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

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