Before He Was ‘The Fixer,’ Marcus Lemonis Fetched Frank Sinatra’s Cigarettes (Exclusive)
You may know Marcus Lemonis as The Profit, The Fixer or a financial savant — but you’d never guess that at one point in his life, he was fetching a cigarette for Frank Sinatra.
Lemonis broadcasts boss. That calm confidence shines through in his latest series, The Fixer (Fridays on FOX beginning July 18, next day on Hulu), as he advises and invests in small-business owners. While shooting a segment of the series in Manhattan, he fielded a few more unusual questions about his career and life.
How did you earn your first dollar?
Marcus Lemonis: From the candy business. My mom had this big jar of coins. I thought, “I’m going to take some of this money and buy some candy, and I’m going to resell it.” So, I went to the local 7-Eleven and bought as much as I could and sold it at school. I knew that I could charge double. My thesis was that I would put the money back, and my mother would never find out.
I made a couple of very fatal mistakes. My mother did know, because she’s a mom. After I had been doing business for about two weeks, she said to me, “How’s business? … By the way, you owe me $2,000.” I said, “No, it was only like $120.” She said, “They were all-silver coins!” She put a piece of paper in front of me, and it was a promissory note. She said, “You want to borrow money from me, I’m happy to loan it to you. But this is how it works. You pay me interest.” Every month she would give me an invoice to show me what my balance was.
What was your next venture?
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
I loved landscaping so I started my own business. My mother took me to Sears and bought me a riding lawn mower and a weed whacker, and I would go door-to-door and give my pitch. “Hi, I’m Marcus from down the street. I know your current lawn company charges you $55. I’m willing to do it for $45. I’ll do the first one for free, and if I do a good job, I would like a six-month contract.” People would look at me like, “You’re 12, go away!” but I ended up signing up a lot of different homes. I started hiring other kids.
Have you ever felt starstruck?
Sinatra with Lauren Bacall. Everett Collection
My family founded St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with Danny Thomas. We used to put on a fundraising ball at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. I was asked to go get the entertainer for the evening.
We were walking down, and he said, “Are you familiar with what I do or who I am?” I said, “Oh yes, sir, my mother listens to you in her Monte Carlo while she smokes, because my dad doesn’t know that she smokes.” He said, “Well, kid, I smoke, too. Does your mom have a cigarette?” I said, “I can go find out.” So I go to my mother and said, “Mr. Sinatra asked if he could have a cigarette.”
What’s the most common mistake small-business owners make?
Is it just motivation to be a millionaire, or is there motivation to have independence and build wealth for their family? That really matters. Being singularly focused on “I want to make $100 million” usually leads to poor decision making.
How is The Fixer different from your show The Profit?
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I think it’s going to be the same, except I’m different. I’m happily married, I’m older and I’m wiser.
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