Vera Wang

Vera Wang set about designing her own gown, and ultimately built an illustrious career as the leading couture wedding dress designer. Today, her name is synonymous with bridal fashion and there are Vera Wang Bride boutiques all over the world.

Past failures if any

Her initial dream of a career as an Olympic figure skater never took off and a rejection from Vogue followed some years later.

“Don’t be afraid of failing. I think not trying is worse than failing. Have the courage to try. Otherwise, what are we here for?” 

Vera Wang

Suzy Batiz

Suzy Batiz is best known as the founder of Poo-Pourri, the before you go toilet spray that has sold over 60 million bottles since it first hit shelves in 2007 and helped land Batiz on the Forbes list of America’s 80 richest self-made women with an estimated net worth of $240 million.

Past failures if any

Batiz was born in Arkansas, where she first pursued entrepreneurial ideas from the age of 16, despite her mother’s efforts to stifle them.

In her 20’s, Batiz escaped an abusive marriage and experienced her first bankruptcy. She picked herself up, and started another business, then another and another…. That went on until the stock market crash in 2000, and this time, she had her home and cars repossessed.

One of my biggest failures ended up being the greatest blessing in my life. In 2000, I was in the final stages of getting money for a dotcom that I had. It was a website that actually matched a person’s culture to an employee’s culture. That was 15 years ago, before people were talking about culture. The dotcom crashed, and I lost everything. Literally — I’m crawling into my Range Rover trying to get my stuff out of the glove box before it was repossessed. I lost everything.

I went on a two-year sabbatical. I was thinking to myself, “Screw it. I am a horrible business person, this is awful. I know nothing about business, I should not be an entrepreneur.” That’s when I really started my personal journey because I realized that I was always trying to do it the way that it was supposed to be done, rather than being authentic and true to myself, and waiting for an idea to come and really nurturing and growing that idea.

That’s how it ended up being the greatest blessing of my life; after I gave up and took my hands off the wheel for two years, and vowed that I would never be an entrepreneur again, the idea for Poo-Pourri came to me. That was the beginning of the 10-year love affair that we’ve had.

‘I’d say about entrepreneurs, is that failures and successes are almost equal. It’s about playing the game. When you’re a real entrepreneur, you understand that failures are an opportunity to succeed.’

Suzy Batiz

Zhang Xin

She’s regularly named one of the top businesswomen in the world and her real estate company SOHO China is credited with bringing color to Beijing’s cityscape. Yet Zhang’s was a life that started in monochrome. Her net worth is around $3.3 billion.

Past failures if any

”My first failure came in 2003 when I tried to take the company public.”

Zhang went back to her old employer, Goldman Sachs, which showed an interest. “But I remember China was so early, back in 2003. Like, Wall Street investors had no idea of how to assess, evaluate Chinese real estate developer(s) which had (created) a business model so different from the outside

 “I always knew what I wanted to do, and I always go for what I wanted to do.”

Zhang Xin