Today's Dose of Smile-Therapy

Barbara Bates, fashion designer to such celebrities as Oprah, Michael Jordan and the late Whitney Houston, is happy she followed her ‘gut’ in 1986. Unhappy working as a secretary, she knew she had a flair for design, when her colleagues wanted her to make them clothes.
 
“By wearing my own designs to work, I was my own best advertisement.” Barbara never had to worry about getting clients. She sold her clothes on the side in the woman’s bathroom. “Sometimes, I literally sold the clothes off my back.” Three months after leaving her job, Bates opened Barbara Bates Design.The company has grown from four seamstresses to a staff of 18, exchanged cramped working quarters for a spacious 3000 foot studio on Chicago’s Gold Coast, and generates over 1 million in annual revenues.
 
It wasn’t all cake and ice cream…There were times when she wanted to give up- for instance when she couldn’t meet the payroll. “It was during this time I was given strength to think of creative ways to get my product out on the market and bring in new money.” says Bates. “Several times I pawned my jewelry. You just have to weather through it. Don’t start a business thinking you’ll get rich  overnight. It won’t happen.”
 
Bates also advises,  “And in the meantime really believe in yourself, stay true to yourself and follow your intuition."
 
Quick lessons: Use your talents, follow your passion, and stick with it through adversity. Also, as we’ve seen in other stories, not many overnight successes, but there are plenty of  long term winners for those who persist and believe!