In How Far Do You Want to Go? Catsimatidis shares his dynamic story, from his beginnings in the grocery business to entering the political arena, including a New York City mayoral campaign.
Catsimatidis was born on the small Greek island of Nisyros and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was an infant. Raised in Harlem, Catsimatidis became a true New Yorker. He went to school by day and worked in a small grocery store by night to help pay for college tuition. Catsimatidis then shifted to buying and building grocery stores.
By his 25th birthday, he was already a success, with 10 Red Apple Supermarkets along Broadway Avenue on Manhattan’s Upper Westside.
Catsimatidis loves being an American with a passion of a first-generation immigrant – because he knows this country offers more opportunities to succeed than any other place. He is also clear-eyed about major choices in life. While studying electrical engineering in college, as his parents wanted him to do, he was only eight credits shy of his college degree. But he saw starting electrical engineers earning about $130 per week. Meanwhile, he was already making $1,000 a week in partnership with his uncle in the grocery store. So, he left school, had to stand up to his parents, and knew that if he failed, he’d never hear the end of it.
A born businessman, Catsimatidis knows the importance of business basics, such as marketing: “…The store needed marketing,” he wrote of the grocery, “which is just another word for communicating with the public. We had to tell the people what we were selling and why it was good. Obvious, right? We also had to communicate with the employees if we wanted them to be on the same page as we were. If we did both those things, I knew the store would be a success.”
Organized by John Catsimatidis