Billion-Dollar Threads: How Morris Goldfarb Stitched Together a Fashion Empire

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:00):
Okay, picture this. From living in a hole for nine months to escape persecution during the Holocaust, to owning companies like Karl Lagerfeld and Donna Karan in two generations. This is the story of our next guest.

David Segal (00:00:16):
Morris Goldfarb, G-III. You don't even know about G-III, but you're probably wearing a piece of clothing right now without even knowing it, that Morris either designed or manufactured. And this is an emotional one. Morris talks about the parting words his grandfather says to his father [00:00:30] as his grandfather is being in a death camp, basically. And how the impact that's had on him throughout his life.

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:37):
And that impact has turned into ambition and incredible work ethic that has created this company called G-III, a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company that owns so many of the brands you know and you love.

David Segal (00:00:49):
I love this one. I learned how to survive, how to adapt. Morris takes us through some timeless lessons. It's a great one.

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:55):
It's a great Big Shot episode with an incredible story of an amazing Jewish [00:01:00] entrepreneur.

David Segal (00:01:00):
Morris Goldfarb, here we go.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:01):
Here we go.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:21):
Morris so when I start, DKNY, Karl Lagerfeld, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, major league sports teams.

David Segal (00:01:29):
Levi's.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:30):
[00:01:30] Levi's.

David Segal (00:01:30):
So many others.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:31):
But how does a son of a Holocaust survivor go from the concentration camps to where you are today? What was it like growing up with your dad and his experience coming out of the Holocaust, and how did that instill your ambition that you have right now?

Morris Goldfarb (00:01:50):
So going back chronologically a little bit, my dad was a Holocaust survivor, met my mother in a DP [00:02:00] camp in Germany after the war. They married and moved to Israel. I was born in Israel, came to the States when I was six years old. My dad...

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:10):
[foreign language 00:02:11].

Morris Goldfarb (00:02:13):
Don't speak a word of Hebrew.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:14):
Okay, great.

Morris Goldfarb (00:02:15):
Everybody concentrated on teaching me English.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:17):
That was probably the right thing to do.

Morris Goldfarb (00:02:18):
My parents, Hebrew was their second language. It wasn't their primary language. So I speak Yiddish. Happy to speak Yiddish with you, but...

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:27):
[foreign language 00:02:29].

Morris Goldfarb (00:02:30):
[00:02:30] Don't lose it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:31):
Yeah, I won't.

Morris Goldfarb (00:02:32):
So Aron comes to New York in 1956. No money. It's a classic story. He had a little bit of experience with leather as a kid. He worked for a shoemaker for a little bit for his meals and a warm coat every year, and found his two surviving [00:03:00] brothers who were in a leather business, and another gentleman who happened to be the brother-in-law of Aron's brother. He was in need of money and need of a partner. So Aron wrote them a note for the investment and they started a business called G&N Sportswear.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:28):
Which is women's initially.

Morris Goldfarb (00:03:30):
[00:03:30] All women's jackets.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:32):
Okay. And what year is this?

Morris Goldfarb (00:03:33):
This is 1956, '57. They built a prosperous business. They did well. I didn't grow up as a hardship case. Aron did.

David Segal (00:03:43):
Why jackets though, and not shoes?

Morris Goldfarb (00:03:45):
I'm sorry?

David Segal (00:03:46):
Why jackets, not shoes? I mean, he's a shoemaker, right?

Morris Goldfarb (00:03:49):
The luck of the draw. Maybe the barrier to entry was easier and buying sewing machines versus heavy equipment for shoes, didn't need any money. You needed some sewing [00:04:00] machines. You needed some leather that you bought in the marketplace, either through distributors. You got a little bit of credit. So I would imagine it was... No, it didn't matter. It could have been paper towels. He needed to make a living.

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:16):
Was your dad entrepreneurial generally?

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:18):
Yeah, very much so.

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:20):
He always works?

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:20):
Always. After the war, he would trade in the black market in Germany, always made money.

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:29):
There was [00:04:30] this story that I sort of heard that I'd love even your words about when your father last saw his father in the concentration camps. He said something to him.

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:39):
Cool. So my dad had a book written about his life called Maybe You Will Survive, which are the final words that his dad...

David Segal (00:04:49):
Maybe You Will Survive?

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:50):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:04:50):
Wow.

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:51):
Those [inaudible 00:04:52].

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:54):
That's the name of the book.

David Segal (00:04:54):
Yeah.

Morris Goldfarb (00:04:54):
That's the line that his father parted with as he was put on a train [00:05:00] to the camps.

Harley Finkelstein (00:05:01):
He said, "Maybe you'll survive," to him.

Morris Goldfarb (00:05:05):
So Aron was put on the survivor line and survived and prospered. It's an amazing American dream story. I got the privilege of working with him for almost 20 years. And we shared an office basically. He was [00:05:30] pretty much retired early on. He fulfilled his dream.

David Segal (00:05:34):
When we read the line out loud, I believe it was something like, "Go my son, maybe you will survive." We all got goosebumps.

Harley Finkelstein (00:05:43):
It's something that there's almost no way to forget that after that's said to you by a father, and it's an amazing thing to put that type of responsibility. Your dad was a kid at the time.

Morris Goldfarb (00:05:57):
My dad was 16, 17 [00:06:00] years old.

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:00):
And he went and not only did he survive but he thrived.

David Segal (00:06:05):
And how he survived. I mean, it's worth... Could you tell us a story? We read it, but I'd love to...

Morris Goldfarb (00:06:10):
Did you read it?

David Segal (00:06:10):
Yeah.

Morris Goldfarb (00:06:11):
Oh, that's amazing. Thank you. He survived first in a work camp. It was in a munitions camp and he and two of his brothers and a friend escaped and [00:06:30] literally lived in the woods under a willow tree next to Gestapo headquarter. They dug a hole that was six feet deep and they hid.

David Segal (00:06:45):
How long would they have to had lived in this hole in the ground?

Morris Goldfarb (00:06:47):
Almost a year, nine months.

David Segal (00:06:49):
Nine months?

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:49):
In this hole?

David Segal (00:06:51):
In a hole in the ground?

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:52):
Not just in a hole in the ground by Gestapo.

David Segal (00:06:56):
On a property owned by the Gestapos.

Morris Goldfarb (00:06:57):
On a property, and [00:07:00] they'd get out in the middle of the night and find food. There were people that helped them along the way, people that he knew in the community that were willing to take a risk and give him a loaf of bread or a piece of bread or a potato or whatever it was.

David Segal (00:07:20):
And would those people have known where he was hiding?

Morris Goldfarb (00:07:23):
No. He was careful not to disclose where he was hiding, and he would spend a day or two [00:07:30] on a farm of a neighbor that he knew and not even tell the neighbor that he was nearby, although the neighbor did help him, he didn't want to tell him that he was staying out in the field because [inaudible 00:07:47] Gestapo comes and they would maybe give him away. There are many that did not. So it's an amazing story [inaudible 00:07:56].

Harley Finkelstein (00:07:55):
But also build incredible resilience.

Morris Goldfarb (00:07:57):
I'm sorry?

Harley Finkelstein (00:07:57):
The resilience of that, right? [00:08:00] In the book, they talked about this idea of survivor's instinct, and I think one of the reasons potentially that your dad was so successful when he left the war was he'd built this resiliency that he's going to survive. He's going to figure it out.

Morris Goldfarb (00:08:15):
That's exactly him. He always figured it out.

David Segal (00:08:17):
How did that...

Morris Goldfarb (00:08:18):
He had no formal education, but he was as smart as hell.

David Segal (00:08:22):
How would that have impacted you? Do you remember the first time you learned about the Holocaust and what your father went through?

Morris Goldfarb (00:08:30):
[00:08:30] I probably learned about it from birth, but I really recognized what he was talking about when I was 15 or 16 years old. I was busy growing up. I was busy playing baseball, and I had parents that had an accent and it wasn't something that you promoted. You almost shied away from the fact that your parents had an accent [00:09:00] in a community. And then when you mature and you really recognize what they went through, it was tough.

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:13):
Yeah.

Morris Goldfarb (00:09:16):
Excuse me.

David Segal (00:09:17):
Of course, by all means.

Morris Goldfarb (00:09:25):
As you can tell, it's still tough.

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:27):
Yeah, of course.

Morris Goldfarb (00:09:30):
[00:09:30] So he was very fast to talk about his experience. The friends that he had gathered in New York were all Holocaust survivors. They all had a story. It was not a unique [inaudible 00:09:51].

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:51):
It wasn't unique. I mean, he was in the ground... His story with the way...

Morris Goldfarb (00:09:57):
His story is unique, but they were all unique guys. Some that would [00:10:00] just [inaudible 00:10:01].

David Segal (00:10:00):
So he comes to New York with pretty much nothing. I mean, not much.

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:04):
Comes to New York with nothing.

David Segal (00:10:08):
Nothing.

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:08):
No money and a little bit of help.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:09):
And you said you're the eldest. You have some siblings?

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:11):
I have a brother.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:12):
So you and your brother both come when you're six at this point.

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:14):
My brother was born in New York.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:16):
Okay. He was born here. So you come here, you're here. Your dad's sort of setting up this clothing company. Did he care about the clothing company or was it a means to an end? Was it about food on the table?

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:28):
Well, [00:10:30] let me regress a little bit.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:31):
Please.

Morris Goldfarb (00:10:31):
When he came here, he worked as a laborer on a construction site first. Then he made a few dollars and bought a laundromat. Those were not his dreams. Owning a business was. And this came into play with his two brothers, and I would say he had an amazing passion for it. He loved the [00:11:00] factory. He loved the leather business as it evolved and loved the people that he employed.

David Segal (00:11:09):
And presumably he's working...

Harley Finkelstein (00:11:10):
He's a legend.

David Segal (00:11:11):
There was no Friday night dinner because he's probably working.

Morris Goldfarb (00:11:15):
No, Friday night dinner. He was a hardworking guy. Summers were probably not too different than you all know. He worked during the week and the classic Monticello, [00:11:30] upstate New York bungalow colony was the trek for him. And my mother and I and my brother stayed there for the summer and he'd commute weekends. So he loved sports. He was the well-rounded guy.

David Segal (00:11:48):
Did he want you to go into the clothing business?

Morris Goldfarb (00:11:51):
No, he told me to get a city job and not...

David Segal (00:11:54):
A city job?

Morris Goldfarb (00:11:55):
Yeah, get a job working for the city. You got great benefits. You don't have to kill yourself.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:00):
[00:12:00] It's a secure job.

David Segal (00:12:00):
Yeah, exactly.

Morris Goldfarb (00:12:00):
It's the secure job. Good benefits. You don't have to do this. But he knew that the city job is not going to be me. I was aggressive as a kid.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:16):
Aggressive how?

Morris Goldfarb (00:12:19):
I worked in a coffee shop. I worked in a shoe store. I was not a laid back young guy. And as I got older, I [00:12:30] did have an interest in going into his business. Holidays and every family gathering the talk at the table was the leather factory. I had two uncles in the business and I had a father in the business. And what would they talk about at the dinner table? Their common customers. Their common suppliers, and this isn't bad.

David Segal (00:12:57):
So what was your first real impact on the business along [00:13:00] the way of all these transformations?

Morris Goldfarb (00:13:04):
My dad stepped aside very early. When I was 24 years old I was running the company and the first thing...

David Segal (00:13:10):
Why did he do that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:13:12):
Wanted to enjoy his life. He had every right to. Had all the money he wanted, all the money he needed, wanted to travel with my mother and enjoy life. And then kind of modified a little bit, and he did stay on board for almost [00:13:30] 20 years where we shared an office and he was an amazing teacher.

David Segal (00:13:37):
You probably got to know him in a different way.

Morris Goldfarb (00:13:40):
Yeah, absolutely. The fear and respect that I had for him as a kid evolved into something different. It was a different level of respect. It was more understanding of why...

Harley Finkelstein (00:13:54):
He was away.

Morris Goldfarb (00:13:55):
The firmness and his grasp of the family existed [00:14:00] and just understanding his choices.

David Segal (00:14:04):
But you're 24, you're selling to Petrie . Things are good.

Morris Goldfarb (00:14:07):
Things are good.

David Segal (00:14:09):
So what changes?

Morris Goldfarb (00:14:11):
I'm not going to sit back and run a moderate business that doesn't have a strategy of growing.

David Segal (00:14:19):
You're ambitious.

Morris Goldfarb (00:14:20):
I'm ambitious. So I made a bunch of friends, most of them [00:14:30] emanating in relationships through the leather business that were Wharton grads, that ran businesses in Minnesota, that had different investments and different sites for the future. I was a kid in the group. I was 10 years younger than my contemporaries in business, and they were selling, they were [00:15:00] buying. It wasn't necessarily the leather business. Turned out that's where it started. But I guess the biggest impact was the company called Bermans, which you probably have no reason to know, but it evolved into a company called Wilsons.

(00:15:25):
Bermans was owned by W.R. Grace. Wilson's was owned by [00:15:30] Melville, which today is CVS drug. One ran Bermans, one ran Wilsons, both from Minnesota. We became the best of friends and as both their businesses evolved into an import business because the creativity couldn't be serviced out of New York, Minnesota. I traveled with them pretty much as a consultant [00:16:00] in the early stages of development. And we opened factories. Either they were opened for Wilsons, Bermans or for myself starting out in South Korea. This is 1978, which is early for [inaudible 00:16:19].

David Segal (00:16:18):
So you're a consultant for them?

Morris Goldfarb (00:16:21):
Yes. I ran a factory. I knew what was required. And we were best friends.

David Segal (00:16:29):
And during the mandate, [00:16:30] you're like, "Hmm, maybe I'll open factories in South Korea too."

Morris Goldfarb (00:16:32):
Exactly. I came back later and we opened our own factories, our own offices.

David Segal (00:16:39):
What was the opportunity you saw there? Why South Korea? I mean, you're making at home, and things are going well.

Morris Goldfarb (00:16:46):
There are limitations in what you could create and what you could manage to create in talent. And in Southeast Asia, we'll use Korea, [00:17:00] South Korea was really the foundation. You had an eager population that needed employment, and you had trading companies like Samsung, San Kyung, Lucky Goldstar. You had eight trading companies that were sponsored by the government to generate cash and they didn't know how to say no. Their mission [00:17:30] in life was to develop Korea. And we were part of that. They were amazing partners. They helped fund our business. They helped produce. Not helped. They did produce pretty much all our needs. And eventually I closed the New York factory. That was my dad's heart and soul, quite honestly, the New York factory. And the people that worked for him were his [00:18:00] reason for going to work. Hated South Korea. Hated...

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:04):
How did he feel about that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:18:05):
Hated it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:05):
He hated it? He hated the idea?

Morris Goldfarb (00:18:07):
Hated the idea of importing. Just the evolution of that would be we would close the factory, we would put these people out of work, and it's not something that he sponsored. That was probably the only disagreement we ever had in business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:23):
Because you had a vision for where you can take this. I'm sure he appreciated the vision, but for him, I suspect the people working in the factory, they're [00:18:30] almost like a family to him.

Morris Goldfarb (00:18:31):
They were. And it took a while to bring an emerging country, and when I created a foothold in South Korea, I think it was 1984. It was early in their development, and there's a training period. Your quality's not developed yet. There are problems. And lucky for me, [00:19:00] every time a container came in, the first garment he grabbed was a problem garment. He's like, "I told you."

David Segal (00:19:07):
"It's crap." Like Dad, "There's 999 more [inaudible 00:19:10]." For all you know he called them up and said, "Make sure you put the defects in the front of the [inaudible 00:19:14]." So at this point...

Morris Goldfarb (00:19:15):
I'd roll my eyes the moment he walked over to a garment and said he's going to pick the one.

David Segal (00:19:19):
Totally. You're still making for your own brand, for Petrie Stores or at this point you've started to...

Morris Goldfarb (00:19:24):
We went beyond that, the Petrie cycle. They were an incredibly important [00:19:30] account through their existence. I think they shut down in maybe 1991, '92, '95 actually. Pretty much it was a era where everything in specialty retail faded away and Petrie Stores finally shut its doors.

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:48):
So at this point, where do you shift? I mean, it's 1984.

Morris Goldfarb (00:19:50):
We were everywhere.

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:51):
Okay, so you're producing for anyone that needs production?

Morris Goldfarb (00:19:53):
Yes. I now had significant production. I took our company public in 1989.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:00):
[00:20:00] Why'd you do that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:20:03):
My two buddies in Minnesota and myself, we would create in those days what was called the blind pool, which is today's SPAC. So the first blind pool was called Anti Corp. Anti because the senior partner, one of the country's biggest gamblers, started the World Poker Tour, opened casinos, [00:20:30] the leather guy from Bermans. And so we named it Anti-one. Anti Corp was running out of time. Either we had to distribute the cash or invest, and the decision was to fold G-III into Anti-Corp. So we backed into a blind pool to become public and six months later we did an offering [00:21:00] with Oppenheimer. We were a nice sized company. By that time we were almost $100,000,000 company doing no longer women's leather jackets, our claim to fame. When we went public, was the Top Gun jacket, that brown aviator jacket with an app lining and the patches. So 90% of our business was one jacket.

David Segal (00:21:27):
One skew.

Morris Goldfarb (00:21:28):
One skew, four sizes, [00:21:30] one color.

David Segal (00:21:30):
That must have kept you up at night a little bit.

Morris Goldfarb (00:21:32):
It kept me up at night when I did a roadshow throughout the world trying to market the company. I said, "Somebody out there is going to be smart enough to say "What percentage of your business is that jacket?"" Nobody ever asked.

David Segal (00:21:45):
Your competitive advantage at this point is that you were early on in offshore manufacturing, right? So you'll make anything for anyone at this point. You just need to use the factory.

Morris Goldfarb (00:21:55):
Don't make me that callous.

David Segal (00:21:56):
Not callous.

Morris Goldfarb (00:21:57):
There is an art to this.

David Segal (00:21:59):
It's smart, of course.

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:00):
[00:22:00] Considering now you're sort of the king of brands. There's no brands at this point.

Morris Goldfarb (00:22:05):
No brands.

David Segal (00:22:06):
Right.

Morris Goldfarb (00:22:06):
What we did is we utilized G-III for Bloomingdale's as well as JCPenney. And if there was a truck stop that was carrying leather jackets, I would sell the truck stop. I was not protecting a brand. I was generating income. And the tougher business got, the broader distribution [00:22:30] had to be. And at one point I destroyed the brand. We were done shipping G-III. It was nothing I could do to save it. So we sat as, call it a steering committee, and said, "Well, what do we do now?" The bomber jacket is gone. We've destroyed it. We've brought it down to the lowest possible denominator in quality. [00:23:00] So that's done.

(00:23:03):
In 1995, the bulk of our accounts went into bankruptcy. Some unique reason, some COVID hit this entire sector. So it was Petrie Stores, Edison Brothers, Merry Go Round, the Lerner Shops, a bunch of the limited divisions. They all went out in 1995. And that was my world. We did not have a department store business. [00:23:30] We did not really have a Walmart business. So we sat and said, "Okay, what do we do now?" So we said, "We know how to produce, we know how to source. We have an amazing overseas structure." So we said, "There's some brands out there that are doing a nice job. Maybe we ought to start licensing." And there was no Jamie Salter, there was no IP entity.

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:00):
[00:24:00] They were all owned. They were all owned by the actual...

Morris Goldfarb (00:24:02):
By the actual...

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:03):
Tommy Hilfiger owned Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren... Yeah, right.

Morris Goldfarb (00:24:07):
But the early stage of licensing was beginning. So we chose three brands. We chose Nine West, which was privately held. It was owned by Vince Camuto. Kenneth Cole, at the time privately held. And then Kenneth might not have been privately held at that time. And Cole Haan. And we [00:24:30] took Cole Haan for Sachs, Bergdorfs. Not Bergdorfs, Saks, Niemans, Nordstroms and Bloomingdale's.

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:40):
When you say you took them, meaning you got exclusivity for those retailers or you had the license for those retailers?

Morris Goldfarb (00:24:46):
It was their early stage and we co-created what the distribution should be. Their footwear sat in those stores. So we chose Cole Haan for the top tier. [00:25:00] Nine West went to, at the time, there was May Company before it was acquired by Macy's. So Nine West was for May Company and its universe of retailers. And Macy's became Kenneth Cole. So we had three brands, three separate management teams running the brand. What I did not want is the brands to look homogenous because in some cases they sit [00:25:30] on the same floor, sitting next to each other. And you really want a different personality.

David Segal (00:25:34):
When you say, "We chose," this is coming off the heels of losing 90% of your revenue, right?

Morris Goldfarb (00:25:40):
We went from a $300,000,000 business to 120.

David Segal (00:25:44):
Almost overnight.

Morris Goldfarb (00:25:45):
Literally overnight.

David Segal (00:25:46):
Were you at risk of going bankrupt?

Morris Goldfarb (00:25:48):
No. We had virtually no debt. We did have a bank group that was accustomed to a pay down of our debt annually [00:26:00] and staying clean for 90 days. So that didn't happen that year. I guess you'd say we were in default of the loan, which was not a very big loan. And one of the trading companies in Korea basically stepped up unsolicited, SK Global and underwrote a loan for $25,000,000 [00:26:30] in 1994, 95 money that was...

Harley Finkelstein (00:26:34):
That was a lot of money.

David Segal (00:26:35):
They called you to do it, right?

Harley Finkelstein (00:26:37):
Yeah. Well, they didn't want you to leave their factories. They wanted you to continue producing.

Morris Goldfarb (00:26:41):
We developed a close relationship. The founder's son was just a great friend and there was no shortage of money at SK Global. And they just said, as long as I was a CEO that...

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:00):
[00:27:00] They would give it to you.

Morris Goldfarb (00:27:02):
They would give it to the bank.

David Segal (00:27:02):
Morris, my history is in a family business and I watched them all stop talking to each other, which is not uncommon in Jewish family businesses. You guys have managed to keep this going and thrived. What are some of the challenges of running a family business? How have you done that?

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:17):
So this Big Shot thing is super fun. We're having a great time. People are loving it. It's a little expensive. Just to say it. At the end of the day, we are...

David Segal (00:27:27):
I'm glad you said it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:28):
We're still stingy Jews here. [00:27:30] It's really quite expensive. And you and I are funding this whole thing ourselves.

David Segal (00:27:33):
It's not cheap.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:34):
I think at the very least, we should at least promote our tea business.

David Segal (00:27:38):
You all see the production quality.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:40):
The production quality is incredible. We have an amazing staff, tons of producers, and it's a little expensive.

David Segal (00:27:46):
Yeah. So I'm obsessed with tea. I built DavidsTea. I left many years ago, and Harley actually encouraged me...

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:52):
I can't believe we're doing this. This is perfect.

David Segal (00:27:53):
We're doing this because we have great tea, but we got to pay for Big Shot.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:59):
Perfect.

David Segal (00:27:59):
So [00:28:00] Harley got me back into tea. I would curate these green tea collections for you, having trouble sleeping in the evenings. I'm like, "Oh, you got to switch coffee. You don't need 10 coffees a day."

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:08):
I mean, if we're going to tell the story, let's tell the story. I had been drinking so much during the pandemic. I was by myself, obviously like the rest of us were. And I was drinking a ton of coffee and my anxiety was peaking. And actually, you had said you should switch off of coffee in the afternoon and move to really high quality green tea.

David Segal (00:28:24):
The caffeine and green tea interacts differently. You don't get the big spike in crash.

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:28):
It's like a calm alertness on this, right?

David Segal (00:28:29):
[inaudible 00:28:29] calm [00:28:30] alertness and green tea's amazing, really high quality green tea. And then...

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:33):
But frankly like most people, I had never had high quality green tea. Most of the tea that I had consumed in my life, it was in a gift... I'd give a talk somewhere and they'd give me a gift box or some sort of gift package and there would be some random tea bags in there. But I had never actually had really high end green tea. So you very kindly started curating this box of incredibly high-end amazing green tea. And you also began to jerry rig these accessories [00:29:00] for me. You'd say, "Drop it in here for three minutes and then take it out. Make sure it's not steaming." And you just created this incredible tea setup for me. In fact, you know this, but next to my home office, I now have a little tea area that you actually created for me. But green tea in particular, and having you curate this tea for me was this incredible new element of my life because it allowed me to stay really energized, really focused in the afternoon without having any issue with sleeping.

David Segal (00:29:24):
And that was the inspiration for Firebelly. Finally, you were like, "Let's do it. I'll be your partner." So we started Firebelly Tea. [00:29:30] Most people want to take a tea bag and dunk it in the water. And the reality is there's this rich experience you can get with tea where you take the time to make it properly. Whether it's green tea, black tea, oolong tea, herbal teas. We're doing something special with Firebelly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:29:43):
Yeah. So Firebelly is the best tea. And actually you got a chance to design every single accessory yourself.

David Segal (00:29:50):
Absolutely.

Harley Finkelstein (00:29:50):
You went ahead and figured out, "This is the best tea cup. This is the best strainer for it. This is the best whisk in terms of how to make great matcha." But this is the best tea and the best tea [00:30:00] products ever. And please buy our tea. We need a way to pay for more Big Shot episodes. We don't need your money, but we would appreciate you buying some amazing green tea from firebellytea.com. It is not just a pitch, it is also the greatest tea ever. And it would make us really happy.

David Segal (00:30:17):
If you don't like it, we'll give you your money back.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:19):
No, no, we're not doing that. We're not giving their money back. We're keeping your money.

David Segal (00:30:21):
You're going to love it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:22):
But you're going to love it.

David Segal (00:30:22):
You're going to love it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:23):
All of a sudden you're such a big shot, you're giving people's money back. Don't give the money back.

David Segal (00:30:27):
You'll give it as a gift. It makes a great gift.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:28):
It's a great gift. It's great [00:30:30] tea. It's great accessories. You actually will really, really love it and allow us to pay for more of these Big Shot episodes. So that's our pitch. And all of you must be laughing wherever you're sitting right now watching this. We don't care. We have...

David Segal (00:30:43):
We actually know tea well though.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:44):
We also know e-commerce well too.

David Segal (00:30:46):
Yeah, true.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:46):
So we know e-commerce, we know tea, Firebelly Tea. Go buy some. Help us pay for more Big Shot episodes. So I know our audience, I know [inaudible 00:30:55]. They're going to say, "Yeah, we love your tea. We want to buy from you. We want to support Big Shot. Is [00:31:00] there a coupon code? I'm going to get my aunt," or "Someone in my family's going to call me and be like, "I love the tea. It's really great. Can I get a discount?"" So is there a code we can give them?

David Segal (00:31:10):
BigShot15.

Harley Finkelstein (00:31:10):
BigShot15. Okay.

David Segal (00:31:11):
BigShot15.

Harley Finkelstein (00:31:12):
Use code BigShot15 for 15% off our tea and tea accessories. And if you don't like the tea, and you don't like the accessories, David will give you your money back. I will not. He will. That's it.

David Segal (00:31:22):
I'll give you your money back. I got you.

Harley Finkelstein (00:31:24):
All right. I won't.

Morris Goldfarb (00:31:28):
It's not a family business any longer. It's [00:31:30] a publicly held company and I own barely 10% of the company. It's not... But it is run as if it was a privately held company. I walked around today with a potential new client, very interesting meeting throughout. Everywhere we stopped, we have 30 floors in the building and we didn't go to 30 [00:32:00] floors. Let's say we went to six. You'd randomly stop somebody and say, "How long are you working here?" And they'd say, "20 years. 25 years. 45 years." And that's the difference.

David Segal (00:32:12):
You guys viewed the family as everyone.

Morris Goldfarb (00:32:14):
The family is really everyone. The tenure of our leadership is... I don't think there's a company like it. This is an industry that people leave for a [00:32:30] small raise. And I understand that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:32:34):
There's a loyalty that's different at G-III.

Morris Goldfarb (00:32:36):
I think so

David Segal (00:32:37):
Did your dad, when you came in, treat you as one of the rest of the extended family, meaning the employees who had been there a long 10 or...

Harley Finkelstein (00:32:45):
Well, it sounds like there was no nepotism with your dad.

Morris Goldfarb (00:32:48):
I made sure there wasn't. I didn't commute with him. I came [inaudible 00:32:54].

David Segal (00:32:54):
That was important to you. Interesting.

Morris Goldfarb (00:32:55):
It was important to me. I didn't want to be [00:33:00] given a salary. I wanted to earn it and I was creative on how I earned it. I'd pick up leather scraps. I made a deal with my dad and his partner when I first came in. I saw these scraps on the floor that you can make key chains out of them and said, "What do you do with that?" Dad said, "Well, you throw it out." I said, "Well, why don't you sell it to the findings guy?" He said, "Because the guy that's going to pick it up is going to throw his skin in there and we're going to lose more on shrinkage than it's worth." I said, "Do you trust [00:33:30] me?" He said, "Yes." I said, "I'll do it." And so I picked up income through throwing out debris. I was creative on how I earned it and I made sure that I earned it. As early as my dad came in, I came in a half hour before. If he left at four o'clock and asked me if I wanted a ride...

Harley Finkelstein (00:33:56):
"I got work to do. I'm staying here."

Morris Goldfarb (00:33:57):
"I'm staying here."

Harley Finkelstein (00:33:59):
Yeah. So how do you go [00:34:00] then from Nine West and Kenneth Cole where you're licensing these deals to actually owning companies? You own Karl Lagerfeld, you own DKNY and Donna Karan. How does that transition happen?

Morris Goldfarb (00:34:13):
So it happens with adding complexity to your life. Every step you make necessitates another step. So we made a few acquisitions. One of the better ones, the [00:34:30] best one we made, was a company that had the rights to Calvin Klein coats, women's coats with a potential license for men's coats. So when we acquired that, we began to build a relationship. The guy that owned that company had a relationship with PVH and...

Harley Finkelstein (00:34:53):
Huge conglomerate. A massive company.

Morris Goldfarb (00:34:55):
Very significant conglomerate doing nothing in the women's business. We [00:35:00] created the women's business for Calvin Klein. It was a men's brand. So as we developed the coat business, we said, "You know what? We're still postured as a seasonal business." Every meeting with an investor is, "Well, what do you do the other nine months? Well, we take modified risks, we cut inventory, we do stuff, [00:35:30] but we don't generate very much on the sales side." So we went to PVH and asked for several categories.

(00:35:38):
They were kind enough to give it to us. We succeeded and the rest is kind of history. And as we succeeded with Calvin Klein and said, "Well, let's take the template that we created for the coat business, which was multiple licenses addressing multiple retailers and create the same thing on [00:36:00] the dress side of the business, suit separates, athleisure and denim." So we created multiple brands through licenses for multiple categories. Your question relates to acquisitions, as a balance sheet got better. And we had a meeting, the future of our company, G-III [00:36:30] appeared to be a sale of the company to PVH. We were the women's side. We had great relationships with management, pretty much the [inaudible 00:36:40].

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:39):
And they already owned the men's side. So adding you makes a lot of sense.

David Segal (00:36:42):
Right. [inaudible 00:36:43].

Morris Goldfarb (00:36:42):
And we had conversations that... They were much bigger. There was a trust factor. We had meetings that related to the merger of our company and to theirs. And one of the meetings, their CEO says, "Morris, [00:37:00] the value of our brand is equal to your earnings. Our brand in your portfolio is worth a half a billion dollars. You got to give us credit for that if we've got to buy you." He says, "Basically, Morris, you don't have any chips." So I went home and I said, "Got to get some chips." So we got in touch with LVMH, built [00:37:30] a nice relationship with them. And on a second effort, first effort failed, and second effort, we bought DKNY and Donna Karan from them. And they don't typically sell assets.

Harley Finkelstein (00:37:47):
They'd never sell assets.

Morris Goldfarb (00:37:49):
Bernard Arnault agreed to sell me the company and then Karl Lagerfeld, we tried to buy the entire [00:38:00] company. We succeeded in buying 50% of North America and 20% of the globe. And a year and a half ago we bought the rest of what was left of it.

David Segal (00:38:15):
Just so we understand this, up until this point, your model, your secret sauce is when we say licensing, you would come in, whether it's Levi's or Guess or Calvin Klein or whoever, and you're like, "Look, you keep your brand. We're specialists in coats," or "We're specialists in shirts," [00:38:30] or whatever segment you're in, "We're going to make for you. We're going to design with you. We're going to make the stuff, and then we're also going to handle the relationship with the retailer and we're going to do it upmarket and down market." Do I have it right?

Morris Goldfarb (00:38:42):
Sort of in modified form. Basically, we were good enough where we didn't need guidance as to what to design. We didn't need governance on quality.

David Segal (00:38:53):
So Calvin Klein's not designing at a certain point for Calvin Klein?

Morris Goldfarb (00:38:56):
Never designed. Never. We're self-sufficient. [00:39:00] The account relationships are ours.

David Segal (00:39:02):
So what do they do?

Morris Goldfarb (00:39:04):
They collect a royalty. They collect a royalty [inaudible 00:39:08].

David Segal (00:39:07):
Nice to have chips.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:09):
Well, nice to own the brand. Which is why actually I think when you talk about Karl Lagerfeld for example, or DKNY or Donna Karan, you owning it means you own the chips yourself.

Morris Goldfarb (00:39:17):
And we collect the revenue for licenses and fragrance and eyewear. Which is what we're doing.

David Segal (00:39:23):
How did they figure out though? Because presumably at some point they did everything you were doing. Who figured out, "Hey, we don't have to do any work anymore. We can just have [00:39:30] somebody else come in, do all the work, and we're just going to collect a check"?

Morris Goldfarb (00:39:33):
Well, the inverse has just happened. We've done this for 20 years and built the largest women's apparel brand in the department store sector with Calvin Klein. New CEO comes in and says, "Hey, we can do that." They can't, but they chose not to renew our license. So we're not going forward with Calvin Klein.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:58):
They're doing it themselves?

Morris Goldfarb (00:39:59):
They're doing it themselves.

David Segal (00:40:00):
[00:40:00] They're bringing it all back in-house?

Morris Goldfarb (00:40:01):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:02):
Now, what they likely will realize is that designing for women's is different than men's. They're going to realize that selling to retailers is a completely different thing than selling direct. What do you think about this whole idea of direct to consumer as a business model? Because one of the things also that's happened in the last 15 years is that in many ways the internet, and I'm a part of this, what I spend a lot of time thinking about, is sort of democratized distribution. How do you think about that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:40:30):
[00:40:30] The problem with that is if you control your own destiny, and you're not Amazon, Amazon is a large customer, so is Zalando, so is Macy's Digital, so-and-so is.

David Segal (00:40:51):
Not as licensing agreements just you'll make for them?

Morris Goldfarb (00:40:55):
We will sell to them. We make for ourselves.

David Segal (00:40:56):
Oh, you sell to them. Oh, I see.

Morris Goldfarb (00:40:58):
We will sell our product and [00:41:00] our brands to them. And it's a large business with pretty much every one of them. The department store business, Macy's business, at one time was about 35% of total sales to Macy's because they're digital. And it's a large business that when a consumer gets online and something is promoted, if you're a pure play, [00:41:30] you're not a brand that permits just spontaneous marketing to move product, you're kind of okay. But if you're a flash sale or your prices change on a given Monday, your consumer loses a little bit of credibility and...

Harley Finkelstein (00:41:54):
And the brand then changes.

Morris Goldfarb (00:41:55):
The brand begins to change. So we're a little bit cautious of it. [00:42:00] We're becoming a little bit more. When you license a brand, you're a little bit less concerned about what the ultimate damage is to the brand as long as you've got...

David Segal (00:42:14):
You don't own the brand.

Morris Goldfarb (00:42:15):
Don't own it.

David Segal (00:42:17):
You own the inventory.

Morris Goldfarb (00:42:18):
I guess your born child might be a little bit more valuable to you than the adopted one.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:24):
If you look across all your portfolio brands or dozens of them, [00:42:30] would you prefer to own most of them if you could or in some cases the licensing?

Morris Goldfarb (00:42:36):
Some cases we're pretty much where we fit. We own some great stuff. We own a swim brand that you probably wear. Vilebrequin is awesome.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:46):
My favorite.

Morris Goldfarb (00:42:46):
There you go.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:48):
I liked on your website, by the way, there's a toggle, license are owned and stuff. And so it's a really interesting way to sort of see the business model.

Morris Goldfarb (00:42:55):
So the values that you're given on Wall Street [00:43:00] for ownership are different. The multiple you trade at is different than if you license. So we're seeing a little bit of that. We are not getting the full benefit because we're going through a transition with PVH, but as soon as everything stabilizes, I think we're on the road to becoming a different company.

David Segal (00:43:20):
It must be a big part of your business. I believe you produce for all the sports leagues, the main ones, plus 150 colleges. How'd you get that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:43:30):
[00:43:30] Do you know who Carl Banks is? Carl, he was a football player. He played for the Giants. Incredibly talented athlete. He's got three Super Bowl rings, one of which I have. He was granted in the 80s, the leagues would look out [00:44:00] for their athletes. So after you get your head beat in for six or eight years, it kind of gave you the opportunity to license a category and create income for yourself.

David Segal (00:44:15):
So Carl...

Harley Finkelstein (00:44:16):
For your own jersey or for the league?

Morris Goldfarb (00:44:18):
No, for a category within a league. So Carl had big and tall men's leather jackets. So where'd he go to try to get a partner to do a leather jacket?

David Segal (00:44:29):
You go to Morris.

Morris Goldfarb (00:44:30):
[00:44:30] He comes to us. So in 1985, Carl came to me with his agent. This is a classic story. I love this story. He came with his agent and his lawyer and thought he had a pot of gold. We sat for a little while. We were a small company. I think we were a $20,000,000 company in 1984 or '85. And I told Carl, "If you ever want to do a deal, get rid of the agent, get rid of the lawyer [00:45:00] and come up, we'll have a cup of coffee." Which is exactly what he did two weeks later. And on a handshake, we took on the challenge of doing big and tall men's leather jackets. Carl made a percentage deal with me. And for the better part of a decade, I don't think he made any money.

Harley Finkelstein (00:45:22):
Why's that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:45:23):
We weren't doing any business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:45:24):
Oh, you weren't selling anything.

Morris Goldfarb (00:45:26):
And Carl built the business to [00:45:30] a sizable business by getting more categories in all the leagues.

David Segal (00:45:36):
This is after the first decade of making nothing. He finally starts to...

Morris Goldfarb (00:45:39):
We started to make money I guess. Maybe it wasn't a decade, maybe it was a half a decade. Maybe it was five or six years. And we've been doing this since the mid-80s.

Harley Finkelstein (00:45:53):
And he's still your partner in that [inaudible 00:45:56]?

Morris Goldfarb (00:45:56):
He gets a percentage of the sales. He's there [00:46:00] every day. He drives the business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:46:02):
I asked a mutual friend of ours, Jamie Salter, just before the interview, "Tell me about Morris." You've worked with Jamie for a while. Jamie says he really admires you and looks up to you as a friend and role model, mentor. But when I asked him about business, he immediately said, "Well, that's interesting. But what's more interesting is Morris's relationship with his wife and his children and his grandchildren." You [00:46:30] don't have to say this, but I'll say this. I mean, you are a business titan. You built this empire of a company and you keep building.

(00:46:37):
For me to ask one of your business associates about you in business, and for them to say immediately, "Well, wait a second. He's great at business, but what you really should ask him about is his relationships with his wife and his children, his grandchildren." It's kind of unbelievable. And one of the themes that we are picking up from this Big Shot project is behind all these big shots is someone in their life, a support system with family that allows them to [00:47:00] operate at this incredible level of execution. How do you think about balancing all these things, your family, being a great parent, great-grandparent, how does that work for you? It's very difficult.

Morris Goldfarb (00:47:14):
My immediate family, absolutely great. It's not all of what it appears to be. My brother and I are on different planets. My children, my wife, different. [00:47:30] We're closely bound. My son has an office next door to me. He's worked with me for almost 23 years. And there's a mutual respect. There's no favoritism. You asked me how my father treated me. Was there nepotism? You can't help but have nepotism. But [00:48:00] my son is treated the same way. My son went to law school, I forced it. His first job in the company was the shipping department. He was the smartest guy in the shipping department. He knew how to pack a box like nobody. His next job was going overseas and understanding the import side of what we do. The next job was running a women's suit division for Calvin Klein.

(00:48:27):
So he learned pretty much [00:48:30] the same way I did. He probably had it tougher than I did because as a small company, you get a grasp of all the small pieces easily. As a larger company it becomes more complex. But there's a mutual respect between my kids and myself. My daughter's got a beautiful life in Miami with a successful husband and great kids. And Jeff, I know what he does. I see him [00:49:00] every day and has built a beautiful family. And my wife, I guess is...

Harley Finkelstein (00:49:07):
You're married for 50 years, you said?

Morris Goldfarb (00:49:09):
52 years, it'll be this year. And five years of dating before we got married. So it's been a lifetime and it's a good lifetime. It's an amazing story. We have multiple homes. We travel as a family. [00:49:30] We have a home in the Caribbean that our children come to religiously during Christmas, New Year's and use it whenever they want.

Harley Finkelstein (00:49:40):
Love that.

David Segal (00:49:42):
You work with your son. How do you find that separation between your son, your partner in the business, your colleague, your report in some cases, versus your son, your son? How do you sort of balance those two?

Morris Goldfarb (00:49:59):
I'm not [00:50:00] sure it's an intentional balance, but there's an evolution that we understand where we are on the given problem or the given situation. But one doesn't bleed into the other. I think we're both cautious of that and...

David Segal (00:50:19):
Of the relationship?

Morris Goldfarb (00:50:20):
The separation of what's important in family and what's important in business. So there's [00:50:30] a good balance. I think we both handle it pretty well. Again, it's 23 years.

David Segal (00:50:38):
You figured it out.

Harley Finkelstein (00:50:39):
You've been at it for a while.

Morris Goldfarb (00:50:40):
Yeah, we've been doing it a while. And I guess growing up in a family business taught me some.

Harley Finkelstein (00:50:45):
I'm curious also about how you feel like brands are evolving? It feels like today, if you don't necessarily have a strong brand attached to that garment, that piece of clothing, that jacket, the pair of sneakers, it doesn't really matter as [00:51:00] much. You're not really going to be able to sell it in a way that you want to.

Morris Goldfarb (00:51:04):
You're not able to sell it?

Harley Finkelstein (00:51:05):
Yeah.

Morris Goldfarb (00:51:06):
Different.

Harley Finkelstein (00:51:08):
Has that changed?

Morris Goldfarb (00:51:09):
There's a hunt by retailers to find unique brands that speak differently to the consumer. We're bulk sales. We're not going to do well in a small boutique brand. You need [00:51:30] high margin. You need unique customers to be able to sell it. We sell well-designed, good quality product at just an amazing price. If you're looking for emerging brands, we're kind of the wrong place to go. We respect them. We like to breed them. In most cases, we don't succeed with them. We have a couple in [00:52:00] our portfolio.

David Segal (00:52:01):
So you do try to create them from scratch?

Morris Goldfarb (00:52:02):
Sure, we do. It's hard work. It's easier lifting when you have a broad audience. You have a customer that has 500 doors that wants to support your brand versus a little boutique in Atlanta that loves your product and is going to be loyal to it and buy 24 pieces through the course of the year.

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:29):
Because you're in the scale business. [00:52:30] It's very difficult to do that. This is to finish up here. I want to ask a little bit about one of the themes that comes up across all the interviews. There's two things I actually want to ask. One is, when did you know that you made it?

Morris Goldfarb (00:52:44):
When I made it?

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:45):
Yeah. The second is what chutzpah means to you. Let's start with the first one.

Morris Goldfarb (00:52:52):
So I think I knew when I made it when we developed the aviator jacket in [00:53:00] late 80s into the 90s, with the period of time that we took our company public, I got rid of all our debt and I had enough money to choose my preferences and live a lifestyle that I dreamt of living. And my wife and I, [00:53:30] we have a good life. We've always had a good life. But I think that period of time was "Okay, now what?" And I chose to continue to develop it. There was an open invitation. We hadn't maxed out on our talent, our capital. At that period of time, I was making a [00:54:00] significant amount of outside investments, which I guess secured my feeling that I didn't have a high dependency on the schmatta business or the aviated jacket. Didn't know that I would develop a conglomerate of an apparel company.

David Segal (00:54:19):
And what does chutzpah mean to you Morris?

Morris Goldfarb (00:54:21):
Chutzpah is basically having the nerve to do what you believe is the right thing to do. [00:54:30] And not being persecuted by a demand or a hard request from somebody that is a must do. Stand up for what you believe.

David Segal (00:54:51):
That's great. One last thing, Sadaka, giving back is such a central theme in the Jewish culture. How do you think about philanthropy?

Morris Goldfarb (00:55:00):
[00:55:00] It's important to us. Historically, Arlene, my wife, has been very active in Jewish causes. And the first thing we did when we took our company public and I had a little bit of money, is a dedicated fund that gave our community synagogue an annual trip to the Holocaust Museum [00:55:30] every graduating class could absolutely go on. And we're private about our givings.

Harley Finkelstein (00:55:41):
Why is that? Why is that important? Just your style?

Morris Goldfarb (00:55:44):
Just our style. We just finished a mission in Poland. My wife and I found [00:56:00] the Jewish cemetery in my dad's hometown about 10 years ago. By coincidence we happened to go visit Poland for the first time about 10 years ago. And it was the week that they were excavating. The community was excavating for a residential building and they found human remains. They realized they were in a Jewish cemetery. [00:56:30] And we went to the mayor's office and we wanted more details. And we found that my grandmother was buried in that cemetery before the war. I thought, "This is great news. I can call my dad." And my dad was alive. So this had to be 12, 13 years ago, more than 10 years ago. And my dad said, "No, I don't want you to do that."

David Segal (00:57:00):
[00:57:00] Why?

Morris Goldfarb (00:57:01):
"I have no good memories of Poland."

Harley Finkelstein (00:57:02):
He wanted to forget that life.

Morris Goldfarb (00:57:05):
"Do it in Israel." And my wife and I have a different pocket for Israel that would have nothing to do with what we would do in Poland. And I respected his desire. And on his deathbed, I didn't do anything, but I knew I would after he would pass. I had to, because if I didn't do it was gone. It was marked [00:57:30] out of history. Nobody would ever go back and do this. And on his deathbed, I told him that the family was doing this and he gave me his best wishes and said, "It's okay. I understand." Which was great. So this year we finally finished it and we dedicated in this little community of five or 6,000 people in Poland.

(00:57:58):
And we [00:58:00] recognized a family that had hidden eight of my family members for two years. They're in Yad Vashem. They happen to be in Yad Vashem. And then we're creating a fund right now internally that will give scholarships to children [00:58:30] in that community that want to go to a fashion school and we'll give them a job post-graduation for a year. And then they have to go back to Poland. And the reason was, you look at one survivor who lived in that community and because he survived there about maybe 200,000 people [00:59:00] in a world that have work. And we want to send that message back to that community.

David Segal (00:59:08):
And that survivor's your dad?

Morris Goldfarb (00:59:10):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:59:10):
That's so powerful.

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:12):
Why do you think Jews have become entrepreneurs at the rate that we have been? We are disproportionately entrepreneurial, we are disproportionately in business relative to, again, 15,000,000 Jews.

David Segal (00:59:26):
The amount of us.

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:26):
Tiny, tiny, tiny group of humans on the planet. [00:59:30] Yet the connection with entrepreneurship is so obvious. Why is that?

Morris Goldfarb (00:59:36):
I guess it goes well beyond our existence. Well before. Whether it's the Rothschild's that loaned money and traded, or just the farmer that brought his crops to market or... [01:00:00] Not sure its existence. One can't say that entrepreneurs almost sounds a little bit like schmattas, but you can go so much broader and hit the intellectuals of the world.

David Segal (01:00:18):
Medicine.

Harley Finkelstein (01:00:19):
25% of Nobel Prize winners are Jews.

Morris Goldfarb (01:00:25):
We're well-balanced. We know how to survive and we know [01:00:30] how to think and we know how to contribute and we care about people. We care about humanity, its existence. And we're curious. We're a curious breed of people.

Harley Finkelstein (01:00:41):
It goes back to that one line in your dad's book, which is the survivor's instinct, which I think is so powerful. Morris, thank you for sitting down with us. This has been incredible.

Morris Goldfarb (01:00:52):
Thank you.

David Segal (01:00:52):
Morris, I have to tell you, Harley often says we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. And [01:01:00] we're entrepreneurs, but aspiring to do more and more.

Morris Goldfarb (01:01:03):
You guys have done amazing.

David Segal (01:01:05):
Without even knowing it, you've inspired us. I'm sure you're going to inspire so many people with this episode and we just want to say thank you.

Morris Goldfarb (01:01:10):
I love the fact that you guys are doing this. There is no financial gain. You're obviously incredibly busy. And taking the time to leave a piece of history, which some might deem important history behind is great.

David Segal (01:01:29):
We think it's critical [01:01:30] to archive stories like yours.

Morris Goldfarb (01:01:31):
That's great.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:32):
Thank you very much. Appreciate you.