The About.com CEO previously told Business Insider that his first real job was renting tuxedos to kids going to prom and to wedding parties.
"Because of the commission plan, which paid no commission on basic rentals, but instead paid $10 or so every time you rented a tux with tails or a terrible vest-suspenders combo, all of our effort was spent trying to rent people the most ridiculous thing possible," he said, admitting that he and a buddy made side bets (the stakes were lunch in the food court) based on who could rent that day's pre-determined awful item first.
"Working retail is full of great lessons in how to deal with people, and of course sales skills are invaluable," Vogel said. "However, given the surprising amount of money we made, perhaps the most important thing I learned is to be skeptical of those paid commissions to sell you something."