How to Build a Billion-Dollar Business

CHAPTER 24EXITING AMERICA

The American experience was a disaster. I knew within a week of trading that our strategy was not right. We hadn't followed the most important part of the flywheel: the sell-through. We had also repeated the mistake we had previously made with our skincare range by launching the advertising before the product had been on the shelf for at least three months. It was heart-wrenching. All that work. We needed to stop the haemorrhaging of cash that the American experience was costing us, or we would break our banking covenants and the company would be wound up. However, we had already paid Nicole and Ellen up front and were financially obligated to continue with the rest of the campaign.

I am not proud of how I dealt with the fact that our American launch was dead in the water before it had even started. The memory is still vivid. My team and I were leaving our Chicago office in our rental car to go to the airport and make our way home. We were beyond exhausted. We'd worked tirelessly for seven days a week for months on end to make the American launch work. In that moment, the litany of failures hit me like a freight train. Every mistake, misstep, and oversight came crashing down on me. I could not contain my frustration any longer. I turned around to face my team and unleashed my anger. I told them how angry I was at myself, and at them, for how we had veered off course; for how we had disregarded our established systems and neglected our carefully crafted ...