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| He initially looks pretty intimidating. |
You know, The Urban Outlaw. The Porsche guy. Actually so much more.
Love him, or hate him, he is someone with a very interesting story to tell. There are real life lessons to be learned here.
Oh My God! Am I becoming a Fan Boi? No, but I'm attracted to success stories where the protagonist didn't follow the conventional path. And then there's that car connection.
Well, love him, or hate him, the man knows how to self promote.
His story is so typically American. Even if he isn't. An abbreviated biography follows.
Magnus grew up in a working class town in England, by his own admission, not much of a scholar. He attends a car show in London with his Father, where he becomes enthralled with the Porsche automobile and the idea of someday working for Porsche. He wrote a letter to the company, and surprisingly, they send a back a reply, "contact us when you get older." He drops out of school at 15, but returns later to take a sports management degree.
This leads to an opportunity to come to America and work in a summer camp for disadvantaged urban youth near Detroit. After the Summer is over he jumps on a bus to LA.
He arrives here in L.A. alone, nearly broke, and gets rousted by the cops for sleeping in the park. His life could have gone in several different directions. But his saving grace was that he knew how to sew. He bought some ten dollar, clearance store jeans and altered them to fit snugly.
Magnus is enjoying exploring L.A. and ends up on Melrose Blvd. Which is home to many trendy shops.
An Ex Pat Brit shop owner, Taime Downe, likes his jeans. He asks Magnus were he got them. Thinking fast on his feet, Magnus replies "England." The next question is if he wants to sell them and how much. Magnus names his price of 30.00, and then shop owner says that he'll take a dozen. Magnus returns to the store, buys a dozen, alters them, and delivers them to the shop. A light goes on in his head and he realizes that there is money to be made in the clothing business.
The shop owner also happens to be a member of the band, Faster Pussycat. This is Magnus' introduction and entry into the L.A. rock scene. It also provides him with a direction to pursue his marketing interests.
He hits up thrift stores, and garage sales buying cool old clothes. Leather and denim jackets, jeans and other items that he can alter.
This leads to him selling his clothes at a stall on Venice Beach. Venice Beach is a popular destination for American and European tourists. His used clothing business becomes quite successful. At one point he is selling two thousand dollars worth of inventory every weekend. He is making connections with music celebrities that are looking for unique items for their wardrobe. He starts making clothing of his own designs out of unusual fabrics. Like those used for auto upholstery. Eventually he becomes a supplier to the Hot Topic store chain. Magnus has to contract with outside manufacturers to provide him with the volume of clothing that he needs. He even secures a contract with Disneyland to provide them with the five pointed Jester hats that used to be so popular.
Magnus learns from these experiences and launches his own line of clothing. Serious Clothing. This line is embraced by many Hollywood and music celebrities. Financial success soon follows.
Magnus has the need for a location to house his clothing business's production and shipping. He also needs a place to live of course. After buying his first Porsche, he finds he needs a place to store and work on his car. Instead of renting and paying someone else's mortgage he and his Wife take a huge gamble. They decide to buy an abandoned warehouse in the downtown industrial district. This was twenty years ago, before all the recent gentrification.
They build their residence in the loft. They use some of the building to house their business. It also provides a workspace and storage for their cars. Several of his musician friends visit and decide that his warehouse would be great location for their music video shoots, and a new business enterprise is born.
Check out these photos of his warehouse/residence/ workspace. Nice!
All photos are from an internet article.
I'll let the man himself explain the path that he undertook. Video source is YouTube.
Here's a video of his TED Talk, entitled, "Go with your gut feelings."
In this video he discusses his business and automotive interests.
Oh, here's the original video that started it all.
More power to you Magnus!
It takes many factors to become a success: Inspiration, focus, imagination, hard work, opportunity and last but not least, good luck. While I, and most of us, will never become a financially successful, iconic, pop culture figure, we can still try to live Life on our own terms. That's why we mess around with these old cars in the first place!
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