Some inspiration found in small successes
NEW YORK — The risks Richard Branson has taken as he’s gone from founding the Virgin record label to planning spaceflights have been an inspiration for Elizabeth Babinski in her wedding business.
When she recently redid her website, which appeals to gay and transgender as well as heterosexual couples, Babinski knew it was “drastically different” but thought, “how would Richard Branson approach this?”
“It pushed me to think to just do it and not compare it to what everyone else is doing,” said Babinski, a wedding officiant and owner of Liz Rae Weddings in Minneapolis.
The people who inspire small-business owners can range from famous billionaires and former bosses to parents who dealt with failures as well as successes. Here is a look at the people who inspired and mentored small-business owners:
LESSONS FROM A CRISIS
When seven people died in 1982 after taking Tylenol capsules tainted with cyanide, then-Johnson & Johnson Chairman Jim Burke ordered a recall of millions of bottles of the drug. In 1986, after another death, Burke pulled his company’s overthe-counter capsules off the market permanently. The recalls cost Johnson & Johnson nearly $600 million in 2019 dollars, and the creation of tamper-proof packaging added to those costs.
Burke’s response is widely considered a standard of responsibility other businesses should strive for. Mike Graffeo learned about Burke while working at Johnson & Johnson. When Graffeo started his medical devices company last year, he adopted the same attitude.
“It starts with the patients, the people who need what we’re taking to the marketplace, and employees,” said Graffeo, whose company, FluidForm 3D Bioprinting, is in Acton, Mass. “Only when we do right by those constituents do we have the right to earn a fair return for our shareholders.”
RELEVANT AND AUTHENTIC
Oprah Winfrey began her career in the mid-1970s as a TV news anchor, moved on to host a talk show for decades and became a media executive and billionaire. Her ability to evolve and remain a force in American culture inspires Shari Coulter Ford, who’s also had a long business career and co-founded Tohi Ventures, maker of Tohi, a beverage sold online.
“Over time, you really have to understand your audience, the market you’re going after, the technology changes and how it’s relevant to you,” said Ford, who sees Winfrey as having achieved those goals.
“It hasn’t been so long ago that people started talking about emotional intelligence,” said Ford of Kansas City, Mo. “She exhibited that before that was popular in business.”
ROLE MODELS
Cecy Martinez has been inspired by different leaders: Norman Vincent Peale and Steve Jobs.
Martinez, who sells handbags under the label Cecy, discovered Peale in middle school. She learned from the late minister and author of The Power of Positive Thinking, “if you think you can, you can.”
“It really marked my attitude toward life, definitely toward business,” Martinez said. She realized she could leave a corporate job and start her Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., company.
Jobs’ widely quoted admonition that “the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do” resonated with Martinez. So did his perseverance.
TYLER PERRY VALIDATION
When Donny O’Malley founded Vet TV, a streaming channel aimed at veterans, he believed in his project although he kept getting suggestions that he target a more mainstream audience.
Recently, O’Malley began looking at the career of filmmaker Tyler Perry, who got his start in the early 2000s aiming his work at black audiences.
“He found enormous success as an artist and entrepreneur without trying to be mainstream,” said O’Malley of San Diego.