For women pursuing their own careers and working hard to build a professional life for themselves, one of the most helpful resources for finding guidance is turning to other women who have found great success in their careers. It goes without saying that Tory Burch is one such woman.
The designer sat down with Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive to share some of the wisdom she's picked up throughout her wildly successful career in fashion. Keep reading for the top five pieces of advice she had to share, then watch the two women in conversation below!
1. Women do indeed work differently from men.
"One of the reasons I wanted to start a company is because I wanted an environment that I wanted to work in. I wanted people to be able to have a life—for it to be ok to leave for a lacrosse game or a doctor’s appointment. So I think women do work differently; it’s important to have both men and women. They offer different things."
2. Being catty will take you nowhere.
"When I started this company, I said, ‘I don’t want to have a bitchy fashion environment.’ I like being straightforward. We can deal with anything as long as it’s on the table.”
3. You must embrace your amibition.
"I think [female entrepreneurs] have a lack of confidence. They often apologise; I was guilty of that too. When people have said, ‘Oh, look at your success,’ I would downplay it. A great friend read my first article on the company, in The New York Times, and said, ‘It was a great article, but you shied away from the word ambition.’ And it struck a chord. I thought about it a lot. I grew up with three brothers—I didn’t know there was a difference [between] men [and] women in the workforce until I entered the workforce! So ‘embrace ambition’ is something that I did and I want to get other women to do."
4. You have to be prepared to do whatever's necessary to get the job done.
"The five-year plan [for my company] was to open three stores, and then the plan just became something very different. We have over 130 stores globally—but the first five years we opened 17. But we worked around my kitchen table for two years, so it wasn’t an overnight success by any means."
5. Everything is a learning opportunity.
"I learned so much from each place [I've worked]. At Vera Wang I learned a lot about taking a designer and helping her build her business. At Ralph Lauren I was a copywriter—it wasn’t that glamorous! I was exposed to every category, though, from start to finish.”
What's the most invaluable piece of career advice you've received? Tell us in the comments below!
