Life Is 10% What Happens To You And 90% How You React To It

Life Is 10% What Happens To You And 90% How You React To It.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show is produced and hosted by Mark Webber.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
The show is sponsored by G three Aparol.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The views expressed in the following program are those of
the sponsor and not necessarily the opinion of seven tenor
or iHeartMedia. Who is Mark Webber. He's a self made
business executive here to help you find your success, from
the New York City projects to the Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
His global success story in the luxury world of fashion

(00:28):
is inspirational.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
He's gone from clerk to CEO twice.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Mark is classic proof that the American dream is alive.
And well, here's your host of Always in Fashion, Mark Weber.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Mark Weber. Life is ten percent what happens to you
in ninety percent how you react to it. I got
to tell you, I think life is peculiar, a life
is strange. Life is wonderful, and it's a wonderful world,
and I think we all should agree. I've always been
a wanderer, and I've been I've been a spiritual person.

(01:02):
How he got here, how this all works? I believe
in God. I talked to him. It helps me. But
perhaps the most important conversation I ever had came from
a beautiful night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami
on thiss Game Boulevard. Beautiful spring night with one of
my long term friends who's had a great insight into life,
the world and God, I asked, and looking up the stars,

(01:26):
millions of them shining down on us, why do you
believe in God? And he said, with a peaceful, knowing smile.
How else? Looking up and around us in the sky,
the water, the trees, the air flood to drink, the
company of a close friend, how else can you explain
this more? The world is not an accident. It's all

(01:46):
by design. There's no other explanation than God unless you
can give me one, and I couldn't. I found it
hard to overargue, let alone offer another explanation as to
how this all works. There was a meaningful night, and
I never forgot it. The world is and continues to
be amazing. It should be simple and yet and yet,

(02:09):
but you know what, Let's take a lighter note. I
heard a story that I want to repeat. I think
it's kind of funny. A little girl was sitting next
to an atheist on an airplane, and he asked her
if she'd like to talk saying that the flight would
be quicker if you strike up a conversation with your
fellow passenger. The little girl put down her book, looked

(02:31):
in the stranger, and asked return, what would you like
to talk about? I don't know, said the atheist, how
about why there is no God, no heaven, no hell? Well,
why there is no afterlife? The little girl looked at
him and said, okay, those could be interesting topics, but
let me ask you a question. First. A horse, a cow,

(02:51):
a deer all eat the same stuff grass. Yet a
deer excreets little pellets, while a cow turns out a
flat patty, but a horse produces clumps. Why do you
suppose that is? The atheist was visibly surprised by the
little girl's intelligence, thinks about it and says, hmm, I
have no idea to which the little girl applies. Do

(03:13):
you really feel qualified to discuss God, heaven and hell
or life after death when you don't know? Uh? Now,
I'm no philosopher, but I know the world is round.
I know that these sensus necessary to sustain life of food, water, air,
and shelter. I know that the hardest arithmetic to master

(03:34):
is that which is required to count our blessings. I
know that what comes around goes around the consequences of
what actions will have to be dealt with eventually. It's
a wonderful world. Now. I wish life was simple as
all of that, but it isn't. Life is so convenient,
but we humans seem to mess it up. You think

(03:56):
about it. We have a miracle in the palms of
our hands that communicates all over the world. That and
other devices have the entire history of the world and
everything in it. Ever, all the information known to manfind
at our fingertips wherever we go, in our pocket. It's incredible.

(04:17):
Life is so convenient. We drive everywhere, we fly it anywhere,
talk with anyone, and yet interacting with my fellow humans,
I have to wonder why, if life is so convenient,
we make it so unpleasant and stupid. I've been out,
I've been curious, as I always am. I've learned a
lot of lessons the last few weeks hanging out, and

(04:40):
I have comments to make. It's time to report on
life in the city, however, joining me, my lawyer, my
co host, my son Jesse Weber. Hey, Jesse, how you doing?
Hey there?

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Hi, everybody. It sounds like we're in a you know,
for a big night better but buckle up where seatbelts right.
It feels like that's what we're dealing with, A bumpy
night with you.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah. I found this week to be crazy week in life,
small things, big things, frankly pissing me off. But on
the subject of getting me crazy, I won't talk you
about the mayoral election in New York City. We voted
all the well we leave and Ben Denny and I
won't comment. You away with this Asteria who I voted for,

(05:23):
But what can he really do to help it hurt
the city?

Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh, I'll comment, I'll comment. Look, I think no matter
who you vote for, you hope for You hope that person,
you wish them luck, You hope they're successful and do
the best thing for the country or the city. And
I like the idea of somebody who wants to help people.
I will tell you though, there is nothing that he
has said, and nothing that he has done, and nothing

(05:47):
that he promises that makes me feel good. Nothing. And
when you look at the fact that over well over
half a million people voted against him, whether it was
Curtis Leewah or Quoma, well, we fent a little bit of
Adams even though we left the race. That says something.
And his speech that he gave after he won was

(06:07):
incredibly divisive. It was angry. Let me tell you something,
what can he do? What he can't do?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I didn't even bother it a listen what did he say?

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (06:16):
He mentioned at least three socialists, talked about the power
of government, called out President Trump. He you know, did
not say anything to reassure the people who didn't vote
for him. It was not inclusive. He had like one line,
I'm going to be you know, for the people wo
don't vote for me, give me time.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
You'll see.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
It was he the guy you know, that fake smile
right that he's been on the campaign trail with that
didn't look it was very different during his speech.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
Now, yeah comments, Okay, seventy million people voted against Donald Trump,
So that comment, I don't know. I could argue that
with the in Jessee, Well, you said five hundred things
voted against the five hundred thousand. That does me anything.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Talking about hold on, hold on. First of all, it's
a mayoral election. It was the most votes that people
have voted for in a mayoral election in the city
in like decades. And the point is he's he's the
people who voted for him a. I think if you
even go online and see this, there's a lot of
people who are man on the street talking to Mandani voters.

(07:23):
They don't even know what his policies are. A lot
of them like, oh he's young, I like the way
he acts. So how many of them actually voted for
the policies? B Do they even know what they voted for?
But also, he has not said anything if he really
wants to be a mayor for everybody in the city,
what is he saying to the people who didn't vote
for him and were scared and concerned?

Speaker 3 (07:42):
Now you're bringing me to the second part. Okay, okay,
what has he ever done to run anything that qualifies
him to be the mayor of the largest city in
the world other than slogans I'm wanting to be a
nice guy maybe and give away free things. What qualifies
him to be the mayor of the city.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Nothing? And that is why if you speak really well,
you have a great social media campaign, maybe you're young.
That's all that matters.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Now, that's all that worries me. Everybody young is stupid.
They have no information at they'm thinking that. I told
you I went to see Larry David and all these
people carrying signs of fascists. Trump's a fashionist. I walked
over to them and I said to one of them, first,
I thought, three people, same story. Why don't you like Trump?
He's a fascist? I said, you know, I want to
get on board with this. What's a fascist? He's a

(08:31):
fascists couldn't even explain what a fascist is. And then
I said to him, tell me, gotta be fair. Yet
it gotta be some policy. You like him what he did?
Absolutely not. He's a fascist. He's done everything that's stassistic.
I mean, you're dealing with dumb. I do you know?
I don't know. So anyway, what could this guy do
to hurt the city?

Speaker 2 (08:51):
First of all, mayor has a lot of power. They
oversee a budget of one hundred and twenty billion dollars
GDP of one point three trillion. They oversee a staff
of three hundred thousand people. But he's made a lot
of big promises when it comes to taxes and affordability. Now,
I think there's two things to think about here. The
noble goal want to help people make the city more affordable. Okay,

(09:14):
he wants to raise taxes unwealthy in corporations. He can't
do it by himself. He's going to need the state legislature.
And why is that complicated? It's an election ye're coming in.
You think Governor hokel who's you got a least stephonic
Republican on her heels. You have, by the way, Bruce Blakeman,
who's who won the NASA County executive he's now thinking

(09:35):
about jumping into the governor's race. Politicians are very reluctant
to hike taxes in an election year. So I don't
know if he's going to get the state legislature on board.
Then again, he's the darling of the left right now.
If you have Democrats who vote against him and the
state legislature voting against him raising taxes, that may hurt
their chances. So it's kind of a political game there.

(09:55):
But he can't do it on his own, okay.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Problem The problem with socialism and communism, like it or not,
businesses thrive, they hire people. If you raise taxes on people,
or you raise taxes on businesses, all you do is
stumped row. Companies can just pay more money without ramifications, well,

(10:19):
there'll be less suns.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Let me put it this way, okay. He wants to
make it more affordable to live in New York City.
Why do people want to live in New York City?
Why do they love it so much? Is it because
of the great restaurants, the shows, the businesses, the architecture,
the life. If he's going to drain the city of
wealth and investment, he is anybody going to really want

(10:41):
to live in this city? Anyfore think about it like that. Okay, anyway,
put that to the side. He also wants to make
affordable housing stabilize the rent. Now he does have the
power to appoint all nine members of the Rent Guidelines Board,
and yes, they set adjustments for rent stabilized apartments. He
if he can't increase or decrease the rent, rent stabilization,

(11:03):
but he could have some power there and he could
have some effect the free buses, the city run grocery stores.
You know what the problem with the buses is, he
needs support from members of the NTA, and the chairman
and the CEO of the MTA is not on board
with free buses. If the grocery stores. If he were
to get the support of politicians, You think that they're

(11:24):
going to want government run grocery stores that can put
bodega owners out of business when the bodega owners are
their constituents. So it seems to me and I forget who.
I saw this online. Kevin O'Leary, Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank.
He's on Fox News. He goes, I think what's going
to happen is he has all these big ideas and
then when he financially sees he can't make them happen,

(11:45):
He's going to have to modify his positions. Maybe that'll happen.
Hopefully that'll happen. But at the same time, all of
his rhetoric and everything he's saying is going to drive
people out of the city. It is I mean, do
you disagree. Do you think when you see a poll
that says almost a million people are going to leave
New York City? Are they or is it is that
just talk?

Speaker 3 (12:04):
They all all celebrities said if Trump could elected, they
would have leave the country. They're all still I don't
know that who's going to leave. I have no idea.
I'm worried about safety more than anything else. Is safe
now will be safe.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Unto him, police officers are going to leave. You have
Florida who's offering them a five thousand dollars cash bonus
to join law enforcement there? Now? Do they want to
stay in a city where they're maybe they feel they're
hated by the mayor. This is the guy who wants
said to defund the police. So I don't know what's
going to happen.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
He is still on that defunding the police.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
No, he he he backtracked, he says, I was on.
I didn't you know he backtracked on those comments that
he made five years ago, but he still made them.
And and I think recently Eric Adams has said that
he wanted to increase the number of NYPD, and I
believe Mamdanie has said that he doesn't want more officers.
He's like, I think we have a good amount of
officers as is. Doesn't make you feel good. You think

(12:56):
the NYPD's feeling good right now?

Speaker 3 (12:58):
No, I'll tell you what. I walk around the city
a night, and I can virtually tell you on sixth Avenue,
fifth Avenue, seventh Avenue. I don't recall the last time
I saw a police office. Am I crazy? Nope?

Speaker 2 (13:11):
They're few and far between.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
So what's going on here? I don't get it. I listen.
I believe that the city is always been and continues
to be. Two people in the city right now, victims
and predators. I've always looked over my shoulder. I never
walk without looking behind me. I always ask people, I
ask women, I ask God. But the women you work
nervous walking around and say no, I don't know what

(13:33):
they're talking about. It's scary as hell. And now if
he's defunding the police, this is crazy. The problem is
if in fact everyone calling him a communism there's no
place in the world that never demonstrated communism or socialism works.
So I look, I'm a capitalist. I know that when
I'm a CEO of a company and I'm running a

(13:54):
company with twenty thousand employees. If I do better, everyone
makes more money and we hire with jobs. The minute
business slows down the minute business slows down. The two
biggest places to save money are advertising in marketing, which
can affect your business and hurt you even more, or

(14:14):
you eliminate people because that's where the biggest costs are.
So when you talk about this, if you raise taxes
on my company, the first thing that's gonna happen is
I have to find a way to pay for that.
So what are my choices? Raise prices, which is gonna
make it worse for the boor of people or get
rid of people because that's where the big money is.
And yeahfore this it never works, So never work.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
What's gonna be? What's gonna be? What do you think
the future of New York City is going to look
like in the next four years?

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Well, that's why I'm asking you the question. Let me
ask the question. New York City is a sanctuary city.
That means and they can let anything happen they want.
Nobody could do anything about it.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
You can't obstruct ICE. If ICE comes in and tries
to do their work, you can can't stop them from
doing it, but you don't necessarily have to assist them.
That's the difference.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Well, you can't count on ICE to get rid of
all the illegal immigrants.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Wow right, Yes, yes you can. That's the whole point
of them.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
There's not enough of them. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Well, look I don't I don't know what's going to
be with that. I'm concerned with bottom lying.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
Let me tell you something. I'm a successful business guy, Okay,
I've run big companies, big problems, big everything. What is
this guy ever ran? What is his credentials? He was
a rent officer, was in congress? No, no, no, no, he'd
ever said.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
This guy was an assemblyman, and then he before that
he was a rapper and a failed rapper. And by
the way, he's like, it's just I can't believe anything
that he says. I just can't do it. I'm sorry,
I just can't. I don't I don't know. I'm hoping
I'm wrong. I'm hoping.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
So we already discussed it's going to be very hard
for him to deliver on free. And by the way,
if he eliminates the cost of buses, I got to
think the buses make a couple of billion dollars a year.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Right, yeah, I don't. And by the way, by the
way he's now, I think he's slowly walked backed a
little bit on it. Remember it was like free grocery
stores and he goes, eh, cheaper groceries. You know, it's like,
it's a question if he's actually going to deliver that.
And by the way, he says he claims that studies
have shown if you have free buses, it won't decrease crime.
You believe that anybody can get on the bus. You

(16:31):
don't think that's good. They were going to see more crime.
He says, it's not true.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
I don't know nothing about it. I only my biggest
issue with the guy is the biggest issue for me.
He was elected. I think people don't know what they
voted for. Like you said on the street, I believe.
And I talked to the people about Trump, the fascists
holding up the signs. They don't even know what a
fascist is, and the fact that they couldn't say anything
good about it. Not a word says to me with Dally,

(16:56):
with Zelotz, and people aren't thinking. I think this next
generation is foolish and dumb. I hate to say it
makes me sound older, because I don't know. Maybe when
I was a kid there age, I was foolish and dumb,
but you know, we believed in the American way of life,
and we believe that your work hard, something good comes
of it. I don't know what's going on right now,
and I really don't know how we could elect politicians

(17:20):
to run a country. At least Donald Trump is a businessman.
He has a tremendous resume, and of course he was
already elected once before. This guy has no credentials to
run the biggest city in the country. He's never been
in the private sector running anything. So how is he
going to manage one hundred billion dollar budget, as you

(17:40):
just said, one hundred billion dollars he's going to spend?
How is he going to do it?

Speaker 2 (17:45):
I wish he would surround himself with actually financial experts
and he actually, Well, you got a.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
Hope that that's what he's going to do. And therein
is the answer to your question. Either gets the right
people behind him and this is not going to be
an issue, or we're in deep, deep crap. I don't
get it. Yeah, now, having said it, he's young, he's energetic,
he has a point of view. Why in America are

(18:10):
we're hiring people electing people who they admittedly agree are
either communists or socialism. Do you explaining now.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Well, because people people believe, Hey, and look, there's an
affordability issue, there's an economic issue. I get it. But
people believe he's gonna make things free for me, He's
gonna make my life better for me. We're going to
take money from the rich, the evil rich, the evil corporations.
By the way, this is where you get half your
products and things that you buy and love. But anyway,

(18:38):
we're going to tax them, We're gonna go punish them
so that money can go to us, you know, the
I And it's this culture that's been built up. You know,
it's this enemy class that they've made, and it's really
really ignorant or stupid. I don't know what it is.
But by the way, half the people also don't really
know what socialism is, what communism is. You ask people,

(19:00):
how is he going to fund all these big projects?
They're like, oh, I don't want I don't really know.
I don't really know.

Speaker 3 (19:07):
Yeah, I don't know. By the way, why does everybody
fight to live in New York City? What's something that
you just start? Everything's so expensive? No, no, no, Maybe
people don't belong living in the city. They should live
in the snubburbs. Well that I've lived in the suburbs
of my whole life. I grew up in Brooklyn, I
grew up in Queens. It's less expensive. Well, Tyan buying
soda in New York City ten.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Dollars, Well, that's the point he wants to try to
address that. But at the same time, my point is
if he creates a situation where the city's the value
of the city goes down and all the things that
people actually you love to be a part of the
city are no longer there, it's a catch twenty two. Yeah,
it makes it more affordable live in the city, but
there's nothing left. Why would you want to live here.

(19:49):
You can't make the city more affordable. It's just too big.
It just doesn't work that way. Okay, this doesn't work that.
You want to talk pie in the sky nonsense. You
want to have campaign slogans, go right ahead. That's not
how the world works. Okay, So it's not how the
world works. So you think he's got to modify his positions.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
I think he's gonna have no choice but to modify
his position. What scares me is if this is the
gold Rush and everybody thinks they're running to the city,
all these people without jobs, without futures, without a plant,
they would do better outside the city than inside the city.
And my view, my view, you have to swim. Not everybody.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
You're thinking about it, like people, Not everybody can afford
to live in Long Island or Connecticut, they might.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Not be able to f ship into the city. I'm
not even talking about Long Island or Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (20:42):
I'm talking about the Barbrooklyn Queens. You know, you look
at your rong. That's part of the city. But that's
part of the city.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
Okay, then let them go there and forget about New York. Okay.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
I think they're equaiting New York with Manhattan.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
I am to a great degree. I am. Well, it's
not just okay, well, good luck. I don't want to
talk about politics. I'm not equipped. I don't know my thing.
This election is driving everyone crazy. You're either four or against.
It's ugly. It's almost as ugly as President Trump being elected.
I don't like it. I have other things bothering me,

(21:20):
so like what car insurance?

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Don't we all need car insurance?

Speaker 3 (21:25):
All right, it's not that. Let me tell you a story, everybody. Okay,
I get a bill from my car insurance. I'm not
going to tell you what company it's from. It could
be all State, could be progressive, could be State Farm.
I get a bill and I notice on the bill
they don't have my correct home address. I said, what

(21:45):
is this? How can I not have my home address?
I'm living forever? Since I have these cars, How can
I not have my own dress? So I call the
service number on the phone and guess what I get.
I get a recorded message, welcome to our phone system.
If you want to talk about new insurance fellases, you

(22:08):
want to talk about coverage down number one. You want
to talk about claims down number two? And I go
to this whole thing, and I want to talk about
my bill. So they first start asking me more questions.
Give me your name, give me a number, give me
a policy number. If you don't have your policy, give
me a four religious of your social secury. On and on.

(22:29):
I go through three freaking phone calls to finally get
to an operator. Presses zero one hundred times, and I
work my way to an operator and lo and behold.
An operator picks up and you can hear immediately they're
so far away. This is whatever their name is. Can

(22:50):
I help you? And I said, it's very hard for
me to hear you. She's well, I'm not in New York.
I said, where are you? She refused to answer. I said,
from the sound of your voice, sounds like you're in India.
She said, maybe, and we go through the whole thing
that she can't answer my questions, just can't. And by
the way, I'm having trouble hearing. And you know, for

(23:12):
what it's worth, there's a heavy accent. I'm calling. I'm
in New York. Finally I get through to my broker
and she's not close by. I said to my broker,
I have a conscious and I said, I can hardly
hear you. This is not a direct number. We just
got transferred. I'll give you my direct number in call. Mean,

(23:32):
so I called her and here's what drove me crazy. Okay,
this process is taking a half hour. I broke this
three different people plus the automatic voice people. Now I'm
talking to India. Now I'm talking to my broker, and
my broker's office is two miles away. I have a
question about my car insurance. Can you tell me why

(23:54):
I'm talking to someone twenty thousand miles away? I was
so pissed. What is wrong with the world? Why am
I so upset? You know what? Let me take a break.
When I come back, I'm going to talk to you
about a couple of things. First is shopping, and then
if we have time, I want to talk to you
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(24:37):
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a lifestyle brand. Then we talk about lifestyle brands, what
does that really mean? Simply what they say. There are
brands that follow you throughout your lifestyle. You get up
in the morning, you start to get dressed Donna Karen
Decan Why as intimate apparel, as hosiery, as all those products.
You're getting dressed for work. You get accessorized shoes, handbags,

(26:49):
and it takes you through the day. The remarkable thing
about DK and Y clothes for work, they work into
the evening. The dresses, the suits, the pants, the sweaters,
the blouses, extraordinary clothes at affordable prices that go from
day in tonight. Part of your lifestyle is active. You
have weekends, you have events, you participate in sports. Donna

(27:11):
Karen's casual clothes did that under the DK and Y label.
A vast array of casual sportswear that make women look
great as they navigate their busy lives. Whether you going
to soccer games for your children or whether you're going
out to the movies, whatever you want to do, dkn
Y Jeens, dk Y Sportswear is there for you. That's

(27:34):
what a lifestyle brand is. And I need to mention
DKY active wear, which is extraordinary, the leggings, the sports bras,
the sweats, you can wear DKY active wear, certainly in
the gym, certainly when you're working out at home, and
certainly if you want on the street, because it's that
well done. The quality of dk why is nothing short

(27:57):
of exceptional. And why shouldn't it be Because I was
born from the idea of luxury made affordable for women
of America. DK and Why a true lifestyle brand that
takes you from day and tonight, from the week into
the weekend. DCN Why you can find dcnhy and Macy's

(28:17):
DKY dot com.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
Welcome back to Always in Fashion. Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
I'm asking myself this week and know that life is
ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent on
how you react to it. And I'm having a difficult
time reacting to ridiculous, stupid stuff. I'm watching companies in
the way they behave, the way they treat their customers.
I'm watching people, young people, the way they handle their jobs.
Let's face it, everyone working now is young. I never

(28:48):
see people with gray hair, and if they are, they're
at senior positions sometimes most times, but they're few and
far between. The world is inherited by the youth. Now,
and I have to ask myself who's teaching these people?
Are they getting the training that I got? I had nothing,
I knew nothing, but I had brilliant people who train

(29:08):
me to be something. And I'm watching what's going on
and it's driving me crazy. I want to talk a
little bit about shopping, and again, I admit, ten percent
of what life is is what they throw at you,
and it's really ninety percent of the life how you
deal with what you've thrown. First off, I want to
talk shopping again. Amazon. Let me just say this. I

(29:29):
needed dishwashing detertion. I have eighteen bottles. I bought one
and I said, she said, you know what, only three.
But what Amazon doesn't do is they don't make it
clear that each order of one is six of them.
This keeps happening to me. I love Amazon, I am

(29:51):
a shareholder. I'm continuing to buy their stock, but I
had to tell them when it comes to purchasing, they
are confusing. I don't know if they do it on purpose,
if they shame on you, and if you don't make
the wording clearer and louder, shame on you. I'll still
buy your stock, but I have nothing to do with you.
But now I amazon a side. I want to calm down.

(30:12):
I'll tell you a couple of stories. This week. I'm
in the city, beautiful day. I'm on Madison Avenue, walking
up and down. I like Madison Avenue. I used to
have stores when I ran the companies I ran. Calvin
Klein had their flagship store there. That's no longer than
they had Donna, Karen and DK. Why I had flagship
stores on Madison Avenue, so I'm very familiar in the area.

(30:33):
I'm very comfortable with the area. I like getting dressed up.
I like walking the streets and looking in the windows
and going in a shop. This particular day, I was
with a beautiful blonde woman, very poised, very very well dressed,
and myself, oh wow, I was a little slumpy. I
wasn't dressed as well as I should do. But nonetheless
I was there and I walked into Todds. Why did

(30:57):
I walk into Todds. I walked by the window. And
I've had a good experience in Todds. I've bought Swede
sneakers and Todds back in the day in Europe, and
I have a bunch of pair of them. You know,
I've worn them out, and I wanted to look around,
and I saw in the windows swayed. But most importantly,
I saw a mannequin with two guys in the mannequin

(31:18):
wearing these beautiful Swede shoes. I decided to walk in,
and me and the young lady walked in and we're
looking around, and I went over to the mannequin. Now
I take a pregnant force to say to you. Todds
is a beautiful store on Medicine. I think it's fifty
ninth Street at sixtieth Street. I walk in and they're
about three or four salespeople, one a guy doing nothing,

(31:41):
the others were talking to potential customers. And I walk
in with this young lady and I walk up to
see these shoes. They look great to me, and they're
on a mannequin. The mannequin's are actually sitting and their
feet are up and they're wearing pants. One is standing,
so I can't tell what the shoes look like. So
I'm walking over and I'm with the pants, just to
get a better look into shoes, so you can see

(32:03):
if you're working in that store. This guy is really
interested in what's going on. Okay, So then I walk
away because I want to find the shoes in the store.
I walk all around the man's department, I walk hover,
and I walk back to the mannequin again. I start
feeling it and lifting it, looking for they boots of
the shoes. And now I'm at the point where I've

(32:23):
invested time, and not a single person walks over to
us and says, can I help you? Now? If I
didn't look the part she did, we were good customers.
We should have been swamp with people. A guy standing
there looking around, smiling with his hands behind the back.
The idea to walk up and never cut a who

(32:45):
is training these people? So Todd's I got to tell you,
it's not going to end your world. The fact that
I didn't buy shoes. It's not gonna end my world
because you didn't give me a chance to buy shoes.
It was ridiculous. And I walked out, and who knows
what will be although I got to admit, the shoes
is still in my mind, but we'll see. I couldn't
help it. But I here's that on the other side

(33:07):
of the store, a few doors down. The two of
us stop and we look in the window and there's
this woman's white trench coat. It's beautiful. She doesn't notice
what I do. I have an eye for for portion.
My greatest strength in design was not picking colors or designs.
It's for portion. I could look at something like I

(33:29):
could look at a baseball cap and tell you at
a glance whether it'll fit you well or won't. I
can tell whether jacket is right or wrong. I could
tell whether the specs when I hold up a shirt,
whether it'll fit me and not just by looking at it.
More importantly, i'm standing with you. I can tell whether
it looks the look of that fit will fit you.
I just know it. And I looked at the trench coat.
It was a woman's trench curt The belt on it

(33:51):
was so high and the length was so long. It
was out of proportion, and there's no way it should
be brought because it was wrong. It was awkward. But
you know what happened only there, somebody from the store
opened the door and said, come on in. And I
was so taken with that. Here's a person who wants
to do business. This is the way you're supposed to

(34:14):
reacd boy, oh boy, it got me started. And then
there's the whole subject of while I'm walking eating. While
I'm giving you my pet peeves, this week, I want
to talk about eating. I'm hungry, I have to eat.
N I'm about to give you a qualifier. I'm about
to give a terrible review to a restaurant that's considered

(34:38):
to be one of New York's hottest restaurants. I admit,
the first time I was there, they were a perfect ten.
The people watching and people watching us was really strong
when we went there. The food, everything we ordered was impeccable.
I couldn't wait to go back. Admit, it took a
little time, but I went back this week and the

(35:02):
name of the restaurant is the Corner Store, and it's
a hot place. I think it's in Soho. I don't remember.
Everybody was there, people watchers, a lot of influences, some celebrities.
We had a nice table to get there. We get
our table and ten minutes go by, nobody comes over
to get us a drink. They finally come over offer

(35:23):
us a drink. Ten minutes later, the drinks come back.
It took too long, but that's not the story. Per se.
I ordered a salad salmon and carrots. I was on
a diet, as I always seemed to be. And the
salad came and let's just say it wasn't great. And

(35:49):
after we had our appetizers, it was myself, Jesse and
my other son were hanging out. We're waiting for the
food and waiting for the food, and then finally it's
young comes over when she leans down to the dead
and said, listen, we have a party going on. So
sorry your food has been delayed, but we will get

(36:11):
you your food shortly. So I look at her, and
you know, now I'm pissed, and I said, you know,
before I go there, I have another story to tell you. Okay,
make the point I want to make. When I first
joined radio, I didn't know what I was doing. I
had a lot to learn. I knew I had a
good show. I knew we were doing well. I was

(36:34):
on for about a month and all the sponsorships that
we had I brought in. I introduced the radio show
to billion dollar companies who became my sponsors. I handed
them great sponsors that they would have never met without me.
So I was an important guy, at least in my
own mind. I would think they would think I'm important,
you know, there's an old story with a guy who

(36:55):
Will fair Child pressed. These are all the magazines that
you know, GQ, Vogue, the Whimswear Daily. And his name,
I think was John Fairchild, well, one of the Fairchild family.
And the guys who would work with me from the
magazines would tell me, thank god, Mark, you've come to us.
And I said why, He said, John Fairchild. When he

(37:17):
gets all the magazines every month and he sits down
and looks at the magazines, first looks at all competitive magazines,
and all the competitive magazines. As he goes through whatever
ads or advertisements he sees from brands that are not
advertising in our magazines, he gets crazy and he'll say,
why is Chanelle in this one and not in this one?

(37:39):
And he wants to do business with all the companies
that he's not currently doing business with. So he's fascinated
by it. That's what makes it important to him. So
here I am. I bring in all these new customers,
new sponsors for shows that they wouldn't a so g
three my title sponsors a billion dollar company, Now they
have them as a customer, and on and on there

(38:00):
he using eyes on whatever. So I decide I'm a
little unnerved. I don't know enough about radio, but you know,
I'm doing my job. I'm writing shows, I'm delivering. We're
getting good ratings, and I'm excited about the shows, how
well they're doing, and how I feel about a show.
I don't care whether it gets good ratings, and I
don't care about anything. I care about whether I'm proud

(38:22):
of the work I did. So I asked for a meeting.
What are you going to do for me? I want
to be on other stations, multiple stations. When they call
a meeting, the head of production, the head of the
station is going to be at the meeting, and it's
lieutenancy going to be that. I show up to the
meeting twenty minutes earlier. I wait, we start the meeting.
He's not there, the head of the station. When is

(38:42):
he coming. He's busy, but he'll join us. Winging up.
Forty five minutes goes by, and he doesn't show up.
Now I'm pissed. So I have the whole meeting. So
now I've invested in an hour and a half waiting
and getting the meeting, and now I've gone through the
whole thing. And then he comes waltzing into the meeting
ahead of the station. Hey, guys, sorry, I'm late. You

(39:03):
know I was. I couldn't get here, and I get crazy,
I mean, you want to talk about crag. I get
ridted and I said it. And I don't give who
you would the negotiate anyone. I don't giving. I care
about me and my billion dollar sponsors. I'm sitting here
waiting you for forty five minutes, and then I gave
a meeting for forty five minutes afterwards, an hour, an
hour a half later, I got to do it all
over with you. Well, the guy, his face dropped. If

(39:25):
there was ever a look of hate in the world,
I disrespected him. He was hateful to me, and correctly
so I should have never behaved that way. I behaved wrongly.
I knew I behaved wrongly. I couldn't control myself. This
is one of those times in life I did the
wrong thing. But he never showed up on time. But
that's not an excuse. The point of it is. Now

(39:46):
I'm in this restaurant, okay, and she tells me we
have a party going on. Sorry I was late, And
I said, I don't care you have a party going on.
I'm sitting here with my friends and we're waiting for food.
She said, we'll have it truly. I said, I'll tell
you why we ordered French fries. We'll have them as
an appetite. Say, why don't you bring the French fries?

(40:08):
And she goes to me, I don't know if we
can do that. You don't know if you can do that.
Why are you standing here talking to me? Well, you
just said it's useless. And I say to myself, if
I was that young woman, I would come over the
table and say, we're backed up in the kitchen. Your

(40:28):
order is next to come out. I apologize profusely. We
want you to enjoy your meal. Of course, I'll get
to your French fries, be back with them in a minute.
And she didn't. Now, to make matters worse, they bring
out the food and they bring out all three dishes
and mine, I ordered salmon. I can have my salmon

(40:50):
cook through. Well, none. I don't like raw salmon. I
don't like Look Anthony andods and it's totally raw, totally row.
So my son Jared gets up. He's upset for me.
You know, we're going through all of this, assle. It's
a great restaurant, We're happy with air. It's got the reputation.
We had a great reputation. We had a great time.
The list my sound. He gets something, holds the waiter up,

(41:13):
It brings the waiter the way. It comes over and
he says, what's the matter, Sir, I said, I ordered
my salmon well done, and it's wrong. He said to me,
sure your salmon is thick, and that is prepared at
the correct temperature. And now I'm looking at him, I said,
there are you out of your mind. This is not

(41:34):
the first time I've ordered salmon in my life. I've
eaten salmon before. You give me credit for that. It's
not cooked. Please go cook. It came back. When you
reheat something we cook, it tastes like shoe leather. It
was terrible. Bottom line, the meal was horrendous. It was ruined.
Now they did come over, apologize profusely, gave us desserts

(41:54):
on the house, didn't charge us for the salmon. They
made the rook over it. But nonetheless, I was very
underwhelmed by the way the people behaved and their desserts
and all and their behavior, etcetera. And I'm moving on
just so I'm not picking on royalty restaurants only. I
want to tell you about McDonald's. McDonald's the best guy

(42:18):
coke or coke in the world. I stopped drinking diet coke,
and I thought, and I read that it was really
harmful to her. Help the case of coke, it's fat,
name has calories, and I don't know how good sugar is.
There is not for you. In moderation with the bottom line,
I go there for a drink and order with extra ice.
Driving window. I come back. They hand me my coke

(42:42):
and there's almost no ice. I said, I ordered with
the extras and stripes please, and she makes a face
in me ah, facing me, uh man, I don't have words.
So she gives me back to drinking more ice. And
there's so much leakage from the top of your hands
to me. It gets on my pants. There's no way

(43:02):
to manage it. There's no napkin. Thank you, McDonald's. And
by the way, if that wasn't worse than enough a
paper straw, we're back to paper straws. I thought that
went out with the window. Back to paper straws. Uh less.
But at least I I'm inventing. I have a local
restaurant that I frequent I was there three times last week.

(43:23):
I love them. The food is great, I'm in and out,
I like what I order, etc. In the three times
I've been there, the Matredes, there are three women always there.
They know who I am. They don't talk to me
for whatever it is. They don't like me. Maybe they
know I'm an acquiretation. I don't know. But when I'm
leaving the restaurant by myself will with the guests. They

(43:45):
have never once said panic you. And that's the message here, guys.
That's the message here. Gals. You work for a company,
you have to care, you have to think about the
message you're sending. And if you're going to talk, you
have to be smart. And it doesn't take very much
to say thank you when your customers in a restaurant.
On leaving with that, I'll come back and see if

(44:07):
we have time. I want to talk about money back
in a moment.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Always in fashions.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
As one of the world's most celebrated fashion designers, Carl
Lagafeld was renowned for his aspirational and cutting edge approach
to style. His unique vision of Parisian shit comes to
America through car Lagofeld Paris. He has women's collections, men's collections,
ready to wear, accessory, shoes and bags. The fashion house
Carlagofeld also offers a range of watches, I wear and

(44:34):
premium fragrances. You can explore the car Lagovol collection at
car Lagofelparis dot com. But it's more than that. I have,
for one, love to shop. I love going around and
seeing what's happening and what catches my attention, what would
make me feel good to wear now. I don't wear
the women's wear obviously, but I can appreciate it and
they look amazing. If you want to look right, you

(44:56):
want to have clothes that fits you well. You want
to look like you're wearing something that's very expensive, that's
exclusive for you and yours. You can find it at
very affordable prices at Macy's Orcarlagofel dot com Paris. The
women's ready to wear fashion is extraordinary, as well as
the handbags and the shoes. I for one wear men's clothes,

(45:17):
unlike my appreciation of women's clothes. I'm a modern guy.
I want to look current. I want to look the
way I want to feel. I go out at night,
I'm in black and Carlagafel is my buddy. Carls are great,
they fit great, and they have little tweaks and touches,
whether it's a stripe on the sleeve or button at
the neck or on the shoulder. There's a lot of
details that go into Carlagafel because he's always been, he

(45:40):
always had been one of the world's great designers, and
this legacy and goes on and on. I can't speak
enough about it except to say to you, you want
to feel good about yourself. You want to know that
you're dressing properly. You want to clothes that fits you well.
Carl Lagafeld, Paris, Carl lago Feldparis dot com. I love
polar fleece. It's lightweight, takes colors beautifully, It's comfortable, keeps

(46:05):
you warm and even if it's warm out, it doesn't
hamper you, it doesn't make you perspire. I love Polar fleas.
I also love sweatshirts and sweatpants, love them, love them,
love them. I'm a big fan of khaki pants and
a big fan of a golf clothes, and I'm a
big fan of Izide. I used to be the head
of Iszide. In fact, my company bought it and at

(46:27):
of bankruptcy and the CEO of the company asked me
to come in and fix it. And he said to me, Mark,
the future of the company's in your hands. Can you
do this? And I said, I will do it. I
put everything, my heart and soul into making Eyeside the
powerhouse that it is today. Now. I left a long
time ago, and the company just continues to thrive. Iseside
is one of the great sweater makers, pants make a

(46:47):
shirt makers, knit shirt makers, Polar shirt makers. They're incredible company.
The colors are great, the fabrics are great. Guys, you
ever wonder what you should wear, I'll make it easy
for you. If you're going to be casual, go in.
Look at isaac. Now that doesn't say that they don't
have dress shirts and they don't have suits, Go find them.
Isaad is a collective brand that offers lifestyle apparel to

(47:09):
everyone in America. And it's true it's a fun brand,
but it's also priced at fun prices everyone can afford it.
I love this brand. Of all the brands that I'm
involved with, and you can name them, think about PVH
and LVMH, and all the brands, ISAOD is the one
that's most personal to me because I was involved in
crafting the future of this brand. The close are great,

(47:29):
Fall is great, They're doing well. Isad dot com, isaadat jcpenny,
go look for it. I think you're going to be
very happy. And ladies, those of you the shopping for
the guys in your lives, take a look. I think
they'll be very happy with your choices.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
ISAAD for men, welcome back to it. Always in fashion.
Here's your host, Mark Webber.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
I have a business conversation for you. This is the
time of year that all major businesses do their financial
plans for next year. And in those financial plans, each
of your divisions are charged with coming up with a
financial budget. You are required to put down on paper
what you think you will do in terms of sales,

(48:13):
in terms of profits for next year. So if you're
working in the fashion business and you're running calm forward,
you have an opportunity and you're responsible to saying we
will do a billion dollars this year. Last year, we
did nine hundred and fifty million dollars last year. On
the nine hundred and fifty million dollars we made ninety

(48:35):
five million this year. On the billion we're going to
make one hundred million, our profits will be at the
same percentage. Will make that money? Simple? Exercise, Your boss,
your shareholders, your investors want to know how you vision
next year and how you see the profits coming in.
Sounds simple. The problem is is, as they said earlier today,

(48:59):
that life is ten percent what you happen to you
a ninety percent how you react to it. The question
is how you react to it, and in this case,
I can't tell you whether people are wrong or the
system's wrong. Jack Wells, the famous chief executive officer, always
said I plan for the worst and hope for the best.

(49:19):
When you're asking for your budget, do you give the
lowest number you possibly could be so you won't disappoint?
So back to that example of nine hundred and fifty
million versus a billion. Do you give nine hundred and
seventy five million rather than billion, even though you believe
in a billion? One to protect your image? Number two,

(49:40):
to underpromise another delivery, and number three the most difficult
part of all I'm doing this is your salary and
your bonuses are based on the numbers you give. If
you say you're going to make a billion dollars worth
of sales and one hundred million dollars profit, and you
do anything less, your bonus will be affected by that.
So system is design for you to go low, to

(50:04):
give the least accurate information you possibly could be and
give so that your bonus and yourselves you'll look the
best you can be. All I can tell you is that,
in my experience, you have to budget appropriately. I never,
once in my life, I'll admit it, put a budget
down that was more than I thought it would be.

(50:26):
I had a problem in my left the second to
last year at LVMH on the Donna Karen Company, one
of the women running one of the divisions gave me
a budget that was ridiculous. It was let me think
about it, it was one third of what we did
the friar year. So if I made fifty million dollars

(50:46):
and five hundred million dollars to sell, I said, we
would only do two hundred million and twenty million. Problem.
It was a disaster, and I fought with her in
the meeting and my financial person chief financial officers agreed
with the young lady presenting the budget, and the one
thing you can't do is fighting your chief financial officer.

(51:07):
They're in charge even though you're the boss. They have
a dotted line to corporate America. They have dotted lines
and responsibilities into the bosses. And she was convinced that
this division president who's giving me these low ball numbers
were giving me logical numbers. When I met with her privately,
I begged her to reconsider. I mean I used those words.

(51:29):
I don't use them likely. I mean I really pushed
and cajoled, and after I said it can't possibly be.
I review all the sales, I've talked to, all the accounts.
There's no way our business is going down by she
was convinced. Went into the budget meetings strategy meetings at
LVMH and Paris, and I got killed. I said, this
is his top. We'll make it back, We'll give us

(51:50):
a chance, and blah blah blah blah blah Silians and
they were very, very unhappy. And what happened we beat
last year. I put ourselves through this nonsense to the
eye invation from them, every one of us looking at
it under a microscope for the first six months of
the year, like we didn't know what we're doing. And
yet we smashed on numbers. So I caution all of

(52:11):
you right now, when you're preparing these budgets and you're
battling between being conservative or aggressive, over promising, under promising,
and over delivery, and when you're worrying about your own
life and your bonuses and whatever, you still have to
have a logic to what you're doing. And I say

(52:32):
to you, life is ten percent what happens to you
and ninety percent how you react. And I caution you
to think about the budgeting process the next few weeks
as you're involved in it. I've been busy all week.
I've been angry all week. I'm kissed open nothing but
life is in the details. We live down here and
not fat fifty thousand feet up. The little things matter.

(52:54):
This shouldn't make us crazy. And yet this week got
to me just maybe some of the examples i'm giving tonight,
some of the stories i'm telling, maybe someone will learn
from these lessons. I'll tell you, somebody should be teaching
you right from wrong. And I was very careful to
day not to use any names other than the names

(53:16):
of some stores. And the upset. Having said that, I
repeat myself. Mife throws you Lemons, you make lemonade. What
pat is a backdrop? Good Night,