Dressed to Kill

"Go big, or go home."

            Israeli-born Chaim Witz, 68, came to America at the age of eight. When he first saw Santa Claus, he thought he was a Russian rabbi. His mother was a Holocaust survivor. He grew up in poverty. No indoor plumbing. No toys. No phone. No toothpaste. "You actually don't need much," he now says. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have it all."

            When he emigrated to America, he'd never seen television or been inside a grocery store. To him, jam on Wonder Bread was a fantastic luxury. "America taught me no one has the right to make you feel less than what you are," he says. "No matter the difference in your skin color, your accent, or your religious beliefs, no one has the right to make you feel less than what you are...
         "The uniquely American spirit of individuality and pride allowed me to embrace the idea of entrepreneurship; that not only can you do anything—you can do everything."
            "Since you have all the opportunities [in America] the universe has to offer, you have no excuse for sitting on your thumb."

            As a teen in Queens, N.Y., he sought out any job. He took typing lessons and worked as a secretary (partly to meet girls) and even worked at Glamour and Vogue. Obsessed with virile comic book heroes, he resold old comics often for big money.

            When Gene Simmons and his partner Paul Stanley started their business (which reflected his flair for fashion and machismo), neither knew anything about marketing, law, or had any education in their field. 

Named "The Demon"

            Today, thanks to the massive success of that business venture—the rock band KISS, he is one of the most famous people in the world. And what a presence he is—a black-and-white faced kabuki actor meets a Nazi SS officer meets a blood-spitting Godzilla meets a hairy-chested leather drag queen in massive platform heels. Or something. His bass-playing 'character' is named "The Demon." (The band's logo is actually banned in Germany and Israel where Nazi iconography is illegal.)

            When the band started, his philosophy was "Go big, or go home." That's attitude from someone who never had music lessons and still doesn't know how to read music." His attitude wasn't so much that he was a musician but that he was a business man in the music business. 
            The band has 30 gold albums, more than 100 million in album sales, and according to Simmons was more popular than the Beatles and Led Zeppelin in the late 1970s.

            Most prominent rock musicians appear appear reluctant to wave the flag. Not Simmons. "I will forever be grateful to America for going into World War II, when it had nothing to gain…and rescued my mother from the Nazi German concentration camps," he said. "She is alive, and I am alive because of America, and if you have a problem with America, you have a problem with me."

           Despite Simmons' bombastic macho stage presence, growing up in poverty left him humble behind the greasepaint and with a strong desire to give back. "I do as much as a can all the time," he recently told Forbes. "Wounded Warriors, Children with Cancer, I support around 1,200 kids in Africa, about 140 kids through Child Fund, which used to be the Christian Child’s Fund and then another thousand kids on my own that I feed. I try not to do press conferences and tug at anyone’s sleeves to convince them that I’m a good guy, but I’m a good guy. I sleep well. I think I am making a difference."
           "Sink or swim," he says. "You have to jump into the deep end. If you wait until you are ready, you will wait forever.

MORAL: Lick it up.

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