Motivational Leaders: Ralph Lauren

"I look like Ralph Lauren. And my goal is to constantly move in fashion and move in style without giving up what I am." And since he launched his own fashion label, Polo, in 1967 he's done just that.

While fashion trends come and go, Ralph has remained true to his original concept: selling not just preppy clothes but a lifestyle. It's earned him a personal fortune close to $1 billion and a place in design history. Not bad for a kid from the Bronx, New York, who wore tennis sweaters to school when everyone else was slouching around in leather jackets.

Ralph Lauren, née Ralph Lifshitz, was born on October 14, 1939. He grew up in a middle-class Jewish household and for a time shared a bedroom with two of his three older brothers. Possessed of an innate fashion sense from birth, he took part time jobs early on to fund his penchant for designer clothes. His chosen course of study, however, was business, although he left the course at City College in Manhattan before receiving his degree.

Unhappy with the design of men's clothing at the time, Ralph designed his own despite his lack of formal training and had them custom made.

After a stint in the army, Ralph was given an opportunity to prove himself when he convinced New York City clothier Beau Brummel to invest in his wide tie venture. In the first year he notched up sales of half a million dollars. Tailored suits and shirts were added the following year and Polo menswear.

The company name was always intended to be evocative of a lifestyle. "Well, what kind of people play polo?" he asks. "Wealthy, cosmopolitan, chic, wealthy. I wanted to create a concept for the name." And he did, ironically designing the wardrobe for the film version of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby along the way.

Women's clothing and houseware bearing the Ralph Lauren name followed and in 1997 the firm went public. Ralph the first fashion designer to have his own signature store pocketed $465 million that day.