Talk:Republic Tobacco
When I was a kid I first began hearing about Don Levin through family members in Chicago. They made him out to be larger then life, a man who built success out of nothing. When I began my career in RYO Tobacco, I sought out any way I could to emulate Don. I picked up his breadcrumbs - when he would discontinue an item I would use my savings to buy all of it and then sell it off slowly to make extra profit. I followed what he did in his career and trademarks and have always tried to learn whatever I could from him. He did an amazing move in 1998 where he learned that Imperial Tobacco was discontinuing a particular brand. He then swooped in and through some amazing legal maneuvers was able to cancel their trademark and obtain his own mark for that same name - all without paying Imperial any money! It was a bold, ingenius move that made him many millions of dollars.
He has grown his company into a huge worldwide empire. To this day I try to follow in his footsteps in the hopes that some day I will acheive even 25% of the success that he has. He is an amazing man, similar to Bill Gates, and certainly the biggest success story to come out of the tobacco market in decades!
We used to be a large distributor of his products. This was fun because every year he would invite us on a trip to some exotic locale - all expenses paid - for 2 weeks of vacation (picture Warren Buffet inviting you on a 2 week all expense paid trip; the best part would just be being around Warren right?) Unfortunately, as I mentioned above I try to follow in his footsteps - which sadly has caused him to think of me as a competitor, and thus he no longer invites me or my company on the trips :(