Stratis Morfogen - Be a Disruptor: Streetwise Lessons for Entrepreneurs—from the Mob to Mandates

Copyright 2022 by Stratis Morfogen

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-5107-7376-9

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5107-7380-6

Cover design by Brian Peterson

Printed in the United States of America

To my late parents, John and Beatrice Morfogen; to my beautiful family: my wife, Filipa, and my daughters, Natalie,

Beatriz, and Isabel;

and to author George P. Morfogen for paving the way for me.

Some names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Contents

Introduction

T his is a book about a different kind of person.

Its a person who acts fearlessly, even when the fear they feel is very great. Its a person who reframes a situation when the odds are against them and who turns the odds back to their advantage. And, most important, its about a person who runs toward a burning building when all the other people are running away.

Throughout time, there have been different terms for these kinds of people. The ones who think differently. Who take action when others around them are paralyzed. Who get things done.

The term for these people todayand its not a bad oneis disruptor .

Disruptors can appear in any industry or field. There are disruptors in medicine, in war, in art, and so on. This book is about being a disruptor in business, something I have lived and breathed my entire life.

There are two things you should know about me before reading this book...

One: From the time I was four years old, I knew Id go into the food business. Its in my blood going back three generations. When you read my story, if youre the kind of person who believes in destiny, it will seem like I had no choice. If youre a staunch advocate for free will, youll see my journey as a series of choicessome of which I made in rebellion to that destiny itself. The truth is, its a bit of both.

Two: I never thought this journey would reveal that made men can be more honorable than MBAs, and that out of betrayal and ruin can come amazing, undreamed-of opportunity. And while Im at it, I never, ever thought Id end up a specialist in Asian cuisine. (That part isnt my blood or birthrightbut it has become an essential ingredient to the journey Ive taken from a little kid washing dishes at the family chophouse to today, watching people eat some damn good dumplings.)

More than simply being my personal story, this book lays out the lessons from my life that I believe can be useful resources for the next generation of disruptors rising today.

My goal in writing this is to make clear how disruptors impact the business world each and every day, and how entrepreneurs can learn from themand eventually become disruptors themselves.

As I said, this book is about a different kind of person. I am that kind of person, and I hope, after reading this, that you decide to become that kind of person, too.

CHAPTER ONE:

Think the Unthinkable

From my earliest days in the restaurant business, I had experiences that laid the groundwork for my understanding of what it takes to be a disruptor. I saw, firsthand, what the advantages are of thinking differently and tackling problems from a new perspective. But I also understood that an effective disruptor has to gain a full understanding of the world they intend to disrupt. Just like an experimental jazz musician can break all the musical rules to create something new and wonderful, but first they need to learn all the basics of their instrument. The importance of knowing the basics and becoming the kind of young person upon whom nothing was lost was made extremely clear to me early on. I also saw that the restaurant worldand the business world, more broadlyis one in which people often say one thing and do another. Moreover, its a world in which people act as though certain laws are immutable when there is actually quite a bit of wiggle room. As I show in this chapter, a disruptor realizes that laws and rules are things made by men and womenand men and women can challenge them!

A re disruptors born or made?

This is what everybody wants to know. Its also the wrong question. Whether a disruptor is born or made doesnt matter. What matters is that a disruptor is different. A disruptor is anyone who is going to come at problems and opportunities in an entirely new way and who is going to use new ideas and new technologies to remake them.

When I look back on the story of my own lifeas someone who has challenged convention and come up with innovations that have brought profound change to my industryit feels like I could not have been any other kind of person.

Part of this is doubtless something in my DNA, but part comes from the remarkable upbringing I was lucky enough to have.

However you get thereit doesnt matter if its nature or nurtureyou have to be different. Disruptors are very different. They think differently, act differently, and their skill sets often dont fit with convention. And thats precisely where their power comes from. Thats what allows them to win.

* * *

I was born into the restaurant business. The story starts with my grandfather Nick, who immigrated to the United States back in the 1890s. My granduncle Paul had partnered with a man named Chris Pappas, as well as his brothers Sam and Jimmy. My grandfather Nick joined them in 1910.

Times were hard in the old days, and it was a very different world. Grandpa Nick had to change his last name from Morfogenis to Morfogen just to get a lease. Nobody would rent him space for his restaurant if he had an exotic, Mediterranean-sounding name. But with one that might be Anglo-Saxon... there was a chance it could happen.

Despite the prejudices of the day, Nick and the rest of the family grew the restaurant, Pappas, into a success. Politicians, celebrities, and industrialists came to eat there. Through their blood, sweat, and hard work, Pappas remained successful and profitable. It was one of the places to see and be seen in New York City until about 1960.

The Morfogens were quick to assimilate, and also to assert that they were just as American as anyone else. My family members served food to every US president from the 1920s through the 1950s. And Im proud to say Ive personally served Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Al Gore!

John, my father, started working for my grandfather when he was just eleven years old, right at the end of the Second World War. My father had been living in Sparta, in a town called Anavrati up in the mountains. Despite its remote location, it was known as the place where more Nazis were killed than in any other part of Greece. By the tender age of eleven, my father had already seen horrible atrocities of all sorts. The occupying Nazis had a policy whereby theyd execute ten civilians for every one of their own who was killed. It was a grim existence, even for children. My father could recall hiding underneath horse and cow manurewith his five siblings and my grandmotherto save themselves from these Nazi selections.