Who or what is your inspiration in business?

My background is hard. They weren’t many things available for a man in my position.. growing up in Brooklyn my uncle’s wore hats. I think I was 15 when I got my first fedora. I’ve enjoyed hats ever since..

How do you stay motivated?

I saw what it was like to grow up with nothing with a mother I was trying to raise five other children and an absent father. I knew by looking at my uncles what I wanted to look like when I became a man., and my mother of the type of parent I always wanted to become so I would have to say poverty, and my mother doing the best she can is my motivation to never be in a situation like that ever again

What would you do with the $25,000?

I’m so used to taking care of everybody my niece is my nephew’s brothers. There’s a hat press that I would love to own as a hacker.. there’s a hat maker in Europe named Hornsey. I would love to sit with him and learn.. and I think I would buy me a nice Montecristi cigar and sit by the water, smoke it, and have a Miller highlife