Sophia Amoruso
I love clothing and still shop a lot of vintage.
I want to give other creatives the opportunity to find the entrepreneur inside themselves and teach them how to build their own platform.
Making small talk about what someone is wearing is just another form of unsolicited feedback.
There's no 'Chutes and Ladders' in life.
A lot of young people who I employ expect a raise after three months or expect not to have to put in more work than what's in their job description.
It's the beauty of the Web. You can pretend to be anything you want. But people figure out pretty quick if you don't live up to it.
I make money, and I don't need money.
My philosophy is that you sell things for more than you bought them.
I've never seen someone work for a salary.
Everyone does a style book, and I wanted to write a business book for people that didn't think they would like a business book.
The first thing I ever sold online was stolen.
EBay gave me the framework to discover I was an e-commerce entrepreneur. I touched everything, from shipping to logistics.
Lots of people are going to sell clothes online. But not a lot of people have built a brand, a living, breathing brand that people feel like they're part of.
The modern girl is less concerned with everything being a brand name.
I built a huge profitable business with no debt.
I've probably spent more time than any other brand reading every last comment. To listen to people the way you're able to online is very powerful.
I'm a capitalist, I'm a CEO, I run a big business, I'm an employer.
Getting fired was always a big deal to me. It's a bit like having someone break up with you.
It was my full intent as a teenager to smash capitalism and eat dumpster food.
I had 60,000 friends on MySpace.
It was easy for me in my bathrobe to provide really great customer service. As an introvert, it's really much easier to do than when standing in a retail store.
I'm really good at hiring good people.
Creativity and business acumen don't always go hand in hand.
I've been wondering for a while now if the CEO role is one that I want - and the one that I'm best at.
A lot of people in my generation don't seem to get that you have to work your way up. I don't care if filing invoices is beneath you. If you don't do it, who do you think is going to? Your boss? Nope. That's why she hired you.
Don't you dare alter your inner freak.
I don't lead with an iron fist. I don't yell at people. I have a way of making my opinion clear.
I have three pieces of advice I want you to remember: Don't ever grow up. Don't become a bore. Don't let The Man get to you.
Failure is your invention.
My favorite magazine is the 'Harvard Business Review.' If someone sat across from me in a restaurant and didn't know me, that might surprise them.
Every woman who has a business book has a platform. For the most part, they're either a television personality or someone who had the perfect pedigree and worked their way up the career ladder.
If you look at my Instagram, girls are just beating down my door for tips or a job or mentorship. I can't hire every single one of them. My story is one thing that gives them hope. It's an unconventional story with anecdotes, commonsense advice and a big dose of permission to figure things out for yourself.
There are a lot of parents who've come to me and said about their daughters, 'Oh my God, she's 21, she's totally flailing. Your story gives me hope.' I put my mom through that.
Everyone is told to go to high school and get good grades and go to college and get good grades and then get a job and then get a better job. There's no one really telling a story about how they totally blew it, and they figured it out.
It's important that people are open. Some people say, 'I'm going to be a doctor,' and they're a really good doctor. But for the rest of us, it's a big question mark. Just giving yourself a break, letting yourself try new things, and when something doesn't work out, moving along... it's all we can really do.
I didn't buy the Porsche for status. I hate that, and it's actually kind of goofy now because in L.A., a Porsche is like a Honda. It was just that I could pay that much money for a car and drive it off the lot.
When you owe money to people, you're always going to owe money to people, so you should take care of it as soon as possible. It doesn't go away just because you ignore it.
I am still a lover of paper books. One of my first jobs was in a bookstore, and I still like to be able to write in a margin and feel the paper. Once inside of a digital device, I end up losing things.
I work in silence.
I wrote '#GIRLBOSS' while running a $100 million-plus revenue business.
I was terrified and confused every day of my life until I started Nasty Gal, and for a good while after as well.
You can work for other people and still be a #GIRLBOSS; it's more about a state of mind and knowing yourself well enough to know when you're making decisions for yourself or because the world expects them of you. And guess what? It's okay to do that sometimes, too.
Music is such a big part of my life.
My parents taught me the value of money and working hard. And I kind of got that in me intuitively.
I learned the hard way that taking shortcuts and living for free is not really living free.
Every other fashion brand out there - including those that I call 'competitors' - are run by mostly old white men, and the customer knows it.
Don't act like you've arrived when you're just receiving the invitation.
I often say my naivete early on in my career worked in my favor.
I’ve been wondering for a while now if the CEO role is one that I want – and the one that I’m best at.Collection: Roles