On Right-Wing Feminism with Georgette Mosbacher, the Redneck Living on Fifth Avenue
I’ll never forget meeting Georgette Mosbacher for the first time.
We were standing on line together at the airport in Abu Dhabi in January 2011, waiting to board a commercial flight bound for Baghdad. There we would be taking part in a Business Executives for National Security mission to support American soldiers and promote business investment in Iraq. We were seated next to each other on the plane, and after we disembarked in Baghdad it turned out we were partnered on the same U.S. Army transport from the Red Zone to the Green Zone.
I was scared as hell, but Georgette was alarmingly relaxed, even refusing to put on her helmet and flak jacket for fear of ruining her immaculate hair, makeup and clothes. In fact, throughout the mission, I was so impressed with Georgette’s tenacity that I joked to our Army transport guards that they could relax and let her handle driving and manning the turret.
Georgette and I recounted that story during this week’s The Motivation Inside (TMI) podcast. More than five years after that eye-opening trip, I am proud to call her one of my dearest friends. She is a bestselling author, corporate CEO, Fox News contributor, political fundraiser and philanthropist.
Georgette’s beautiful Fifth Avenue apartment overlooks the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but she started out far from Museum Mile. Georgette grew up in a small suburban Indiana steel town, the oldest of four siblings. Georgette was just 7 years old when her father died in a car accident, and after that unspeakable loss, she, her mother and siblings went to live with her grandmother and great-grandmother (who were also widowed). Her combination of grit, self-education and professional success is a quintessential example of the American Dream.
Georgette said on TMI that she considers herself “lucky” to have been “raised by three women who never told me that I couldn’t do something.” Her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother taught her that there was dignity in doing any work, even scrubbing floors. “The women who raised me never made me feel like I was underprivileged,” Georgette said. They led by example, never complaining or griping about how tough their circumstances were.
The three women also encouraged her to get an education. Georgette worked three jobs to put herself through Indiana University at Bloomington, becoming the first in her family to graduate from college. She remarked on TMI, “I didn’t know it was a hardship because there were no other options.”
Georgette always remembered advice from her mother that to stand out from all the other beautiful girls in a room, you have to beat them with what’s inside your head. She realized just how right her mother was after graduating and sending out the first set of résumés.
Georgette’s first job was at an advertising agency, which led her to start a company producing advertisements for local businesses. Her big break came when she bought a small cosmetics company, La Prairie, elevating it to new heights despite being a novice entrepreneur.
“I didn’t know what it was to go out and get investors,” Georgette recalled on TMI. “I just saw an opportunity, and I decided to go for it — and I mean blindly go for it.”
She later became Chairman and CEO of beauty products firm Borghese, and is now President of Georgette Mosbacher Enterprises.
Georgette lives her life according to the four principles inspired by her upbringing:
· There is dignity in any work.
· No self-pity or victimization.
· Show tenacity and loyalty.
· Always take the high road. (On TMI, Georgette said her mother always told her, “If you try hard, you can always find something to compliment someone on.”)
On TMI, she offered three tips for Millennials who are just starting out:
· “Tenacity — Don’t give up.”
· “Character counts — Be true to yourself and remember that your reputation is all you have.”
· “Service — to your country, and to other people — is noble. It does more for you than it does for them.”
Georgette has certainly stayed true to herself. She’s never forgotten her roots, often describing herself as “a redneck living on Fifth Avenue.” Character counts for Georgette, which is why she is regarded by so many as a generous and loyal friend.
“I love people, and I respect the people that I have around me,” she said on TMI. “I am not a fair-weather friend. Even when you’re wrong and I disagree with you, I’ll tell you that, but I’ll stand by you. You can call me at 3:00 in the morning, and I’ll be there. I love my friends. They are family to me, literally. What it comes down to in life, and I’m old enough to know this, is the people in your life — not what you’ve accomplished or what you have.”
Georgette means what she says, and I’ve seen first-hand that her friends not only like her, but love her. It’s easy to see why.
Our entire TMI conversation, in which we discuss topics ranging from feminism to the Presidential election (Georgette has personally known both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for many years), is available here: https://soundcloud.com/anthonyscaramucci/12-breaking-the-glass-ceiling-with-former-borghese-ceo-georgette-mosbacher
