Making Luck
Are you lucky? Does your success flow from being in the right place at the right time? Or, when we dig beneath the surface, do we find that an entrepreneur makes their own luck? Perhaps the story of an amazingly “lucky” entrepreneur will inspire you to also create your own luck!
Who is the Barefoot Contessa?
I am one of the devoted fans of Barefoot Contessa – and perhaps you are as well. Instead, if you are wondering who in the world the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten, is, please just bear with me for a few minutes. Briefly, Ina Garten is a former White House nuclear policy analyst (for President Richard Nixon) who, on a whim, bought a specialty food store in the Hamptons called the Barefoot Contessa, ran it for almost 20 years before publishing 13 best-selling cookbooks, hosting a 6-Emmy Award-winning Food Network Show, renovating houses on multiple continents, and turning her signature style into a massive empire.
Why am I Writing About the Barefoot Contessa on Startup CEO Reflections?
Well, because I have been a fan of Ina Garten for decades, I thought it would be relaxing and fun to listen to her personally read her just-published this month memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens. What I imagined would be just a seat at the table of a wonderfully accessible and earthy cookbook author who has taught me a lot about cooking and entertaining was so much more!
The Barefoot Contessa’s Life Story is the Inspiring Tale of an Entrepreneurial Journey
As I spent nearly nine hours listening to Ina’s remarkable voice, I realized that Ina Garten embodies so many of the essential elements of a high-potential entrepreneur! Her life story reflects what it looks like to live in the real entrepreneurial world, full of ups and downs, unexpected twists and turns, and repeated success across multiple domains. Ultimately, Ina reveals herself to be a profoundly authentic and generous leader who charts new and innovative paths again and again and again as she ventures forth from her New York birthplace to Connecticut to North Carolina to D.C. to the Hamptons, with stints in Toyko and Paris. She reveals how she thinks about problems on her way to solving them and shows just how “not easy” it is to be an intrepid entrepreneur.
Am I Suggesting that You Listen to Ina Garten’s Memoir?
Honestly, I thought it was terrific. I look forward to listening to it again. I think there are lessons to be learned for entrepreneurs of all sorts from this humble yet wildly successful one.
If you are pursuing a B2C venture, translating Ina’s experiences may be easier because her target markets (which are not words she ever uses!) are consumers. However, even a committed B2B entrepreneur like myself found endless inspiration from her Memoir.
To pique your curiosity, here are a few of my actionable takeaways that were embedded in Ina’s inspirational stories:
- Do what you love and pursue your passion
- Continually expand your skill sets by learning and trying new things
- Work intensively (1,000 baguettes, anyone?)
- Always listen to your customers
- Run experiments and examine the results.
- Iterate and refine until you get it right!
- Develop your own resonant tone in your head that recognizes when you have got it.
- Just jump in and start swimming because you are probably going to have to figure it out as you go
- Approach blockers as challenges to creatively overcome.
- Learn to hear and trust your own inner voice rather than just hearing others’ searing criticisms
- Practically seek win-win negotiations by understanding what matters to the other side
- Look the end of your money in the eye
- Turn bad breaks around into good ones
- Trust that the good is coming, even if it is not here yet
- Take some swing-for-the-fences risks
- Recruit a team, cultivate partners, develop others – and care for them all!
- Cultivate your creativity
- Believe you can bring something better out of whatever hand you have been dealt
- See what is possible
- Be willing to make a bold decision
- Be prepared and seize the moment
- Make things happen
- Taking risks can lead to unexpected and rewarding outcomes
- Know yourself. Does doing something new excite you? Are you an adrenaline junkie who gets bored when you aren’t tackling the next adventure?
Be Advised
This is a memoir, not a how-to business book.
It is the warm, authentic story of a life well-lived despite some tremendous hurdles and some U-turns. It is filled with Ina’s adventurous spirit, her love for the people around her, and her relationship with her beloved and equally talented husband Jeffrey, who taught her, “You never know your good breaks from your bad ones.”
I think you might find it inspiring as well as educational. If you do listen to it, I hope you will let me know what you think.
