Builds a brand so big and so strong people don’t think there’s a real person behind it

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Subject: Builds a brand so big and so strong people don’t think there’s a real person behind it

10X Funnel Hackers

Tommy Hilfiger is an American fashion designer and the founder of Tommy Hilfiger Corporation. He started his career by co-founding a chain of jeans/fashion stores called the People’s Place in upstate New York in the 1970s. He began designing his signature preppy menswear line in the 1980s. Later, the company expanded to produce women’s clothing and other luxury items like perfumes. His collections were influenced by the fashion of music subcultures. He sold his company for $1.6 billion to Apax Partners who later sold it to Phillips-Van Heusen for $3 billion. He remains the principal designer, leading the design teams and overseeing the creative process.

"35 years been playing the game. But before I started Tommy Hilfiger, the brand, I had my own shops. I opened my own jeans shops with my incredible savings of $150. And now this year, we just ended with $10 million. I had $150 from working in a gas station...I bought 20 pairs of bell bottom jeans from the streets of New York City...I drove for hours to my hometown of Elmira, NY and I sold them out of the trunk of my car to my friends at a profit. Then I opened a small shop in a basement of a shoe store. I was 18 years old"

"We’re an American classic but I’m never satisfied. I always want more. So all of my whole team listens to two words. I say to them every day. What next? What next? Because being in the apparel business is very competitive. But I don’t want to just be in the apparel business. I went into the electronics business recently. So we do headphones, speakers, earbuds, everything with the Tommy Hilfiger brand. I’m going into health and wellness. Bicycles I’m going into. Of course we have fragrance and home furnishings and everything that you would say built a lifestyle brand, but I want to go way beyond that."

"I think you have to connect with the emotion of the consumer. And you have to give the consumer something that they don’t know they want yet. And that’s what we’re always doing. What next?"

"And when I speak to students who are creative, who want to be a designer or want to be in the fashion world, I say learn about the business and if you put the creativity with the business, you’ll win. I think for me, it’s more about business. If you’ve got the business acumen and you’re watching the profits and watching the cash flow, you can always find the right product to insert."

"Well, I think it’s one and the same because I think that you have to have a dream and a passion and you have to picture yourself being successful....But you have to have that North Star. You have to have that goal and you have to go for it. And every time you hit an obstacle, you have to find a way around it, under it, through it, over it but there is a way to get to the other side. You have to look at those obstacles as challenges. And once those challenges come forth, you have to take advantage of the learning experience they give you, and also the opportunity."

"Bigger is better. You got to scale. You got to scale you got to think big. You have no choice. Otherwise, you fall into the wayside...And you have to always have that notion that I will never give up. Because it’s easy to give up...In order to grow you need more people you need better people. You have to hire people who are smarter than you are. And you have to hire people who are as passionate and as driven about the business as you are. And you have to hire people who can help get you there because it’s not a one man band. You’re not an island. You can’t do it on your own. But you need cash to operate the business in the most professional efficient way. And you have to really pay attention to the numbers every day...You’ve got to have teammates and you’ve got to respect one another. And you have to be transparent and honest with one another. We need people who are very honest with us to tell us what’s wrong. Because if we find out what’s wrong, we can fix it."

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Subject: Builds a brand so big and so strong people don’t think there’s a real person behind it