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

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.

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

Explore old photos of Estée Lauder's life

Despite her humble upbringing, Estée Lauder's love of beauty and glamour helped propel her social climb. Lauder became friends with many elites over the course of her life—including the late Princess Diana—owned homes in the Hamptons and the South of France, and turned her family business into a cosmetic empire. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The Lauder family still controls more than 80% of the voting power in Estée Lauder Companies.

Estée Lauder divorced and later remarried Joseph Lauder, her husband and business partner

After first marrying in 1933, Estée Lauder divorced Joseph Lauder, primarily because he wasn't as driven and ambitious as Estée. They ultimately remarried in 1942 and were rarely seen apart. While Estée was a visionary leader for the company, Joseph handled much of the behind-the-scenes work.

Estée Lauder's son, Leonard Lauder, transformed Estée Lauder into a global powerhouse

Leonard Lauder became president of Estée Lauder Companies in 1972 and is credited with much of the brand's expansion. Under his leadership, the company launched new lines like Aramis and acquired luxury brands to bolster its position in the luxury beauty market.

Estée Lauder used wealthy people's bathrooms to curate the color of the jars her products were sold in

While Lauder herself was just starting her cosmetics empire, she knew wealthy people who could afford high-quality products would always be her target market. In order to make her products as appealing to this market as possible, Lauder held up different colors of glass bottles in people's bathrooms to see what would look best with their decorations before landing on a turquoise bottle with a gold cap.

Estée Lauder was famously evasive about many personal details of her life

While Estée Lauder's name is known worldwide, many details of her life are shrouded in mystery, such as the year she was born. Lauder was criticized for her lifelong "social climb" and her drive to join "high society," which may be why she never shared many particulars about her humble childhood. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

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.

'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.

Leonard Lauder, one of Estée's sons, invented the slant on a tube of lipstick

Leonard Lauder was known for being an innovator, both in business and in product. He's credited with creating the now-standard slant of a lipstick tube, slicing the top off a then-bullet-shaped lipstick to better fit women's lips. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Explore the brands owned by Estée Lauder Companies

While Estée Lauder remains the flagship brand and namesake of the cosmetic conglomerate, the company owns more than 20 premier brands. Some of the brands—like Clinique and Origin—were created in-house, but others—like Tom Ford and Jo Malone—are a result of the company's acquisition strategy, which often targets companies with high-end retail products.

Estée Lauder once broke a bottle of the hit perfume 'Youth Dew' to convince French department stores to carry the product

Youth Dew, originally launched in 1953 as a bath oil, was wildly successful in the American market and one of the early products that cemented Estée Lauder as a luxury cosmetics brand. When the Galeries Lafayette in Paris hesitated to sell the perfume, Lauder "accidentally" broke a bottle of Youth Dew, causing the smell to spread throughout the department store. Shoppers began asking for the scent, and the department store agreed to sell it.

To ward off competition from Revlon, Estée Lauder launched Clinique—the first dermatologist-approved skincare line—in 1968

Clinique launched in 1968 as an entire product line, as opposed to just a single product, which was rare for cosmetics brands at the time. Clinique marked Estée Lauder's first venture into a younger, less luxury-oriented retail market.

Kevin Warsh married Estée Lauder's granddaughter in 2002

The newest Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, is married to Jane Lauder, who served as Estée Lauder Companies' chief data officer until late 2024. Her stake in Estée Lauder Companies is part of what makes Warsh the richest Fed chair on record.

Esther Howland built a Valentine's Day card empire in 19th-century New England

In 1849, Howland launched her card business, the New England Valentine Company, in her home, staffing an assembly line with her friends, who'd piece together the intricate valentines. The cards were elaborately decorated, with silk, lace, and romantic verse. Howland's annual sales eventually grew to $100K and helped popularize the holiday in the US.

Ray Dalio grew up in New York City, and his dad was a jazz musician

Dalio grew up in the Jackson Heights neighborhood in Queens—though his family moved to the city's suburbs when he was eight-years-old. His father played music in famous Manhattan nightclubs like the Copacabana, while his mother stayed home.

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.

At 18, Eleanor taught immigrant children in one of New York's poorest neighborhoods

After finishing school in London, Roosevelt returned to New York and volunteered at a settlement house on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side, working directly with immigrant families living in poverty.

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.

Dry goods stores sold products such as textiles and linens

RH Macy started Macy’s as a dry goods store in 1858. At the time, the store was located on New York City’s 14th Street. Dry goods stores later rebranded themselves for the future of retail around the 1930s.

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

- Businesswoman Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919)

At the age of seven, Grace Hopper dismantled alarm clocks

Foreshadowing a career in computers, Hopper exhibited a curiosity for gadgets at a young age and took apart seven clocks, determined to understand how they worked. Despite having a dollhouse, Hopper built an elevator for it and showed a greater interest in building toy furniture than playing with dolls.

Mark Zuckerberg's dad is a dentist—but he originally wanted to work with computers

Mark Zuckerberg grew up in Dobbs Ferry in Westchester County, about 25 miles north of New York City. His father, Ed Zuckerberg, owned a practice connected to Mark's childhood home, but he was always fascinated by computers. Ed's family was the first in his neighborhood to have a color television, and Ed was an early adopter of computing technology—something that he passed on to Mark. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault's children are involved in the business

Arnault has five children, and each of them hold executive roles under LVMH. His daughter Delphine Arnault, for instance, is the CEO of Christian Dior Couture as of this writing.

LVMH's history can be traced back to 1854, the year Louis Vuitton was started

Louis Vuitton was founded by a craftsman's apprentice who specialized in trunk-making. Since its merger with Moët Hennessy in 1987, which created LVMH, the conglomerate has been considered a powerhouse in the business world. "I would argue that next to Apple, no other company on the planet dominates their industry as completely as LVMH," one financial expert said.

Dual-class stock structures separate equity and decision-making authority

In the past few decades, dual-class stock structures have become an increasingly popular way for companies to raise capital in public markets without allocating traditional shareholder voting rights. Meta, Estée Lauder, and The New York Times are companies that are famously dual-class.

Macy’s revolutionized retail with fixed pricing, pay-upfront policies, and marketing

The brand soon grew into a cultural icon, hosting the first in-store Santa in 1862, and launching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, now a holiday staple. Its flagship Herald Square store became the world’s largest, and its festive window displays set a new standard for holiday celebrations.

Jeff Bezos came from humble beginnings and spent much of his childhood on a cattle ranch, where his grandfather made his own needles for the cattle by hand.

Dollar Tree was increasingly targeting higher-income shoppers in 2026

Dollar Tree stores have been opening in wealthier areas in recent months, with its 9,000th store opening in 2025 within a few miles of a Louis Vuitton store and a Porsche dealership. A recent survey found that 19% of the money spent at dollar stores came from households with annual income exceeding $100,000.

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.

Before starting Apple, Steve Jobs cold-called HP at 12 years old and got a summer job.

See every brand that LVMH—the world's largest luxury goods holding company—owns, from luxury fashion and jewelry brands like Tiffany & Co., Fendi, and Louis Vuitton to beauty supply store Sephora and the hotel group Belmond.

Ray Dalio started his career as a golf caddy in Long Island

When Dalio was 12 years old, he worked as a golf caddy at the Links Golf Club. That's where he heard about the stock market for the first time and decided to invest in Northeast Airlines—the only stock he knew that was selling for less than $5 a share. Dalio ended up tripling his profit and became fascinated with the stock market—ultimately laying the foundation for his legendary career as a hedge fund manager.

The Rockefellers' family office expanded to become a multifamily office

The Rockefellers created the first known single-family office in the late 1800s but the firm has evolved since to serve many wealthy American families.

An interview with Laurene Powell Jobs

Steve Jobs is survived by his wife Laurene Powell Jobs, who has spent her career supporting social causes. Powell Jobs said she’s working to distribute the billions of dollars she received from her late husband.

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.

Taylor Swift's family encouraged her interest in music from a young age, and moved to Nashville before she reached high school so she could be close to the country music industry.

Visa Founder Dee Hock abruptly left the credit card company in 1984, saying his inner voice told him that business, power, and money are not what life is about.

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.

Former Sears CEO and hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert was a reclusive billionaire who was once kidnapped from his home in Greenwich, Connecticut by criminals looking to get rich.

Queens, New York, housewife Jean Nidetch founded Weight Watchers in 1963 after someone mistook her for being pregnant.

One of LVMH's key business innovations was widening the luxury market's target audience

While certain items under the LVMH umbrella can cost thousands of dollars, like large Louis Vuitton bags, others, like coin purses or lipstick, cost significantly less. Some argue that these comparatively lower-priced items allows LVMH's target audience to be much larger in size than it would have been if it only targeted the world's wealthiest shoppers, whereas others argue that it makes the brand more vulnerable to economic downturns.

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.”

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.

Founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos, Amway, a home goods company, is the largest multilevel marketing company in the world by revenue, generating more than $7B annually.

How the Rockefellers' wealth evolved over time

The Rockefellers built one of the most powerful business empires in US history. By the early 1900s, their company, Standard Oil, controlled over 90% of the US oil market.

The origin and history of stock exchanges

When were stocks first sold? Though debt was first sold in Venice in the 14th century, stocks proper began in the Netherlands. To fund its spice trade across the world in 1602, the Dutch East India Company sold stocks to individual investors, a novel approach to raising funds. It was the Dutch West India Company that founded New York—the site of some of the world’s greatest stock exchanges. Listen to a concise historical overview here.

David Ogilvy’s brother helped get him into the advertising business

Ogilvy sent a copy of his stove sales manual, "The Theory and Practice of Selling the AGA Cooker" (which Fortune magazine later called "probably the best sales manual ever written”) to his brother, who was working at London ad agency Mather & Crowther at the time.

Dollar stores often place staple items at the back of the store so customers encounter other less-necessary items on their way there, leading to impulse buys.