Lessons from a Tailor

The problem is that there are no tailors today. For to be a good tailor it takes a young person six years of apprenticeship to become a tailor. Today you could become a computer operator in much shorter time and make more money. My name is Martin Greenfield. If you want to know about me, I got here in 1947 in September to America. I started here as a floor boy. Which means, you have to make sure that you hand the right work for the right tailor. The fact that I had some experience in concentration camp, I worked in a work room for a while, they thought I was a tailor, I wasn't a tailor. When they discovered me after the concentration camp in Germany, an uncle found out that I was alive. So he got me the job at 3G clothes, the company that I own today. I take care of a lot of people who want to be in good clothes. Everybody is a perfect person. There are no two people alike who you meet in your lifetime that are perfectly matched. Even if they are natural twins, you will find differences between them. So if he's got a right shoulder or a left shoulder, does he think he's a cripple? Does he have a belly? Some have bellies. I have to make you a suit to fit you. If I see a guy that's got a shoulder this low, I could fit him. But then he'll walk on the street and someone will walk over and say, "Boy, this suit fits perfect, who made your suit?" Why? Because I want him to walk like this. I want to pick this shoulder up so I could make him even. I suggest it to him, and he let me do that. Through my business, I have great connections in Washington. Every department you mention, I know them. Why? Because of what I do. And then I met Clinton the first time he and had just had his first news conference and he was a little bit late, it was supposed to be an hour window. He spent with me the whole afternoon. I went through the closets, I went through what he should wear. He didn't bring much from our company because he liked casual stuff, he only had a couple of suits that I didn't care for anyway. I said, "Mr. President, this is the White House, and you're on television everyday so you have to be dressed right, because you see Mr. President, there is no person who makes clothing in world that wouldn't give his right arm to be where I am but if you don't do it right, you could ruin my reputation." To make a ready-made suit, it takes like a 108 operations. So you teach a person one operation and if the person is very skilled, go step two, go step three. The skills are one thing, but we do have some great people working here. I have some people working here for forty years. (laughs) I mean they retire they come back, they retire they come back because I encourage them to work because its better. You know, people's lifetimes change. I remember years ago people retired young and they didn't live long. And maybe I'll live longer because I work hard. I don't know. (chuckles) We are blessed with other countries, with immigrants that come here. From the South American countries from Mexico, from Puerto Rico, and Poland from Vietnam, from China. You want to find the United Nations mixture? You come to our factory. Most companies wouldn't hire families, or friends, or husbands and wives. If something happens, you have to treat people the same day, somebody dies, somebody this, that means instead of one person, you lose two or three. I overpass, I have my own style. I hire. If you didn't have work ethics and discipline, you wouldn't be here. And the other thing is, if I didn't have a father like I had, I wouldn't be here either. You see, because I lost my family. I came alone. And when you come alone, you start again. And here I am. Once you want to be in business in a neighborhood, you have to be involved with the community. When I bought the business, it was the worst time in America. We were broken eleven times this factory. Every time I had to ship my clothing, we came in there was nothing left. They were stealing the copper from the wires, we would have black-outs because everybody wanted to sell the copper and everything, and there was no protection of any kind. Because people ran away, people lost their jobs, they closed up. We never had the supermarkets closed because the banks closed, they ran away, because nobody stayed around. So I said we're gonna stay here, and we're gonna survive here. We started the company, and then we got involved to build affordable houses, we got involved to take care of sick people, we got involved with the senior citizens, I donate suits to them. When you do things for other people, and you can afford to do it, it's not money, it's your dedication. Right now, I'm so happy with the company, because it's working. We are such a viable entity for the city because instead of having people on welfare, we have people paying taxes. I don't wanna think that we saved the neighborhood, but we certainly created a lot of jobs. Life changes a lot of it is for the better, and some of it is not for the better. so I take those chances, you have to take chances in life.