Estée Lauder | Famous Entrepreneur

 

Estée Lauder was born on July 1, 1906 and died on April 24, 2004. He was an American famous entrepreneur who was the co-founder, along with her husband, Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies, her eponymous cosmetics company. Lauder was the only female on TIME magazine’s 1998 listing of the 20 most important business prodigies of the 20th century. She was the receiver of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was inducted on the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1988.

She was born Josephine Esther Mentzer in Corona, Queens in 1906, one among nine children born to a Hungarian Jewish mother, Rose Schotz Rosenthal, along with a Czechoslovak Jewish father, Max Mentzer. When she was a child, her parents want to name her Esty, following her mother’s most loved Hungarian aunt. When it was time for the clerk to write down at the certificate of a birth, her mother decided to go with Esther rather than Esty. She did so for the reason that Esty was too uncommon and no one learned how to spell it. Esty was her parents’ play name. When her father pronounced Esty, it was like Estée, resulting from his accent. Most of her child years were spent working to make ends meet with most of the 9 children assisting out at the family’s home improvement store.

It was whilst working in this retail store that Lauder got her first preference of business. Her father’s shop presented her a better knowledge of entrepreneurship and what it takes to become a successful shop. Her childhood aspiration was to grow to be an actress, her name in lights, flowers as well as handsome men.

In 1953, Lauder presented her 1st scent, Youth Dew, a bath oil that doubled as a perfume. Instead of making use of their French perfumes by the drop behind each ear, women were using Youth Dew by the bottle within their bath water. Within the 1st year Youth Dew marketed fifty thousand, by 1984, the figure had improved to one hundred and fifty million. Lauder was a topic of a 1985 TV documentary, Estee Lauder: The Sweet Smell of Success. Describing her achievements, she said, “I have never spent a day in my life without selling. If I have confidence in something, I market it, and I sell it hard.”