Kurt Geiger’s CEO went from cleaning toilets to running a $432 million fashion brand—he says he got promoted by making his boss look brilliant

Despite a less-than-glamorous start to his career after failing all of his school exams—and his early jobs including cleaning toilets and delivering paraffin—Kurt Geiger CEO Neil Clifford always knew his career was destined for greatness.

At the time, most people probably would have brushed Clifford off as a teenager with his head in the clouds.

After all, he left school with just one qualification—in art—in 1983, joined the world of work at a Fiat car dealership, and cleaned bathrooms for extra pocket money.

Yet within a year he got his foot in the door of the fashion world as a sales assistant for Burton men’s wear, working for Ralph Halpern, the founder of Topshop.

"Suddenly, from not knowing what the hell to do with a terrible, embarrassing set of exam results, I'd proven to myself that maybe that wasn't going to ruin me—I was going to make it anyway," he adds.

Make it, he did: Less than a year later, Clifford was in charge of his own store in London.

At just 19, he had to sack staffers who were stealing merchandise and lead the shop's turnaround.

Then, over the course of 18 months, he saw promotion after promotion within the company until he was managing Burton's biggest store.

By 21, Clifford was the youngest store manager in the entire company. Today, he’s running £330-million -a-year ($432 million) fashion giant Kurt Geiger—and has done so for more than two decades.

His secret to climbing the ranks so quickly? “You always have to make your boss look brilliant,” he says.

Deep down, Clifford always wanted to be the big boss, and that mindset gave him drive even when he was at the bottom of his career journey.

“Whether it's cleaning toilets or cutting keys or delivering paraffin or selling oil filters or being a chief executive, I've always been very positive about work and not just because of money,” he continues. “I've always wanted to win.

Ref: Kurt Geiger’s CEO went from cleaning toilets to running a $432 million fashion brand—he says he got promoted by making his boss look brilliant (finance)