There’s a saying that goes  “if  you own this company, you can dress any way you want.”

My boss, Dave Bodnarchuk took those words to heart. He’s the stuff of legends in the financial services circles because, while interning with a bank as a university student, he invented some software that saved the bank a bunch of time and money. His software performed functions in hours that normally took days, so his bosses were pretty happy with him.

Not too many of us get to name our price so Dave seized the opportunity to negotiate two things: a guaranteed fall job and that he be allowed to wear Topside brand sneakers, without socks to work. Dave now owns EventIQ, which works with high schools to sell tickets for their events online.

Dave’s story reminded me of another good story, which I read in the book  Secret Formulas From the Wizard of Advertising which was about some successful people who were also notable for more than their quirky dress.

Roy “The Wizard” Williams, author of the aforementioned book, retells a story about his initial meeting with Willie Kocurek, who always wore a red bow tie. Williams later learned that the mysterious stranger was a civic leader in Texas who was well known for his decades operating a department store and for being a dedicated community booster.

Kocurek left the appliance business at age 67 and entered law school because he “didn’t want to be tired or re-tired.”At age 70 he earned his law degree and started his own law practice, becoming the oldest person ever to graduate from the University of Texas School of Law.

In his book, Williams compares the success of Kocurek to another southerner, Colonel Harland Sanders (of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame). Sanders is instantly recognizable because of his white suits and long black string ties; not exactly the uniform in corporate America. Sanders’ success, Williams concludes, had less to do with the 11 herbs and spices that coated his chicken parts and more about his unmitigated audacity and his extraordinary confidence.

Williams says unmitigated audacity and extraordinary confidence are qualities that only two types of people share: the amazingly successful and the extremely deranged and for the record he says neither Col. Sanders or Willie Kocurek were deranged (the jury is still out on Dave — ha ha!).

There’s plenty of people who share these qualities which is nice to know. Hopefully someone who is graduating high school this year reads this post and gleans the same lessons that many others have, that your future success is about substance, not style.

And you will be the one wearing a red bow tie or a white suit. And while Dave doesn’t wear sneakers to work anymore, he does love his golf shirts!