UCLA titan Meyer Luskin sits down with Podcasts editor Jack Garland to discuss his life and legacy and to offer advice from his 98 years of experience.
Jack Garland: At 16 years old and five feet seven inches tall, he wasn’t a large presence when he first arrived at UCLA as a freshman in the fall of 1942. But today his name seems larger than life. You see it on buildings all across campus, but you probably don’t know much about the man behind that name. And the man I’m talking about is Meyer Luskin.
A few weeks ago, I had the amazing opportunity to interview Meyer Luskin, and I got to learn his life story. He spoke about growing up in a tenement in New York City and taking a break while at UCLA to fight in World War II. We also talked about his business career and how he had to overcome antisemitism. And we discussed his philanthropy at UCLA and the duty he feels to give back to a university that gave him so much. At 98 years old, he had a lot of advice about life and relationships and business, and it was really an honor to be able to meet with him. So here’s the interview and I hope you enjoy it.
Mr. Luskin, welcome to Bruin to Bruin. I want to start at the very beginning. You grew up in New York City in the 1920s and ’30s. Can you tell us about your childhood and what it was like to grow up in New York City at that time?
Meyer Luskin: Well, I grew up in New York City and the Lower East Side, when it was that low recite that you’ve seen in moving pictures, where we see push carts on the street and people running and we’re running all over and the streets full of people where you had distinct neighborhoods of immigrants, and you had an area where the Italian immigrants would live in the U.S. an area where the Jews of eastern Europe would live. And there was another area I guess, where the Irish but so I was essentially, in an area of the Lower East Side, the number of blocks around where the apartment, the tenement in which we live there. Were primarily Jews who would emigrate from Eastern Europe. And the neighborhood was called a real rough, tough neighborhood. Not rough itself. But it was a fascinating one and totally different from where I then subsequently remained growing in Southern California. My family came to Los Angeles when I was about 15. And we moved because my mother was quite ill. And the doctor told my dad that if he moved to an A climate, especially southern California, she lived a better life, no longer life. And so he sold his little plumbing business, he was a plumber, and we moved to Los Angeles, we moved to East Los Angeles called Boyle Heights. That’s where the poor people would normally start to live in Los Angeles when they came to New York City. And so it was a blessing for me to move to Los Angeles, because I then led a much different life than I would have had I remained living in the Lower East Side of New York.
JG: So how was your life different after moving to Los Angeles?
ML: Well, it was in New York, I look back, I was confined to a ghetto, my thinking thought process was very close in, in Woodland little ghetto just surviving there. And there are no examples of people doing much other than menial work to survive in the ghetto. And so the outlook never would have been much. And whereas, coming in Southern California, with open air, we live in a little home in the Lower East Side and lived on the first floor of a tenement building the storytelling and building tenement buildings all around and so not only that, he had a feeling of an open life coming to Los Angeles at that time. But the whole feeling and atmosphere was one of openness and one of the freedom of light to see was a totally different world. Compared to that crowded bustling, bustling, lower Eastside.
JG: I’m sure you’ve seen Los Angeles change a lot over the years. So how is LA different? And do you think it still has that spirit of freedom and openness that you felt when you first moved here?
ML: I still think there’s a openness, a sense of freedom. If you look up most places in this city, you’ll see a blue sky or sky anyway, you’ll see the sunshine. Everything is so much low rise is compared to narrow streets, where it’s all full of tenement buildings. So it’s to get an open feeling. Young people feel free to easily go to the beach, or go to the mountains or just travel out to the desert. There’s still a greater sense of independence, entrepreneurship, freedom, openness. I think compared to a getaway area, in any type of a city,
JG: What were your interests growing up? Were you always interested in business?
ML: No, I was not interested in business at all. For some reason, as an early childhood, of having all sorts of illnesses, I was forced to stay home family thinking that I shouldn’t be running around or having an exercise. They thought I had the heart problems and rheumatic fever, and had a heart murmur and all sorts of every childhood disease you could think of at that time. And so I did a lot of reading. And I went to UCLA thinking, I would meet her and I did I majored in history. I loved history, because so many of the books I read, while being home as quote, stick or nothing fit to be running around in a playground with my contemporaries. And so I really liked reading books about history, particularly European history, after the Middle Ages onwards.
JG: And you enrolled at UCLA at 16. Is that right?
ML: Well, I was closer to 17. Yes. So I had skipped, that skipped me a few grades earlier. And so I introduced the LA in September of ’42. And it’s not quite 17. And so when I enrolled at UCLA, that first semester, when the professor would assign a few paragraphs of some book for reading, over the weekend, I check out two or three books and read all the books about it. I mean, I just, I read a day and night. And so the end of my first semester that in those days, UCLA was on a semester system rather than a quarter system. And so, the end of my first semester, the professor asked me if I wanted to be a reader, and I said, What’s the reader? He says, Well, you read the exams, and you can enter a grade based on the outline I give to you. If you have any questions, you come to me, but I think you’re fit to help me read the exams. It was obvious to him that I was totally immersed in history.
JG: What was UCLA like when you were a student here?
ML: The fee if that time there wasn’t there was no tuition fee. At that time. The fee was $29 a semester. So my family was very poor, but we could afford $29. You bought used books that were well underlined, but they were inexpensive compared to a new book. I commuted from Boyle Heights, took streetcars buses trolleys. spent at least an hour and a half, every morning and afternoon, commuting back and forth from Boyle Heights UCLA. And at that time, UCLA just had four primarily, there was the quad, the library, Royce Hall and the two buildings on the quad, men’s and women’s gym, and the student center. That was a total of seven buildings. Two of them were the gymnasium men’s and women’s gym and it was quite small. I think the entire student body, including one of our graduate students, was about 7,000.
JG: $29 a semester and 7000 students. Wow, that is very different than UCLA today. When you were at UCLA, you took a break to serve in the military. Could you tell us about that?
ML: Yes, when I turned 18, in October of 1943. I was in the U.S. Army in November of 1943. And so I completed a one year essentially and left, and went into the army. I actually went into the Army Air Corps, which subsequently became the U.S. Air Force. But when I was in until near the end, it was the US Army Air Corps. And I served in the invasion of Okinawa, and I came home in April of 14 1946. And, at that time, had what they call the G.I. Bill was a wonderful piece of legislation, granting veterans all sorts of funds for education. And, though I completed the next my three years, but I changed my major when I was overseas, I was concerned, how would I make a living in history, my vision was quite now on I wasn’t sure how I would survive economically, because my parents didn’t have any money at all. They were quite, quite poor. They didn’t say to me, however, you can sleep at our little home, and we’ll share food with you. But we’re unable to give you anything else. And so I worked every summer and I had jobs. During the time I attended UCLA, the second time from 1946. Through June of 1949.
JG: You mentioned that after the war, you changed your major.
ML: I changed my major to economics, I was getting closer to the mighty mighty dollar. And then I realized I didn’t know anything fun graduating in 1949. And I didn’t care to pursue economics because my viewpoint of the basic tenets of economics at that time, I was in disagreement with them. I didn’t think they were real at that time. Everything in economics was based upon a rational person, always making a rational decision. And I knew from my experiences in life that people made irrational decisions. And people were irrational at times. And they did things based upon emotion, not because they were fully rational and thinking, and I couldn’t agree with the theories of economics, everything was based on that ration. Well, 2,030 years later, 40 years later, they were giving Nobel prizes to economists who had theories about the rationality and economics. So I should have gotten that price back there in about 1948. I just couldn’t accept that concept. It didn’t make sense to me. And so I applied to the Stanford Business School. And I was accepted. And I started in September of 1949. To get an MBA there, I exhausted my G.I. Bill. And there was also something called a California veterans bill, they gave you up to $1,000 for tuition, books or event, so when I finally got the NBA at 51, I exhausted all that the government’s gonna give to me for education. And so I’m forever indebted to the concept of getting an education. And that feeling motivates me towards UCLA or towards a state university where well anyway, at that time, you can get a great education just over a little money and allow somebody from a very poor or you could happen to be poor. I love my parents that was rich in in love and good advice and good principles about life from my parents. But economically, there wasn’t any money to be had. And so UCLA gave me that wonderful education and an outlook that I could do something with myself in terms of supporting myself and having a decent standard of life. And my philanthropy UCLA is shaped very much by the concept of having a public institution wherein students of low economic resources, can get a great education and help them to much better life economically.
JG: I want to focus now on your extensive philanthropy at UCLA. You already touched on it a little bit, but can you tell us some more about how and why you started donating to UCLA?
ML: Well, my first gift, which was significant for me at that time, but based upon my good fortune in the material world, my first gift was to the UCLA history department to help some graduate students with fellowships. And then, when I realized that we had accumulated a lot of money, and then a lifestyle, didn’t call for needing a lot of money, lifestyle was relatively simple compared to the amount of money that I made. And we said, we don’t believe in hierarchies or royalty or special families that can dominate economically, we just don’t believe in that we strongly believe in total democracy, and helping people to achieve and making it easy for someone who can be good to get somewhere and achieve. And so we decided to make some major gifts to UCLA. I remember we made that decision sitting around the breakfast table on a Saturday morning, we looked at each other and said, time to give it away. And we came to the conclusion that science and medicine get so much of the money that’s given to universities. And we felt they were getting enough money, and that the social sciences or the other areas of education and life also should be supported. And we wanted to do something that would help people right now. Whereas if you try to cure a disease, it may take you 1,020 years, or longer. And the benefits take a long, long time. We wanted to see some value to what we’re doing now. We wanted to enjoy that. And so we thought about the School of Public Affairs, which had a Department of Social Welfare, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, and the Department of Public Policy. And we knew they didn’t get much money. And so part of that first 100 million that we gave to UCLA, half of it went to school of Public Affairs, and a lot of it goes towards fellowships and scholarships to enable people to attend graduate school who otherwise might not attend. And then we, under the guidance of a chancellor block decided to support the building of the Luskin Conference Center. And so the principal recipients of the first major gift with a School of Public Affairs and a left wing (of the) conference center.
JG: Everyone on campus is now familiar with the Luskin Conference Center. It’s a beautiful building. Why did you think it was important for UCLA to have a conference center on campus?
ML: We thought I could have a major conference center on campus would be a great help towards speeding along the acquisition of new college. Because before having a conference, the major conference center where people could have breakfast together to attend lectures, have drinks afterwards dinner and sleep in a hotel and all be together. Whereas prior to that a major conference have to get to hotels around the city. Probably they wouldn’t meet that had nowhere to pick place to meet as well afterwards and have dinner and drinks and stay in the same place. But if you put them together longer, they’ll make arrangements for each other, they will arrange that for joint projects that they will be doing research on together, that will foster education, if they’re together longer and allow them to have joint investigating projects. And, and so it turns out the conference center became something greater and better than all of us envision. And it’s at all us. It’s now an important area and the university in terms of gathering people and getting them to work together and encourage meetings and conferences. Oh, but before that. We started something, it’s called the Luskin Center for Innovation. The idea was to bring the brilliance of the UCLA scholars to help the neighborhood that is helping the town. Because normally they were at odds. And we felt if UCLA didn’t show the city, the state, how valuable it is to the community. They wouldn’t get as much support. And we thought that we would foster that relationship. And what started as a one person operation has now blossomed into one of the major research groups and for the state of California, and we emphasize the environment. And so the Luskin Center of Innovation is I don’t know how many professors are now working with it and, and students getting fellowships to work and all the research project was presented the state of California. And it’s a large project now and it brings in income for risk for further research. So that idea turned out to be a really excellent one for the people of our state, in our community and for the university.
JG: One of your big initiatives is the Luskin Center for History and Public Policy. Can you tell us about that? And why you think it’s important to study history?
ML: We want to study history, for the sake of how does it affect our current political situation? What do we learn from different periods of history that will help us make a decision now, as human beings, we tend to repeat our mistakes and problems that we create from the past. As you look at the way the world is now you see all the horrible things going on, which have been going on for several 1,000 years now. We’ve learned we made some progress. But we have a hell of a long way to go. And so if we could learn some more of the mistakes we made, and how do we apply it to a problem right now are the problems can be small ones, it could be major ones, but we’re hoping that we do some good with our history and public policy center.
JG: I understand that you’ve also supported the School of Education and Information. Can you tell us about the work you do there?
ML: We have worked and contributed to the scholarships and fellowships for community college students and trying to draw the community college world closer to the UCLA and helping those people in community college you want to go on and teach and administering Community College helping them and We continue to look for areas at UCLA that we want to support. And so I’m still working, and pass 98. But I go to the office five days a week. And all that I make goes to philanthropy. Meaning I have enough, our idea of a great weekend is, is to sit and read, don’t need to have a lot of money to sit and read. I can scan anymore, I can play tennis anymore. I did both of those until I was almost 90. And so I get fun out of relating to people, having lots of friends at UCLA, and been quite lucky in life. So good fortune, just having good breaks, I think is helped along plus, having good science and medicine. When I was in my late ’60s, I had open heart surgery. And if it weren’t for that open heart surgery, I probably would have died shortly thereafter. So having good science, good medicine, as important as my longevity and enjoyment of life. I’ve led a sensible and reasonable life almost all the time. Times who isn’t so sensible and reasonable. When I was quite ill and young, the doctor, the doctor, I had this wonderful man said, Don’t you ever smoke by or it isn’t good for you. So luckily, I never was a smoker. Whereas so many of my young friends all smoked and so many of them died of smoking problems in their ’50s and ’60s and early ’70s. I had a nutritious diet, drank wine every night. I’ve know this about cut it out but never to an excess. Got a fair amount of exercise. didn’t overdo it, but just enough to keep reasonably fit. So I can enjoy the sports. I kept in shape so I can have fun and have always had wonderful friends. I thank UCLA for getting me started. And they say I’m indebted to the concept of a an excellent public education out there and these very, very poor people look for some kind of a Shakespeare or an Einstein or Leonard Kleinrock or Mr. Luskin, or Mr. Alaskan Yes, but one that we wouldn’t have had that. And so the more we now get into sharing our good fortune, the better it feels, the better I feel about it. The greater joy have to reach the level that you try to understand what you need, what you want. What is bad emotion and what’s good emotion and you have to be careful that you make sure that bad emotions don’t drive your life or leave you without reality. I tell people I’ve never seen a hurt a armored car in a funeral procession. You can’t take it with you. So can’t take it with you. Miserable enjoy giving it away now or doing something with other giving it you pleasure. Whatever it is, I’m not trying to tell everybody what they should do. Ringing I get particularly pleasure trying to help humanity and people. So one might get pleasure of constantly skiing. That’s all right. But do something that gives you joy and pleasure. And I think if you mature enough you start trying to help other people.
JG: We see your wife Renee’s name alongside yours all around campus. Can you tell us about your partnership with Mrs. Luskin?
ML: Well, she’s past 91 We still love each other very much. Just before we close her eyes and bed we kissed each other good night. She’s a great partner and tries to take care of me And I tried to do the same. It’s not that we don’t have time to have arguments. They’re not bad. They’re short. They’re few now. She gave up a career, to raise children and provide a home for me so I can provide for children. So she was going to get her master’s in social welfare and gave that up. And so we’re partnership. So what I have made and working is lease—I call her my better three quarters anyway. Both of us do most most things alike. I think it’s important if two people are going to live together that they have the same values and important concepts. I can’t imagine two people having a long life together, if the values are, are significantly different. The only time we really had serious disagreements was about raising the children. And I looked back and she was right most of the time, and I was wrong. But I was tending to be much harder and tougher, shouldn’t have been that much. I thought, in order to toughen up for this stuff, world, that I had to do things I thought to make them stronger. But at times that backfired, as I look back. Now. But as far as the two of us, that was really only serious disagreements. And we still have so much of the same values. But so many aspects of life, most important the basic values of what you believe in your levels of integrity, levels of honesty, your, your feelings about other people. And so that’s, that’s important, we have those same values. And we try to help them take care of one another. Particularly if we feel that the other has having a little problem best one, the great feeling of love comes out. Great concern comes out of a willingness to do anything to help the other one. And she and I agree on our gifts. And what we do.
JG: In 2019, you both received the UCLA Medal, which is the highest honor at the university. Can you tell us about what it was like winning that award?
ML: Well, when you realize that it was this not quite 17 year old, my 17 year old, coming from Boyle Heights, by way of all sorts of public transportation, among amongst and I met it and I was on a short side. I was in five, seven. I’m now five, four, I’ve lost almost probably less last three, four inches. But when you realize I was still that very naive, insecure in some ways. Yeah. Entering UCLA at that time. And then, and then thinking about getting the the UCLA accolade didn’t seem like it was, it was me, you know, doesn’t make make sense. I mean, how do I get there? I mean, that’s, and in fact, all those these last many years, the whole voyage doesn’t seem to make any sense. Considering being in those little streets, in the lower east sides in that ghetto area. And so longevity, luck, and America, I mean, it wouldn’t. What happened to me wouldn’t happen in almost any place. I, you know, from, from the area we were economically, to where we’re at now. And all the other aspects of it would not have happened if it weren’t for this being in this country. And though my parents raised me with a great love for this country, because it gave them an opportunity, they were both immigrants from Eastern Europe. They had no education. They were bright people, they were really bright, they quickly learned to read and write English and became citizens very quickly. So they had to be bright, without any education to do that. And they will forever grateful with this country afforded them. And that was passed on to the children. But I then became particularly strong for me, as I realized what I had here, as compared to what I would have had been raised in a little settle in Eastern Europe. So when I went off, in World War II, I realized I would lose my life, I could lose my life. And I accepted it, they accept that there was an obligation that I had to the country in a horrible war, that if we lost, there would have been a horror for everybody, particularly being achieved. And I use that word, in a strange way. Because I guess culturally, I’m that, but I don’t particularly followed religion. I am not a person of faith. But I deeply believe in the sense of democracy for all—Renee shares those feelings, totally and completely. I was exceptionally lucky in her accepting me in marrying her. So I really lucked out.
JG: I want to transition now to your business career. How did you first get started?
ML: Well, at Stanford, I decided I wanted to become an investment counselor. And, and so when I graduated, I came back down to Los Angeles, because my mother was quite ill. And I wanted to be near her, thinking that she may have a lot of years and I was correct. She passed away two years after I returned. And I’m forever grateful, I decided to come back to Los Angeles, rather than living in the Bay Area. And so I tried to get a job in a very few investment counseling firms. And they wouldn’t hire me. Later on, I learned why. And then I applied to stock brokerage firms as being a counselor. I said, Well, I’ve stepped down and try to become a stockbroker and help and do my research and, and help people and make a good living that way. And so I couldn’t get a job with a major brokerage firms, and didn’t know why. Until I had one interview. And the partner of this major firm, that I really liked you and God, you serve your country, well got decent grades at school, you got an MBA, but I cannot hire you. And I said, Well, why not? He says, Don’t you understand. And I looked at him, I said, I don’t understand. And he looked at me and said, because you’re Jewish. And you could have knocked me down with a feather. Because I thought those days were over, I thought, this is the United States of America. And here I am with and he said, I could get you a job as a messenger boy, as a runner for a small brokerage firm. And maybe you can work your way in, but they need somebody deliver packages in envelopes. I could have gotten the job, but then with my friends, at about 550 to $600 a month. I accepted being a runner at $125 a month, just so I get started, I was willing to do anything to get started. So my advice to people, if you think you love something, you want to do something. Don’t look at what the starting pay is. Get involved, get started. Do what you have to in those days where you can subsist on very little, and have lots of energy and desire. In the beginning, follow your love and desire. And then if it doesn’t work, well you can change but in the beginning, don’t let any any not having these perks or whatever it is stop you go to work on what you love. So I would then show up before seven o’clock and start delivering there between the different brokerage firms on Spring Street in Los Angeles. And then I would in the afternoon, go into different stores downtown LA— introduce myself and tell him I work for a stock brokerage firm. And four out of five people who throw me out the door. Because the concept of 1929, the Great Depression, this was so prevalent in their mind, they still you know this. This was 1950. And but I started convincing people to let me invest some money for them. I did my own research, I didn’t depend upon anybody, I learned how to do research in a classical way. When I got my MBA, and I started building this clientele slowly. And by the end of that second or third year working with this little firm, they only had a few salespeople, somewhere between seven and 10 people. I was now number one. After another year, I was recruited by a New York brokerage firm that was moving to Los Angeles, to join them in Beverly Hills. So I moved from downtown, this very small, firm, not a member of the New York Stock Exchange, to a national firm. And I did very well. In about 70 people I be ranked one or two from the top, didn’t lose any customers, I did my research. All my customers were small to medium sized people, I don’t know anybody have any money? Oh, let me be fair, I, when I went, there was one at that time Jewish investment counseling firm. And I applied there, and they didn’t accept me either. Because I came from the wrong side of the tracks. I was a kid from Boyle Heights. So keeping the record straight, they wouldn’t hire me either. I don’t make a big impressive impression, this little guy. It’s hard to see into a person’s motivation. And when I hire people, the most important thing I look for is motivation. If you really don’t want to do something, I don’t get many brains you have, you’re not going to be as good for me, as the person who’s highly motivated, as enough brains to get the job done doesn’t have to be brilliant. Because the work I’m in doesn’t call for that. If I were hiring a physicist, I guess I’d want somebody who has the best brains. But you still have to have motivation. And boy was a motivated. I worked all day night weekends, I then had so much business decided I would give up my very good brokerage business and open my own small one man investment counseling, because then there would be no conflict of interest. When you’re a broker, you get a commission when somebody buys or sells and if I advise you to buy a sale, I get a commission. And if you’re my good friend or a good clients, and I’m going to advise you to do something because I’m going to make money, I’m screwing you, I’m abusing you. And I had, and I was getting to a point, I was trying to be certain that my advice was always to the best of the clients and not because of a commission. The only way to do that was eliminate commissions, so I gave up an excellent practice in Beverly Hills, and started a small one person firm in Beverly Hills as an investment counselor. When I would get a percentage of the client’s portfolio, I get one quarter 1%. So if the client’s portfolio did well, I did better. If it went down, I made less, no conflict of interest in advice. There was one investment I had, which wasn’t doing well. I decided to give up my investment counseling business and take over and run this company which was insolvent, a step or two away from being bankrupt and insolvent. They had a drilling, contract drilling business that is in contracts drilling and oil industry. That means you own the equipment you own the drilling rig. You have the people who are qualified know how to drill, but you don’t own the lease or the land or anything you’re you’re hired contracts or and so this company is essentially a contractor and we had rigs in Libya and California and few in the Rocky Mountains. And we were greatly in debt. And the first thing I had to do was go to Libya. That time, they were highly unfriendly anybody who might have the word Jew associated with them. I was able to enter the country. The entry document I worked, I wrote the word protest, obviously thought it was Protestant. And I visited our rigs, then a couple of weeks there came to the decision that we should leave and sell and get out because a Libyan whom I befriended, whereas our Americans wouldn’t talk much to the Libyans, because they called them ragged and looked down upon him. But this man who is the head of our Libyan labor group that we hired, was an intelligent, cultured man, who advised me as to the politics and history of Libya, and warn me that the old king, King Idris would die soon, and that people would take over hated the Western countries. So when I came back to the United States, I said, we got to sell our rigs. People don’t come to Korea was crazy. But I did sell them a couple years later, to a French conglomerate. They had held him for about a year, then a guy named Muammar Gaddafi overthrew the king, and became a dictator. And throughout all the Western oil companies took over the entire industry, nationalized the industry. And the contractors all went broke, because he took all the equipment. And they we all had, that time would have had a lot of debt. And so being interested in history, and politics, and I gave a talk to the graduating history department about four or five years ago, the title of my commencement talks to the graduating class was how history saved my ass. And that was my example, one of my two examples of how important it is to know history and your background, where you came from what was going on. Because I wasn’t interested, I wouldn’t be friends with this man. And getting out of Libya. And time was a turning point in my life, we were in broke. I say to everybody, one way or another, know your background, know what you’re doing know the background of the business, you’re in older people try to learn as much as possible about what is affecting you now. Because the past does affect us.
JG: How are you able to take that struggling company and grow it?
ML: When I took over this little company, I started to diversify it through some techniques then of using the tax code in a legal but clever way. I was able to buy into some little businesses, a beauty school, called Marinello School of Beauty. I built at 18 schools sold those who later had a little rental car business for a while disagreed with board of directors of the franchisor. So I left it and they went broke, because at the very reasons I disagreed with them and get started in 1962. In a current business with a recycling of waste foods, we recycle the waste food into an animal feed ingredient. So we call upon the manufacturers of waste foods, the bakeries, snack, food plants, pizza, pasta, tortillas, all sorts of foods that are made with some kind of a grain and we put our equipment in the dark end of that plant, wherein they bring the waste that’s generated. Every operation generates some waste for various reasons. And we pick up the food waste and bring it to our plants where we mix it all together. And we have a manufacturing process and the end of the manufacturing process. We have a very fine grain like product that is highly dense in calories, about 1,700 calories per pound, as a fair amount of fat, protein, vitamins and minerals and is a great ingredient in an animal’s diet. So we service the bakeries by removing—Seeing the waste, which they have to do, must do. And in turn, we make a product out of something that normally would have gone to the landfill, we keep it from going to a landfill, and have a value product for society. In a short future, we’re going to have our own dog food, some of this product will go into a dog food because it’s a highly nutritious product and couldn’t make a part of it. So we will further upcycle. And so I started with one little operation in southeast Los Angeles. And every time I get enough money, I’d move to another part of the country and build a plant. And so now we have 19 plants.
JG: And what do you think has been key to that growth?
ML: There’s been a slow gradual growth, no big, dynamic, dramatic thing that goes on in the world of technology. Mine has been very old fashioned and old slog of, we have a lot of competitors now, because one of the great things in America is competition. somebody sees what you’re doing, and it’s good. They’re gonna do the same thing. So we’re in the early stages, I had it pretty much to myself. Now I got substantial competitors. And that’s fine. I know how to compete. And we’re still making progress. completing our last plans right now. So with still active, I enjoy working, I enjoy the people enjoy what I’m doing. It’s worthwhile. And above all, I’m really enjoying giving that money I’m making to various good causes. So people say when are you going to retire? And I don’t know. I don’t feel retiring now. I’m not sure I feel that way. I’m certainly losing part of my abilities and memory for names, and other small things that I forgetting. When I go into a room in a house, I gotta remind myself, what am I looking for? Why am I coming in here. But I still think I’m capable of making the executive decisions that need to be made. And through encourage you to help our people. And so I continue to work and enjoy it.
JG: You’ve spoken about your knowledge of history and how that’s helped inform your business decisions, and you’ve also talked about the importance of motivation. What other qualities do you think have helped you become successful in business? And what other advice do you have for UCLA students?
ML: Well, first of all, trying to think about what you’re doing what needs to be done. You have to take time off and try to realize what am I doing? Why am I doing what’s really going on? I think persistence, tenacity is very important, because along the way, had setbacks, but was able to overcome them and stay out and believe in what I was doing was enough to expand and grow. And so I think being willing to work longer than your competition, that is to work hard. I’m convinced that using your brain makes it better and stronger. This and yes, convinced that in a way, it’s like a muscle if you continue to use it, and try to think it’ll do it for you. And you train it, you train your brain, to want to think to to try to stop and think it has to go on all the time. Then I think what’s important is to understand when your emotions are operating. So you can do things logically, reasonably sensibly without being driven by an emotion that isn’t good. At that point. I say to some of the young friends, getting knocked down is not a sin, not getting up and trying again is a sin. So you’re going to have setbacks. And that shouldn’t determine the end result. Of course, one has to be really realistic. And if something definitely after a while, shows you that that’s not for you, well, then you have to change. Which leads me to you have to be flexible in what you’re doing and acting, and the different ways you do things, there’s more than one way of approaching a problem, there’s more than one way of resolving a problem. I think trying to be ethical or moral, with your people being honest, isn’t very important. I know people make a lot of money, and they’re not ethical, immoral, you can make a lot of money, nothing ethical, immoral. But I know you’re going get a hell a lot more pleasure out of what you’re doing. If you’re doing it in the right and proper way, you’re going to feel good about yourself. Which leads me to my philosophy that the important thing for you in life is to learn how to be good to yourself, how you should feel good, which then means what are your what makes you feel good. And in so in, going back to the ideas about work, you’re able to work well, and long. If you feel good about what you’re doing, it all ties together. You know, we are both in a way simple animals and highly complex, highly complicated animals, human beings are so complex and complicated, yet there are aspects of us, and things that are very simple. So you gotta realize both. Most of our emotions are really simple, primitive emotions. But then it can get translated into very complex, devious, good, and all sorts of things. It’s nice if you know where you’re at. Because that’ll help you achieve something you want to do. If you do have a goal, I never— had a, a goal. I just wanted to do well and do as much as I can do. And tackle the problems in the end is that I saw sort of interim goals, but I never said, As for some people, which is right to say, I would like to be an MD. Well, that’s a good goal. And that’s a goal. And for some people, that’s right. But it doesn’t have to be there for you. Who might listen to me or you as something should not feel badly if they don’t have some big goal in mind. You can have things you want to accomplish and do now. And that’ll lead you to other things. It’s not bad. If you don’t have one big goal in mind, don’t feel badly or wrong. It’s just fine.
JG: Well, I think that’s great advice, especially for seniors like me
ML: Yeah, you look, I know people who in different fields have done wonderful things, but they don’t have any specific goal. And you’ve got to get started. So get started. And then see what’s developing, see what you like, if, if, if you’re reasonably reasonably lucky, or read that you fair breaks? What do you do, and in the beginning, we’ll have many times no relationship to what you’re doing 20, 30 and 40 years later, and you’re going to live a long life now. I mean, the odds are, you’re going to live into the ’80s if you lead a reasonable life.
JG: Any and any other closing bits of advice for students?
ML: So I had a career. As a stockbroker, I had a career short career, several years as an investment counselor. And then I changed careers completely and became a businessman. So where you start doesn’t mean that’s where you end up. And that’s fine too. Because you may find this something else really appeals to you. So feel good about it. acquire knowledge, Work hard. Work hard and think. Be honest. Enjoy other parts of your life, not as much as you will later on because you’re young and getting started. You can spend more time working, but leave time for taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Find a great companion may not be in the beginning or may not be for a while, but have some good friends. That’s important.
JG: Well, Mr. Luskin. I have some more questions, but I think we’ll call, they’re–
ML: Give me a call and we will have lunch together.
JG: Well that’d be great. I’ll be in touch. Thanks again, and have a great rest of your day.
ML: Thank you, bye.
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