Write It Down

Chalk another one up for the planning brigade.  Michelle Mone, who founded what is apparently now, just over a dozen years later, Britain’s largest luxury lingerie brand in Ultimo, was quizzed on the Beeb as to how she got started.

The story is a familiar entrepreneurial one.  Left school with no qualifications, rose in corporate land to a half-decent position, made redundant so started out on her own.  Despite a rollercoaster that appears to have edged her close to failure about eight years ago, product line expansion coupled with retail concept innovation has since fuelled spectacular success.

When at her lowest point, she knew that there were several things about her life she needed to address (even including being 6½ stone overweight).  Her advice was “get a book and write it down”.

She’s now taken this thinking to such extremes that she even now admits to running her household like a business, with everyone, children included, having their own KPIs.  It sounded like the kids for instance have to keep a tidy room else they won’t get lifts to ballet or rugby practice, and the husband is required to change all the lightbulbs.