START WITH YOURSELF by Emma Grede
Dispatches from the Kate Wilson has Zero Fucks Left to Give Centre for Mid-Life Women Who Have Made Solemn Resolutions to Read Good
In the greatest example of nominative determinism we’ve seen since Michael Mann directed Adam Driver in FERRARI (synopsis: Man drives car. Man drives car fast. Man drives car faster. People die. Man drives car the fastest and is the winner. The end), Emma Grede is the woman responsible for -
Skims, Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand currently valued at $5B
Good American, Khloe Kardashian’s inclusive jeanswear brand currently valued at $3.2B
And Frame, the luxury denim outfit which only has to hawk a few pairs of its £300 + enigmatically named jeans (the Leo for you, Ma’am? Or the Saturday bootcut?) to meet its annual turnover of circa $300M
It turns out Emma is not Grede by birth, but Grede by marriage having snagged one half of Swedish investment duo Jens Grede and Erik Torstensson (the latter of which is engaged in a knock-out, drag-out, mud-slinging divorce from Net A Porter founder Natalie Massenet after she claimed he is indebted to her to the tune of $95M not only for the funds he invested in Frame but for a pretty penny used to procure prostitutes and enough mephamphetamine to sink the Koru…).
She may well be Grede by nature, too, not least in pricing her new business-guru-self-helpy-type book at £25, ffs. I think the hefty price tag might ultimately prevent her from meeting her stated goal of helping 1 million women set up companies as successful as those she has steered. Surely women should not collectively spend £25M on business advice from women and for women… that seems like cra-za-zy economics to me and hardly a financially sound way forwards for us en masse? I believe I am doing Little Miss Grede a generous favour and supporting her principal aim of reaching 1 million women by summarising the most salient points of her rather pricey book and empowering you to take your £25 and put it towards either (i) your newest and bestest business idea, or (ii) my kinda old-hat and deeply mediocre ideas as contained in either (a) my book, Prospects (£12.99) or (b) this very Substack blog which would benefit enormously from your upgrade to a paid subscription or, indeed, (c) both (a) and (b) or, moreover, (iii) the hat trick that is the total of (i) and (ii) (a) and (b), thereby supporting both your new business and mine and driving up the reach and impact of START WITH YOURSELF exponentially. Now that is good business, right?!
If 400 of you read this post and follow my entirely sane, quantitatively evidenced and qualitatively totes ethical advice, we should end the day pretty darn happy with ourselves insofar as we’ll have collectively invested £10k in female-led businesses (mostly mine, obvs…). I think I might be a business genius! And I learnt everything I know from Emma Grede (from whose pocket we snatched that £10k… she’d be so proud!).
Anywho, back to my summary of incredibly admirable Emma Grede’s START WITH YOURSELF and everything you need to know to be a billionaire by sundown -
Develop a crystal clear vision of the product/service/company you want to build and keep referring back to it… that is your North Star
Be accountable and stop blaming other people for your circumstances
Manage your emotions (note to self: best not to cry at your desk every day… nor tell people you dislike or who criticise you to “fuck the fuck off, then”…)
Start hustling! There is no substitute for putting in the hours and the hard graft is what pays off, not just financially but also in terms of your learned experience and the value you place on your own influence on the success of the business
Make mistakes, but learn from them (and don’t take things so personally, ffs!)
Don’t try to “have it all”, or at least not at the same time, but recognise the trade-offs you are making in order to work, live and (if relevant) raise a family… it ain’t easy
Be truthful and honest, but don’t be unnecessarily unkind
Talk about money openly, candidly, without emotion and always ask for more
Do not be afraid
Or, an alternative path which is evident between the lines -
Marry a billionaire investor
To be fair, Grede appears to have concurrently followed both these paths, establishing herself as a bona fide genius business mind herself while also marrying a billionaire investor, a belt and braces approach we could all aim for, I guess. She acknowledges Jens Grede’s influence and impact on her life and career and number four on her “Basic Rules for Success” reads, “I found a really supportive partner.” And Erik Torstensson’s now single, so…..
Deadly sin or otherwise, Grede is an East London girl done good and I do not begrudge her the success of her well written and entirely readable book, nor her mahusive businesses, nor her idyllic-seeming marriage, not her four fabulous children, nor the fact she’s absolutely stunningly gorgeous (kinda sounds like she has it all… right?). I would however, begrudge y’all spending £10k on her book (…so please spend it on mine!).
You’re welcome. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
