothing about men's pans or sweaters for that matter. What
Speaker 2: we knew with shirts. Someone had to build a resource,
Speaker 2: a network to import products for all all those different
Speaker 2: business We had five different retail formats, close to one
Speaker 2: thousand stores, as I said, and we were doing tons
Speaker 2: of business, making tons of money. That's what I had
Speaker 2: been doing. But they needed a president for van Usen
Speaker 2: and I had come back once again after taking a
Speaker 2: fall and was allowed to become the president of two companies,
Speaker 2: hold on to my pH International division for a while,
Speaker 2: but take over the van using company came into the company.
Speaker 2: I was astounded to see how much business we're doing
Speaker 2: with J. C. Penny. I didn't know about the deal.
Speaker 2: I was in another division. I was alerted to the
Speaker 2: fact they were doing this huge business, and as the president,
Speaker 2: I had to be briefed by the bureaucrats like you
Speaker 2: have in government, that people who are in these business
Speaker 2: they were great, they knew their jobs, but I didn't
Speaker 2: do anything, and I was being briefed. I said, wow,
Speaker 2: that's exciting j C. Penny buying all this product and
Speaker 2: the company has grown dramatically. And there was a look
Speaker 2: on their faces that basically said all is not well.
Speaker 2: And I said what. And they explained to me that
Speaker 2: because of the deal the chairman of the company, Larry
Speaker 2: Phillips Phillips van Uesen, made it impossible. Were those of
Speaker 2: the words they used for us to be successful at JAYC.
Speaker 2: Penny And I said them, please explain. He said, well,
Speaker 2: I could use an example of flannel men's sports shirts.
Speaker 2: Flannel men's sports shirts are pre ticketed twenty five dollars,
Speaker 2: but the true price going out the doors of Macy's
Speaker 2: or Dillard's or Belk stores was fourteen ninety nine. So
Speaker 2: even though they were pre ticketed, these are value of
Speaker 2: twenty five dollars. When they came into the store for
Speaker 2: a week or two, they stayed at twenty five dollars,
Speaker 2: sold very little product, and immediately started pounding them out
Speaker 2: of the store at fourteen ninety nine outs sale, and
Speaker 2: then we'd sell hundreds of thousands of shirts. In the
Speaker 2: case of J. C. Penny, because J C. Penny agreed
Speaker 2: to this deal. They had no recourse in the negotiation.
Speaker 2: So we were selling J. C. Penny flannel shirts that
Speaker 2: would sell for twenty five dollars. Now, our friends at
Speaker 2: Macy's in order to get or dulls or blooming deals, whoever,
Speaker 2: in order to get their full margin, which was fifty
Speaker 2: percent at fourteen ninety nine, we're paying seven dollars a shirt.
Speaker 2: So once again, the pre ticketed at twenty our five dollars.
Speaker 2: They leave it there for two weeks at regular price
Speaker 2: and then put them on sale for fourteen ninety nine.
Speaker 2: And because they were paying seven dollars for the shirt,
Speaker 2: they were making their full margin at fourteen ninety nine
Speaker 2: on sale. But in JC Penny they were paying twelve
Speaker 2: fifty not seven dollars, so they couldn't put the shirts
Speaker 2: on sale at all because they would have to pay
Speaker 2: it out of their margin. So we had all the
Speaker 2: departments store selling shirts at fourteen ninety nine. Well, JAC
Speaker 2: Penny was at twenty five dollars, so there was a problem.
Speaker 2: I said, well, how can we do this? What is
Speaker 2: happening at Penny? I said, they're not selling the shirts,
Speaker 2: but because they're forced to buy they're going to buy
Speaker 2: whatever we need them to buy come next season. So
Speaker 2: fast forward six months later, I'm showing up at the business.
Speaker 2: I'm being told the great lie. Nobody wants to tell
Speaker 2: Lawrence Phillips. JC Penny is not working. So when PVH
Speaker 2: my team went in to sell flannel shirts for the
Speaker 2: next season. They had bought in the original season four
Speaker 2: hundred thousand units, four hundred thousand flannel shirts to sell
Speaker 2: in the store. When they came in to sell flannel
Speaker 2: shirts the following season, they sold four thousand, and my
Speaker 2: sales manager, the people who are briefing me said they
Speaker 2: didn't want to buy any more than four thousand. So
Speaker 2: what did they say when you told them? They said, look,
Speaker 2: you sold us to flannels at twenty five dollars. You
Speaker 2: told us that's the price it needs to be. You've
Speaker 2: charged us twelve fifty And in reality, all we sold
Speaker 2: in the course of the year were four thousand units
Speaker 2: of flannel. Were stuck with three hundred and ninety six
Speaker 2: thousand units of flannel. We can't sell them. You can't
Speaker 2: expect us to buy more, but you have an agreement.
Speaker 2: I looked at us and they said, we're a retail store.
Speaker 2: It can't be naive. If I didn't sell the product,
Speaker 2: I can't buy invent something else for me to buy.
Speaker 2: And the problem was that this is what we did
Speaker 2: with them in our dress shirts, this is what we
Speaker 2: did with them in sweaters, this is what we did
Speaker 2: with any product, because we felt we had them captive.
Speaker 2: So I said, well, how could this continue to be
Speaker 2: going on? Nobody wants to tell Larry Phillips. So here
Speaker 2: I am the new president. Have a huge problem with
Speaker 2: jac Penny, who guaranteed one hundred million dollars in volume
Speaker 2: and no longer will do it. And no one would
Speaker 2: tell the powers to be the great lie that it
Speaker 2: isn't working. So I'm always young, I'm always aggressive, I'm
Speaker 2: always different. I'm not afraid to be different. I decide
Speaker 2: to go talk to my boss and I told them, hey,
Speaker 2: mister president, this isn't working, did you know? And he
Speaker 2: kind of looked at me. He says, explain to me,
Speaker 2: And I explained. In the example in this case, I
Speaker 2: did it with dress shirts. Our dress shirts are twenty
Speaker 2: five dollars. We're selling to J C. Penny twelve fifty,
Speaker 2: so they can sell them at twenty five dollars and
Speaker 2: make a full margin. The only problem is we sell
Speaker 2: them at eight dollars to every other store in America
Speaker 2: who sell them at nineteen ninety nine on sale. So
Speaker 2: I boss says, to me, tell you what you need
Speaker 2: to do. You need to detail us, put it in writing,
Speaker 2: explain the situation. I'll review it before you send it.
Speaker 2: We'll send it to Larry Phillips, and then we'll have
Speaker 2: a meeting. So I spent the next day working on
Speaker 2: a draft. I did it ten times to get the
Speaker 2: draft perfect. I gave it to my boss. He said,
Speaker 2: I'm going to change a couple of words here and there, Mark,
Speaker 2: but this thing is great. I'm gonna send it to Larry.
Speaker 2: We'll have a meeting. So now it turns out we're
Speaker 2: gonna have the meeting with Larry Phillips on Friday. I
Speaker 2: go down to his office. It's me, my boss, and
Speaker 2: Larry Phillips, and you can see them in and I
Speaker 2: walked in. He was angry. He says, you want to
Speaker 2: explain this letter to me. I sell them, mister Phillips,
Speaker 2: here's the problem. We went ahead and we've done then
Speaker 2: this deal with jac Penney. They're excited to have the brand,
Speaker 2: we're excited to sell them. However, taking them for granted,
Speaker 2: we're not realizing that the prices we're selling to them out,
Speaker 2: while they're great and advantageous for our markups, are not
Speaker 2: good for their markeps. They're not making money. All our
Speaker 2: competitors are able to put the merchandise on sale because
Speaker 2: there are no guarantees with Macy's or Dillard's, or Nochim
Speaker 2: or Belk stores. They buy it based on a price
Speaker 2: that they could sell it, which is significantly less than
Speaker 2: Jason Penny is selling. So while we're doing very well
Speaker 2: with our other stores, we're not doing well with Jason Penny.
Speaker 2: They don't understand how our competitors can do this, and
Speaker 2: in frankly, we've come in the new season and they're
Speaker 2: buying a lot less than they planned, and they're no
Speaker 2: way they're going to hit the one hundred million dollar level.
Speaker 2: He says, I'm going to call them up. I said, well,
Speaker 2: before you call them, you have to realize what they're
Speaker 2: selling to us. They buy in retail dollars. They're stuck
Speaker 2: with merchandise for this whole year worth of selling. Before
Speaker 2: they could buy new merchandise. They have to deal with
Speaker 2: what they have on the floor. They asked us to
Speaker 2: take it back. Of course we can't. So we need
Speaker 2: to figure out how to sell them properly so that
Speaker 2: we can make money and they can make money, and
Speaker 2: most importantly, they can be competitive with our other customers.
Speaker 2: And Larry Phillips looks at me. He said, this is
Speaker 2: the worst letter I've ever read in my career. I
Speaker 2: am embarrassed that you've presented to me. I don't agree
Speaker 2: with you. I think this is terrible. I'm even upset
Speaker 2: that you gave it to me on a Friday that
Speaker 2: I had to look at it today, he said, meeting adjourn.
Speaker 2: I go home that night and I'm in my house
Speaker 2: and I'm telling my family we're in trouble. I can't
Speaker 2: imagine I'm going to last another week in the company.
Speaker 2: This is horrendous. I can't believe the beating I took.
Speaker 2: My boss told me to do it. My boss agreed
Speaker 2: with me. He felt that something happened. That happened. But
Speaker 2: we're sitting there, Larry Phillips, he said, not a word.
Speaker 2: And I took the heat. And Larry Phillips, I think
Speaker 2: it's going to want to fire me Saturday morning. Next day,
Speaker 2: seven forty five in the morning, my phone rings in
Speaker 2: the house. I pick up and lo and behold it's
Speaker 2: Larry Phillips. Hey, Mark, bright day. You're having a good day.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Larry Phillips? What's going on? He said, Mark,
Speaker 2: I want to tell you something. Then, after our meeting yesterday,
Speaker 2: I took your letter home and read it with great
Speaker 2: detail over again, and I have to tell you it's
Speaker 2: one of the greatest pieces of work I've ever read
Speaker 2: in my life. You outline the challenge facing the company.
Speaker 2: You outline the issues facing the company. You outlined why
Speaker 2: you believe our current proposals weren't working, and you gave
Speaker 2: us a solution. And all I can tell you is
Speaker 2: how proud I am of you, and how the future
Speaker 2: will be bright. And I authorize you to do whatever
Speaker 2: it takes to be successful. So I dealt with the
Speaker 2: great lie. I told the truth. I was different from
Speaker 2: everyone else. And the bottom line and the moral of
Speaker 2: this story is we live in the future, and the
Speaker 2: future is now, and we have to deal with the
Speaker 2: future as we live it. We have to pick our spots.
Speaker 2: I have generally a big personality. I'm not afraid to
Speaker 2: be stood up and counted on. I do dress conservatively,
Speaker 2: and my advice to you is fit in, but stand out.
Speaker 2: The future is now back in a minute, always in fashion.
Speaker 2: As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Speaker 2: Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
Speaker 2: to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
Speaker 2: America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
Speaker 2: ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Speaker 2: Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches, I wear and
Speaker 2: premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagovo collection at
Speaker 2: car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I
Speaker 2: have for one, love to shop. I love going around
Speaker 2: and seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what
Speaker 2: would make me feel good to wear now. I don't
Speaker 2: wear the women's wear, obviously, but I can appreciate it
Speaker 2: and they look amazing. If you want to look right,
Speaker 2: you want to have clothes that fits you well. You
Speaker 2: want to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive,
Speaker 2: that's exclusive for you and yours you can find it
Speaker 2: at very affordable prices at Macy's. Orcarlagofel dot com, Paris.
Speaker 2: The women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well
Speaker 2: as the handbigs and the shoes. I, for one, wear
Speaker 2: men's clothes, unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a
Speaker 2: modern guy. I want to look current, I want to
Speaker 2: look the way I want to feel. I go out
Speaker 2: at night, I'm in black and Carlagafel is my buddy.
Speaker 2: Carls are great, they fit great, and they have little
Speaker 2: tweaks and touches, whether it's a stripe on the sleeve
Speaker 2: or button at the neck or on the shoulder. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of details that go into Carlagafel because he's
Speaker 2: always been, he always had been one of the world's
Speaker 2: great designers, and this legacy and goes on and on.
Speaker 2: I can't speak enough about it except to say to you,
Speaker 2: you want to feel good about yourself. You want to
Speaker 2: know that you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that
Speaker 2: fits you well. Carl Lagafeld Paris, Carl Lagofeldparis dot com.
Speaker 2: I love polar fleece. It's lightweight, takes colors, beautifully. It's comfortable,
Speaker 2: keeps you warm, and even if it's warm out, it
Speaker 2: doesn't hamper you. It doesn't make you perspire. I love
Speaker 2: polar fleas. I also love sweatshirts and sweatpants. Love them,
Speaker 2: love them, love them. I'm a big fan of khaki
Speaker 2: pants and a big fan of a golf clothes. And
Speaker 2: I'm a big fan of Izide. I used to be
Speaker 2: the head of Iside. In fact, my company bought it
Speaker 2: and at of bankruptcy and the CEO of the company
Speaker 2: asked me to come in and fix it. And he
Speaker 2: said to me, Mark, the future of the company's in
Speaker 2: your hands. Can you do this? And I said, I
Speaker 2: will do it. I put everything, my heart and soul
Speaker 2: into making Eyeside the powerhouse that it is today. Now
Speaker 2: I left a long time ago, and the company just
Speaker 2: continues to thrive. Iseside is one of the great sweater makers,
Speaker 2: pants make a shirt makers, knit shirt makers, polar shirt makers.
Speaker 2: They're incredible company. The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys,
Speaker 2: you ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it
Speaker 2: easy for you. If you're going to be actual, Go
Speaker 2: in and look at Isaac. Now that doesn't say that
Speaker 2: they don't have dress shirts and they don't have suits,
Speaker 2: Go find them. Isaac is a collective brand that offers
Speaker 2: lifestyle apparel to everyone in America. And it's true, it's
Speaker 2: a fun brand, but it's also priced at fun prices
Speaker 2: everyone can afford it. I love this brand. Of all
Speaker 2: the brands that I'm involved with and you can name them,
Speaker 2: think about PVH and LVMAH and all the brands, isaod
Speaker 2: is the one that's most personal to me because I
Speaker 2: was involved in crafting the future of this brand. The
Speaker 2: close of great Fall is great. They're doing well. Isaad
Speaker 2: dot com, isaacat jcpenny, go look for it. I think
Speaker 2: you're going to be very happy. And ladies, those of
Speaker 2: you the shopping for the guys in your lives, take
Speaker 2: a look. I think they'll be very happy with your choices.
Speaker 3: Isaad for men, welcome back to it. Always in fashion.
Speaker 3: Here's your host, Mark Webber.
Speaker 2: I live in the future. The future is now. Every
Speaker 2: second is the future, and we're all there the minute
Speaker 2: I say these words to you. It's paths. We're now
Speaker 2: in the future. And I like thinking about it that
Speaker 2: way because it makes you smarter. You're planning in advance.
Speaker 2: I think back when I was an executive in the
Speaker 2: corporate world. I was an observer, always the outfront guy,
Speaker 2: setting direction, making speeches. Yet I had an uncanny ability
Speaker 2: to observe while I was in action, whether it was
Speaker 2: in a boardroom or an auditorium, whether it was twenty
Speaker 2: people or five hundred people, I could read the audience.
Speaker 2: I looked around, I would see that they were either
Speaker 2: smiling or not laughing at the right spots, or just engaged.
Speaker 2: I just saw them, every one of them, and I
Speaker 2: knew where I was at any given time in a presentation.
Speaker 2: I realized early on that people all professed to love change. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: bring it on. I love change until they themselves had
Speaker 2: a change and to be change agents. No one, no
Speaker 2: one wants to change themselves. It was at this point
Speaker 2: I coined the quote that behind anyone with vision, there
Speaker 2: were fifty well intentioned people undermining that vision. They had
Speaker 2: good hearts but weren't helping. So with this is a backdrop,
Speaker 2: I want to discuss some of those people that are
Speaker 2: living in the future, because the future is every second.
Speaker 2: It's now. Elon musk Oh, my goodness, it was only
Speaker 2: a year ago. Elon Musk is one of the most
Speaker 2: respected men in the world, let alone in this country.
Speaker 2: A man with vision, a man whose entire billion was
Speaker 2: in the future. He had a vision. He single handedly
Speaker 2: determined that the future of automobiles should be electric and
Speaker 2: a time when no one else considered or let alone
Speaker 2: could execute it, built the only, the unquestionably brilliant Tesla
Speaker 2: in the United States, an automobile company making electric cars viable.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk out there, but he made
Speaker 2: it happen, and it was good for the world. It
Speaker 2: was good for our health, it was good for tests.
Speaker 2: Now there are a lot of copiers. Oh, being second, third,
Speaker 2: fourth is easier than being the innovator. Elon Musk was
Speaker 2: that man. And then there's space. While the United States
Speaker 2: government basically gave up on space travel, Elon Musk set
Speaker 2: his eyes on the stars and he privately led the
Speaker 2: charge to space through his company Amazing and that's not it.
Speaker 2: Then he bought Twitter, as it is said, to save
Speaker 2: free speech. Then he supported Trump and overnight went from
Speaker 2: superstar love by all, to a monster to some, a
Speaker 2: hero still to many. He made the mistake. Then the
Speaker 2: world changed of supporting chains and supporting a new government
Speaker 2: energy called Trump Department of Government Efficiency DOGE, and he's
Speaker 2: heading it up, and his brilliance at breakthrough speed under
Speaker 2: the direction of the President of the United States began
Speaker 2: and he began to eliminate and implement change, and everyone,
Speaker 2: well not everyone, starts to hate of it. He getting
Speaker 2: rid of the redundancy of the ridiculous waste, and he's
Speaker 2: going after fraud and government. Who would argue with this,
Speaker 2: It turns out one party in particular, and those people
Speaker 2: are obsessed with the process. They don't like what he's doing.
Speaker 2: They don't even comment on the results. They're not angry
Speaker 2: to find corruption and waste. They're not unhappy that he's
Speaker 2: fixing it or eliminating it, let alone applauding him for
Speaker 2: what he's doing. And he's not on his own the
Speaker 2: presence that go do it, which leads back to behind
Speaker 2: anyone with vision, they're fifty well intentioned people undermining that vision.
Speaker 2: Except in the Muske case, behind anyone vision, there are
Speaker 2: fifty million people undermining the vision. How dairy uncover these
Speaker 2: things rather than how could we have allowed this to
Speaker 2: go on? It makes no sense and that is a
Speaker 2: backtrup as far Ad Come would say, that's all I
Speaker 2: have to say about that. But on subjects of visionaries
Speaker 2: and the future is now, I met Jeff Bezos. He
Speaker 2: wouldn't remember me, but I remember him, and I remember
Speaker 2: his vision. At Amazon. I had a boss who had
Speaker 2: his own vision. Those of you don't remember. I don't
Speaker 2: know what you were talking about. But Amazon began as
Speaker 2: a bookseller, a bookseller online. They had this interesting process.
Speaker 2: You can go online and buy any book you want.
Speaker 2: They would put it together the plastic bubble rapids, send
Speaker 2: it to you overnight, and you'd have the book of
Speaker 2: your choice. And Amazon became Amazon, and it was a phenomenon.
Speaker 2: Even back then. My boss was a big user of Amazon.
Speaker 2: You know, two of us, we traveled all over the
Speaker 2: world bought books. That's the thing you do in those
Speaker 2: days when you travel on a plane. Cell phones they
Speaker 2: had them, but they weren't smartphones as they are now.
Speaker 2: So he figured the following, If you could sell books
Speaker 2: on Amazon on the internet shipped in plastic, why not
Speaker 2: do the same thing for dress shirts? After all, all
Speaker 2: our dress shirts, everyone knows their size, everyone knows what
Speaker 2: it looks like. Most people are buying replacement shirts, are
Speaker 2: the ones they have. If you are a Calvin Kleink customer,
Speaker 2: if you're a Georgio money customer, if you're a fan
Speaker 2: using customer, whoever it is, you know what your size
Speaker 2: is and you know what to expect from the shirt
Speaker 2: that you're buying. So why wouldn't you buy it online
Speaker 2: and plastic and have it delivered if you can't get
Speaker 2: out to do that? Brilliant idea. Wouldn't Jeff Bezos be
Speaker 2: interested in talking to us? Because he started to dabble
Speaker 2: in the fashion world. It turned out that Jeff Bezos
Speaker 2: wasn't getting traction. It wasn't getting the brands because the
Speaker 2: brands weren't seeing into the future. They weren't companies that
Speaker 2: could see through his eyes. Nor did we at the time.
Speaker 2: And that's where the story gets interesting. He needed brands,
Speaker 2: he needed the fashion industry. We needed new distribution, another
Speaker 2: view of a marriage to the future. We would love
Speaker 2: to sell dress shirts on Amazon. They'd sell them at
Speaker 2: the same price we sold them in department stores. There
Speaker 2: would be a successful business, and our business would grow
Speaker 2: dramatically in this new technology. But while my boss had
Speaker 2: a vision, it wasn't twenty twenty vision, and I'll tell
Speaker 2: you why we arranged a meeting. Jeff Bezos came to
Speaker 2: our office. He was so excited to be sitting with
Speaker 2: one of the large shirt companies in the world, who
Speaker 2: admittedly for the purpose of this meeting, said we want
Speaker 2: to sell you. This was a huge win for him.
Speaker 2: One of the world's great brands, particularly in a channel
Speaker 2: and particularly in a category that we were synonymous with shirts,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, it is coming to Amazon. And
Speaker 2: he was thrilled, and he came in and he was happy,
Speaker 2: and we started our meeting. Once we got going, we said,
Speaker 2: you know, we have a number of different brands. We
Speaker 2: owned Calvin Klein, we own Decay and Why, we owned
Speaker 2: van Usen, we own Isza, we owned Jeffrey Bean at
Speaker 2: the time said we have great Prince and Jeff Bezis
Speaker 2: said that's great. I'd love to have them all. And
Speaker 2: then my boss said, no, sir. What we want is
Speaker 2: we want to control the dress shirt site on Amazon.
Speaker 2: We want exclusivity. Anyone comes to Amazon to buy dress shirts,
Speaker 2: we want it to be our brands. We want our
Speaker 2: own portal. That's what we want. We don't want to
Speaker 2: be part of anything else. We want to be the
Speaker 2: dress shirt store on Amazon, and I'll never forget. He
Speaker 2: got quiet, he shut his eyes. He thought for a moment,
Speaker 2: this is Jeff Bezos on how we wanted to respond.
Speaker 2: He opened his eyes and he said, we can't do that.
Speaker 2: The Internet is free flowing. There's no such thing as exclusivity.
Speaker 2: The customer decides what they want to buy, not us.
Speaker 2: We're a portal to their soul. We want to provide
Speaker 2: them with opportunity. And the idea of having a shirt
Speaker 2: shop that's controlled by you and doesn't allow for other
Speaker 2: brands doesn't work. How do you know? And that's when
Speaker 2: Jeff bezos brilliance came out and he said it to us.
Speaker 2: So I'll ask you all of you out there, do
Speaker 2: you remember Saber?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: And now I'm gonna explain why don't hold me to it,
Speaker 2: But I believe it was. American Airlines was one of
Speaker 2: the first to go to the Internet to plot itineraries.
Speaker 2: An American Express went on and built a vehicle called
Speaker 2: Saber that if you wanted to know any single American
Speaker 2: Airlines flight anywhere in the world, you can go on
Speaker 2: and find it. And it was a brilliant idea, except
Speaker 2: for one thing. That's not how people wanted to look
Speaker 2: for airline flights. They wanted to know everything that was available,
Speaker 2: not just American airlines. What was happening at United? What
Speaker 2: was happening at Delta? Are they in the airport I
Speaker 2: want to fly out of? Are they at the top
Speaker 2: we want? And Saber did not work because it wasn't
Speaker 2: universal enough. And the same thing, guys, you guys here,
Speaker 2: the same thing applies to fashion. We can't let you
Speaker 2: cut off the supply to our consumer base. That's not
Speaker 2: how they want to shop. I noticed you didn't mention
Speaker 2: Ralph Lauren. I know you didn't mention Tommy Hill figure.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't mention a number of brands that
Speaker 2: I would find in any department store. So, with all
Speaker 2: due respect, as much as I want to do business
Speaker 2: with you, I cannot make you exclusive. That's not the future.
Speaker 2: And I thought it was a brilliant window into the future,
Speaker 2: because the future is now. When I give thought to geniuses,
Speaker 2: I think about Steve Jobs. When I think of brilliance
Speaker 2: and people with their foot in the future who recognize
Speaker 2: the future is now, I think of Steve Jobs. He's
Speaker 2: my business idol. There's a lot of great businessmen out there,
Speaker 2: and I've worked a couple of brilliant people that I'm
Speaker 2: grateful for because they made me better than I would
Speaker 2: ever been. But Steve's Jobs was inspirational to me. Steve
Speaker 2: Jobs believed the true innovation often involves creating products that
Speaker 2: people didn't even know they needed or they desired, and
Speaker 2: he pushed boundaries to develop new things. He said, people
Speaker 2: don't know what they want until you show it to them.
Speaker 2: The fashion, retail and luxury business is filled with geniuses.
Speaker 2: Now why do I say that. I gave a speech
Speaker 2: in the July of twenty twenty three, I received a
Speaker 2: Lifetime Achievement award, and during that presentation, I looked at
Speaker 2: the audience and said, we're geniuses. We are the one
Speaker 2: industry that has to reinvent ourselves every month of the year.
Speaker 2: Just every month in the year, we were shipping new
Speaker 2: product into our customers. It's not like the Apple phone,
Speaker 2: which comes out with a new phone once a year. Now,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, leave the Apple phone is a
Speaker 2: lot more complicated than making a shirt or a dress
Speaker 2: or a banket. But it's not the same. We in
Speaker 2: our industry reinvent ourselves every month, every quarter, every year.
Speaker 2: We have to be geniuses in order to do that.
Speaker 2: The technological invasions, the dramatic issues associated with design selection, importing,
Speaker 2: shipping makes this industry an incredible industry. And with that
Speaker 2: is a backdrop, it makes me think about who, more
Speaker 2: than anyone else in our industry understood that the future
Speaker 2: is now, and it was Ralph Lauren. I never gave
Speaker 2: much tention to Ralph Lauren. I couldn't wear it. I
Speaker 2: competed with him until I became a radio guy and
Speaker 2: a podcast guy. I now was able to wear Ralph Lauren.
Speaker 2: From a business side. I knew who he was. I
Speaker 2: knew who he was, but I more times than not
Speaker 2: took a notice of what they were doing and put
Speaker 2: my own version of something that Ralph Lauren did. But
Speaker 2: Ralph Lauren, I was working in a store when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, really back in the day. I was
Speaker 2: working in a store and he I remember the boss
Speaker 2: calling all the salesman's decide. The name of the store
Speaker 2: was Bogarde. It was a luxury men's store, one of
Speaker 2: the new malls that opened, and he said to us,
Speaker 2: we're getting something special this week. It's new ties. We
Speaker 2: sold a lot of suits and died said, they're different
Speaker 2: from anything you ever saw before. They're very wide and
Speaker 2: they are the rage. We were fortunate enough they agreed
Speaker 2: to sell us some not many. So here's the deal.
Speaker 2: You'll only show these ties to your best customers. They
Speaker 2: can't buy more than two at a time. There's only
Speaker 2: one price, the price that's on it. Don't come to
Speaker 2: me with selling. This is exclusivity. There aren't going to
Speaker 2: be enough of them, and that's how you have to
Speaker 2: sell them. You have to look at the world differently.
Speaker 2: You have to be innovative. I'll come back to this
Speaker 2: in a second. Once again, those of you who are
Speaker 2: fanatics of the show and listen every week, thank you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate this story. I've told before, but it's a
Speaker 2: good time to tell it again. There's a visionary entrepreneur
Speaker 2: executive in the shoe business and he needs to grow
Speaker 2: his business and he calls his two people, the two
Speaker 2: best sellers in the company, into his office and said, listen,
Speaker 2: I want you to go to Africa. We don't sell Africa.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people there, and I want you
Speaker 2: to go to Africa and determine the possibility for us
Speaker 2: to sell shoes into Africa. One guy says, great, when
Speaker 2: can I get a flight? He says, you go to
Speaker 2: the flight department. You'll talk to personnel and they'll get
Speaker 2: your flights. And the other guy said, you know, whenever
Speaker 2: I've seen a picture of Africa, I don't get the
Speaker 2: sense that they're wearing shoes. The boss says, both of
Speaker 2: you go to Africa. Report back. I want to know
Speaker 2: if we could do business. They go. Two days later,
Speaker 2: after jet leg the first salesman or in this case,
Speaker 2: the second salesman, calls back and said, hey, boss, I
Speaker 2: was right, no one's wearing shoes. I'm coming home. The
Speaker 2: second salesman on the phone said to the boys, listen,
Speaker 2: no one's wearing shoes. Send me all our samples. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna be here for a while. Who's the visionary? Who
Speaker 2: do you think one? What do you think happened? That's
Speaker 2: Ralph Lauren. He saw something. They know what ever saw?
Speaker 2: He thought that he could tie, if your pardon upun
Speaker 2: his ties together with everything he invented dream merchandising. You
Speaker 2: listen to Ferrari today. They tell you they don't sell cars,
Speaker 2: they sell dreams. Ralph Laurence sold a lifestyle, the New
Speaker 2: England Affluent Connecticut Lifestyle based on British royalty, and he
Speaker 2: put together a lifestyle brand that started in the morning
Speaker 2: from your underwear and your socks, to your workday where
Speaker 2: your suits, your ties and your shirts, to the evening
Speaker 2: when you wore blazers and pants and Swede shoes and
Speaker 2: whatever else it was. And he put together lifestyle marketing.
Speaker 2: And he's the greatest of the great even the luxury brands.
Speaker 2: I don't care which one you talk to, or every
Speaker 2: designer that ever walked the face of this sirs will
Speaker 2: tell you thank God for Ralph Lauren leading the way.
Speaker 2: Ralph Lauren from day one understood that the future is
Speaker 2: now and that brings me to me. I never thought
Speaker 2: of myself as brilliant. Anytime anyone would call me brilliant,
Speaker 2: I'd laugh to myself and said I fooled him. But
Speaker 2: in my book I did write that once in my
Speaker 2: life I was brilliant. And as it turns out, when
Speaker 2: I think about the future, maybe maybe during that period
Speaker 2: of my life when I was young and aggressive and
Speaker 2: bright eyed, bushy tailed and devoted to being special, I
Speaker 2: was brilliant, perhaps more than once. I'll never forget when
Speaker 2: I met with the people from LVMH about coming to
Speaker 2: their company with all fancy titles. They wanted me to
Speaker 2: run Decay Why Donna Karen. They had bought it, they
Speaker 2: had three CEOs, They had never made a penny. They
Speaker 2: spent six hundred and forty five million dollars for the
Speaker 2: company and it always lost money. It didn't make money,
Speaker 2: and they thought I could do something with it. And
Speaker 2: in my first interview with the managing director of lvmhe
Speaker 2: before I flew to Paris and met with Bernard Arnault,
Speaker 2: he was talking to me about the business and he
Speaker 2: asked what I thought about Donna Karen and dk why
Speaker 2: And the first thing out of my mouth was the
Speaker 2: brand is bigger than the business. And he looked at
Speaker 2: me and said, how do you know that? I said,
Speaker 2: I was a licensee for you of shirts. I had
Speaker 2: more success in that shirt and the ramp up of
Speaker 2: that collection overnight than any of the business I've ever
Speaker 2: been involved with. This is one of the world's true
Speaker 2: great brands. And based upon what you've told me about
Speaker 2: the business and why you're looking for someone new, I
Speaker 2: can tell you the brand is bigger than the business,
Speaker 2: and he loved that line and he repeated it to
Speaker 2: bern and know Who. Eventually I went and met had
Speaker 2: my interview with him, and I've shared with you before.
Speaker 2: The key question he asked me was a visionary question.
Speaker 2: What's the future? He said, Mark, what do you bring
Speaker 2: to business? And I said, mister, I know, I bring energy.
Speaker 2: I bring energy to a company. And from that on
Speaker 2: I knew I had the job. That's a story for
Speaker 2: another time, but you know, John F. Kennedy once said
Speaker 2: success has many fathers and failures, and often with that
Speaker 2: in mind, I want to take a little stroll down
Speaker 2: the future of Donna, Karen and DK and Why. I
Speaker 2: was in Macy's the other day. I saw Donna Karon Deaco.
Speaker 2: Why are Brilliant Great? It's doing well. I'm so happy
Speaker 2: for G three the people who run that company today,
Speaker 2: and I recalled my first day when I started with
Speaker 2: DK and Why. And I saw the managing director. He
Speaker 2: was in New York introducing me to the press and
Speaker 2: introducing me to the company, keeping peace between Donna Karen
Speaker 2: and I who. By the way, I saw this, I
Speaker 2: was at the Polar Bar having dinner with my sons,
Speaker 2: and there was Donna Karen with her daughter, and I
Speaker 2: walked over to her had a nice chat. We did
Speaker 2: spend eight years working together, so it was very pleasant.
Speaker 2: It was very nice, made me happy. But I remembered
Speaker 2: this story, and I remember on that first day he said, Mark,
Speaker 2: you got a lot of work to do. I want
Speaker 2: you to spend the next couple of months putting together
Speaker 2: a business strategy and presenting to us on the board
Speaker 2: on what you want to do with the company. Said
Speaker 2: my pleasure. But I want you to know something, no
Speaker 2: matter what happens here, I want you to know you
Speaker 2: made the right decision hiring me. I'm going to able
Speaker 2: to make this company profitable for you. But if I
Speaker 2: don't reach the level of profits that you want, or
Speaker 2: you don't feel comfortable owning an American designer brand in
Speaker 2: the United States, or whatever, I'm telling you. The brand
Speaker 2: is bigger than the business, and I will be able
Speaker 2: to sell the company from you for more than you
Speaker 2: paid for it, or at least what you paid for it.
Speaker 2: He said to me. Impossible, Mark, impossible. We tried to
Speaker 2: sell the company one time. The best we got from
Speaker 2: one of the most famous stores in the country two
Speaker 2: hundred million. You know what we paid for. I said,
Speaker 2: the brand is bigger than the business. I'll show you.
Speaker 2: We'll get there if, in fact, some day you want
Speaker 2: to sell it. So as I say, many people will
Speaker 2: take credit for the vision, But the vision that day
Speaker 2: was I knew that the company had great value. Of
Speaker 2: the course of eight years, every single year we made
Speaker 2: more money. Every single year we did well. I was
Speaker 2: proud to be there. I was proud of the people.
Speaker 2: I was proud of the product. I was proud of
Speaker 2: how we behaved ourselves. I was impressed the collection when
Speaker 2: Donna Caaren got that collection going. When I was talking
Speaker 2: to the other night and I talked about it, she
Speaker 2: was an amazing talent. She was making dresses for ten
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, pans for fifteen hundred dollars, sweaters for a
Speaker 2: couple of thousand dollars. And then, of course DK why
Speaker 2: was developed to be more affordable for all the women
Speaker 2: in America and the men for that matter. I loved
Speaker 2: the men's business. I loved involved with it. But back
Speaker 2: to the issue. Came a time at the end of
Speaker 2: my eight year run, I had a three year contract.
Speaker 2: I ended up staying for eight years, elv Image made
Speaker 2: a decision. Someone convinced them they should turn Donna Karen
Speaker 2: into a luxury company again. After all, that is their
Speaker 2: core business, luxury. I tried to explain to them, I
Speaker 2: tried to beg them. I tried to make them understand
Speaker 2: that you can't turn a company that is currently selling
Speaker 2: hundreds of millions of dollars over the last twenty years
Speaker 2: to popular prices to all of America into a luxury
Speaker 2: brand won't work well. They were convinced by someone in
Speaker 2: Paris whose name shall go and mention to turn it
Speaker 2: into a luxury brand. In my parting, six months before
Speaker 2: I left, I introduced them to G three and I
Speaker 2: said to them, if you want to sell the company,
Speaker 2: remember what I told you. The brand is bigger than
Speaker 2: the business. What makes you think they would pay for
Speaker 2: what we need them to pay, I said, I've already
Speaker 2: met with them, I've had a discussion. They're prepared to
Speaker 2: make you an offer better than anything you ever dreamed,
Speaker 2: and you will be happy and you make and for
Speaker 2: four months I ran point in getting this steel done
Speaker 2: and we got to the point it was turning into Christmas.
Speaker 2: At the end of the year, papers were about to
Speaker 2: be signed and they vetoed it. Someone convinced Bernard or
Speaker 2: No to turn it into a lection company, hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of dollars lost and trying to do that. Eventually
Speaker 2: they decided to sell the company to G three. I
Speaker 2: don't recall. I wasn't there. I was gone for a
Speaker 2: year or was it two, I don't recall. They made
Speaker 2: the decision to go forward with G three, who I
Speaker 2: introduced them to, and it's been great for everyone involved.
Speaker 2: Now many will say they had the foresight as I said.
Speaker 2: John Kennedy said, success has many fathers, but failures and
Speaker 2: orphan there are a lot of fathers to this deal.
Speaker 2: Only the few know the truth, including you now, and
Speaker 2: only one of us has a check to prove it.
Speaker 2: With that in mind, the future is now back.
Speaker 3: In a moment always in fashion.
Speaker 2: I spent a lifetime of my career building the US
Speaker 2: and brand, and I am so pleased that they're back
Speaker 2: with us now. Talking about suits, men were dressing up
Speaker 2: again and it's become cool to wear a suit. Suits
Speaker 2: can be worn on multiple occasions in multiple ways. You
Speaker 2: could wear a suit formally to go out at night
Speaker 2: or to an event, you wear a suit to the
Speaker 2: office with or without a tie. If you look closely,
Speaker 2: now fashion trends suits are being worn with turtlenecks or
Speaker 2: mark next. The choices are endless and every one of
Speaker 2: them looks right. You could really really look the part.
Speaker 2: I believe that in packaging yourself is as important does
Speaker 2: the products you package, and wearing a suit is one
Speaker 2: of those things that make men look their best. Venues
Speaker 2: and invented a new idea. It's called the cool Flex suit.
Speaker 2: It's been engineered with stretch technology, giving you the most
Speaker 2: comfortable fit and mobility. It's wrinkle resistant fabric, it's cool
Speaker 2: moisture wiki. It makes it perfect for all occasions. As
Speaker 2: we discussed just now, this new style of looking sharp
Speaker 2: while feeling cool and comfortable is amazing and I'm so
Speaker 2: excited that the van Using company is involved in this
Speaker 2: new technology and is embracing the whole idea of dressing up.
Speaker 2: Let's not forget van Usen made it's name with dress shirts.
Speaker 2: It's only proper that the suit business follows strongly in
Speaker 2: its way. You can find van Using Koolflex Men's stretch
Speaker 2: suits at jcpenny or online at jcpenny dot com guys.
Speaker 2: They're great. You should go look at them. Donna Karen
Speaker 2: began her career as one of the finest, most successful,
Speaker 2: powerful women in the fashion industry. She developed a collection
Speaker 2: aimed at the luxury market for women on the go,
Speaker 2: women who were powerful in their workplace, women who had
Speaker 2: lives that extended beyond the workplace, and her clothes went
Speaker 2: from day and tonight. An extraordinary collection. But the interesting
Speaker 2: thing Donna Karen had a young daughter, and she had
Speaker 2: friends and they couldn't afford to buy the Donna Karen collection,
Speaker 2: and Donna invented dk NY Donna Aaron, New York. It's
Speaker 2: an offshoot of the Donna Karen collection. The same concept
Speaker 2: a lifestyle brand. Then we talk about lifestyle brands, What
Speaker 2: does that really mean? Simply what they say, there are
Speaker 2: brands that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up
Speaker 2: in the morning, you start to get dressed. Donna Karen
Speaker 2: dcan why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products.
Speaker 2: You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags,
Speaker 2: and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing
Speaker 2: about dk andy clothes for work, they work into the evening,
Speaker 2: the dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters, the blouses,
Speaker 2: extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from day in tonight.
Speaker 2: Part of your lifestyle is active. You have weekends, you
Speaker 2: have events, you participate in sports. Donna Karen's casual clothes
Speaker 2: did that under the DK and Y label. A vast
Speaker 2: array of casual sports were that make women look great
Speaker 2: as they navigate their busy lives. Whether you're going to
Speaker 2: soccer games for your children, or whether you're going out
Speaker 2: to the movies, whatever you want to do, dkn Y
Speaker 2: Jenes dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's what
Speaker 2: a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention DKY Activewear,
Speaker 2: which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports bras, the sweats.
Speaker 2: You can wear DKY Activewear certainly in the gym, certainly
Speaker 2: when you're working out at home, and certainly if you
Speaker 2: want on the street, because it's that well done. The
Speaker 2: quality of dk Y is nothing short of exceptional. And
Speaker 2: why shouldn't it be because it was born from the
Speaker 2: idea of luxury made affordable for women of America. DK
Speaker 2: and Why a true lifestyle brand that takes you from
Speaker 2: day and tonight from the week into the Weekend DCN,
Speaker 2: Why you can find DCNY and Macy's DKY dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to it Always in Fashion. Here's your host,
Speaker 3: Mark Weber.
Speaker 2: The theme of the night's show is the future is now.
Speaker 2: I mean the minute something happens, it's gone. It's history everything.
Speaker 2: Every second you're in the future. Sometimes we don't think
Speaker 2: about that. We talk about the future. We think of
Speaker 2: that way off down the road. Whatever. No, what I
Speaker 2: just said is past and right this second, I'm creating
Speaker 2: the future. I'm living in the future now. I've spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time this week talking to people. Generally,
Speaker 2: I hear a lot of stuff going on, a lot
Speaker 2: of people, a lot of people aren't happy at work,
Speaker 2: and a lot of reasons. There's a lot going on
Speaker 2: and making people coming back from work. I don't know
Speaker 2: why they're complaining. COVID was for a period of time
Speaker 2: that companies let you work from home. Why would you
Speaker 2: be arguing that you got to go back to work.
Speaker 2: Federal government people are up in arms that you have
Speaker 2: to work in the workplace. Me. I have no tolerance
Speaker 2: for it. I don't understand it. But maybe you know
Speaker 2: I'm too tough of a guy, which brings me to
Speaker 2: the other point. I keep hearing everybody has a boss
Speaker 2: they don't like. Everybody wants to complain about the boss.
Speaker 2: Let me make this clear. Unless your boss does something illegal,
Speaker 2: unless your boss hassles you or does something that is incorrect,
Speaker 2: the boss is the boss. They're allowed to behave anywhere
Speaker 2: they want. They're allowed to be tough, They're allowed to
Speaker 2: be condensateding. They're allowed to hold back your raisors or
Speaker 2: your bonuses. They're allowed to do whatever they want, as
Speaker 2: long as they behave according to company rules, according to
Speaker 2: life rules. Now, the question is what do you do
Speaker 2: about it? I often say that if I wanted to
Speaker 2: work with only people I like, I'd be in a
Speaker 2: room by myself. You don't get to choose who your bosses.
Speaker 2: You don't get to choose whether you like them or not.
Speaker 2: You get to choose to work and be grateful for
Speaker 2: your paycheck. I know this sounds ridiculous to many of you,
Speaker 2: but it's not the way it is. Working for a company,
Speaker 2: working for anyho was a gift. They're giving you an
Speaker 2: opportunity to earn money to do all those things you
Speaker 2: need to do. For yourself and your family, giving opportunity
Speaker 2: to learn to grow to prosper. It's a gift. Now.
Speaker 2: Having said that, there are a lot of mean people
Speaker 2: out there. When I was growing up, I work for
Speaker 2: a guy who was the meanest guy you would ever
Speaker 2: meet in your life, and I learned the value of
Speaker 2: working through the tough times. Now. The simple way to
Speaker 2: talk about tough times. You work in a company. You're
Speaker 2: better than the person sitting next to you. The person
Speaker 2: next to you gets a bigger raise or gets a
Speaker 2: promotion and you're angry. What do you do about it?
Speaker 2: Go in and complain to the boss telling me he
Speaker 2: doesn't know what he's doing. Or do you say to yourself?
Speaker 2: I have to suck it up and ask myself, what
Speaker 2: did that person do that I didn't do? Why were
Speaker 2: they seen in a better life than me? And that's
Speaker 2: what working through the tough time is being honest with
Speaker 2: yourself and deciding what did I do wrong or what
Speaker 2: haven't I done to demonstrate that I am the chosen one?
Speaker 2: And I'll go back and deal with it. So anytime
Speaker 2: I was disillusioned, anytime I had a setback, anytime I
Speaker 2: was disappointed in what ever I asked myself, what can
Speaker 2: I do to be better? Because it's not their fault,
Speaker 2: it's mine. That's a great lesson for you. If and
Speaker 2: I wanted to stop the story, i'd stop right then
Speaker 2: in there. But I don't I go back. I was
Speaker 2: working for a mean guy. I don't mean a bad guy.
Speaker 2: I mean a mean guy. He had no life. He
Speaker 2: was married, family situation he wasn't happy with. He would
Speaker 2: work to all hours of the night. He didn't care
Speaker 2: ten o'clock at night, he would go home. Now I
Speaker 2: this young guy had a wife. I didn't want to
Speaker 2: leave the office every day at ten o'clock, particularly I
Speaker 2: was getting in early in the morning. But I had
Speaker 2: no choice. I worked for a mean guy and never
Speaker 2: understood anything. Hey, let's go out for a drink, let's
Speaker 2: have dinner's let's this. You know I'm learning, I'm starting out.
Speaker 2: This is in the beginning. I don't want to have
Speaker 2: that life right now. It's not winning me. Friends. Ask
Speaker 2: too much of everyone, everyone. No one was ever good
Speaker 2: enough for him. He was really a rotten guy. Now
Speaker 2: what did I do about it? I tried to remain
Speaker 2: I tried to remain positive. He was a smart guy,
Speaker 2: that was stuff to learn from him. I begrudgingly understood
Speaker 2: that I had to live through this for a period
Speaker 2: in time. It wouldn't be forever. And then one day
Speaker 2: I met a sales meeting. We happened to be in
Speaker 2: Florida at a meeting of the venues and company and
Speaker 2: it was a national sales meeting. During the course of
Speaker 2: the meeting, a vice president of operations, his name was
Speaker 2: Bud Gilbert I'll never forget me. He rests in peace,
Speaker 2: came over to me and said, Mark, I want to
Speaker 2: talk to you, so I said sure. He said, do
Speaker 2: you want to have a coke with me? I said yeah.
Speaker 2: It was around two o'clock in the afternoon. The meeting
Speaker 2: had just broken up. Everybody was going off to do
Speaker 2: what everybody was going off to do, and I was there.
Speaker 2: I was tidying up the showroom, getting ready for the
Speaker 2: next presentations. Come have a coke with me, and I
Speaker 2: sat down with him. He said to me, Mark, how
Speaker 2: you doing. I said, I'm doing great, and he looked
Speaker 2: at me. He said, Mark, I asked you how you're doing.
Speaker 2: And I said I'm doing great, and he started to smile.
Speaker 2: I said, look, Mark, I know you're not doing great.
Speaker 2: I know who you're working for. Everyone in this company
Speaker 2: knows who you're working for. Everyone in this company knows
Speaker 2: and appreciates that you don't have an easy working there.
Speaker 2: So I'm asking you how you're doing. I said. Look,
Speaker 2: I don't want to mention his name. I said, he's
Speaker 2: not easy. Very often, he's not fair. He works late
Speaker 2: hours and forces us to be there with him. But
Speaker 2: I understand it's his way. He's the boss, and I
Speaker 2: respect the position he holds. I don't happen to like
Speaker 2: everything that's going on, but I don't feel it's right
Speaker 2: to complain. He said, here's the interesting thing, Mark, your
Speaker 2: attitude has been seen by everyone that matters. Everyone, for
Speaker 2: myself on up knows how hard you work, knows how
Speaker 2: hard it is for you to navigate what you're dealing with,
Speaker 2: and everyone respects you for doing it. And I want
Speaker 2: you to know it's not gone unnoticed. Now go have
Speaker 2: some fun. You're off for the rest of the afternoon,
Speaker 2: rest assured that this company appreciates you. The point of
Speaker 2: the story is working through the tough times is a
Speaker 2: fascinating concept, and it's all about you. It's not about
Speaker 2: the situation you're in. It's not about the people you're
Speaker 2: surrounded with. It's not about the person you're reporting to.
Speaker 2: It's not about the direction that the company has taken, right,
Speaker 2: wrong or indifferent. You are in control of you. You
Speaker 2: have to decide what it is you want to do
Speaker 2: when things aren't going your way. I would often talk
Speaker 2: when I was the president of the company about working
Speaker 2: through the tough times or the American dream, and I
Speaker 2: can tell you I've always believed it, and I still do.
Speaker 2: When you work hard, you work smart, you learn everything
Speaker 2: you can possibly learn. When you're curious, when you're respectful,
Speaker 2: and you learn what it is you're supposed to learn,
Speaker 2: and you learn what it is that you're not supposed
Speaker 2: to learn. The more you learn, the better you're offer
Speaker 2: in this world, in this country, and certainly the companies
Speaker 2: I've worked for, You have a chance for success. That's
Speaker 2: the American dream. Everything is easy when it's going your way.
Speaker 2: It's not so easy when the times are But it's
Speaker 2: the times that take measure of who you are. I
Speaker 2: hope that's helpful. I hope you enjoyed tonight's show. I'm
Speaker 2: talking about your future. I'm talking about the future because
Speaker 2: the future is now. Good Night,