Entrepreneur Chat
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Here, we chat with the entrepreneur, who previously founded The Wedding List—which was later bought by Martha Stewart—about the start-up life and what it takes to be leader.
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Q&A
An Inconvenient Truth was really a wakeup call for me. I started connecting the dots between things that were detrimental to the earth and how they were also detrimental to my health. I was tired of seeing the people around me suffer from a variety of health issues. Our nanny was diagnosed with cancer and died in my arms a few months later, my friends were having fertility issues, and children had significant allergies and asthma. I decided to take a look at why this was happening, I read the labels of my personal care products, and I did my research. I started making sweeping changes in my home: I traded plastic for glass, started using vinegar and water to clean, and changed to organic mattresses. When it came to beauty products, I could not find any that met my high standards of performance but were made with ingredients that were significantly safer for health. I could find products that were made with safer ingredients, but they didn’t last all day or just didn’t work. At the other end of the spectrum, I could find all the luxury brands I was accustomed to, but they were filled with ingredients I knew to be harmful to health. There was a hole in the market for high performing products that were also significantly safer—so I decided to do something about it.
It was never about the industry—it was always about the mission.
Walking into a room and hearing people talk about the brand, or having strangers walk up to me on the street to thank me for the work we are doing. It’s those little moments in time when you know you’ve built a business to stand the length of time, and makes me so happy.
Managing people. Their desires, needs, differences of opinions, and work styles. It doesn’t matter what business you’re in—you’re always in the people business and that is the hardest part.
That you work for yourself because the reality is, as an entrepreneur—you’re a servant leader and you serve the needs of your team, your investors, your mission. Success doesn’t happen overnight—it’s 24/7. People don’t see the whole picture and don’t understand the full timeline.
The strongest leaders today are those that believe in servant leadership—putting the needs of others first, and realizing that you are there to serve them, they are not there to serve you.
1. It’s hard.
2. You’ve got what it takes to be successful—don’t let other people convince you otherwise. All the people surrounding the idea are not as necessary as they may seem.
3. In order to be really successful you have to have a high level of self-awareness. Know where you’re strong and know where you’re weak. Find the support around you for those areas in which you’re weaker.
1. Consistency is king.
2. Have confidence in your point of view.
Some things are easier, some things are harder. It was certainly easier to raise capital the second time around, but the consumer market is more complicated and demanding now than it was when I started the Wedding List.
When I got fired by messenger in front of a room full of people. Getting back up and just staying the course—even though it was so humiliating. Being fired as CEO in front of my team and via messenger was for sure the most humbling moment of my career. At the end of the day, you need to have your glass of wine, pick yourself up, and get on with it.
Humility. I think you can be strong, but still lead with purpose and with the needs of people in mind. I think the strongest leaders today are those that believe in servant leadership—putting the needs of others first, and realizing that you are there to serve them, they are not there to serve you.
Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.