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.

While the 2018 series salutes fashion mogul Peter Nygård’s GoldenJubilee detailing his rags to riches story, his incredible business success over these past fifty years and an inside look at how he did it, The Clifton Review will also continue to address current affairs as they relate to the good of The Bahamas.  

Pure Million-Dollar Magic

By P.J. Malone 

Can the right mindset change the outcome in our lives?

There is an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) that sheds some light on how fashion mogul Peter Nygard was able to thrive during a recession and soar to such heights with his levels of success.

It presents an interview with Carol Dweck who is a Stanford University professor and author of the book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

The interviewer, Sarah Green, asks Dweck about the idea in Dweck’s book about having a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset. Green used the example of going back to a 10, 20, 30-year high school reunion and noting that the person who you thought would be most likely to succeed ending up with a career that didn’t quite pan out. She asked how someone with so much potential could fall into such a trap.

Dweck explains that such an individual could have fallen into a fixed mindset:

That’s a great example because you think oh, this person’s most likely to succeed. They’ve gotten the A’s. They’re president of the student body. But because of their success, they may have fallen into a fixed mindset. They may have believed all the hype, the idea that they just have it. And they become afraid of making mistakes. They become afraid of tarnishing their image.

And because they are fearful of venturing out of their comfort zone, they don’t take the risks or develop the abilities they’re capable of. You go back to the same reunion, and you see people you thought were not likely to succeed, and they’ve really done amazing things. These are the people who maybe didn’t have an image to uphold, didn’t feel the weight of other people’s expectations, and just followed their passions and developed their abilities. (hbr.org: “The Right Mindset for Success”)

This is a compelling perspective to consider with respect to Peter Nygard. Nygard doesn’t have an image to uphold because he moves to his own drumbeat. He doesn’t appear to care about what others think of him. He has his own unique style and way of doing things and it doesn’t matter what others think about that.

That obviously makes him not afraid of risks and he appears to take them often.

For him, it’s all about following his own instincts and doing what he feels led to do. And why wouldn’t he? It always appears to pay off.

‘If you always do what you have always done, you will always get, what you’ve always gotten.’ This is usually stated when people try to do things and expect a different result.

In Nygard’s case, he does what he always does to get the results he’s always gotten:

It’s obviously a winning formula that works for him every time. And while the rest of the world caught a cold when America sneezed in the 2008 recession, Nygard was wearing a face mask and inoculated himself against getting sick.

In fact, not only did he not get sick, his business increased its vitality with all of the measures he took.

So what can the right mindset do for a person?

For Nygard, his mindset of refusing to join the recession, resulted in pure million-dollar magic.