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In The Company of Women — Favorite Quotes and Interview Outtakes

In The Company of Women

Grace Bonney’s new book, In the Company of Women is one of the most inspiring books I’ve ever read. For those of you who haven’t heard about it yet, it’s a compilation of interviews with 100 female entrepreneurs in creative industries. Grace is the founder and editor of Design Sponge, so the book is also peppered with inspiring shots of the work spaces of all the women featured. The book is refreshingly (!) diverse and everyone offers up helpful, actionable advice that I believe is useful to everyone–not just entrepreneurs, and certainly not just women. I’ve actually taken to randomly reading one interview every day before I start my work day, as an almost ‘i-ching‘ kind of exercise. I thought I’d pull some of my favorite quotes I’ve read so far to share with you all today. Also, I was super honored when Grace reached out to see if I wanted to be featured in the book and as an addendum to today’s post I’ve included out-takes from my interview answers that didn’t make it into the book.

 

“You have to be resourceful, work hard, be kind and constantly innovate. You never know who a stranger actually is and what they may mean to your business later  on, so you have to treat everyone you come across with respect and never burn bridges. You also need to be true to yourself when designing and editing and explore your own story as a source of inspiration, as that is what will give your work more integrity and make you stand out from the crowd.” ~Tanya Aguiñiga, Furniture Designer / Maker

“People Often go into business because they love something: baking pies, building furniture, designing clothes. The reality of being a business owner is that your occupation is not Pie Maker, Furniture Builder or Clothing Designer. Your occupation is Entrepreneur . If you don’t love business, you will not love your job. ” ~Mary Going, Fashion Designer

Also from Mary “Hire slow, fire fast.” (attributed to her mentor Michael Bush)

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to prepare for the long haul,  the rise and fall, and let neither define your sense of self.” ~Karen Young

“Grow Organically. Don’t get ahead of yourself.” ~Eileen Fisher

Tina Roth Eisenberg‘s favorite quote: “The best way to complain is to make things” ~James Murphy

Outtakes from my interview:

What is the biggest sacrifice you’ve made in starting or running your business?

The biggest sacrifice I’ve made is relinquishing the security of a steady paycheck. It’s one thing to be financially unstable when you’re only responsible for yourself–I could get away with eating quesadillas and top ramen for weeks on end, but when I’ve got a family to consider, and employees who depend on my business for their income, the choice to run my own business and to not know where the next paycheck is coming from is a pretty serious sacrifice.
What does success mean (or look like) to you?
To me, success means that everyday I get to be creative and share my ideas and joy with others. Success means that I have enough money and to be comfortable, and treat myself and my people to splurges every once in a while.  Success means that I can take breaks when I want, that I can travel. Success means that I have the resources to support my own dreams and the dreams of the people in my community.
Name a fear or professional challenge that still keeps you up at night.
Email really stresses me out. I get a ton of emails and sometimes I just can’t keep up. At times I don’t respond to people and I feel really guilty about it. There are days when I have to choose between responding to strangers or responding to my daughter–and I choose my daughter–but it’s still a real challenge.
If you were given $100 million, would you run your business any differently? How so?
It’s hard to imagine my business at such a huge scale! Right now It’s just me and two (amazing) assistants.  I suppose I’d want my role to be more of a creative director’s role–so that I wouldn’t have to wear so many hats and I could focus on the creative stuff. I’d make sure we had an office in Istanbul, Florence, Buenos Aires and Barcelona so that I’d have a good excuse to visit my favorite cities :D. I’d love to have a part of the business that involved bringing art and design to public schools. I’d have a greenhouse at our flagship store. And a cafe. And a kids corner. Ha!
In moments of self-doubt or adversity, how do you build yourself back up?
I don’t dwell on it. I Just keep on making sh*t.
What quotation or saying inspires you and motivates you to be yourself and do what you love?
“If you can walk you can dance, if you can talk you can sing” ~Nigerian Proverb

At what point in your life did you first learn about your field of work? What called you to it?

 I was called to work in the arts from a very young age. I made art in my free time (draw, paint, collage, photography, craft…) so it was natural for me to want to spent more time doing these things. But even now, I am constantly defining a redefining what I do.  I’ve always known I wanted to work in a creative field–but my job title changes daily. Sometimes I am a designer, sometimes artist, sometimes blogger or author or stylist. I like it that way. It keeps things interesting, and keeps me nimble.
If you were magically given 3 more hours per day, what would you do with them?  
I’d incorporate my physical activity into my life–more swimming, hiking, wrestling with my daughter, jogging. I sit on my butt all day everyday and my whole self could really use the extra time to stretch out and play. And after that I’d paint, cook delicious meals, and who knows, I may even make time to get my nails done. Three hours is a lot!

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In The Company of Women  is at the very top of my holiday gift list. It’s an inspiring and important book that Grace did an impeccable job of pulling together. So excited to be a par of it and this exciting time for female entrepreneurs.

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. evy says

    Ordering a copy today!

    Also – you’re $100 million plan? Crossing my fingers and looking forward to seeing it come to life!

    Reply

  6. jess says

    I love your idea of getting art and design into public schools. even if it’s not something you’re able to do right now, it says a lot about you that you would name that as an ultimate goal. maybe one day it will happen! keep making :)

    Reply

  7. Mary Going says

    Hey! So cool that you included my quote in your blog. Love this book so much! Your interview is great. I especially enjoyed your observation that you ought not make decisions based on fear.

    Reply

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