How I succeeded mostly by not caring even a little bit about succeeding.

 Why didn't I ever do business with Glen Horowitz now on trial for handling stolen goods?

After putting 8 people in prison for selling me stolen material and being a member of the FBI informant program for 40 years, anyone with an IQ over 80 knows to avoid me if they are wicked.   I am always going to report them and do everything I can to generate a jail sentence even going to the judge and making my case. 

But the REAL question is HOW was I able to succeed when most of my competition was flawed stealing or grossly misrepresenting the quality of what they were selling.

Possible answers:

1. worked 365 days a year, 16 hours a day for 40 years.

2.  smarter

3. well born and equal socially with my clients

4. I learned accounting and realized that it costs 32 cents to sell a dollar's worth of goods.  So never sold for less than a 40% mark up. 

understood that when I sold something for 100x, all I was really grossing was 68x before cost of goods sold.

5. paid ALL of my taxes and never had an issue with the IRS or any government agency.

6. goal oriented so that when opportunity presented itself, I pounced.  SET CLEAR, WELL STATED GOALS starting at the age of 18. 

7. no booze, drugs 

8. exercised so that oxygen came to my brain to make good decisions. 

9. hired a genius lawyer for my first divorce that easily could have ruined me. 

10. Ed Rome and Jerry Shestack were 2 of the best 100 lawyers of the last 60 years.  Their advice was flawless always

11. Stood in 40 antique show booths for 40 years and met everyone in the top 40 cities in the USA

12. picked for reasons of passion categories to deal in that had no capable competition.  I LOVE what I am doing.  

13. read 30,000 books.  no one living is close to me for understanding 500 years of American and European History.
14. never cared about making money.  realized that money is a tool that governments use to drive so called "work ethic"

felt that amassing cash was foolish because its value was controlled by someone else.  realized that inflation is the Federal Government's brutal hidden tax. 

15. Had great partners that were smart, worked hard and were honest.

16. My collecting areas of passion were severely undervalued.

17. Stanley Marcus, founder of Neiman Marcus, mentored me for 20 years.  Taught me to be a merchant. 

18. But many, many other great men were willing to teach me as well.  Maybe over 100. 

19. Was a member of YPO for 20 years and learned compassion for successful people who mostly cared about their challenging children. 

20. Read all of Walter Issacson's books.

21. Lived in a city that the greatest American Mayor of all time made vastly better for 12 years.  Everyone did better.