The groundbreaking founder of Tibi shares her secret to taking fearless--not foolish--risks
When Amy Smilovic, founder of Tibi, realized that she no longer liked the clothes her brand produced, she had a choice to make. Would she continue to cater to the data-driven demands of department store buyers looking for "average"? Or would she bet on her own creative point-of-view and completely reinvent her thriving $70M global business?
Smilovic went with her gut. She ignored the consultants, stopped selling to her biggest clients, cut her 100-person staff in half, and began producing small runs of extraordinary clothing. It took time, but the bet paid off: her "creative pragmatist" style--and, more importantly, mindset--resonated with thousands. Today Tibi is flourishing as the oldest independently owned luxury fashion brand in the US, and Smilovic has created a movement of self-identified creative pragmatists.
In Almost Reckless, Smilovic invites her fellow "CPs" to get comfortable taking smart risks in pursuit of their visions. Sharing her business story and drawing on her years helping customers identify their personal style (which goes much deeper than fashion), she teaches you to hone your gut-and your trust in it--through rigorous definition of your core principles. With humor and practicality, she coaches you in how to determine which success metrics are right for you, which rules and expectations don't apply, and how to move confidently into decisions that seem outrageous to those who can't see what you see. Amy Smilovic is the founder and style director of Tibi. She launched it with $15,000 and no formal fashion training in 1997, and today it is America's largest independent global designer brand. She is the author of The Creative Pragmatist.
