I never set out to be a rule-defying individual. It’s simply that the old rules didn’t work for me, so I had to come up with my own.
I’m very confident I’d still be answering the phones at my father’s office in Florida if I’d taken the safe road and always done as I was told, when I was told, and where I was told.
Working for my father or answering phones isn’t wrong; it’s just not what I’m intended to do. Being a clothes designer and serial entrepreneur brings me a lot more delight.
I made a shirt—dubbed “The Shirt” by its fans—two decades ago that combined themes from my favourite tourist-destination T-shirts to create a homage to my favourite city: New York City. It was worn by an actress on The Tonight Show, and the next day, everyone in the world knew who I was.
It’s the kind of storey that makes it appear like all it takes is a little luck to become an overnight success from the outside. In reality, I had been living in New York for two years, in a tiny walk-up shoebox marketed as an apartment, and working hard hours for barely above minimum income in the fashion industry.
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It wasn’t anything that happened overnight. It would take another four years for my business to take off after I designed my first handbag, the Morning After Bag.
Rebecca Minkoff, the brand, exists today as a result of years of early mornings, late evenings, and hard labour.
As the founder, I get to be the chief creative officer of a global brand with a diverse collection of garments, handbags, footwear, jewellery, and accessories available online and at over 900 stores worldwide. I also host the Superwomen podcast and founded the Female Founder Collective business network.
Along the way, I understood that the world determined not just what I should do, but also where, how, and why I should do it. I attempted to obey the rules, to do things the same way everyone else did them, and to blend in with the crowd. It just never panned out the way I had hoped or expected. After a while, I couldn’t see the point anymore.
So I went ahead and did it my way, putting it together as I went. I’ve mostly done my own thing, even when it would have been far easier to just go with the flow. I’ve succeeded by making my own rules. Call me a rebel if that’s what it takes to be a rebel. For me, it’s not about the labels; it’s about getting things done.
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I learnt some things, some rules—life lessons that have helped me form the way I handle circumstances over the years of hard work and discovery. They are the subtle realities that motivate me to keep going when things seem terrifying or impossible—even when the game appears to be finished.
My company has made over $100 million in revenue in the last 15 years.
My clothing and accessories have been seen on some of the world’s most fashionable women and on social media. We’ve been hailed as a location where actual innovation takes place, and we’ve been held up as a model for others in the fashion and technology industries to follow.
When I consider the young lady I was once—with two old suitcases and nowhere to live—to the woman I am now—an award-winning, globally recognised designer with a successful brand known throughout the world—I can honestly say it was worth it.
When I say this, I’m not bragging. I’d like to assure you that if I can accomplish it, so can you.
We live in a world where instant pleasure is the norm, so hearing that overnight success is a lie is a tremendous bummer. When we wake up in a great house, eat a wonderful breakfast, put on perfect clothing, and broadcast all of the amazing things that appear to happen every day, social media shows us what it’s meant to look like.
Why can’t everything be as simple as it appears? Why isn’t it happening as quickly as it should? Because living a vibrant life isn’t easy, and achieving long-term success isn’t easy either.
My hope is that these ideas will help you feel more empowered and fearless, that they will allow you to be more creative in your thinking and problem-solving, and that they will motivate you to discover what success truly means to you, not to others.
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So, here are a few of my new ground rules: Take them or throw them away; the choice is yours. The beginning has arrived.
Overcome the Desire For a Quick Buck By Focusing on the Goal.
Remember when one of your parents’ acquaintances asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up, and you answered “a ballerina cat”? Maybe a supermodel or a paediatrician?
Your goal was so straightforward. You intended to promote happiness through moving. You wanted to be a leader and parade around in a sparkly cape, or you wanted to look after living beings that were smaller than you. Nobody ever warned you that being a ballerina cat doesn’t pay.
We are frequently hesitant to pursue our aspirations because we believe they will not be able to support us. But, no matter what we do, when we come from a place of purpose, we leave full and satisfied.
This method of thinking does not require you to start or run your own business.
It all boils down to knowing who you are at your heart and then determining whether the changes that come your way are in line with your mission. Maybe you’re the type of person who can talk to anyone and is the best listener in your group of friends.
Should you work as an accountant and crunch numbers all day to pay your expenses, or should you hunt for a customer service position that would allow you to use your gift of gab?
When you plan your life around your purpose rather than your paycheck, your life becomes about being able to accomplish what you love rather than about reaching some arbitrary financial goal.
When you get there, things don’t always feel or look the way you expected. You’re not going to quit your job and spend the rest of your life eating ice cream for breakfast in bed just because you had a good win at work. If you’re lucky, you’ll still have to—and get to—wake up the next day and go to work.
If you have a successful firm, it does not end when it reaches the measurements you’ve set as success markers. That’s only the start, and it’s when things start to become interesting. The reward is the work.
Love It and Then Let It Go
Pay attention to any part of your life, work, or project that appears to be working well. It may not be the apparent choice or the one you had in mind, but if it’s working and working well for you, concentrate on it. Let’s see where this goes.
Today, it’s so typical for an entrepreneur or a firm to pivot that it’s simply referred to as pivoting. It is not regarded as a negative aspect. It’s thought to be a wise decision. It signifies that whoever is in control is paying attention enough to notice what’s working and what isn’t—it means that their ego isn’t too invested in the company and that they are capable of objectivity.
Failure funnels are now commonplace in big tech companies. They generate ideas, create them, and put them to the test. What works is kept, and what doesn’t is discarded. There is no grief in the air. They aren’t self-critical. The concepts are just that: experiments. They take what they’ve learned and gone on.
It’s not a big deal if they don’t work out. Now it’s on to the next. You can do it as well.
If something doesn’t work, don’t take it personally. If you decide to move in a different way, don’t be too hard on yourself. Recognize the reality of the issue and remove the emotion. Every minute you waste spinning your wheels over why something didn’t go as planned is a minute you could be spent inventing something new.
Avoid Using Shortcuts
In life, there are shortcuts, but they are never what you expect. How about taking something long, arduous, and inconvenient and turning it into something quick and simple? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
My husband says I think about it a lot and affectionately refers to it as “Becky Math”—I might try really hard to stretch a budget, but the math just doesn’t add up the way I want it to, or I might calculate that I have earned more parent points than he has, despite the fact that I am always biassed in my favour.
The truth is that I’ve never benefited from taking shortcuts or cutting corners. Not even once. There have been occasions when I’ve needed to get a website up quickly, and we’ve used templates and plugins to help speed things up, only to have to rebuild them later.
I’ve asked for favours in exchange for introductions to executives, only to realise that the individual whose assistance would be most useful would be someone who was directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. I’m the one that gets stuck behind a garbage truck for an hour and ends up at a dead-end in the woods, even though someone tells me of a back road to avoid traffic.
Trying to take the shortest or earliest trip home so I can go back to my kids as soon as possible is the same—you guessed it, there’s always a delay or a cancelled flight. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me. It’s just me and a stale airport salad.
When it comes to getting things done, there are no shortcuts.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to the 168-hour weeks you’ll be working. There’s no avoiding the compromises you’ll have to make, whether it’s giving up your social life or spending your money on buttons rather than brunch.
Whether it’s making it happen the first time or working twice as hard and spending twice as much money to rectify a mistake, you’ll always have to put your head down and do the work.
Taking shortcuts can result in you losing significant experience.
You can know both Point A and Point B, but if you don’t understand how to get from one to the other, you’ll never be able to get there on your own or show someone else how.
The truth is that I’ve never benefited from taking shortcuts or cutting corners. Not even once. There have been occasions when I’ve needed to get a website up quickly, and we’ve used templates and plugins to help speed things up, only to have to rebuild them later.
I’ve asked for favours in exchange for introductions to executives, only to realise that the individual whose assistance would be most useful would be someone who was directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. I’m the one that gets stuck behind a garbage truck for an hour and ends up at a dead-end in the woods, even though someone tells me of a back road to avoid traffic.