100 Entrepreneurs Who Changed The World
28. Estee Lauder
“Serenity is pleasant, but it lacks the ecstasy of achievement.”
Estee Lauder was an American businesswoman who transformed women’s fashion through her namesake, the Estee Lauder Company, which she founded with husband. She started out selling skin cream at a local salon, and soon she was reinventing fashion. Today Estee Lauder Companies, Inc. is one of the premier manufacturers of hair care products, skin creams, makeup, and fragrances for women and men. She sold youth in a bottle, and women flocked to buy her rejuvenating creams and sexy scents. She was a pioneer in fashion, shrugging off conventional wisdom, and helping to develop a distinctly feminine look that was modern yet stylish. Lauder was the only woman to grace Time magazine’s 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century.
