The Clifton Review
The Clifton Review is a tri-weekly column that examines the question of the Clifton project along with the evolution of the war between two billionaires. We covered the start of this war with articles describing the battle over easement rights, the mysterious burning of a home, the blocks to rebuilding, and countless questionable court filings.
The 2018 series salutes fashion mogul Peter Nygård’s Golden Jubilee detailing his rags to riches story and incredible business success over these past fifty years. The Clifton Review will take an inside look at how he did it.
Success? “Buying Your Mom Anything in the World”
By P.J. Malone
What is success really? For many, especially younger people, success is making loads of money. However, the older you get, the more likely the answer to this question changes.
In taking a closer look at fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s fifty years of business success going from a poor boy to a multi millionaire, it is an interesting question to reflect on.
At the point when Nygard had achieved business sales of 500 million dollars, which was 35years after he invested in a failing company that was making 800,000 in sales, Nygard’s shared his perspective. In a Women’s Wear Daily article he expressed, “The number itself is not so magical. Even the billion-dollar number is not that much different to us than when we were at $100 million. It’s just the next level.”
So for Peter Nygard, it wasn’t about trying to make a certain amount of money. In fact he has said as much before. He said his focus was on being the best at everything he did.
When someone once asked him how he would describe success, he summed it up as “having the ability to buy your Mum anything in the world.”
A Business Insider online article entitled, “12 rich, powerful people share their surprising definitions of success” presents these perspectives from various well-known individuals:
Richard Bronson of Virgin Atlantic:
“’Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with,’ he wrote on LinkedIn. ‘In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.’”
The article expresses this about Warren Buffet:
“With a net worth of $77.4 billion, Buffett is just about the wealthiest person in the world, second only to Bill Gates. And yet his definition of success has nothing to do with money or fame.
“As James Altucher writes, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway once told shareholders at an annual meeting: ‘I measure success by how many people love me.’”
The article wrote of Maya Angelou, “The late, great poet laureate, who passed away at 86 in 2014, left behind stacks of books and oodles of aphorisms. Her take on success is among the best: ‘Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.’”
With respect to “Shark Tank” Mark Cuban, owner of a professional sports team, it presents the following quote:
“’To me, the definition of success is waking up in the morning with a smile on your face, knowing it’s going to be a great day. I was happy and felt like I was successful when I was poor, living six guys in a three-bedroom apartment, sleeping on the floor.’”
The article quotes Michelle Obama in explaining former President Barak Obama’s perspective on success:
“’For Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make. It’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.’”
Many of us aim for the success that involves making lots of money in our work and business lives because it is what we are all brought up to aspire toward. Yet, that particular kind of success is just as elusive for many of us as it appears to be easy for others.
In a society where people tend to respect those people with money more than those without, where we see rich people get better treatment than poor people, where the rich are the powerful, that aspiration is not likely to change among the have nots.
