Leonard Lauder is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman emeritus of The Estée Lauder Companies, a global cosmetics company. Lauder is also a philanthropist and art collector.
Lauder was born in New York City, the son of Estée Lauder and Joseph Lauder. He has two brothers, Ronald and William. Lauder attended the Bronx High School of Science and then the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Lauder began his career at Estée Lauder in 1958. He was appointed president in 1972 and CEO in 1974. He became chairman in 1986. He retired as CEO in 1999, but remained chairman until 2009. He was succeeded by his son, William, as chairman.
Lauder has been married three times. His first wife was Evelyn Hausner, with whom he had two sons, Gary and William. His second wife was Jo Carole Knopf, with whom he had a daughter, Aerin. His third wife is Judy Ellis Glickman, with whom he has a daughter, Jane.
Lauder is a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is also a member of the Board of Overseers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
In 2013, Lauder was ranked #203 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s billionaires, with a net worth of $3.4 billion.
Here are 20 Words of Business Wisdom From Leonard Lauder
1. “One person really can make a difference.” – Leonard Lauder
2. “The more risks you take, the more successful you will be.” – Leonard Lauder
3. “A visionary is someone who can see the future, or thinks he sees the future. In my case, I use it and it comes out right. That doesn’t come from daydreams or dreams, but it comes from knowing the market and knowing the world and knowing people really well and knowing where they’re going to be tomorrow.” – Leonard Lauder
4. “Know where you want to go. If people can buy into your vision, they will take you there.” – Leonard Lauder
5. “If you have a good idea, don’t let anyone talk you out of it.” – Leonard Lauder
6. “If you want to learn, listen and get on with it.” – Leonard Lauder
7. “To be a great leader, you firstly have to like people. If you don’t like people, at the end of the day they will figure this out and you can’t lead them too well.” – Leonard Lauder
8. “Picking great people, and recognizing them as such, because it takes great people to run a great company.” – Leonard Lauder
9. “You are only as successful as the people who work for you want you to be. So you want to make people successful, because the more successful you make them, the more successful you will be.” – Leonard Lauder
10. “You can’t get anywhere without people who are smarter than you.” – Leonard Lauder
11. “The lesson is, no matter how smart you think you are, there’s always someone around you that’s better than you, and I vowed when I got out of the Navy that I would only hire people who were better than me. That doesn’t mean that they were smarter than me, but they were better than me. To this day, if someone isn’t better than me, forget it.” – Leonard Lauder
12. “It was long, hard work. People think success comes rushing down on you, but it doesn’t. It comes day by day, with very small victories.” – Leonard Lauder
13. “The company has only seen huge success relatively recently. It wasn’t all of my life. I always tell people you can take the baby out of the Great Depression, but you can’t take the Great Depression out of the baby. I was born in the midst of all that. It wasn’t like there was money flowing in back then, so I have always been frugal.”– Leonard Lauder
14. “I’m very conservative. And really I don’t call myself an investor, I call myself a businessman. I worked hard to build the company, and earned a good living. When it went public in 1995 I had more money, but it’s not like I went out and spent it all. I spend only enough to keep me going.” – Leonard Lauder
15. “Here’s the thing – if you stop learning, you might as well pack it in. You can’t learn anything with your mouth open.” – Leonard Lauder
16. “If I don’t learn something every single day, it’s a wasted day.” – Leonard Lauder
17. “We built a great business with great people, with a great reputation. And we are all very proud to be here – very proud to be here. To be part of Estée Lauder, and an American.” – Leonard Lauder
18. “Our credo is that we’re not a family business – we’re a family in business.” – Leonard Lauder
19. “I can’t guarantee that in 30 years the company will be the same. In 30 years, I can guarantee it will be different.” – Leonard Lauder
20. “So many people gave me so much to help me to get started. And this nation has been good to me, so my responsibility is to give back.” – Leonard Lauder