In his upcoming book, former Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross reveals his recipe for economic success – and also talks about how he lived side by side with Donald Trump, Sir Richard Branson and John Lennon, his former neighbor in the Dakota.
Ross – who became known as the “King of Bankruptcies” over the course of 55 years on Wall Street – actually dreamed of becoming a writer in college.
“I was a real bookworm as a kid,” the author of Regnery’s new book, “Risks and Returns: Creating Success in Business and Life,” recalls to Page Six.
“When I was a student at Yale, we had a course that prepared people to work as novelists… at 10 a.m. you had to submit 1,000 words of novel or poetry.”
Ross recalls: “The first week I was fine. The second week I had no material left.” But he says: “Yale saved me from a life of poverty.”
At Harvard Business School, Ross studied under the famous lecturer Georges Doriot, a Frenchman with legendary style and provocation who took American citizenship to fight for the United States in World War II.
Doriot advised his students to wear long socks and Hermes ties. He told them: “If you are young and want to be successful, … you must dress the way you want to be successful!”
However, as a banker, Ross later kept in touch with some great artists.
“I loved living at the Dakota, I lived there for about 20 years,” Ross told us, mentioning that he was “a little unusual in that he was one of the few Wall Street types” to live at the famous Upper West Side address, which was then known for its residents, including composer Leonard Bernstein, ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev, “Killing Me Softly” singer Robert Flack and, of course, Lennon.
“I was the chairman of the board the night of the terrible attack,” Ross recalled the shocking death of the Beatles legend in 1980. “It was horrific.”
Ross recalled, “He was a great neighbor,” adding that every October the building hosted “something like a carnival.” “Each family would set up a table in the large courtyard and serve their favorite food.”
He said of Lennon and Yoko Ono: “Of course they served macrobiotic food… they took part in this little social event with their neighbors. They were very nice people, very quiet and nobody had a bad word to say about them.”
After Lennon was killed, “crowds started gathering and they closed the huge steel gates of the building. Whoever lived in the building had photo ID and only those people were allowed in. No work was allowed, nothing… and it went on and on. The Save the Whale people were out there, the Kill the Whale people were out there, every group you could imagine was at our gate.”
Ross recalled, “We had to come up with some kind of cathartic event” to keep people going.
One of the art-loving residents knew David Geffen – a close friend of Ono’s – who, Ross said, helped her design the Strawberry Field memorial in Central Park. “Despite her grief – her enormous grief – she wanted to have some kind of public event to commemorate this event,” he said.
Ross, 86, first met another famous New Yorker, Trump, a decade later, when he and fellow Wall Streeter Carl Icahn were Trump’s opponents in bankruptcy proceedings.
“When I met Trump, it was a controversial issue over the Trump-Taj Mahal bankruptcy … (Icahn) and I were practically partners against Trump.” But “it turned out that we both supported him in the presidential election, which he then won.”
Of their meeting in 1990 on opposite sides of the table, he said: “In such a context, you learn a lot about the nature of a person.”
Ross’ deal ultimately helped Trump avoid personal bankruptcy.
Years later, Ross said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that he would support Trump in the 2016 election. He later wrote several editorials for the Trump campaign and appeared with Ivanka Trump in the Iowa caucuses to support the Republican candidate.
After Trump’s victory, Ross recalled being called to the former television star’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
“I didn’t know why – but it was obviously some kind of interview,” he told us. “Here I am, over 70 years old, and I haven’t filled out a resume in over 50 years… It was the first time I was interested in a job that paid a fraction of what I normally made.”
After all, he headed what he calls “the most complicated conglomerate in the U.S. government.”
“During my tenure, we had to hire over 400,000 part-time temps and doormen to conduct the census and train them in a matter of months,” Ross recalls. “Who has ever had to hire 400,000 people in a matter of months? I knew being a census taker was a difficult job (because) I graduated from Harvard Business School as a census taker.”
“I think I was the only Secretary of Commerce who served as a census taker,” he mused, adding that he was sent to “a very rough part of Boston, which was a bit of a challenge” because he had to wear a badge.
His oversight of the census also sparked controversy when the Trump administration decided to reinstate a citizenship question on the U.S. census.
Ross’ new book has been endorsed by influential figures such as Citadel CEO Ken Griffin, Blackstone Group CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman, billionaire Trump donor John Paulson, philanthropist Leonard Lauder, real estate mogul Richard LeFrak, Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump’s former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow, and radio and television host Deborah Norville.
