Born to Shine by Kendra Scott

Author:Kendra Scott [SCOTT, KENDRA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Worthy
Published: 2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00

When I established the business in 2002, wholesale was 100% of our business. In 2022, it’s 15% of our overall business. I don’t think that we’d have closed during the crash if we hadn’t pivoted the business to direct to consumer, but we certainly wouldn’t have been able to grow to where we are now. We’d have made significant lay-offs and cutbacks, and we’d have had to wait for our reps to establish new relationships with new buyers. We’d have plugged along and survived, but we wouldn’t have thrived without asking this question:

What’s the worst that could happen?

I know I called myself an optimist—and I am—but in both my divorce from John in 2006 and the crash of 2008, I allowed myself to think through the absolute worst-case scenario, to let my most anxious thoughts tell me a story, then let myself sit with the absolute worst feeling I could imagine: I’d see myself closing the doors of Kendra Scott and laying off the team, liquidating all of the inventory and handing over every piece of personal property to the banks who had required them as collateral. I’d see myself selling the house my boys had come home to from the hospital, and living with my mother, my sister, my friends. I’d feel the very real sense of disappointment, shame, and fear. My throat would tighten, my cheeks would turn red, and I’d let myself cry as though it were really happening. Like, really cry, as hard as I needed to. And when I was done, I’d feel a sense of clarity and peace: okay, that’s it. That’s what it would feel like. Not forever, but at least for a while. But right now? None of that is true yet, and I can feel something else and do something else. I can take action from where I am right now, not where I’m afraid I might end up.

The optimist in me is not going to tell you to not be afraid. Any person who claims to be fearless is actually foolish. Rob survived two tours in Vietnam as a very young man, and he lived every day of his service in the very real fear that he would lose his life, or one of his fellow servicemen. Our family was afraid to lose Rob—and we did. The very worst-case scenario came true, and still, we survived. And after that divorce, I did end up moving out of that house… and I found a cute little rental to make into a home for me and the boys.

The optimist in me is going to tell you that fear is not your enemy, but your friend. Every moment of dramatic, positive forward change in my life has come from fear: I was afraid to move to Texas, afraid to close the Hat Box after Rob died, afraid of divorce, afraid to dramatically change our business model. And I didn’t avoid fear, I leaned into it. I asked questions like what are you afraid

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