PURPLE BLAB

Part of the reason I am writing this blog is to share the journey of making a brand. I’m hoping that the girls out there who read this will be touched, in some way, and see that they, too, can do anything they want… that they don’t need a trust fund… that they don’t need to be famous… that they don’t need anything but insane desire and the willingness to try and fail.

I’m always imaging the kind of advice I’d give to my future children when they have dreams and passion for something. I want to tell them to take every leap and that it’s okay to fall on their faces. And if I can’t lead by example, it’s almost like telling them that I was too scared to do it myself.

It’s like the mama bird who pushes her little ones out of the nest, knowing they will fly because they have no other choice.

That is what being an entrepreneur is about.

I think I’ve always been a risk taker, a fan of a little bit of danger and the unknown.

I attempted to teach myself to drive when I was 14 by begging my neighbor to loan me his car. I crashed right through the garage and into my father’s car. I think I’m still paying him back.

I did stand-up comedy (for a minute) in college and actually had a frat party gig at the University of Georgia (it wasn’t pretty).

I opted out of med school – despite the begging of my parents – to come to New York and be a writer.

When I moved to New York, I had an internship at Rolling Stone… and got fired! I’ll never forget how I left the Time Warner Building in tears, vowing to return one day more triumphant (I did, about seven years later, when I was on assignment for US Magazine in the same office space).

I was always the type to ask a guy out – 99.9% of them won’t say no because they can’t even believe they’re being asked!

I quit my job at WWD when I had fifty-cents in my bank account to try to go on my own. (I actually wrote fashion horoscopes for a cheesy garment center textile company newsletter to make an extra $50. What? All I needed was an astrology book and imagination.)

I dated out of the borough – against my geographic snobbery – when I met Todd, who was totally out of the box of what I had always dated and imagined marrying (that one turned out to the best risk of all).

And I got down to $58.22 to start Purple Lab… all for the pipedream of HSN… even when almost all of my friends told me to declare bankruptcy, shut down, and stick with my day job, which, by the way, I just left to focus more on PL (definitely a risk now that I have no salary – and no income yet!).

I could still flop. I make mistakes all the time. I hardly know it all but I’m learning every minute of the day – and when I hear the great stories of how big time businesses were made, they always start so humbly and are born out of risk.

I can’t deny that I have wondered if all the stress is worth it, but you know what… it is. I just have to believe it will all work – otherwise, why do it? And I think the universe has seen that I have paid my dues (right, universe?).

I can’t wait to encourage my one-day children that they can do and have anything they ever envisioned.

Here I am now, broke as broke can be, but still standing, about to touch something I have fantasized about doing my entire life (HSN!).

My biggest piece of advice – for not just everyone out there but myself: trust your instincts and see what you’re capable of.

Who cares if you crash, bruise that ego, get dirty, stress, and worry. Worst case, you’ll learn and move on. You’ll be no worse off!

So go!

Mwah!

Karen

Purple Lab Creatrix

Tags: HSN, Karen Robinovitz, Purple Lab

This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 4:50 am and is filed under HSN, Karen Robinovitz, Purple Lab Behind the Scenes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.