MY LIGHT BULB MOMENT
Perfumer Jo Malone
At 52, Jo Malone, MBE, is a highly successful businesswomen. She lives in London with her husband and business partner, Gary, 56, and their 14-year-old son.
WHEN I sold my first company, Jo Malone, to Estee Lauder in 1999, the deal was that I’d carry on in charge. Four years later I got breast cancer, and suddenly my world was turned upside down.
I was going through chemotherapy, I had a two-year-old son, and I’d run out of inspiration. I knew I couldn’t lead the business the way I wanted to — so I left, having signed the usual confidentiality clause agreeing not to work for another beauty company for the next five years.
With the money from the deal, I didn’t need to rush out and find another job, but I quickly found that I’m not the sort of woman who finds fulfilment on a permanent luxury holiday. I sat on boards, I did charity work, I lunched with friends — but what I really wanted was to feel that sense of satisfaction you only get from a hard day’s paid work. Trouble i s, I’m profoundly dyslexic and there’s not much I can do in a conventional office.
Then I had an idea to make a TV series about entrepreneurship, where I’d help ordinary people turn home-made products into thriving businesses.
We called it High Street Dreams and made it for the BBC. One day, while shooting with a lovely family called the Singhs in North London, I had the most extraordinary light-bulb moment.
They made a spectacular chilli sauce in a kitchenette in their garden. So we visited them to advise on the bottling process — all of us crammed into this tiny shed, the smell of vinegar and chilli so powerful, my skin began to itch and my eyes to stream.
For me all those bottles and jugs — that palpable sense of excitement — brought back such wonderful memories, my eyes were wet with tears, too.
I was transported to my own tiny kitchen circa 1994, with my own jugs, bottles and potent smells, starting Jo Malone from scratch. I felt a huge sense of love — and then I knew the crucial thing missing from my life was the creation of fragrance.
The truth is, I have this gift and it’s what I’m meant to do.
Luckily, there wasn’t much time left on my no-work clause, and so in 2011, I founded Jo Loves — my second company. I was back in the game, and happier than ever. Thanks to chilli sauce.