“Rather than present a get-rich-quick manual or a list of business tips, Amoruso teaches the innovative and entrepreneurial among us to play to our strengths, learn from our mistakes, and know when to break a few of the traditional rules.” – Vanity Fair
As an entrepreneur, the deep-rooted reason why we’re eager to learn about handling a business well is that we not just dreamt but also, we wanted our business to reach its peak. This is what we often call success.
We’re all hungry for success, and our craving could lead us to do everything just to reap it. Some might just say invest a handful of faith in it, and you can have it at the end of the lane. I begged to oppose such an opinion. Faith alone is meaningless to succeed in business or all aspects. Faith couldn’t move without depositing step-by-step actions. If you want success, keep the ignition of your faith burning while you fuel it by working hard. This is the wisdom I considered a gem after I’d read #GirlBoss by Sophia Amoruso, founder and Executive Chairman of Nasty Gal.
To say this without impurities, I won’t deny the fact that author Sophia Amoruso is the kind of person you want to be best friends with. You can learn a lot from the small detail of her intelligence until you’ll gain broad knowledge about how she became a supreme entrepreneur. A dignified woman you can always look up to. Subsequently, to this view of mine about her, I wanted to give a humble and honest review of the book she made entitled #GirlBoss.
Give me credit for starting this review with something nice. I adore her boldness as she tells the story of how she built her business from an eBay store she opened. The mere truth that she made it out of boredom was surprising. Who would’ve thought that a small business would grow into the mega business it is today? And how amazing it is that she overcame all those hurdles with the role of her wit, her own intuition, and her no educational background in business was a thundershock.
Although even if her book does not tackle how someone can start his own business, she gives concrete advice on things you should remember, the DO’s and DON’Ts in the business world, through her own experience only. And to make her perception more appealing, she also embellished it with excerpts from other successful businesswomen.
To cut the nice things about the book, let’s gear this review to the honest critique. While #GirlBoss can fill wonders and a spellbinding kind of book, it’s not entirely good. Let’s not stir up this opinion of mine as judging because #GirlBoss was known as New York Times Bestseller for a convincing reason. The reason I am referring to is probably not because it shows off any kind of uncovering boss status, building a job in fashion or any job at all, starting a business, and let alone a multi-million dollar business. Rather, it gives more emphasis on a woman who was once deprived of wealth, a rags-to-riches true-to-life story, who still managed to fight against all odds and now reaches the top in today’s hours.
Throughout the book, she immensely brags about her being difficult and stubborn. She questioned authority when she was still a teen. She believed that fart jokes were frantic. She’d rather choose a brand tee-shirt over a button-up oxford blouse. All of these little puzzles of information will make us alarmed, but then we’ll regain our composure as we realize that she somehow outpaced the “normal” working stiffs that did, unlike her, play by the rules.
Her major point that she keeps repeating in seasonal ways is this: Be a freak, question the authority, do whatever you want to do but give your all like your 100%, and watch the money speed up and grow its own. But when I read one of her chapters in the book, the one tagged with “On Hiring, Staying Employed, and Firing,” I got the premonition that she doesn’t want to hire anyone like herself.
I also noticed that Amoruso isn’t innocent for unintentionally committing the conflict of hidden sexism. Instead of using “#WOMENBOSS” or “#WOMANONTOP” or something else of the sort, she used “#GIRLBOSS.” This explicitly tells that she refers to some of her employees as “girls,” as in “the girls from the buying team” (page 161). And while focusing on her major point on things an applicant must not do during job interviews, she stated that showing up for an interview without a bra on is a deal-breaker (page 160).
What energizes my bothersome about the book is that she never mentioned once her decision-making process behind where and how she decided to have garments made. Nasty Gals production has been a secret for a long time, although there have been some theories and gossip that Nasty Gal’s factory conditions aren’t good. It’s not an unexpected thing to know when Nasty Gal’s fashion line and other stocks have insanely low prices. According to an article written by Lauren Sherman on her Nasty Gal’s downfall in the Business of Fashion, she believes that their poor quality could be the reason for the company’s recent Chapter 11 filing.
To put all of these in a nutshell, some of her views are quite paradoxical that contradict each other. But, since learning is a perpetual process, I’m still grateful to be able to read a book from her. I’ve learned the following good points despite the lack of the book:
• Make excellence a habit, not just a goal.
• Putting some boundaries in your work life.
• Learning how to balance work and living life to the fullest.
• Compete with yourself and take risks.
• “Don’t count your eggs before they hatch.”
As an aspiring entrepreneur, I’m always thirsty to collect new ideas to make this business prosper. Without second thoughts, those main utmost points will become my combined weapon in seizing triumph in the field of business.
