THE FRENCH CONNECTION

“His dream, like many fathers, was to have me take over his business. In 1960, I was on a plane to Paris. Barely 18 years old, I signed up for daytime classes at the Ecole Supérieur de Publicité, and at L’ecole Boulle for night courses in decoration. My father, of course, was not aware of my enrolment in advertising school. He would have never allowed it anyway considering I was his only son and had already committed to taking over the family business,” Rizk confessed.

To cover the expenses of both schools, he took all the work that came his way.

He babysat after his night classes and got a job doing sanitary work at the advertising school he was enrolled in. This however, necessitated him to wake up at five every morning, which explains how he got in 1964 – Advertising Diploma the habit of waking up very early and sleeping very little, something that he still does to this day. On the weekends, he and his friends would draw on the sidewalks of Boulevard St. Michel to make some extra money. More impressively, he managed to get a couple of internships at Publicis and Elle magazine.

All these experiences, he then explained, shaped his life and contributed to the person he is today. 1965 – Student ID