- Geekmaster
- 2020-12-19 11:10:23
- 15 minute(s)
Victoria Beckham — Business & Life Lessons
What can we learn from Victoria Beckham, the famous fashion business woman who’s coming from UK? Do you want to be the next Victoria Beckham? Here are seven business and life lessons from the diva herself.
Victoria Beckham, former spice girl, now founder and creative director of her own fashion brand is the ultimate business girl.
Victoria’s first flagship store opened in 2014 on London’s Dover Street, and the brand expansion shows no sign of slowing. With 40 years life experience under her belt, there is plenty we can learn from the success that is, Victoria Beckham.
International pop super icon. Head of a fashion house. Mother of four. General legend.
This is a factPop culture figure Victoria Beckham has build a colossal fashion empire in barely 10 years, which now has its own makeup line too. In the past decade, she has become an internationally recognized style icon and fashion designer.
The Victoria Beckham label was named designer brand of the year in the UK in 2011.
In 2014, she even received the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) — the fourth class in a hierarchy of five — from Prince William himself.
As a founder and creative director of her own fashion and beauty brand, a wife and mother, we want to know her success tips. Here are our seven favorite posh-isms learnt.
As Victoria Beckham is named the most successful British entrepreneur, we look at the career lessons she’s taught us. She’s coming to celebrate her 47th birthday in April, 2021, so we look back on some business and life lessons we can draw from her contributions to music, fashion and the society.
Do It For The Love
Victoria Beckham believes you need to be passionate about what you are doing. She strongly advocates that this kind of an attitude often has a positive influence on the commitment of employees towards the product and entrepreneur’s vision.
Her top tip for entrepreneurs is that it is imperative to strike a balance between being a passionate visionary and a micromanaging leader.
This is a factThe two most important keys to creating business success are a uniform vision and common goals. Beckham’s mantra for success is to always appreciate and respect her team’s ideas.
If you lose interest in something you’re doing, it comes across in your work.
The fact that Victoria has to love every piece before selling it demonstrates just how much pride she takes in her collection. Passion is what drives you to succeed because you are completely dedicated to making your business work no matter how hard the process may be.
🔈 Victoria Beckham has said
Enjoy what you do. She has always loved fashion it’s always been her passion ever since she was a child.
This is a factShe wakes up every day and recognizes that she’s blessed to have this creative outlet that she’s had for the past 10 years. Passion is what drives you. Passion keeps you going despite the difficulties that your business will inevitably come across.
Passion gives you purpose. Passion pushes you to learn and deliver more results.
The more passion you have, the more you’ll want to keep on learning and improving. Passion gives you that energy. And in my experience, it’s those individuals who keep on down this path who tend to end up being successful at what they do.
When you’re really passionate about something you’re much more likely to work hard and get a better result. Let your passion speak through your work.
Empowerment of women is Victoria’s motivation. She wants a woman wearing her collection to feel like the best version of herself, and this comes across in the quality of her brand.
📚 Additional reading
Success and failure is part of the game, but your passion won’t waver based on the highs and lows. Rather, your passion will keep you looking forward to not only succeed, but to embrace and love every second of it.
Good Is Not Enough
Victoria has never been afraid to aim high, and sends her designs to high-profile celebrities such as Kate Middleton and Julia Roberts. What’s the worst that could happen?
Nothing can take away from Victoria Beckham, her commitment towards her work. Her strong work ethic and ambition have pushed her to give her best.
This is a factDespite being a celebrity, and the wife of a famous footballer, she hasn’t been complacent, and choose to dream big. She believes in constantly challenging herself, fulfilling her commitments, thus working towards giving the best to her label.
Victoria Beckham spent the last decade developing her unique brand style at New York Fashion Week. Every single year her style did step up.
By taking the time to cultivate a strong brand identity in a consumer landscape that wasn’t her ultimate sales goal, she was able to try and test the looks that worked for her customers, and what didn’t.
🔈 Victoria Beckham has said
Whatever it takes, keep your dreams as high as your heels.
Speaking of fashion sense, she was often seen in heels as high as her ambitions back then (and even now). In fact, she published a fashion advice guide titled That Extra Half an Inch: Hair, Heels and Everything in Between back in 2006 — no doubt including examples she lived by. Now, she is known as one of the most successful British fashion entrepreneurs with an eponymous designer label.
Aim high, start small, and keep going. Big success is often just an accumulation of small successes.
This is a factSetting big goals and expecting of yourself to achieve them, can give you a much better chance of actually getting there. It’s a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy — by anticipating a certain positive or negative outcome, we may engage in behaviors to either improve or sabotage our chances to get there.
📚 Additional reading
The magic happens when you push yourself. Remember that when you strive for high and you don’t get there, you are still in a good place. You have a better chance to get the closest alternative.
Work Hard, Play Hard
Since starting her brand in 2008, Victoria Beckham has stuck by a strong work ethic that has let her passion and creativity shine. During many years, Victoria oversaw the operations of her London-based fashion company while moving around the world with her family.
In order to become successful and enjoy life at its best, be an early bird.
There’s something magical about it getting up just as the birds start singing, and by the end of the day you’ll appreciate how much you’ve spent of it awake and doing things. When you’ve got a busy life like Beckham, early mornings are a must to get things done.
Fashion designer Victoria Beckham has been inspired by her husband David Beckham’s incredible work ethic.
This is a factShe said she is really proud of her achievements, but she wouldn’t be where she is at the helm of the fashion industry without the great people around her, including her spouse who has largely influenced her career because of his incredible work ethic.
Most professionals are raised to be the best which for many means the smartest, top of the class, the most skilled, right?
Yes, those factors absolutely matter, but the dirty little secret of career success is that very often work ethic and drive often trump raw talent as a barometer for overall success. For most of us mere mortals, it’s oftentimes surprising that just working circles around everyone else may matter more than having superior intellect or skills.
Positive people with a strong work ethic are the ones we find ourselves wanting to work with and those who seem to have the most success.
This holds true both within an organization and amongst external business partners. They are solutions-oriented and always looking for the most efficient and creative ways to solve challenges which typically leads to the best result.
📚 Additional reading
When it comes to entrepreneurship you can’t have a weak mindset. It’s a strong work ethic and positive attitude that ultimately allows the best of the best to shine through.
Get Experience
Victoria highlights on the importance of designing and working on something that one would want to use in their personal life, thinking of yourself as the product’s first customer. She asserts on understanding the consumer, the environment and always having a problem-solving aptitude.
The fashion diva likes to be hands-on with the product.
This is a factWhile creativity is essential for the product to grow, it is the practical intelligence of the entrepreneur is what will take the venture to newer heights. General intelligence is not enough. Practical intelligence can mean the difference between entrepreneurial success or failure.
When you want to be successful and build a career in a certain field, you need to get as much experience as you can in that specific field.
Having experience will make it easier to build a career in that industry, but you will also build more credibility and make yourself more desirable as a candidate to enter the field. Even when it is voluntary. It shows willingness and a genuine interest in the industry.
🔈 Victoria Beckham has said
In Beckham’s case, the love she has for her craft adds a personal connection between her and her customers, which in turn has made her brand one of the most respected in the fashion world.
This is a factAs she explained to the New York Times, she’s involved in everything. She just wanted to create beautiful clothes, good quality clothes she wanted to wear herself. And then she wanted to create handbags, because she couldn’t find the right handbag that she wanted to carry.
One of the top characteristics of a successful entrepreneur is to be hands-on and totally involved in your business.
As dedicated as your employees may be, no one cares about your business more than you do. You should know enough about what your employees and contractors are doing to jump in if you need to. And keep responsibility for the tasks you love.
📚 Additional reading
No one wants to work for a boss who’s doing everything or giving (workers) only the bad parts of the task. Hands-on leaders straddle the worlds of leadership by modeling behavior but never completely detaching from the day-to-day needs and operations of the business.
Family First
The ‘Wannabe’ singer cannot emphasize enough on building a team that works like a family. An effective team according to her is one where members feel free to challenge each other.
She believes in trusting the team, especially more so if it is the entrepreneur’s first business venture. Like a family does.
This is a factThe most successful work teams are those that work work together as a team, rather than in competition. They’re professional, reliable and respectful of the company and the company’s values, as well as each other. And at the end of the day, they feel like family.
Victoria likes being a mum and ensuring that her diary is handled correctly to a juggling act.
This is a factA doting mother of four and founder of the Best Brand 2014 (British Fashion Awards) executes this juggling act perfectly. Although career girls are driven and determined, it’s important to take time out and ensure you’re not neglecting other aspects of your life.
With a busy schedule Victoria Beckham has to make time to spend with her family.
If she gets the chance she’ll chose alone time with her husband over a night out. When asked what her idea of the perfect date is she says “a night in with my husband.” If someone with her career can make time…
Failing to find a balance between work and your personal life could put your health in jeopardy.
As an entrepreneur, you are probably not used to putting yourself and your loved ones first. But, it’s important to understand that does not mean neglecting your business.
Managing work-life balance is something that can eliminate stress and improve your overall life as an entrepreneur.
This means that you must start managing your own time, plan your activities, understand your priorities, know exactly what satisfy you and what don’s satisfy you, know exactly what creates value for your customers, but also for you and your family.
📚 Additional reading
Victoria Beckham isn’t shy about showing her gratitude for everything she has. She’s grateful for her family and how far she’s come, and it most definitely keeps her humble.
You Be You
Clients, customers, and employees all share one unique quality: being human. As human beings, we know when someone is being genuine as opposed to speaking business talk, mouthing the words that relegate us to being a number rather than an individual.
If her Spice Girls days taught us anything, it’s to stay true to yourself.
This is a factShe certainly did, maintaining her ‘Posh Spice’ persona alongside Scary Spice, Sporty Spice, Baby Spice and Ginger Spice in all her years with the female pop group and even after. Her fashion sense reflects that as well, upholding a façade of elegance, minimalism and sensibility in every occasion.
What Victoria is saying with her brand is that it doesn’t just value the fun in fashion, her brand also values Beckham’s iconic personality.
For any business, brand values, namely what the brand cares about, can go beyond ideas of service and customer satisfaction. It can also be about appealing to the emotions of customers, whether that is creating a sense of awe, fun or amusement through their brand.
🔈 Victoria Beckham has said
While better products, and operational excellence are important attributes for a successful organization, authenticity separates the “good” from the “amazing.”
It’s at the heart of the work we center on in supporting our clients and the companies they lead. Dare to be honest. Build strong ethics and integrity for yourself and your organization. Authenticity changes the playing field in a big way.
Brand authenticity means being accountable, transparent, and vulnerable while upholding a company’s core values.
This is a factAn authentic brand stays true to its vision, its products or services, and its customers. It responds to consumer concerns with a clear desire to resolve them. When a brand is authentic, customers know it and choose it.
📚 Additional reading
Brand authenticity is all about being genuine and real. When you’re an authentic company, you’re very honest about your mission and values. Your policies are transparent, and you create an emotional connection with your clients.
Stay Positive
Granted this would a little bit easier if you were Victoria Beckham, she has genuine gratitude for everything she has in her life. When asked when she was the happiest, she replied right now, and said she wouldn’t want to be doing anything else with her life if she had the choice.
Building a career or business is hard, but Victoria always stays positive.
This is a factThough she tried not to put too much pressure on herself when she first launched her brand, she also accepted crazy moments of self-doubt. Beckham’s advice to her 13-year-old self was “Your skin’s going to clear up and it’s all going to be fine.”
Victoria Beckham has recently revealed she carries crystals with her wherever she goes, to keep her mind positive.
The former Spice Girl told Vogue she always carries a black tourmaline rock on her person, explaining: “I am a real positive thinker. I believe in creative visualization, glass is always half full — I have no time for anything negative.”
🔈 Victoria Beckham has said
Staying positive, even when setbacks arise, is key to moving forward and pushing through.
This is a factA positive mindset can help you turn a bad situation into a good one in a much shorter period of time, and with better end results. It’s the process of making something good out of something bad.
If you maintain a positive attitude, this will be infectious and those around you will pick up on your positive energy.
Everyone in your company will feel positive and customers will want to do business with you. This in turn will lead to you maximizing the performance of your business.
📚 Additional reading
By having limitless thinking and being deliberate about behaviors and habits, you can maintain your entrepreneurial spirit, develop a positive mindset and be open to growth and success in your business.
Final Thoughts
Victoria Beckham is the perfect example for entrepreneurs who have no experience, but are willing to work hard and are open to learn and embrace all things new. She has successfully managed to carve a niche for herself in the big, bad world of fashion by her sheer passion for all things fashion and style.
Her ability to learn from criticism and failure has enabled her to build an empire.
Regardless of where we are in life, we are going to continue to face situations that make us second guess our worth. You can cower and hide, or you can look back on what you’ve already achieved so far and know that you’ll persevere.
Remember, you can still strive to be a better version of yourself without relying on self-criticism as the motivator. So choose kindness.
And let your previous experiences be a source of faith in yourself. Treat yourself as you would a dear friend. Or even better — as the younger version of yourself who just needs a little perspective.
Giving back is important. Businesses that look to have a positive impact on the world have been found to have a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
This is a factThe fashion designer was recently named goodwill ambassador by the United Nations, proving that, no matter how busy or famous you are, it’s always important to think of others.
As Victoria does, you should live by the words “positive energy and creative visualization”, learn more and figure out what you can do to help and make a dent in the universe!
Being Victoria Beckham may seem easy, but juggling multiple roles comes with its own set of challenges. She does not freak out and enjoys every moment of what she does. What was your reaction to this post? Would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below.
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