John Catsimatidis, Author of How Far Do You Want to Go? At Gotham Government Relations

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0:00 was born on the island of nidos which is 0:04 Greece has two volcanic islands one is 0:06 Santorini and the other one is lisos and 0:09 it must be that volcanic water Rec and 0:12 uh uh why did I write the book well like 0:17 I 0:18 said you know I was approaching 70 years 0:20 old 71 years 0:22 old I didn't want to get all-times and 0:26 forget and and and I I thought that was 0:29 important I wanted my kids my 0:33 grandkids to know where they came from 0:36 and I and I'm telling everybody out 0:39 there that's in his 60s start thinking 0:42 about writing a book uh because we all 0:46 go through Journeys and we all have kids 0:49 and 0:50 grandkids and you want them to know 0:53 where you came from uh and uh you know 0:57 my two my two grandfathers 1:00 came from the old 1:02 country in 1:05 1913 and they came to the Old Country 1:07 looking for the streets paved with gold 1:12 well it took me over 100 years to find 1:13 it uh it's 1:17 uh you know and they all came and they 1:21 all worked 100 hours a week my two 1:24 uncles came in 1925 1930 they left my 1:28 father in the old country to take care 1:31 of his three 1:32 sisters and his 1:35 mother and uh my father uh for 17 years 1:39 worked on the lighthouse by 1:42 himself we went to this Lighthouse and 1:45
it's a piece of Rock with a lighthouse 1:48 on it 17 years by himself with a few 1:51 goats and whatever and uh it was owned 1:55 uh those islands at those times was 1:58 owned by the Italian government 2:00 and I'm a member of the Columbus Club 2:03 why am I a member of the Columbus Club 2:05 could when I 2:06 was food great food when I was when I 2:11 was conceived you know the War World War 2:14 II was over in 1945
2:16 46 when I was 2:19 conceived those islands were part of 2:21 Italy when I was 2:23 born it part is Greece because what 2:27 happens the Brits who ran everything in 2:31 Europe they they said Italy you on the 2:34
wrong side we're taking all those 2:36 islands away from you and we're giving 2:39 it we're giving it back to Greece and uh 2:42 so that way I was conceived the GRE 2:45 Italian born a Greek but when I do my 2:48 DNA it turns out because the Greeks the 2:52 Italians the Jews you know it's one it 2:55 was one one people Mediterranean and I 2:58 was uh 28% 3:01 Italian uh 60% Macedonian Greek because 3:05 I guess my mother was from 3:08 Constantinople Northern where it's 3:11 called eul now and there's a lot of Jews 3:14 up there because all the Jews that came 3:16 from Spain and they moved over when they 3:19 were thrown out of 3:20 Spain um and I'm 6% Jewish why 6% when 3:26 you read the books you find out that if 3:29 it's 6% either your great grandmother or 3:33 one of your great-grandfathers was 3:35 Jewish so I tell all my Jewish friends 3:37 you know what I talk about my Jewish 3:40 friends one of my great-grandfathers was
3:43 screwed by a Jew 3:46 oh you 3:49 know you know most I tell you most of my 3:53 friends are Jewish most of my friends 3:54 are Italian so you you when you're one 3:58 of them or one of us one of all of us 4:03
you you feel good and you you know in 4:05 the old days we were all choked around 4:08 with each other I I grew up in uh 4:14 Western Harem on 135th Street between 4:19 Broadway and westand 4:21 Avenue and lewison stadium was up there 4:25 City College was there I went to ps12 4:28 that was just built up there and we all 4:32 one big happy family we had Irish we had 4:37 Jews we had Spanish we had we had 4:41 everybody and we all all lived together 4:45 I remember so many times I had friends 4:48 in Historia we would walk up Amsterdam 4:52 Avenue all the way down Amsterdam avue 4:55 all the way across 125th Street and 4:59 there was no 5:01 problems you know people said to me well 5:03 when did the problems happen in 5:05 Harlem I'm going to tell you a sad thing 5:08 because I'm older than a lot of you guys 5:09 and I'll tell you when it 5:12 happened 5:14 Vietnam when the kids came back from 5:18 Vietnam and a lot of them were drug 5:21 addicts that's when Harlem 5:23 turned and it was very sad that we 5:27 couldn't save some of those kids some of 5:29 those 5:31 uh I got involved on Fifth Street 5:34 William Fitz Ryan yeah uh was my 5:38 congressman he gave me the Congressional 5:42 nomination to go to West Point because I 5:44 always wanted to go either the Air Force 5:46 Academy or West 5:47 Point well I came home my mother cried 5:52 my father yelled I was an only 5:55 child okay I didn't go we ended up going 5:59 to NY you uptown campus when there was 6:01 an uptown campus and 6:06 um it's uh it was a great school and uh 6:11 uh my friend Jonathan frus is uh from 6:14 Alexander stores we went to school 6:16 together up there and uh uh we uh I 6:21 remember his mother donated like 7 6:23 million dollars to NYU at that time and 6:26
to build new buildings and everything 6:28 was great until years later n while you 6:31 ended up going broke and and they had to 6:34 sell the uptown campus um I don't know 6:37 where to begin end uh I get I'm so
6:42 involved with so many uh Charities I'm 6:44 so involved with a lot of businesses I 6:47 started in the supermarket business and 6:51 um all my 6:54 vendors like me all my vendors like me 6:58 all my uh I I ended up um how did we 7:03 grow uh I had a law firm Stein Rosen and 7:08 onstein all Greeks all 7:12 Greeks somebody told me I have to have a 7:14 Jewish 7:15 lawyer and 7:17 and Sam 7:20 Stein and his brother was Lewis Stein 7:23 who was chairman of food fair and that 7:25 goes on and on and on samstein owned a 7:28
Wholesale grocery company in in New 7:31 Jersey called filigre 7:33 foods and he got the liking to me I 7:37
opened up one store and it's a long 7:40 story that one store then 7:44 samstein there was no I had no banking 7:46 experiences I was in I was going to 7:48 school for 7:50 engineering well every time I needed
7:53 money samstein would call up the 7:56 controller of filigre foods which is the 7:58 wholesale grocer and said give John more 8:01 money and I started with one grocery 8:06 store uh when I was a a what I a senior
8:11 in I didn't graduate you know I tell I 8:15 told all my friends I was a credit short 8:17 you know I would look at that calculus 8:19 equation and I would say how how the 8:22 hell am I going to make any money 8:24
solving that capitalist equation I no 8:28 way there was no way so I was a credit 8:30 short mostly in my cence class uh and 8:35 uh we ended up with I started with one 8:39 store uh when I was still going to NYU
8:42 and in those days 8:44 NYU five days a week what what is this 8:47 crap where where my daughter went to NYU 8:50 and my son went to NYU you know they 8:53 schedule their courses three days a week 8:55 and you're off the rest of the week I 8:56 mean that's a that's a lot of crap I 8:58 mean nobody works 9:00 anymore right you know and uh uh we 9:06 ended up with Sam Stein's help and 9:09 another guy from a company called World 9:11 Dairy Lou Israel 9:14 up kept giving me money build another 9:17 store build another store when I build 9:18 more stores they were doing more 9:21 business no bank 9:24 that and we built like 10 stores by the 9:28 age of 23 9:30 24 and I started Marg you're talking 9:34 what I'm sorry I was grateful and was 9:37 making a million dollars a year which is 9:40 a lot of money in 9:42 1970 9:44 73 that wasn't a million dollars was 9:46 really worth a million 9:48 dollars and uh I just kept going and 9:51 going and I didn't care about money I 9:55 cared about success and I try to talk 9:58 about the book I cared more about 10:01 success than I cared for money I just 10:04 kept I work work work and don't forget I 10:08
wanted to be a pilot I wanted to be this 10:11 I wanted to do that 10:14 and eventually and I ended up going into 10:17 the real estate business why the real 10:19 estate 10:20 business when my lease came up in one of
10:23 my 10:24 stores the landlord wanted Triple R I 10:29 said oh crap I said if you don't own the 10:33 real estate I tell that to all real 10:35 estate all all store owners if you don't 10:39 own the real estate guess what someday 10:42 you're going to get 10:43 screwed and 10:46 it's I started buying real estate and I 10:50 took the excess cash out of the 10:51 supermarket business what real estate so 10:55 then by 3 4 years later we were real 10:59 real estate business we were in uh 11:02 Supermarket business and uh we kept 11:05 buying in 1977 the end of the world was 11:07 coming to New York the end of the world 11:10 I remember 1977 oh my God and on 30 in 11:16 of 11:18 snow 11:20 and and uh it 11:23 was uh I wanted to learn how to fly 11:27
airplanes so I went out and started to 11:30 learn how to fly an airplane and I 11:33 wanted to you you start with a single 11:35 engine 11:36 airplane by the age of 28 11:39 29 I was successful in real estate I was 11:42
successful in in 11:44 supermarkets I said I'm going to go on 11:47 and buy a 11:48 jet and we ended up being successful in 11:51 the aviation business we went we built 11:54 up that Aviation business the corporate 11:56 jet company to 4 eight corporate fets I 12:00 used to fly them 12:02 all 12:04 and we were supplying Atlantic City uh 12:08 how do we Supply Atlantic City you know 12:10 when you live in New York City or 12:12 Philadelphia they used to send a 12:13 limousine to pick you 12:16 up I convinced Atlantic 12:20
City that you can bring in more 12:22 customers if you do it within a 500 mile 12:25 radius rent my Jets 500 mile radius you 12:31 bring in the suckers I mean 12:34 customers so you know you pay us $55,000 12:37
for the jet for the round trip they'll 12:39 lose $20,000 and everybody's 12:42 happy so we went into the 12:52 a creation business we I was a dreamer 12:56 we ended up buying an airline we end up 12:58 end up uh buying an oil company we ended 13:01 up I kept buying in 13:05 1986 uh I don't a lot of you uh Ron 13:08
Perman bought Pantry PR 13:13 supermarkets he ended up selling me the 13:17 supermarkets in Florida and I gave him 13:20 the money to help buy Revlon I was there 13:23 it happened 13:26 and yes I'm I'm sorry 13:32 back um and 13:35 and so I ended up with supermarkets all 13:39 over Florida I ended up with 13:41
supermarkets all over the Virgin Islands 13:43 I ended up uh with supermarkets in New 13:45 York and I I I and we had what do we 13:50 have and I was stationed in Nashville 13:54 smura Tennessee running the 13:56 airline it goes on and on on and on 14:00 cavities I didn't I couldn't make up my 14:02 mind what to get involved in so you know 14:04 what we did got involved in all of them 14:07 got involved in kids Traves P Boy
14:12 Scouts uh Margot uh got involved in uh 14:17 diseases Parkinson's disease Alzheimer's 14:21 I got involved in diabetes which it was 14:23 diabetes in my family so my advice to 14:26 everybody when you don't know what to 14:28 get involved in get involved in 14:30 everything why not you know uh and um 14:35
and have fun at the same 14:37 time uh work hard have fun help people 14:44 uh one of my I have many mentors that 14:48 help me get where I'm getting uh and 14:50 I'll tell you let's say if I had 10 14:52 mentors probably eight of the 10 were 14:55 probably Jewish uh they help me in the 14:57 food industry they help helped me in 14:59 Charities one of them was Bob morthor a 15:02 DA uh and I worked very closely with Bob
15:05 morthor and he ran the police 15:08 athletically and for 40 years I worked 15:10 with him until he passed he passed away 15:13 at 99 years old and like 10 months which 15:18 was very sad we were planning his 100 15:20 birthday but now I'm chairman of Police 15:23 Athletic League following Bob Morgan th 15:26
trying to help the kids of the inocent 15:29 and you know I was a Democrat I I ran 15:32 Bill Clinton's campaigns back in the 15:34 '90s and then my my daughter married a 15:39 republican 15:40 uh so to have peace at the uh at the uh 15:44 table at Thanksgiving day uh I converted 15:49 to being a republican but I ran I ran as 15:51 a familiar in 2013 as a republican 15:54 liberal I go to stat Island and says 15:57 you're liberal what are you going to do 15:58 what a liberal I said look you know what 16:01 a liberal is a liberal is a PE person 16:05 who cares about our kids in the inner 16:08 city and you know I after I talked to 16:11 them they said yeah yeah you're right 16:14 you know look you can't help the whole 16:18 world and that's my argument with 16:20 President Biden you can't help the whole 16:22 world let's help our kids of the inner
16:25 city Let's help our poor of the inner 16:28 city 16:29 Let's help our vets the homeless in the 16:32
streets of New York before we worry 16:34 about helping the people from South 16:36 America of Africa I think we worry about 16:39 United States of America First Look they 16:43 they need help in in Africa they need 16:45 help in Central America send them money 16:48 send them food you know and 16:52 that's you know important uh I got 16:56 involved with uh the Greek Orthodox 16:59 church I am now the head of the Greek 17:01 Orthodox Church the highest 17:03 ranking uh lay person uh reporting to 17:08 the Archbishop and reporting to the to 17:10 the uh patriarch in 17:13 Constantinople uh I work with the eal 17:16 patriarch with uh our Communications 17:19 with the Jewish uh community in 17:22 Communications with with the Pope uh and 17:25 in New York I love cardal golden he's a 17:27 wonderful 17:29 uh Rabbi schne is my Rabbi New York and 17:32 Rabbi pachik and Rabbi butman every year 17:36 for 30 years I've been lighting that 17:38 manora uh and this year I was looking 17:41 around very carefully that I was liting 17:47 um on and on and on uh we're in 17:52 the like I said Supermarket business 17:55 Aviation business uh I was a banker one
17:59 time uh I was chairman and CEO of the 18:02 first New York Bank 18:04 uh and it's so many stories I I can't 18:07 tell them all so i' rather i' rather uh 18:11 give you the opportunity to ask some 18:14 questions and 18:16 um tell me what you want to he I mean 18:19 Where Do We Begin DAV I'll ask the first 18:22
question tell me first this way we'll 18:24 we'll get it all going so uh in the book 18:28 I was fascinated fascinated with 18:32 Sunshine okay and and and you know you 18:37 were you were married you got divorced 18:40 and you had this woman who was your 18:43 assistant working in your off right next 18:46
to you in fact in the first office the 18:48 way you describe it she was you couldn't 18:51 even if someone came in you described 18:53 Frank Purdue came into your office was 18:55 trying to uh sell you some chickens and 18:58 and and um there was someone Consulting 19:01 with you but Frank couldn't even see the 19:03 person next to you so you've always had 19:05 this boy that's why it's so appropo you 19:08 know the the the comments because she's 19:10 been always in your head making comments 19:14 directing you and from from the book 19:17 Margot had such a huge part of this 19:20 whole thing that was built absolutely so 19:24 so I just want you to comment on when 19:27 you saw father Alex that day and you 19:29
were telling them you were telling them 19:31 about your life and what were you going 19:32 to do personally and then out of your 19:35 mouth came I want Sunshine can you just 19:38 describe that and what Sunshine means to 19:40 you you know D no matter how tough of a 19:45 day you know it's very important to 19:47
Marry 19:48 well uh no matter how import tough of a 19:52 day I 19:53 had uh when I came home Margo was my 19:57 sunshine 19:58 and I would always laugh and smile along 20:02 with her thank you 20:08 Mor just one more question go ahead okay 20:11 first of all I want to acknowledge my 20:13 sunshine Heather 20:15
and and Courtney is here or or was here 20:19 she is okay all right so those are my 20:21 sunshines but next one I want you to 20:24 talk about your mom and dad uh again 20:28 fascinated in fact 20:57 your 21:12 that