Be Your Best

Todd Gifford With Kathy Ireland

I know, I know.  This is starting out like something you may not think you want to read or think has zero applicability to you.  But I can assure you that you should keep reading.  Recently, I had a chance to meet and listen to Kathy Ireland, Supermodel and founder and CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, a $1.5 Billion (with a “B”) company.  Kathy was featured in the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue for 13 consecutive years and on the cover of many magazines, but that is not why I write about meeting her.

Bottom line is Kathy Ireland is an extremely sharp and successful businessperson, and her story and success philosophies are something we can all learn from and apply in our own situations.

Kathy Ireland has faced many set backs on her way to major success.  The thing that strikes me most about her is that she has an unbelievable tenacity and relentlessness about her.  You do not see that in her upbeat and positive personality, but you can feel it in her resolve.  Going way back, she responded to a paper route job ad ‘for boys’ when she was 11 years old and was told “you are never going to last”.  She won Paper Carrier of the Year.

Some of Kathy’s key philosophies she lives and works by:
> Under Promise and Over Deliver
> No Excuses Ever
> Ask Powerful Questions
If the answer is ‘no’, ask ‘why?’; If the answer is ‘yes’, ask ‘how?’
> Don’t Hesitate and Don’t Give Up
> Be Very Specific on What You Want
Define how, when, why, where, what, and how much.

Kathy also feels that ‘action’ is super important to everything.  One great quote that Kathy said about action when I was listening to her speak was: “Imagination without Implementation is Hallucination.”

Kathy Ireland tried and failed at many businesses, but she continued to ‘educate’ herself.  Kathy Ireland Worldwide Corporation was started with selling a pair of socks.  In 1983, Kathy was a pregnant, aging model.  She got a job to model ‘socks’, as there were not a lot of jobs available at the time.  She had an idea that she could bring value to selling socks and apparel, not as a celebrity endorsement, but truly bringing value to clients.  She had many doors slammed in her face, but she took the perspective of keeping an open mind to those that had criticism for her.  She stayed relentlessly pursuing the idea and she finally broke through.  Today, Kathy Ireland Worldwide sells 100 Million pairs of socks a year, and a whole lot more.

She has faced many set backs even after her company took off and became successful.  But with each set back, Kathy has held firm to her values and persevered.  She advises: “Document your values, because they will be challenged.  Some of your boundaries will be un-liked, but you need to stick to your values.”  Kathy said she received a tremendous gift from her modeling career — which was the ability to handle rejection.  Her motto:
‘No’ means: ‘OK, now we are talking’.

Underlying this relentless and tenacious core is a person who believes that you have to be open to listening to the people you are dealing with and think about things the way they are thinking and feeling.  Treat people like you treat family members to be successful.

Kathy is successful at combining a very positive and nice personality with an unbelievable spirit of tenacity and perseverance.  One of her personal favorite quotes is from Vince Lombardi, coach of the World Champion Green Bay Packers during the 1960’s: “Winning is not a some times thing — it’s an all the time thing.  And so is losing.”

You want to be careful to judge this book by its Supermodel cover.  Kathy has become an ultra successful business person not by her good looks, but by her ability to listen to people, being open to criticism, having massive perseverance and tenacity, and a exercising a giving attitude.  On the giving side, Kathy has done a tremendous amount of philanthropic work for many different causes.

Her last comment was: “all you give is all you get, so give a lot.”

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford