The Glitter Plan: How We Started Juicy Couture for $200 and Turned it Into a Global Brand by co-founders Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor (with Booth Moore) is an unusual business memoir.
It was an enjoyable read and interesting to follow Pam and Gela's journey from the original $200 investment to how they learned things—often the hard way—and managed to keep it fun and authentic until Liz Claiborne's new management took over.
Pam and Gela are very forthcoming about what they did right and wrong and what they learned along the way. They also share many funny anecdotes and repeat tips from that part of the journey at the end of each chapter.
What keeps playing in my mind is the sense of fun and joy they had until the end: they loved what they did, loved working together, and just intuitively knew what would work. Part of the reason, as they repeat several times, is that they were their own customer. If they would wear it and love it, so would others.
Other books have claimed that you have to love your own product and be its best spokesperson to achieve success (Michael Hyatt's Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World is another I've blogged about earlier). Pam and Gela are living examples of this by having created an entire product line and global brand to clothe the world their way: fun, fashionable, yet comfortable clothing one could proudly wear anywhere.
Neither of them had MBAs or any business school education. They just tried something and learned from what worked and what didn't. Even when things went horribly wrong, they managed to support each other, find the humor in the situation, and keep going.
Truly something to aspire to.
For me, this is the definition of true work-life balance: Where both are naturally intertwined and extensions of each other. Where your work is something you enjoy and need and it leaves you feeling fulfilled and recharged. Where life is further inspiration for work and you wouldn't have it any other way.
Do you agree? If not, what is your definition of work-life balance? What do you aspire to?
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