The Operator
Execution, delivery and performance, gets the hard thing done.
Steve Madden is The Operator, a leader whose identity is inseparable from the mechanics of making and moving shoes. He started with a single clog, paid employees daily from a cash roll, and still visits Aventura stores personally to test product reactions. His creed, take care of the first and the money will come, rejects abstraction outright.
“So Argal was to make great shoes. And, you know, I think that that kind of like won out at the end of the day. The marketing wasn't super fantastic. It was just great shoes, great prices, great value. And I think that we just wore everybody out with that.”
“Let me just say that mistakes can be a very good thing. Know, so there were some mistakes that we made, but we did so many great things. And the thing about that is if you start getting gun shy, And start being afraid to make a mistake, you'll never have the brilliant ideas. You'll never have the big ideas.”
“He wasn't a great wrist taker, but he was a smart man. He was a businessman, but he never really made the big bucks because he was very safe, which in a way I admire him because he stayed in, it's easy to criticize people like that. Know, but he was always provided. We weren't right in the middle.”
“Yeah. And the thing about this guy was so interesting because he was a young man who was successful and creative. And I never saw that. Usually the people that I thought of as businessmen were like my father. They rode the railroad and they wore those long coats with the hats. Don Dra But anyway, Lance came along.”
Angie Martinez IRL: “Steve Madden: Overcoming Addiction & Building An Empire”
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