Lesson #3: Conventions Are Not For The Creative Entrepreneur
Lesson #3: Conventions Are Not For The Creative Entrepreneur
Charney fosters an unconventional work environment. He encourages communication between all levels of staff at any time of the day. That means that any seamstress can walk into the boss’ office whenever he or she wants to talk about an issue. He decorates his stores with covers of old soft-porn magazines and pictures of amateur models in American Apparel clothes. He curses while at work and lets his employees curse too. Charney is open about his fondness for having consensual relationships with his staff, and does not mind if they engage in relationships with each other either, even at work “provided they’re in a private setting and no one else is aware of it and they’re on their break.”
“We plan to continue to behave in a contrarian matter,” Charney says. “This creative environment is what got us to this point. We certainly aren’t going to stop doing it now after we created a highly profitable company.”
One day, as Charney was riding along in his limo, he spotted an attractive and stylish girl on the street. He immediately told the driver to stop, jumped out of the limo, and asked this girl to model for his company. Natasha is now an employee at American Apparel. All of the company’s models are amateurs, and have included the likes of Charney’s housekeeper and even Charney himself, who posed for an American Apparel advertisement baring his entire backside.
But Charney’s creative ways have often gotten him into trouble. He has been the target of numerous lawsuits by female employees, one of which accuses Charney of making “unwelcome, inappropriate comments, suggestive nonverbal signals…dropping his pants, revealing his underwear.” Charney denies the allegations, although he defends the right to wear only underwear in the office, saying, “I think for a designer to be in his underwear when he's designing underwear is quite common. And I'm in my underwear in my office all the time.” He adds, “I frequently drop my pants to show people my new product.”
Despite the charges, Charney is determined to stay the course. As he sees it, if his company is going to continue to be creative and represent an unconventional and hip youth culture, it must refuse to change its rebel ways.
“I've made mistakes. There are bumps in the road to what I'm doing,” says Charney. “I should tone down? So I don't get in trouble? It's fascism. You're asking me to succumb to tyranny.”
Lesson 3 Conventions Are Not For The Creative Entrepreneur
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Charney typically schedules all his appointments for the day between 11:30 to 12:30. He also, however, does not rise until almost noon. Charney has no personal assistants, does not own a Blackberry, and sees little use in checking his voicemail. He lives in a modest house and drinks instant coffee on his way to work. Charney may not be your conventional CEO, but according to him, that is precisely the reason he has been able to become so successful. After all, the creative entrepreneur does not live by the conventions of others.
Charney fosters an unconventional work environment. He encourages communication between all levels of staff at any time of the day. That means that any seamstress can walk into the boss’ office whenever he or she wants to talk about an issue. He decorates his stores with covers of old soft-porn magazines and pictures of amateur models in American Apparel clothes. He curses while at work and lets his employees curse too. Charney is open about his fondness for having consensual relationships with his staff, and does not mind if they engage in relationships with each other either, even at work “provided they’re in a private setting and no one else is aware of it and they’re on their break.”
“We plan to continue to behave in a contrarian matter,” Charney says. “This creative environment is what got us to this point. We certainly aren’t going to stop doing it now after we created a highly profitable company.”
One day, as Charney was riding along in his limo, he spotted an attractive and stylish girl on the street. He immediately told the driver to stop, jumped out of the limo, and asked this girl to model for his company. Natasha is now an employee at American Apparel. All of the company’s models are amateurs, and have included the likes of Charney’s housekeeper and even Charney himself, who posed for an American Apparel advertisement baring his entire backside.
But Charney’s creative ways have often gotten him into trouble. He has been the target of numerous lawsuits by female employees, one of which accuses Charney of making “unwelcome, inappropriate comments, suggestive nonverbal signals…dropping his pants, revealing his underwear.” Charney denies the allegations, although he defends the right to wear only underwear in the office, saying, “I think for a designer to be in his underwear when he's designing underwear is quite common. And I'm in my underwear in my office all the time.” He adds, “I frequently drop my pants to show people my new product.”
Despite the charges, Charney is determined to stay the course. As he sees it, if his company is going to continue to be creative and represent an unconventional and hip youth culture, it must refuse to change its rebel ways.
“I've made mistakes. There are bumps in the road to what I'm doing,” says Charney. “I should tone down? So I don't get in trouble? It's fascism. You're asking me to succumb to tyranny.”
Lesson 3 Conventions Are Not For The Creative Entrepreneur
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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