In starting any business, entrepreneurs must always possess the ability to work hard and be incredibly creative. This usually means finding ways to network with the right people or create doors of opportunity where they don’t exist. Gone are the days of checking postings of what other people need — you’re now on the playing field of establishing your own needs and finding them in places you’d never think you’d be looking.
More times than not, this doesn’t work out. Hopeful emails go unanswered, cold calls get harshly rejected, and people don’t hold up their end of the promise. Although we could provide you with a list of the five things you have to do to make sure you’re successful, sometimes it comes down to luck.
With that in mind, know that the third quality you should possess is persistence. It’s normal to have no’s get thrown in your face, but remember that it’ll all be worth it for that one yes. Take it from Jennifer Hyman, CEO and co-founder of Rent The Runway (and a former Inc. 30 Under 30 honoree).
Hyman recently chatted to Guy Raz on one of my favorite business podcasts, How I Built This. If you’ve ever been turned down from a meeting with your hopes crushed and soul broken, Hyman will change the way you can approach unseen or rejected opportunity.
She had the idea to start Rent The Runway when she saw her sister feeling unsatisfied after trying on a handful of dresses. For those who may be unfamiliar, it’s a pretty common thing for women to look at their completely full closet and think, “I have nothing to wear.” I may or may not be speaking from experience.
Hyman went back to Harvard Business School the following day and told her friend Jenny Fleiss about her new idea. She was met with immediate excitement.
“This sounds fun. Who do you think we should call to see if it’s a good idea?” Fleiss asked.
Without missing a beat, Hyman responded: “You know, I think we should call Diane von Furstenburg.”
For those who aren’t familiar with Furstenberg, she’s a high-end fashion designer well known for her stylistic wrap dress amongst other luxury items. Advocating to call up Furstenberg is like suggesting a casual happy hour with Mark Cuban.
From here, Hyman and Fleiss had to figure out how to reach this mega famous woman. The duo ended up sending their pitch to a handful of many different variations of what they thought Furstenberg’s email address could be.
As they say, luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and Furstenberg replied back: “I’ll see you tomorrow at 5 p.m.”
The two ironed out their freshly devised business plan as they were pitching their idea to Furstenberg. At the time, they wanted to rent out Furstenberg ‘s clothing, but Furstenberg scoffed at the idea of devaluing her products on her own platform. They ended up turning the meeting into an hour-and-a-half discussion on the fashion designer’s biggest pain points.
They scheduled a second meeting for a few weeks later. On the way to that second meeting, Furstenberg’s assistant called Hyman and said the one thing that would crumble any founder: “Diane no longer wants to see you. She’s no longer interested in your idea.”
Instead of accepting her new fate, Hyman took a different route. She said the cell reception was breaking up, hung up the phone, and showed up at the scheduled meeting anyway. Somehow, showing up must have been the extra push because Furstenberg agreed to meet with the women one more time.
In this meeting, Furstenberg gave Hyman and Fleiss one piece of advice that would forever change the company’s now successful business model — to rent out high-end clothing from several designers.
From there, the rest of this multi-million dollar company is history. What will your big risk be?
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.