Sidney Frank Importing Company | manager at Pratt & Whitney | Beverage Tasting Institute | Ivy League

Or at least that's what the people at the Beverage Tasting Institute said. In 1998, the independent group rated Grey Goose as the best among the world's top vodkas. These people are alcohol professionals. So, sure, they know what they're talking about. But, let's be honest. Few people can really taste - as in really taste - the difference between one vodka and another, especially if they're both well made. So most of us amateurs who think Grey Goose tastes better than another brand can probably just thank Sidney Frank for convincing us.

"We put $3 million that we didn't have into the marketing of Grey Goose because we believed in it," Frank says, when I ask him about the secret to building a successful brand. "Some people are afraid to put their money into something, even if it is something they believe in. But you can't be afraid in life, because fear will stop you from achieving success."

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TO ACHIEVE HIS SUCCESS, Sidney Frank didn't need an Ivy League degree. He just needed a whiff of one. He dropped out of Brown after a year because he couldn't afford the tuition, but one year there on his résumé was enough to catch the attention of a hiring manager at Pratt & Whitney, where he landed his first full-time job. On his first day, the foreman asked if he knew how to use a slide rule. "I said, 'Sure,' " Frank recalls, chuckling. "But I didn't know how to use a slide rule. So I went out and I bought one and read the instructions. You always have to be positive."

Frank left Pratt & Whitney after World War II to join the biggest distillery in the country at the time - Schenley Distillers Corporation. In a shrewd self-marketing move, he married the owner's daughter. By 1972, Frank was ready to go out on his own and founded Sidney Frank Importing Company. (His wife passed away shortly after.) The first product his company represented was Gekkeikan Sake, which is still today a sushi house mainstay.