Nicolas Bijan: Founder of NB44 – Values, Responsibility, Respect, & the Discipline Behind Building a Modern Legacy

0:00Well, Nicholas, it's so nice to have you here. It's really cool to sit with a friend and someone I admire and someone whose story I find both inspiring and just so incredibly interesting to keep learning more about. I think you have lived a life that is inspiring to many, shocking to many and exciting to hear all about. So I really want to dive into it. Before that, though, I do want to introduce you. So first and foremost, you are a friend. but you are also the founder of your own brand, NB44, which you started after working with your father on the House of Bijan. I think there's an amazing story there of inheritance, an amazing story there of working with family, and also an incredible story of detaching and starting your own path.

0:51Thank you. These are all things I'd love to learn about. the house of bijan is known to be at one point the most expensive brand in the world that's a reputation you guys had right uh you dressed presidents from ronald reagan to george bush senior and the last five presidents in the united states i always saw house of bijan growing up as this incredible establishment and sort of rite of passage for a lot of the world's leadership. And it was something my father and grandfather actually spoke to me about in conversation alongside names like Laura Piana. But particularly with this U.S. power that would travel overseas and dress people overseas, which was a very rare thing.

1:43Sure. So a lot of brands that were in Italy and France that would dress people around the world, but very few American founded brands that would actually go to the Middle East and further. Sure. So I'd love to hear more about that and learn more about your journey. But thank you so much for being here. Well, I can't thank you enough. I mean, we are friends for sure. And, you know, watching what you've done in this rapidly evolving world that we live in has been even more inspiring than, you know, some of the things that you learn about in marketing classes in school and things like that. and getting to know you personally, having the pleasure to get to know you personally over the last however many years we've had the chance to see each other has been actually one of not only the more inspiring things about you, but also one of the coolest things about you.

2:42You are such a renaissance man, really. you are just so disarming and genuine and generous and I really enjoyed getting to know you and learning who you really are and I'm glad that this is a great venue for us to have chats so that people can see more about who not only I am but who you are and they're going to be pleasantly surprised if they don't already know you make me look short you make me look not so handsome and a little fat at times so um that part's not so great about our friendship but it's okay we're sitting down today so that's good yeah around the world with your host the start guy we welcome you back to the start guy podcast sharing stories of excellence with those in the know for those who just know anyways i think um i think it's really cool to be here to talk about um what i've been doing and what i'm doing because there's a lot to talk about and i've i've had an amazing life i've been very fortunate to have uh just amazing parents beautiful legacy um but also uh the support of some fantastic people um that they loved my dad they loved uh what he built they loved uh getting i i would hope they loved getting to know me and supporting me and I've been an amazing beneficiary of that.

4:17And now that I'm getting a bit older, I have two young kids of my own. It all kind of hits a little different. So I'm excited to talk to you more about it and thank you for having me. Please, thank you for being here and right back at you with all the incredible compliments. I really appreciate it. And thank you for this gift. Yeah, of course. Is it a good time to open it? Yeah, please. This is just something small. If I knew we were going to open it on camera, I would have got you something better. a great testament to kind of the quality that we're we're producing and I think you'll get some good use out of it but it's just a great a great hat and obviously gives me some good advertising to see see the shtad guy wearing it I love it so that's beautiful yeah don't ruin your hair though I won't ruin the hair I'll set it aside but I love it it's really beautiful yeah what a beautiful hat thank you so much thank you man thank you and you know what's interesting about that is that you can't buy that hat because nb44 which we'll talk more about which is the first of its kind is uh exclusively available to members of the brand it's the first of its kind it's a membership-based brand um and there's a whole list of reasons that we do it that way and we can talk about that but really what i've done is uh just build upon a amazing foundation of lessons that I learned from my father and how cool that it was like passed down from father to son and we've now got this new new generation and and and age of the digital world that we live in and it's been a fun project to and creative endeavor to launch and to grow and it's been really well received but I'm hoping that these kinds of experiences are what kind of differentiate us besides the clothing and all of that for sure for sure i mean all the people i was listing off earlier are customers of course but undeniably friends of yours friends of your father's and friends of the brands you've built yeah and that is not an art or a way of doing business but actually a way of being and a set of values you know and that is something i'd love to lean into more and understand more about how you were raised and what are the values that were of second nature to you growing up and are a part of your DNA today as a father, as a friend, as a business operator.

6:43I think everyone in this room and everyone who crosses paths with you, who crosses paths as you can immediately see that you have this incredible attention to detail about people, yeah about items about uh the the room that surrounds you yeah and i just know based on my experience with you that that's actually such a deep part of your dna and from the stories i've heard from you it sounds like it was also a deep part of your father's dna for sure for sure so if we can go back in time yeah yeah i'd love to learn more about those values that were yeah in your household that would transcend into the business?

7:26So I had a very unique upbringing. I was for sure, you know, very privileged. I can't say that I was, you know, growing up in a difficult way. My mom and my dad divorced when I was a very young man. I think I was like a baby. I don't I don't actually have any memories of them married. But my mom remarried to a very successful businessman who had billions and billions of dollars and, you know, dozens of companies and was a real force when it came to business. And I would spend weekdays with my mom and my stepfather. And then I would spend weekends with my father. and my father uh who you so beautifully described was of course an amazing fashion designer and very famous and well respected but he was an amazing father um you know he he used to make me call him every single day and if i didn't call him for one day i was in big trouble and i was scared to call him the next day because if i but it's you know it's almost getting worse because it was like compounding then if i didn't call him a second day it would be like maybe i'm i'm gonna get killed or something i don't know but the point is i never found out because i never let it get that far but he had this amazing presence in my life and he was you know he was uh i was his youngest kid uh he had two uh daughters my two sisters uh and and then i was the the last one i was the youngest one so i feel like sometimes when i look back at it i think he really used like me as like okay like this is my son we're gonna really it's gonna be it's gonna be there's gonna be a lot of tough love but there's gonna be a lot of lessons learned and even the last conversation I had with my father he passed away when I was a 19 year old kid um you know I was I was in college at the time I was going to Pepperdine University in Malibu which is not a bad place to be and I wanted to just visit him I just came to my mind when I was driving like let me go say hi to my dad so I drove to Beverly Hills to his famous store on on Rodeo Drive and I parked my car I went in to surprise him and usually as you can imagine based on what I just shared with you he was so surprised and happy to see his son but that day he was pissed and when he saw me he was like sit down I need to talk to you I said okay well I did something wrong he said you know Nicholas I came to this country with relatively little I worked very hard and look what I built you you were born with everything you live in the nicest house you drive the nicest car you wear the nicest watch you're a 19 year old 19 year old boy what are what are you going to do when you're 30?

10:25I've spoiled you. And his English was a little, it wasn't, he wasn't born here, right? He's originally from Iran. So his English was a little broken even after many, many, many years of being in the United States. So he wasn't saying it so eloquently, I guess. He was being a little more to the point. Which adds to your fear. Absolutely. And so I just apologized to him. I said, listen, dad, I don't know what I did. I'm very sorry if I did something wrong. I just came to surprise you and say hi to you. um i have to go i have to get back to school and like many iranian parents school is like the most important thing and uh he said no you have to sit down you have to listen to me so i said wow if i can't go back to school then i really did something wrong he walked out of the room and he came back with a jacket that he and i had designed because at that time i was working with him part-time um he and i had designed it in italy like six months before vicuna crocodile detailing a beautiful silk lining just a gorgeous jacket and he had this big smile on his face and he said this is your gift and those days you know that was back in 2011 um that jacket would have been probably like 50 to 60 000 dollars um and he was right i was very spoiled i had the best car the best watch, the best house.

11:46And I was 19 and I didn't do anything to deserve those things. But he wanted to give me this beautiful jacket at that price for his son. But he needed to give me at least 30 minutes of a tough lecture about the importance of not taking things for granted, treating people with respect, hard work, perspective of where he came from and what he had done. And anyways, he put it on me, gave me a big hug. You know, the sleeves were a little long. we had a master master tailor that worked at the store doing minor alterations at that time and you know he said he wasn't there that day he said do you want to wait till he comes back to fix the sleeve length I said yeah yeah let's wait he said yeah I agree you should and he gave me a big hug and and that was the last conversation I had with him he passed away about five hours after that he had a a brain aneurysm and and then they took him to to Cedars Sinai the hospital near Beverly Hills and you know the rest was then on my shoulders but from that point forward but what a beautiful conversation to have with him and it's a great metaphor for the way he raised me there was a lot of lessons there was a lot of tough love there was a lot of I never had a beer with my dad I never we never I never said the f word around him like there was a lot of strict love but it was with the best intentions and I was so lucky to have that conversation with him I still have that that same jacket that we designed together it's framed in a beautiful frame in my office I wore it for years uh and then I gained some weight so it didn't fit me anymore uh and then my wife framed it uh had it framed for me and gave it to me she went into my closet one day and took it had it framed and surprised me with it uh on I think father's day or something like that one year and so it's framed in my office and I tell a lot of people that story I showed it to you um and somebody actually was in my office the other day and they saw it and they were like i like that jacket they didn't know the whole story behind it right they just saw a framed jacket on the wall they said i like that jacket can i can i make a jacket like that i said listen first of all that jacket is one of one and we can't make it but if you want something that's something like that jacket we can sit down but we have to have a 30 minute conversation about hard work but um to answer your question you know i i was raised uh i was raised with a lot of discipline.

14:09I was very privileged, for sure. But I have to say it wasn't always easy. And losing your father as a teenager, 19, really shaped me and that moving forward. And it was a big defining factor. And one last thing I want to say on this is that the way my father treated people, the way that my father made people feel, that relationship that I'm talking about that I do and that I believe we should be building with people. The real beneficiary of that, the real person that really got to see the fruits of all of that kindness and generosity and genuine and passion was me. Because when he was no longer around, all those people cared deeply about my success.

14:53And they cared deeply about me personally and what I was doing, even as recently as when I opened this new brand. So now that I'm a dad, I really believe deeply in the fact of it's not about EBITDA, it's not about net profit, it's not about how much money you want to spend on customer acquisition. It's much deeper than that. And if you build a relationship that is of trust, respect, sincerity, passion, I would like to think that my children would be the beneficiary of that, not me, because that's what it's all about. For sure. I mean, that's beautiful.

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17:20I always talk about this letter that I got where it was so amazing. She used to be a journalist for the Huffington Post, and she's an Iranian-American journalist who came to America after the Iranian revolution. And she said to me, I came to America as an Iranian immigrant after the revolution. And at that time, It was a very taboo time to be from my country living in America because of the hostage crisis at the embassy. And, you know, I don't even know. I can't imagine I wasn't alive at that time. But apparently it was it was very taboo. And she she felt uncomfortable being in America as an Iranian with her Iranian name.

18:07And at that time, you saw a lot of Iranian immigrants in the U.S. changing their name from a Persian name to an American name to assimilate. And she said something to me. She said, I would see your dad on billboards smiling with this big smile ear to ear or with President Reagan with his very Persian name. and Bijan is a Persian name. And it gave us identity. It made us feel welcome.

18:39That's a pretty meaningful thing to read after you've lost your father. And how amazing, because also in addition to giving all these people a sense of comfort, he had really accomplished the American dream. He came to this country, it sounds super cliche, but he came to this country with an idea, a crazy idea saying i'm going to build the most expensive highest quality you know beautiful brand uh and you can't come in because it's by appointment only on rodeo drive uh and most people thought this guy's crazy he's going to be out of business in six months um but 50 plus years later it's a brand that's still synonymous with many fantastic things um you know knock on wood And the point is, is that, you know, he came here.

19:25He didn't change his name. He didn't hide the fact that he was an immigrant. He gave a lot of people comfort. And he started dressing presidents and Michael Jordan and Bo Derek and all these people. There's an ad where I'm a baby. I'm covering my eyes. And my dad's going like this. And Bo Derek has got her trench coat open. And I mean, he just had fun. He had fun. He was passionate about it. And he gave a lot of people a lot of inspiration, most of all me, but many other people. And he gave them a sense of belonging. And what an amazing legacy that is to leave behind. And I was honored from, in retrospect, from the minute that, you know, I felt that weight on my shoulders to be able to continue that.

20:13And, you know, maybe in some respects, it was a way of not dealing with losing your dad. but it worked out well and I feel closer to him than I ever did before especially now that I have two kids it's beautiful thank you so much for sharing those things you talk about the honor and privilege of hearing all these stories from others about your father and people showing you so much love because of the love they had for him I'd love to also if you're comfortable sharing learn more about what the pressure of that also looks like because not only were you the recipient of these amazing compliments to your father and to you and your family and to this amazing business, but you now had these incredible shoes to fill as the operator of this business.

21:03Yeah. And you've done an amazing job in hindsight, but I can't imagine that as a 19-year-old, that path seemed that simple. Yeah. um well thank you first of all for telling me i've done an amazing job um it was a bit of sink or swim you know like we've just got to keep going but um at the same time i think what i'm doing today is a real uh testament to to to that messaging and to what i what i kind of experienced i mean starting nb44 in when i turned 30 years old was kind of my own interpretation of what would make um not only my father proud but what would make me proud of myself and you know i remember uh hearing as a teenager 15 years old or 16 years old i remember i was in the car with my dad and you know he did tell me at one point you know look at where I started and look at what I built look at where you're starting look what you could build and that resonated with me for my entire life so what I've done now is a new chapter of my family's legacy in some way and I think it's my own creative expression and I really wanted it to stand apart from what he built too I wanted it to be its own thing and create something that's totally new for a new demographic, a new generation, a new customer.

22:39I think what the future holds for us with it is going to be really exciting because of all of this amazing foundation that not only I've learned and come from and had the pleasure and sometimes discomfort of experiencing, but also because of the passion and the real reason behind it you know it's it's the meaning is is kind of my interpretation of what i need to do as a next generation business person and it wasn't an easy thing you know walking away from my operational uh responsibilities within the family business uh was something that worried me but you know the brand has succeeded for 50 plus years and there's a lot of amazing people working there and I think it will continue to succeed without me being so proactively involved in the day-to-day and I care deeply for it and I will be there whenever it needs me but basically I focus on what's in front of me raising my children starting a business as a way to make my father proud as a way to make myself proud and it's been so far so good I'll go on wood I love that I mean, speaking of the beautiful family that you have and have raised and the beautiful wife and that side of your life.

23:59Yeah. A lot of my friends who are incredible founders like you often talk about delaying starting a family and getting married because they're like, I just need to focus on my work. and I have some friends who are who are young dads and who are married quite young alongside that and they tell me that it actually empowers them and that one of those friends is actually you yeah tell me everything changed when you started your family and yeah starting a business and starting a family at around the same time yeah is hindsight that was a little bit aggressive but I'd love to hear more about about those choices yeah I mean I mean first and foremost I have an amazing partner she's you know a childhood friend um shout out to roxy yeah roxy's great roxy is is uh the right partner for me um which is very important for people uh when they're considering you know what you're talking about and starting a family and opening that chapter of was she always the right partner for you because you were friends for she was always my friend yeah we were always friend uh very close friends a mutual friend of ours rob kardashian introduced us and he told me that she had a crush on me told her that I had a crush on her neither of which were true at the time um but well that's that's Rob and we love him for that um and I know you have a lot of mutual friends too some of them been on your show um but anyways the the point is is that uh that foundation of friendship that we had for some years allowed us to kind of uh you know really have a deeper bond and now in parenthood that that makes a big difference still challenging at times for sure um but yeah i i think it is an amazing decision if you have if you have the um right partner makes it a lot easier but it's not necessarily the only thing that you need um i tell a lot of people that uh you know in losing my parents or losing excuse me my father um children have been the only thing that have filled that void in my heart and they've not only filled it but completely uh gone beyond that and over it's overflowing with love for them and it does make everything worth it it makes the story i told you about me being the beneficiary of all my father's um friendships and genuine behavior and and and politeness and passion it makes all of that make sense you know of course there's a monetary uh motivation that goes behind that but when you know that you know one day i could not be here and my son nicholas jr is gonna you know basically be able to pursue his passions and his dreams and have the support of people um it makes you work a little harder um and and by the way they're a great stress reliever at times they're a great source of stress too but they're a great stress reliever at times because when you have a long day or you're going through it or it's difficult or something's not going the way you want it you know you can kind of just tune it out and just be with them um and so i love that and obviously uh there's a balance you have to do because we're responsible we have to be responsible parents and and and of course you know you can't be at work all the time and be away from them which is hard when you're starting a business which is why when you said you know starting a business and having kids at the same time is was was i thought it was a bit aggressive but luckily i had a great partner and roxy is definitely a uh an amazing partner and she's a she's a very strong girl she's she's only five feet tall but she somehow seems taller than you so big personality yeah that's all that matters yeah napoleon uh napoleon complex for sure for sure no no no yeah um axel's over there my axel's always with me he's uh basically my right hand and he's nodding his head when when you talk about the shared values that you and and roxy have you and your wife and those values that you are raising your kids with.

28:12I'd love to talk about those and what they mean to you and how many of those were developed by you and Roxy versus inherited maybe even by your parents and your father. Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question. First and foremost, I think mom knows best. So she's definitely the matriarch And she's done an amazing job because she's also a very busy and successful business person in her own right, which is helpful, too, for many reasons in our relationship personally. But we support each other because we want to be, you know, a united front in front of the kids. Her parents are married for, I think, 40 plus years.

28:56So that's amazing to see that. And I hope that, you know, my kids will have the same feeling one day about me and Roxy. Quite a bit of the way that I look at what I do with my children is emulating my own experience with my father for sure. but there were a lot of things about my dad that you know I look back at and I say maybe he was a bit too tough in those respects my kids are still young they're my daughter's three and my son's one and a half so there's time for me to kind of develop as a parent but you know I think I think having a good friendship of trust and not being you know too hard on your kids is important.

29:46You know, that story I told you about, I had to call my dad every single day. And if I didn't, I was scared to call him the next day, but it was almost getting worse because it was compounding. I think that was a bit intense. But, and I don't think, I think it was great because it built this foundation where I felt his constant presence, especially as a child of divorce, I didn't feel like any neglect or anything. But, But, you know, there was a generational gap. There was a cultural gap being, you know, I'm born here in America. He was born in Iran. And I'm excited for, you know, my journey as a parent with my kids, you know, being a young dad.

30:25At least I think I'm a young dad. And also being both, you know, the same cultural background. So we'll have to walk that balance. but um parenting is not an easy job uh i've only been a parent for three years and i can see that it's probably going to be the hardest thing i've ever done in my life um but it is definitely the most fulfilling for sure yeah you inherited tremendous responsibility when you were 19 yeah and that was a circumstance of the situation you you found yourself in yeah right then you chose tremendous responsibility when you were young and that's a clear choice and you're very proud of that choice and i'm wondering why why why did you feel the need to be a father at a young age um that's a great question i think losing my father at a young age had a big impact on that You know, I told you just voluntarily like a minute ago that I never had a beer with my dad.

31:35I was too young. I mean, of course, I lost him too early. But, you know, I think that had a big factor in wanting to have a kid and wanting to basically get married at a young age as well. The other thing is I had tremendous responsibility in my 20s. I wore a suit and tie every single day. I had a, you know, legacy that I was trying to not only uphold, but augment. And being out and chasing girls, which I did my fair share of that too, but, you know, that wasn't the priority. and I couldn't do what I needed to do emotionally with my father's business and my family's business and my journey as an entrepreneur and as a business person if I was focused on some of those things.

32:26So it was kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I was always kind of interested in settling down and being in a relationship and then obviously that takes its own course and then having the right partner and starting this journey of parenthood. To your point, you're never ready, in my opinion. But men, it's hard for us to get to that place mentally. And a lot of men, they want more. And I always thought I needed more to kind of have kids. Like, look at how I was raised. I can't do that for my kids. But what I didn't realize when I started my company and when I had my first child was that it actually pushed me and motivated me a lot in a way that I could have never imagined.

33:14So I tell a lot of my close friends, especially if I think they have the right partner, I say, don't wait. You're never going to feel ready. And it's going to be the best decision you ever made because of the joy, the responsibility, and the just meaning it adds to your life. That's beautiful. I admire family businesses that work because I think family is difficult just as family you know just having dinner with families is a challenge for most for sure so working with family is a whole other is a whole other ball game and working with family and making that successful is even is even crazier very difficult you know very difficult and I have to tell you I'm not sure if I hadn't gone through what I went through in terms of losing my father at such a young age if being in a family business would have been the right path for me it is very difficult and I can't even begin to explain what I mean by that and I see multi-generational businesses and it's just like wow that's fantastic you know that's really I take my hat off to them but also at the same time you do have some benefits in terms of like I have a vocational calling and I want to do this and I and this is something that I feel like I want to do I guess that's not always constant in everybody's journey to your point I did do it by choice I did want to join I did want to be a fashion designer I did want to join the family business I it actually became a great bonding experience for me as a teenager with my father I mean, but also, okay, let me just put it in perspective for you.

34:57I was a teenager, and my father was collaborating with Bugatti, designing Bugatti. Like, what teenage boy would not want to be like, I want to do that? And before that, just think, and by the way, my dad could be this strategic. I wouldn't put it past him, God rest his soul. Before that, when I was like in, I don't know, like probably nine or 10 or 11-year-old boy, He was doing Michael Jordan cologne with Michael Jordan at like the height of Jordan's career. So like, even back then, I was like, damn, I want to do that. So, you know, I think like if he was in finance or something, maybe it would have been a different story.

35:35But like as a young guy, like Michael Jordan, cool clothes, beautiful women, nice cars. You get to design things. You get to go to Italy. We manufacture all of our clothing now through so many generations by hand in Italy, which is the best place in the world to manufacture clothing. you know, going to Italy with him. I have amazing memories there with him. Yeah, it wasn't that hard of a... They didn't have to push me that hard. In fact, they didn't have to push me at all. So... That sounds beautiful. Yeah, I was very fortunate in that respect. Yeah, for sure. This podcast is brought to you by Pubelle, by the Stardegai, bringing you charms hand-painted with enamel on 925 sterling silver, allowing you to express all the things you love and all the things you might question from river bateaus to baggammon board and caviar tins to paddle rackets there is a poubelle charm or completed set for everyone in the know thank you so much for watching and enjoy the pod cast would you want to do something similar with with your son no okay that's a great question um sure of course if he wants to i think this is this is an amazing question.

36:51I love this question. What I want for my son is to do whatever he wants to do, and I will support him however I can. He should have no pressure to run NB44. He should have no pressure to be involved in Bijan. He should do whatever he wants to do, and I will be behind him 100%, even if that makes him feel like maybe sometimes I'm not behind him. I don't want him to go through what I went through I don't want him to feel like there's any pressure to keep my name alive or keep my legacy or my hard work alive he should create his own path and he should do whatever he wants to do if I'm so fortunate that he chooses that he wants to do what I do I'll be very happy but I'll be equally happy if he wants to do something else and I'm supporting him in that I mean, speaking of other family businesses and not your own, how do you feel about family businesses being able to stay within families for a long period of time where operators end up prioritizing the fact that they're related to someone versus whether or not they're the right person for the job?

38:03It's an interesting question. I think it obviously depends on many factors, but there is for sure an innate ability, if it's a close relative in some respects, to do things in an effective way. And let me just briefly explain. Second generation businesses, obviously I thought a lot about this and I studied a lot about this in my 20s. you know i i had the opportunity to speak one time with john scully and john scully is the guy who's famous for firing steve jobs but he's so much more than that and he has an amazing business story in an american business and what he said about that whole experience to me was that you know i didn't think about the founder enough in the vision of the company and And second generation business people have to respect the past, the present and the future.

39:09The past being the founder and his or her original vision. The present with hard work, just like the founder most probably had. And the future with innovation and how we're going to serve the next generation. That's a very challenging thing to do. but when you are related to somebody sometimes the dna of that organization is within you i mean it's just second nature um so i honestly feel as if you know it can work out well when a son or um you know a relative is involved in in you know the next generation of the business but um you know there are there are of course case by case basis another thing i was very lucky about in my experience in my 20s working within my family business was we were predominantly

40:10catering maybe not predominantly but in a good a good amount of it was catering to clients in countries where that's the norm not you know an exception in America you don't see it as often In America, you see a lot of people build businesses and then the next generation kind of sells it or an operator comes in, a CEO comes in and manages the asset for the company or for the family or for the shareholders. In the Middle East, in Africa, in Europe, in Asia especially, no, you're running your family business. Basically, the only reason you were born was because you have to run this business. So I was very fortunate that, you know, when my father passed away, that spotlight just kind of shifted.

41:03And it was shifted with open arms and embrace by our client base rather than kind of like, who's this young kid? And by the way, they had every right to be like, who's this young kid? um but anyways uh i think i'm i'm all for it but also having experienced it you know as you said for my own children if they want to do something different i'm going to support them 100 percent i love that um yeah so i i studied at um university in boston called babson college which is a school of business and entrepreneurship sure yeah and a lot of the students there were family business students from all over the world yeah and there was a i'm not from a family business i did work with my father on on a startup for a short stint but we don't have a general generational family business but i've always been deeply curious about family businesses because i thought maybe one day that could be my path yeah and i took this class called wealth creation preservation and destruction oh wow and the reason why it's it's it's called that in that sequence is because the founder often creates the wealth and the empire the second generation usually preserves it because they watched the hard work that went in and the third often destroys because they weren't exposed to the founder as I mentioned and every once in a while there's a breakthrough sure and the breakthrough lasts generations and part of the coursework was to figure out what is that breakthrough yeah and when I would look at all these stories of families that could break past the second generation.

42:40Right. There seemed to be this reoccurring trend of the parent does whatever they can for their kids to acquire skills elsewhere, but the values that make the business what it is are at home. And the values sounds like a generic word. It's like good values. Like, what does that mean? It's actually a very, very specific on what that person values. And usually, which is very clear to me with your business and with you and with what you tell me about your father, what the people value when they run these amazing businesses is also valued at home. Wow. Okay. And that's this incredible respect, these incredible manners, incredible communication of being present.

43:29And when those things are very well passed down between family members, things last forever. Wow. I believe that. I believe it because I think you're the product of it. And that's why I bring it up. I'm learning from you. You're going to be an amazing dad. honestly that's that's that's very deep that's and i think that's very accurate and that's that's awesome thank you for sharing that i'm deeply honored that you think that that that's that's my my upbringing and and also what i'm trying to give to my children i mean i like to think that i'm a pretty self-aware person but maybe not that self-aware i mean when i when i came into your studio yeah and when i've been to to the store that you and your father ran yeah you feel like you're actually in a home and not just architecturally i think that's the easy part to do right it's actually in terms of this this familial feel and i wasn't unique to that it's not a me thing although i know you you you do care for me deeply you show that same care and kindness to anyone that walks in the door whether or not it's the the the guy cleaning your store or the guy who's the highest spender in your store yeah and you've told me incredible stories about your father with different politicians and different people, which are fully aligned with that.

44:44So I'd love to hear some of those stories if you're comfortable sharing and learn more about how the household reflected your experiences at work as well. Yeah, I love that. I mean, I think it is pretty spot on in terms of when people do come to our stores or they come to my personal design studio at NB44, it should feel a bit different. It should feel like they are in a home. And in fact, it's funny you say that because one of the lessons that I learned as a young man from my father was that when somebody comes in, you have to really welcome them as if they're in your home and one of the analogies that he would explain is like you wouldn't just let somebody walk into your house and open your fridge as a guest you would offer them something to drink and you would open the fridge and pour them you know whatever they asked for right and he kind of analogized that with when somebody walks into of the retail operation of a boutique they don't just open a closet and start looking at like what's in the hanging on the rack you or somebody that works there has to open it and say let me show you something and stand up when they walk in the door and and in fact uh i have a funny story uh and i'll have to just try and kind of redact some names but um when i was a teenager uh no i was not I was in my 20s.

46:28I was, and he's still a dear friend today. I was in the boutique and on Rodeo Drive and a gentleman walked in and he didn't recognize me. And then, of course, why would he? And he didn't know who I was. And he thought I was somebody who was maybe like a, you know, a sales associate at the store and said, can I see some pants? And I said, yeah, of course, no problem. you know, what size trousers do you wear? And, um, there's so many little lessons that I learned also along the years. Like, for example, if he says I'm a 34, bring a 36 or do you know what I'm saying? Bring the 34 as well, but also bring the 36.

47:12And actually even my team personally, it's been fun to see that now they've become very discriminative shoppers. Like they'll go into a place and somebody won't ask them if they can bring them a size or something for like five minutes they'll just like walk out and be pissed but anyways the point is it's like over the years i've picked up these things about like you know you bring a size up a size down and you you you kind of hear what they say and then you kind of translate that in your head i'm a 36 and i always optimistically say 34 i hope i hope i can fit and never does but you know my dad used to say he's a 34 and they used to give him a 36 and change the label to say 34 because they didn't want him to be upset but anyways the point is is that um this gentleman walks in he says can i have a you know pair pants so I ran to the back I ran because that's also what I have to do is like you got you you have this person that's in your home they're asking for something don't stroll to get it like go and like their time is very valuable and very precious so I ran ran to the back I get the you know a few pairs of pants that he asked for and I come to the front and I start walking with him through the boutique and showing him around the boutique and telling him you know this is an original Fernando Botero painting.

48:23It's, you know, painted by Mr. Botero, who named it The Rich when he saw it here. And, you know, then I take him to another area. I start showing him some tie sets. And I say, these are all pure silk tie sets. They're all limited edition. They're all numbered, one of one. And I start just, you know, kind of telling him. And I could tell he was already kind of very knowledgeable about where he was. And then we had a dressing room that, And we still have it. It's a dressing room that it's 18th century French Amour. And it's just this beautiful antique. And so I told him, I said, this is a beautiful 18th century French Amour.