从家庭主妇到家具女王

    我试图把它买回来，但没有银行愿意提供这样的贷款。这是我一生中第二次感到羞愧——让相信我的制造商们失望，让相信我的客户们失望。我不知疲倦地从家里努力把商品和家具卖给人，恳求可以帮我找到卡车的每个人。

    我决定在这个消息发布时离开一周，和我的姐姐、姐夫暂时住一阵。登机时，有人在给每个人分发《环球》（The Globe）周日刊。当我沿着过道走向座位时，人们抬头看着我，就像他们认出了我一样。我的照片登在《环球》的头版，并附有全文。

    我悄悄入座。坐在我对面的人说，“这是你吗？”这真让人吃惊。他说：“我很为你难过。我知道，从这篇文章来看，这件事对你来说一定很难承受。”

    我离开了一周，回来后就创立了Judy George International——我的新品牌和设计公司。回来时我已经做好了努力工作的准备。

    如今，我正在做一生中最大的交易Sleepy's。也许人们会说，“卖床垫有什么让人兴奋的？”但我们提供的不仅是床垫。我们提供所有的床上用品。他们允许我们做床头板，这是Sleepy's从未做过的东西。我们的产品将在800家店铺出售。

    因此，我回顾自己的生活，看看我的年龄。我今年72岁了，我不想改变我自己。我不想让人们认为我比实际年龄年轻。我不会去做脸部除皱术，我比25年前更加精力充沛。我获得了Sleepy's管理团队的信任。我喜欢他们。他们也喜欢我。他们给了我和我的合伙人可贵的机会，做一些人只能梦想的事情。

    我的建议：

    每件事都需要调查研究。每次开会前，我都会做大量的背景调查。与投资者和潜在合作伙伴会面时，我会找一些他们说过的话，在谈话中引用这些话。我甚至会给调查人员很多钱，尽我所能搜索我的谈话对象和他们公司的相关信息。我创办Domain时，用房屋贷款，聘请了一家公司进行市场调查。后来在投资者会议中用到了这些调查结果。

    视失败为起点。我总是告诉人们，不要安于现状。如果你赚太多钱，如果你没有承担足够的风险，你抱着“我将来会做”的想法将真正好的想法束之高阁，结果只能是不了了之。没什么事比被人炒鱿鱼更能推动一个人自寻出路，追寻自己的梦想。

    带着孩子。我的秘密武器一直是我的家庭。在我的整个工作生涯中，我到哪里都带孩子们。我需要这么做，免得事后愧疚，过度工作，但这也教给我组织管理和人员管理的经验。如今，我走到哪里都带着我的孙子孙女们。

    译者：杨智

    I tried to go out and buy it back, but no banks were open to anything like that. It was the second time in my life I felt shame -- disappointing manufacturers who cared about me, disappointing customers who cared about me. I worked tirelessly from my home trying to get goods and furniture to people, begging everybody who would help to get me trucks.

    I decided to go away for a week and stay with my sister and brother-in-law when the news broke. As I'm getting on a plane, somebody's handing everybody The Globe, the Sunday newspaper. And as I'm walking down the aisle, people were looking up at me as if they recognized me. I was on the front page of The Globe, with the whole story.

    I just slunk down in my seat. And the guy opposite me says, "Is this you?" And it was so amazing. He said, "I'm so sorry. I know, judging from reading this article, how hard this must be for you."

    I went away for a week and came back and started on Judy George International, my new branding and design company. By the time I came back, I was ready to go to town.

    Now, I'm working on the biggest deal of my life, which is Sleepy's. You know, people say, "What's so exciting about selling mattresses?" But we're creating more than mattresses. We're creating the whole top of the bed. They're allowing us to do headboards, something Sleepy's has never done. We'll be in 800 stores.

    So I look back, I look at my age -- I'm 72 -- and I don't want to change who I am. I don't want people to think I'm younger. I'm not going to get a face-lift  I have more energy than I've had in 25 years. I've been given a Sleepy's management team. I love them. They love me. And they're giving me, along with my partner Kim, the chance of a lifetime to do something people only dream about. 

    MY ADVICE:

    Research everything. I do huge amounts of background research before every meeting. With investors and potential partners, I find something they've said and I quote it back to them. I'll even pay researchers a lot of money to find out whatever I can about the people I'm talking to and their company.  When I started Domain, I took a loan out on my house so I could hire a company to do market research that I could present at investor meetings.

    Look at failure as an opening. I used to tell people they've got to get uncomfortable with their situation. If you're making too much money, if you're not taking enough risks, you can put off really great ideas with the notion, "I'll do it later," and it just doesn't happen. There's nothing like getting fired to get you uncomfortable enough to go out and live your dream.

    Take the kids. My secret weapon was my family always. My whole life of work I've brought my kids everywhere with me. I needed to do that to prevent guilt and burnout, but it also taught me organization and people management. Now, it's my grandchildren that I go everywhere with.