Book of the Week: #GIRLBOSS

05 Jul 2014

This week I read #GIRLBOSS, written by NastyGal’s CEO, Sophia Amoruso. The book is a tale of how she went from dumpster diving, shoplifting and hitchhiking to opening her own vintage eBay store that grew in one of the fastest-growing retailers. I like the book, because it felt really authentic. She seems like one of the people I met in San Francisco growing up. Schooling

The pure mechanics of the traditional school system were spirit crushing. I felt it was the Man’s way of training America’s youth to endure a lifetime repeating the behaviors taught in school, but in an office environment. I felt like a prisoner. As Seth Godin points out in his book Linchpin, our society’s existing ideas of education and employment are held over form a time when most jobs were in factories. People were trained to do exactly as what they were told, and only what they were told, in oder to keep things running smoothly.

I need to add Linchpin to my reading list now. After going through many years of education, I can say that it doesn’t work very well. I admire Khan Academy and Coursersa, but I we can do better. School is larger a waste a time, because we don’t need to train farmer’s kids into factory workers anymore. We need people who are creative and driven. School kills creativity and motivation. Investors

What I really learned from this experience is that people want to invest in businesses that don’t need money, and that your ability to execute has to be just as a strong if not stronger, than your idea. And, just like how I want to buy that item behind the counter at the vintage store that isn’t’ for sale, venture capitalists want to invest in business that also “aren’t for sale.” Human nature tells us to want what we can’t have. A desperate business is not a good look, and most investors won’t touch that with a ten-foot pole.

Thinking that you have to have funding in order to succeed limits you. Sophia used free marketing and became profitable quickly, because she couldn’t borrow money early on, so there was no other way to do it. Don’t be needy. Be resourceful. You are going to do whatever you’re doing whether or not you’ll be funded, because you believe in it that much. The more you crave funding, the harder it will be to raise. Some Things Money Can’t Buy

You can have have a ton of money and buy yourself all the designer good you can stuff into the trunk of your Mercedes-Benz, but no amount of money can buy you style. Having good style takes thought, creativity, confidence, self-awareness, even sometimes a little bit of work.

There were other people selling vintage clothing before Sophia. She found out about it, when people were trying to advertise to her about their store. You are not the first person to have your idea. You will not be the last. It is execute that is important. Sophia worked hard to get the details right, down the having the address label be aligned correctly. Doing the details well is what makes a company successful. She did not start out intending to make truckloads of money, but she was focused on her customers and improving her business. I’d prefer there to be more #GIRLBOSSes than people leaning in.