Last week Jo Malone, entrepreneur and founder of Jo Loves, talked at the Spear’s Young Turk Awards about her career: her rise from kitchen-table potion-maker to global fragrance magnate – and how she’s now starting again. You can watch her inspiring speech hereand see footage of the winners here. You can also read Jo Malone’s answer to the Spear’s questionnaire here.
‘I was walking my thirteen-year old boy to school this morning and I asked him what he thought an entrepreneur was. He stood for a second. He said, “A person who seeks innovation and fulfils it with warrior-like tactics.”
‘I stood there and thought, “Oh my god, this is amazing.” I said, “Josh, why do you think that?” and he said, “Because I live with you.”
‘If I sent you a copy of my CV, none of you would give me a job.’
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‘If I had listened every time someone had told me I couldn’t do something, I wouldn’t be standing here.’
‘Entrepreneurs have the strongest voice they’ve ever had in this country.’
‘I got everything wrong. Everything you can get wrong in a business, I have to hold my hands up. It was agonising. There I was, standing on a global stage in my underwear, watching everybody look at me, thinking, she should have known better. And yep, I probably should have done. I got the PR wrong, I got the place of the first store wrong, I got the product wrong. I thought I knew, but it was all the other way round – it was like looking at a business through the wrong end of a telescope.’
‘Five Is – ‘they’re all about things that *I* can bring to a brand or a business’:
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Inspiration
Innovation
Ignition
‘Instinct
Integrity
‘The government describes me as an SME – I hate it. A small to medium enterprise… So dull – who wants to be an SME? My husband describes me as Stressed, Menopausal, Eccentric. I would definitely call myself a Seriously Motivated Entrepreneur.’
‘Let’s build companies where creativity becomes part of our everyday practice.’
