Skin in the Game: Everything You Need is Already Inside You is the new book from Jane Wurwand who, from the early ‘80s, began building a skincare empire from scratch.
“I believe we’re currently in a ‘Great Reset’,” she says. “Even before Covid, people, and especially women, were unhappy with the lack of flexibility of their careers. We want more time with our families, with ourselves, and with our communities. This book is for any person that may be at a stage in their life where they are thinking they are ready for a reset. To find their purpose and bigger ‘why’.”
Jane – famously described by London’s Sunday Times as ‘The Woman Who Started a Cult’ – it seems, is one to be forever searching for her ‘why’ having been involved with a raft of philanthropic and entrepreneurial projects such as membership of the Clinton Global Initiative and serving as a special advisor to the UN Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council. Her business awards are numerous, and in 2016, she was appointed as a Global Ambassador for Entrepreneurship by President Obama.
In 2018, via her Wurwand Foundation, Jane launched FOUND/LA to fund, mentor and offer incubator programmes and educational resources for local entrepreneurs “to build their business, purpose, and community”. One hundred percent of profits from Skin in the Game will be donated to FOUND/LA which has so far helped around 10,000 start-ups. I ask why she decided to pen the book at this particular time in her life.
“It might be easier to begin with what the book isn’t! It isn’t quite a memoir. Nor is it exactly a business book. It’s a book about building an incredible community of entrepreneurs who built a global industry and changed their own lives through their skills. It’s a story about never shrinking yourself or allowing others to shrink you. It’s a love letter, in a sense, to the industry that gave me my career. But I also wanted to write this for anyone who may not feel as self-determined as I know they can be. Maybe they are not an entrepreneur in business, but they can be an entrepreneur of their own life.”
Why did you decide not to approach the book as a traditional memoir?
“I knew from the start it wouldn’t be a traditional memoir. Life is big and messy and I have never separated any of it from each other. Career, children, love, death, business or family, it all adds up to the patchwork quilt of how we live, and why. The book is like a journey, not written in a chronological thread, but laid out with each of the parts of my life intertwined, all leading to certain lessons and outcomes. They may seem disconnected at first, but they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. I think each of our lives are much like that.”
As well as sharing lessons learnt, Skin in the Game includes exercises to help folk “identify their true purpose and harness resilience and creativity”, things Jane believes to be crucial for success.
“We can’t be afraid to dare, risk and grow in life or business or we will never live our biggest life. We have to trust that we will figure out how to get to the next goal even when our attempt wasn’t successful. No one knows how to do anything until the first time they try and we get there through determination and focus. Courage isn’t the absence of fear – it’s being able to function even when you are scared to death.”
Do you believe that it’s easier for entrepreneurs starting out today with so many resources available?
“I think it is as hard today, and as easy as it was. The core values and ‘bigger why’ of business can be the same as ever, but the methods to get there have changed. We had to spread the story of Dermalogica through word of mouth and zero advertising – which we couldn’t afford. Now, we can spread the story virtually and instantly through the internet and social media platforms, but our bigger values and our ‘why’ remain the same.”
Jane emphasises that’s it’s still more difficult for women, who receive less that 4% of all funding, dropping down to less than 1% for women of colour. “That’s an unacceptable number and clear proof that current methods of funding for entrepreneurs are broken. We need to think more creatively about how to start and fund our businesses and that is now my clear focus.”
What more would you like to see done?
“I’m using all the knowledge that I’ve gained through my career for FOUND, because I know that by supporting our local entrepreneurs, we build thriving communities. Our goal is to build a blueprint of how to do this work that can be replicated in cities across the globe.”
How has the pandemic changed things?
“It has sharpened our awareness of what’s important and what is extraneous. We are all now assessing what we are truly here for – our sense of purpose and direction. Am I living my biggest life? Am I spending time on things that make a difference to me and others in a positive way? Do I need more flexibility and freedom in my life? Or less? These are deeply personal questions and our global communities are addressing them all. We are in the midst of a cultural and social revolution, a political and industrial revolution, and a climate and global revolution. We are not going into any kind of ‘new normal’ – we are in the ‘new next’. The success and heart of every one of these changes will be linked to our capacity for humanity, empathy, kindness, and connection.”
Jane admits that it was an emotional process revisiting her past while penning the book, “sifting through through what mattered, what didn’t” while “rediscovering many of my lifetime values that had been my north star”. She’s always kept a dairy (“an old fashioned moleskin – there’s something about the connection between by hand and the page that clarifies a great deal to me”), but the process threw up some surprises.
“The first photograph on the book is of two-year-old me. I knew that the photo was taken outside of our first home and what I didn’t know was who had taken it. When they received the book, my older sisters told me that it was our dad. He passed away only months after he took that photo and so it now has even more importance to me.”
Jane’s mother, a nurse, was left to raise four daughters alone, setting “an incredible example of work ethic” while “fulfilling a huge life purpose” in the pursuit of her career. “Mum made us realise work can support a family and also fuel our purpose in a very deep way. She taught us the most important lesson of my life – ‘learn how to do something’ – which instilled my fierce determination to support myself, no matter what the circumstance.”
With a life already so well-lived, I ask Jane what still compels her and if she ever considers just putting her feet up, but of course comes the reply: “Putting my feet up has never been one of my goals!”
Inspired by the younger generation’s drive to hold everyone accountable for their actions, Jane still feels driven by “our capacity to improve lives and outcomes for others” to ensure “every person has a place at the table”.
“Entrepreneurship and self-determination are what speaks to my heart” she says. “It’s emotional, dynamic, risky, and messy – everything I love about life. I got here by taking risks, trusting my gut, thinking big, and stumbling, and falling.”
And of course a rising always comes after a fall.
Skin in the Game: Everything You Need is Already Inside You, published by HarperCollins, is out now.
