Victoria’s Secret, horse manure, and why choosing yourself saves the world

By James Altucher

Roy Raymond was a sad pervert. He’d buy bras and panties at the department store and all the clerks thought their thoughts about him.

Roy felt embarrassed. He wasn’t really a pervert. He just wanted to buy lingerie for his girlfriend.

So he solved this major problem he was having. He created a space where men could feel comfortable coming in and buying sexy lingerie for their partners. He called it Victoria’s Secret.

But Roy, by solving this important personal issue for himself, apparently solved the same issue for many other men. First year sales were over $500,000 and he quickly opened up three more stores.

In 1982 he sold Victoria’s Secret for one million dollars before trying multiple other businesses that ended up failing. One MILLION Dollars.

A decade later Victoria’s Secret was worth over a billion dollars but Roy Raymund was nearly bankrupt and had missed the huge run-up in it’s value.

–––

Picture New York City in the late 1800s on a rainy day. It was disgusting beyond belief.

150,000 horses transported people up and down the busy streets. Each of those horses, according to Super Freakonomics, dropped down about 15-30 pounds of manure. That’s up to 4.5 million pounds of manure A DAY on the streets of NYC. And now imagine it raining.

Would you cross the street?

How long could this last? How long would the city survive without being infested with crap and all the diseases brought with it. What would happen as population of both men and horses increased?

Was someone working on inventing a gigantic manure scooper? How would this problem get solved?

It never got solved.

Instead, Henry Ford invented the assembly line to mass produce cars. Every horse lost their job. People began to drive cars. Manure problem solved.

–––

In both cases there is a common theme. Someone outside the industry solved a problem that changed that industry forever.

Roy Raymund wasn’t a fashion designer or a retailer. He worked in the marketing department of Vicks, which makes over the counter medications.

Henry Ford, I don’t think, ever worked in the manure industry.

Instead, each person focused on a problem that was important to them. A problem that excited them at that moment in time. Raymund wanted to avoid being embarrassed in the future. Ford wanted an efficient way to make cars.

The ONLY way to change the world is to solve a problem that is important to YOU.

They had to choose themselves for success before they could save the world. Raymund had to convince himself that he didn’t belong in the marketing department of a division of Procter Gamble. He borrowed $80,000 and took the big risk of starting a business.

Ford had to survive numerous failures and bankruptcies in order to find a cheap way to make cars. He would abandon investors, people who supported him, and even companies named after him, in his quest to solve his problem in his own way.

Nobody gave them permission. And neither of them set out to change the world. They only wanted to solve a problem that was personally important to them.

It’s unfortunate that often we forget that choosing ourselves is not something that happens once. It has to happen every single day.

Else we lose track of that core inside of us that solves problems and is able to share them in a way that makes the world a better place.

Ford forgot this and became obsessed with Jews. Ford is the only American that Hitler mentions in Mein Kampf: “only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews’] fury, still maintains full independence…[from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions.”

And what happened to our embarrassed marketing manager that has ignited the passions of men and women for the past 30 years?

Roy Raymund saw the value of Victoria’s Secret jump from the one million he sold it for in 1982 to over a billion dollars a decade later.

He failed in business after business. He got divorced. Then at the age of 46, my age, he drove to Golden Gate Bridge, jumped off it and killed himself.

Before you can save the world you have to save yourself.

But you have to relentlessly do it every day.

Sometimes the train wakes me up at night and I feel scared. What will the world be like for my children? I won’t always be able to help them. I don’t even know if I do enough to help them now.

And then I remember. I’m alive for another day.

 

James Altucher is an entrepreneur. He started sold several cos and has writted 11 books (latest “The Power of No”) , Angel Inv., See more of James’ writing on JamesAltucher.com

Share and Enjoy

View from the Street: Riverside restaurant offers candlelight dining

SAN ANGELO, Texas – Chef and restaurateur Carlos Estrada is hoping to provide San Angelo a fine-dining experience with RiverView Restaurant, currently operating as Bentwood by the River.

The restaurant, at 800 W. Avenue D, is open for a lunch buffet 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and offers fine dining by candlelight 6-9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. A breakfast bar will be hosted from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a Champagne brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

RiverView, named for its location along the banks of the Concho River, officially opened Nov. 18, but Estrada began helping Bentwood Country Club with the business last February.

“They were going to close it down but offered it to me, and I took over the lead,” Estrada said. “We’re in the process of changing the name. Right now we’re still operating as Bentwood by the River … to serve alcohol through the holidays.”

Estrada said the restaurant will be a standout among San Angelo eateries because of the ambient atmosphere.

“It’s just great food, presented nice,” he said. “It’s a different dining experience than anywhere else with the view and the lunch buffets being (top-notch). We change the menu to keep it fresh and different.”

Current menu items include fillets, lamb chops and gourmet burgers, he said.

Though the venture is Estrada’s first as a restaurateur, he has worked in kitchens the past six years and served as chef for two to three of those.

“Since I started cooking it was a dream of mine to one day own a restaurant,” he said.

Vegas lingerie at downtown boutique

Darlakay Cardenas opened her downtown boutique Pure at the end of 2013, but it has received more attention since she expanded billboard and radio advertising.

“It’s been really good because we’ve gotten a lot of people (coming into the store) from it,” she said.

Cardenas’ husband worked for Lithia before switching jobs to a local RV company, and Cardenas took over his billboard contract.

Business at Pure, a women’s clothing and lingerie boutique, has always been steady, Cardenas said.

“We’ve always had good business, but usually it’s not (from) locals,” she said. “It ranges from military to oil field. We get a ton (of customers) from Houston.”

Cardenas attended Wall schools, so she felt at home moving her business to 21 E. Concho Ave., near J. Wilde’s, which is owned by Wall native Joyce Wilde.

Downtown also has the trendy boutique atmosphere for which Cardenas was searching: Music filters from outdoor speakers, and customers are treated to a glass of wine or beverage of their choosing.

“My lingerie is mainly from Las Vegas, and most of our clothes are all from Los Angeles,” Cardenas said. “We’re striving for a different feel. We don’t go to market.”

Pure’s clothing ranges from sizes extra small to 3-4X, Cardenas said, and its lingerie runs from extra-small to 5X.

“I love to shop,” Cardenas said. “Shopping always has been one of my bad addictions. I still get to shop — just not for myself.”

As a boutique owner, fair pricing was important, she said.

“Here, you’re not going to buy anything over $40,” she said. “I want to bring something for every budget range. I think that’s where a lot of our business comes from.”

Becca Nelson Sankey writes about local business for the Standard-Times. To publicize a construction or renovation project, contact her at rnsankey@gmail.com.

Share and Enjoy