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 Nygard’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.
How Is Peter Nygard’s 50-Year Success Possible?
By P.J. Malone
Imagine if you could know all the secrets of how someone becomes a multi-millionaire. Imagine if you could break those secrets down and understand each of them.
That’s what we have been doing over the last few weeks. In looking at fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s fifty years of business success, we have dissected the factors that contributed to it and examined them individually.
When you put them all together, it’s all too obvious how he could take a struggling 800-thousand-dollar business and turn it into an 800-million-dollar enterprise.
So let’s put it all together and start with the foundation:
Peter Nygard grew up believing nothing is impossible after watching his grandfather do farm work and climb stairs with both legs cut off and only one arm. He also watched his father chase down a truck over several days to get a job.
In believing that nothing is impossible, the world of opportunities was open to him. When nothing is impossible, everything is possible. No matter what his business needed, Nygard found a way to deliver it.
Peter Nygard has an advantage from his Finnish culture—a Sisu Spirit, which encapsulates bravery, resoluteness and determination. So, in believing nothing is impossible and having a determination to see things through, Nygard could achieve anything he wants.
Also, he has a competitive nature that makes him always want to be the best. How do you become the best? There are several approaches to making this happen. Nygard’s philosophy is one of them that says it all.
‘If you want to become successful at something, you read everything about it, you learn everything about it, you know everything about it; you find out who the best person is, and you take what they are doing and make it even better’.
Can you see how that would make anyone the best at what they do?
The icing on the cake for becoming the best is Peter Nygard’s perfectionism and uncompromising attention to detail.
Once he learned everything he needed to know about his business, he was a perfectionist in implementation. That’s why he would spend a week on the waistband of a pant alone. When every detail gets his attention, every piece of clothing he makes will be a standout success.
Nygard focuses on not just style but the way it would fit on every woman’s body; the way it would feel to a woman’s touch; and the simplicity of laundering the clothes.
Top all of these factors off with his uncanny intuitive ability. Can you imagine having an inside sense of what’s happening in the industry to add to your perfectionism and attention to detail? These things gave him an unbelievable competitive advantage; so much so that when others were going out of business, Nygard’s business was thriving and growing and making millions.
All of these things worked together to bring about unprecedented levels of success for Peter Nygard.
These are the attributes and factors that made Peter Nygard’s fifty-year success possible.
The good news for us is that these factors can work in all situations to bring about unprecedented levels of success.
