'I got my start by giving myself a start.'

'The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them'

- Ida B. Wells, co-founder of the NAACP (1862-1931)

'I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.'

- Modern nursing innovator Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

'One man can make a difference and every man should try.'

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994)

'Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise.'

- Ted Turner, on his secret to success (1938-2026)

Advertising powerhouse Mary Wells Lawrence became the first female CEO of a public company listed on the NYSE when her ad agency went public in 1968.

'Sometimes opportunities float right past your nose. Work hard, apply yourself, and be ready. When an opportunity comes you can grab it.'

- Actress Julie Andrews (1935 - present)

Many startup founders pull out-of-the-box stunts to get their businesses off the ground.

Modern Champagne owes much of its existence to one woman: Widow Clicquot

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, better known as the Widow Clicquot, might not have actually invented Champagne, but her innovative approach to winemaking yielded many techniques still used today. Taking over her husband’s failing business after his death, the Widow Clicquot combined business savvy and innovative thinking to make the process easier, more efficient, and, most important, more profitable.

Stanford’s ‘How to Start a Startup’ series

Stanford’s archive of lectures about creating a startup includes advice from Y Combinator notables such as former YC president and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and YC Cofounder Paul Graham.

Jane Maas was one of the first prominent female ad executives on Madison Avenue

Jane Maas started as a copywriter at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1964. She’s known for working on the famous "I Heart NY" tourism campaign alongside artist Milton Glaser. This interview provides a glimpse into what life was like for women like her on Madison Avenue.

'If you want to succeed, you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.'

- Billionaire John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

A quote by Lucille Ball

"Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world."

'Most of man's problems upon this planet, in the long history of the race, have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage.'

-Frances Perkins (1880-1965), first female member of US Cabinet

Jean Carroll was one of the first women to make a name in stand-up comedy

Carroll cut her teeth in vaudeville alongside Buddy Howe, her husband, who later became her manager. Despite operating in a male-dominated field, she became a popular headliner and was a mainstay as a stand-up on "The Ed Sullivan Show," which led to her own sitcom.

'Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.'

- Harper Lee from "To Kill a Mockingbird"

The woman who coined the term ‘girlboss’ now has a VC firm called Trust Fund

In 2006, Amoruso founded the clothing company Nasty Gal, then later wrote a memoir called “#Girlboss” about her company’s meteoric rise. Later, she launched other ventures, including her “Business Class” business coaching series and the venture capital fund “Trust Fund.”

1928: A quote from Amelia Earhart

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting."

In the 1870s, a woman from Boston ran a Ponzi scheme disguised as a bank by women, for women that promised 8% interest.

The term 'startup'—which is typically used to describe private companies in their early stages of operation that focus on innovating new products or services to meet a market gap—can be traced back to a 1976 Forbes article.

The story of America's first woman presidential candidate

This video guides us through the history of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president in the US. Despite the odds being against her, Woodhull experienced extraordinary success as a stockbroker, newspaper founder, and presidential candidate. Watch to learn more about her background, her revolutionary ideas, and her impact on 19th-century politics.

With the advent of charge cards, Estée Lauder fought to get her products in department stores to benefit from impulse purchases

Because Estée Lauder focused on personal relationships and demonstrations as one of her primary sales strategies, getting her product in front of enough people was an early struggle. Similarly, many customers wanted to buy her products, but didn't always have the cash on hand. One of her biggest accomplishments was earning a retail spot at Saks on 5th Ave in Manhattan, which paved the way for her brand to become a household name and gave customers more flexibility to make purchases on the spot.

Jackie "Moms" Mabley was the first woman to headline solo at the Apollo Theater

The comic's act was based on a classic archetype: the fed-up mother who was going to tell it to you straight. She perfected her craft on the Chitlin Circuit, where she became a cultural icon in the Black community, and then had significant mainstream success starting in the 1960s.

Estée Lauder's family ran a hardware store in Corona, Queens

Estée Lauder grew up organizing the storefront window of her father's hardware store, which her family lived above. Lauder was reportedly a natural salesperson, and her experience working with her father is frequently cited as her earliest business training.

How John D. Rockefeller became the world's first billionaire

From a young age, John D. Rockefeller knew he was interested in business. He worked as a bookkeeper and sold candy prior to starting the business empire that would help cement the Rockefeller name in history: Standard Oil.

'I am a writer who came from a sheltered life. A sheltered life can be a daring life as well. For all serious daring starts from within.'

- American novelist Eudora Welty (1909-2001)

How Martha Stewart became the first self-made billionaire woman

Through her cooking shows, cookware, and media empire, Martha Stewart ascended to billionaire status in 1999, becoming America's first woman to achieve that number on her own. Despite a conviction in 2004 and time spent in prison, Stewart rebounded and continues to develop product lines and media, with an estimated net worth of $200M. Read more about her story here.

'Adversity, if you allow it to, will fortify you and make you the best you can be.'

-American beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings (1978-present)

'Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.'

- Inventor Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931)

'The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up.'

- Fashion icon Anna Wintour (1949 – present)

Much of Estée Lauder's success stemmed from her laser focus on serving her target market: wealthy women who saw beauty as an investment.

Read Time Magazine's profile of Estée Lauder—the only woman named to a list of the most influential business leaders of the 20th century

Time Magazine's 1998 profile of Estée Lauder credited much of Lauder's global success to her incredible work ethic and her dedication to creating the highest-quality products, even if those products weren't trendy.

'Do one thing every day that scares you.'

-Mary Schmich (1953-present), a columnist for the Chicago Tribune

'Telephone, telegraph, tell a woman:' Listen to Estée Lauder's legendary vision for word-of-mouth marketing

Without a large advertising budget, Lauder focused her marketing strategy on making high-quality products that women would love enough to tell their friends about. Those friends would later inevitably buy Estée Lauder products.

A quote by Florence Nightingale

"Poetry and imagination begin life."

'I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.'

- Martha Washington (1731-1802)

A Nantucket woman helped build Macy’s

Margaret Getchell, an early Macy’s superintendent, was among the first female executives in the American retail industry. Getchell (who was distantly related to Macy’s founder RH Macy, although it’s unclear if the pair knew that when she was hired) helped shape Macy's as an early employee.

'How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.' - Anne Frank

John D. Rockefeller’s father had a nefarious past

William A. Rockefeller Sr. earned his money via various schemes that included pretending to be a doctor to sell “herbal medicines” and posing as a deaf person to peddle for money.

Dating app Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd is considered the youngest self-made female billionaire.

'Your failures are your accomplishments because it makes you prepared for whatever it is that you are going to do next.'

- Director Lee Daniels (1959-present)

'Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.'

- Judy Garland

'In my experience, each failure contains the seeds of your next success—if you are willing to learn from it.'

- Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen (1953–2018)

How venture capital firms came to be

The venture capital firm that kickstarted an industry.

John D. Rockefeller—the world's first billionaire—was born to a well-known con artist father.

The Wall Street Journal: a timeline

The Wall Street Journal got its start as a financial news bulletin for people trading stocks. Since then, it has evolved beyond just financial news. It now ranks among the preeminent global business news sources.

Sojourner Truth's 'Aint I a Woman?' speech addressed the disparity between the treatment of white and black women in America

Truth, a former slave, delivered the address acknowledging both abolition and the treatment of women at a Women's Convention in 1851. She is believed to have spoken with little to no preparation beforehand. Different versions of the speech exist, as there is no officially published version.

'If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time.'

- Activist Dorothy Height (1912-2010)

Bill Bowerman brought running for fitness to America

Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman once cowrote a book with a doctor, W.E. Harris, called “Jogging.” Published in 1967 by New York, Grosset & Dunlap, it introduced America to the idea of running for health, instead of just sport—and kicked off the fitness frenzy of the 1970s that fueled Nike’s early success. (Some readers may experience a paywall).

A Quote by Sandra Day O'Connor

"Do the best you can in every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time."

Many of the 2010s girlboss-era founders experienced a public fall from grace in 2020

In the 2010s, dozens of female founders were celebrated on the covers of business magazines like Inc. for their recent startup success, from Emily Weiss’s Glossier makeup brand to Steph Korey’s Away luggage company. But many of these companies were also the subject of large takedown articles around the year 2020.