从家庭主妇到家具女王

    2008年时，朱迪·乔治的事业似乎一度走到了尽头，她创立的家具连锁店公司Domain Home在金融危机下奄奄一息。虽然乔治女士仍是首席执行官，但新的私募股东们决定提交破产保护申请，希望尽可能多地拿回投资。但这位接受过女子精修学院教育的四个孩子母亲并没有就此一蹶不振。她用了多少时间从公司倒闭和个人失败中重新振作起来？仅仅约一周时间。接着，又创立了一家新公司。 

    如今，乔治女士已经年届72岁，是Judy George International的所有人。这家新的家居装饰公司是她和设计师合伙人金·萨梅拉共同建立的。如今，该公司的床垫已在600家Sleepy's商店中出售。而且，公司还计划提供一系列家居装饰设计的授权。该公司预计今年收入将达到3,500万美元。乔治女士对话《财富》杂志（Fortune），畅谈她作为职业母亲的生活，如何获得追求成功的超人动力，以及如何扛过最众目睽睽的失败。

    我16岁时曾参加面试，希望成为美国出生缺陷基金会March of Dimes的全美青少年代言人。当时正是小儿麻痹症爆发高峰过后，我想为此做点什么。我没有参加全美级的代言人选拔，因为母亲不让我远行，但我成为了March of Dimes的新英格兰地区代言人。从那时开始，我开始热爱表达自己的想法，同时获得别人的反馈，这让我感觉很好。我能代表所有人，但我想有时候，企业家都是很饥渴的人。这种饥渴不是情感上的，而是在生命中做一些重要事情。我就很饥渴。

    我从女子精修学校Chandler School for Women毕业后，19岁就结婚了。我母亲希望我能藉此学会如何引来金龟婿。这就是那个年代女子精修学院学习的内容。因此，我对它烦透了。

    从那时开始，我就将自己的想法和创意寄给一些公司。我会写产品、电视剧和报纸专栏的宣传语。等到26岁时，我已经有了4个孩子，每个孩子相隔一岁半。我把这些想法发给各个地方的公司，只是为了让自己保持积极的思考。有两个想法得以采纳：有个电视节目喜欢我的想法，我成为了定期嘉宾，我开始为《先驱报》（The Herald）撰写专栏《家装达人》（Decorator in the House）。我一直觉得，就算没钱，也可以打造一个漂亮的房间，让你走进自己家时不再有寒酸的感觉。这就是当时这个专栏谈的内容。它背后的构想是将那些只有富人才有的东西的价格降到大众能承受的水平。

    In 2008, it looked like it was the end of the road for Judy George. The company she started, furniture store Domain Home, had succumbed to the financial crisis. Though George was still the CEO, the company's new private equity owners were taking it into Chapter 11 to recoup whatever they could. But the finishing school-educated mother of four has never stayed down for long. Her recovery time from the bankruptcy and personal fallout? About a week. Then it was back to work on a new company. 

    Today, George is 72 and the owner of Judy George International, a new home furnishings venture she started with her partner, designer Kim Salmela. The company's mattresses are in 600 Sleepy's stores, and it has plans to license a range of home furnishings designs. The company projects revenue this year of $35 million. George talked with Fortune about life as a working mom, cultivating a superhuman drive to succeed, and overcoming even the most public of failures.

    When I was 16, I interviewed to be the national junior spokesperson for the March of Dimes. It was right after the polio epidemics, and I just wanted to do something. I didn't join on the national level because my mother wouldn't let me travel, but I became the New England March of Dimes spokesperson. That was the beginning really of my love of presenting ideas and getting feedback that made me feel good. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think that sometimes entrepreneurs are very needy people. And the need isn't necessarily emotional. It's the need to do something important in their life. I was very needy.

    I got married at 19 after I completed finishing school at the ChandlerSchool for Women. My mother wanted me to get an education in attracting a rich husband. That's what finishing schools in those days were all about. So I went absolutely crazy with boredom.

    That was when I began creating ideas and sending them out to companies. I would write down pitches for products, TV shows, newspaper columns. By the time I was 26, I had four children, a year-and-a-half apart. I sent in these ideas to companies really everywhere just to keep myself sane. Two of them caught on: A television show liked my idea and I became a regular guest, and I started writing a column for The Herald called "Decorator in the House." I always felt that if you were poor, you could create one room and make it feel good, and you wouldn't feel poor when you walked into your home. That's what the column was about. The vision behind everything was to take what only the rich and wealthy could have, and bring it to a price point where the masses could afford it.