Conversation

Our readers love a self-starter who made her fortune her own way.

This country loves a self-starter—the scrappy entrepreneur with a great idea and an ocean freighter full of elbow grease who makes her own fortune her own way. Yes, her: Our November issue featured America’s Richest Self-Made Women, highlighted by cover star and fashion doyenne Tory Burch (No. 26; net worth $750 million). Burch was emblematic, too, as a retailer who has had to contort her business model to survive amid Covid-19. “The pandemic has proven to be one of the greatest accelerants in business history,” observed Shlok Dave on LinkedIn. “Most retailers were forced to reinvent themselves on the fly.” Readers were likewise captivated by the number of women over age 40 who left behind successful careers to pursue solo glory. “It got me even more fired up, being in the process of starting my own business at 45,” wrote Marjolein van Lujiken, also on LinkedIn. Taking a broader view—perhaps with the recent election still front of mind—was Melissa van Zee. “Just think,” she wrote on Facebook, “what would happen if you let us run the country.”