In an extended interview, philosopher Douglas B. Rasmussen responds to a series of questions about his life and work.

Dr. Rasmussen is a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in New York. In addition to the books discussed in the interview, he is the author of articles in American Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, International Philosophical Quarterly, and many scholarly anthologies.

Watch the interview at Dr. Stephen Hicks’s site.

Related: Stephen Hicks interviews Douglas Rasmussen about Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness.

Chan Luu is CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles. Her designs are now carried by stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Banana Republic, as well as in high-end stores in London and Japan. We met with Chan Luu in L.A. to discuss entrepreneurship in the design business, how she combines creativity with bottom-line thinking, and the challenges of maintaining a successful enterprise in the fashion world.

Kaizen: Your designs have been worn by many Hollywood celebrities—Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Janet Jackson, and many others.

Luu: It has been happening for a long time and, of course, it’s always exciting.

Kaizen: But your story starts in Vietnam, where you were born. Where in Vietnam did you grow up?

Luu: I was born and raised in South Vietnam, in Nha Trang. I don’t know if you know that town. It’s more toward the center. It’s a seaside town, very beautiful. I was born and raised there. But mom and dad had business in Saigon, so I did go back and forth.

Kaizen: What was it like growing up in Vietnam at that time, surrounded by war?

Luu: You know, I come from a country that has gone through many different wars. So Vietnamese people are quite adapted to that kind of life, and in Vietnam the war, the fighting happened only in the countryside and along the borders; so if you lived in a city, you saw some fighting—but not every day.

Kaizen: Did you have a strong interest in fashion when you were growing up?

Luu: When I was a little kid, I already showed a strong artistic side, like form, shape, and colors always affecting me emotionally. Smells too—I was very much into food. I have very skilled hands—I like to do things with my hands. That was developed very early on. I didn’t know which direction I’d go, but at that point that was very strong.

Kaizen: Were you interested in business when younger, or did that develop later?

Luu: At that time, no. My parents were very successful merchants. Was I interested in business? No, I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to be in fashion, and I wanted to be a painter, and I wanted to be a full-time, fine art artist. Even though I had that kind of normal life, I lived in a war country, so we had very limited exposure to the western world. But I went to a French high school, so I read a lot which gave me exposure to art and history in Europe, especially in France. But interested in business, no.

Kaizen: You left in 1972 and came to the United States. How old were you at that point?

Luu: May of 1972. Almost 18.

Kaizen: This was before the Vietnam War ended?

Luu: Yes, before. The war ended in May 1975, three years later.

Kaizen: Why the USA and Boston in particular?

Luu: My three siblings—I have two sisters and one brother. My siblings were already here in Boston. I was the last one at home. Then one day I came home from school and my mom said we had to go and say goodbye to a few relatives. I asked why and she said, “Because you are leaving for the U.S., tomorrow would be the last day you could go.” I still don’t understand how she did it, I knew my parents were very well connected, but nobody was allowed to leave the country at that time. She said, “Just make sure you don’t tell anybody you are leaving the country tomorrow.”

She sent me to Hong Kong, actually. I didn’t have any luggage. I went to Hong Kong and a friend of hers picked me up. We bought some necessary things, and I was sent off to Honolulu. It was the longest flight ever. When I was about to land in Boston, I looked down and said, “Wow, this is not Boston, this is England.” So that’s how I got out.

Kaizen: You then went to college in Boston. What led you to choose business administration as your undergraduate major?

Luu: At home I was pre-med, kind of. I come from a culture where parents really dictate what you should do, and my mother is big and strong about that, so mother would say “You either go to business school so you can help me later on or you go to medical school and be a doctor; those are your choices.” When I told her I wanted to be a fashion designer, she said, “I am not going to pay for you to go to school to be a seamstress.” That was how she put it.

So business school it was. Those are not my happy years, and I felt kind of resentful. So I went to the dean of students at the business school and said, “I really want to finish my school sooner than four normal years.” He said, “What do you mean? How? You can’t even speak any English.” It was a semester system, and I suggested I could take six courses per semester so I could graduate in two and a half years. He said he did not think that was possible, but since I was persistent he said, “Okay, show me if you can get a B+ the first semester, and I will let you do it.” So I did—I got a B+ and I graduated in two and a half years.

Kaizen: You then moved from Boston to Los Angeles to get another degree, this time in fashion design?

Luu: My mom wanted me to further my education. In my last semester in Boston University, I was accepted to University of Southern California for my MBA degree. That was the plan. School would start in September of 1975, but the Vietnam War ended in May. I was a foreign student supported by my parents, and overnight I had $300 dollars to my name. I needed to find ways to support myself. Another business degree was out of the question. I was devastated, knowing I couldn’t go home, scared of the uncertain future in the USA, but yet also excited—for once I was on my own.

Kaizen: What did you do next?

Luu: In the summer of 1975, my parents came over and some life-changing decisions needed to be made. When the war ended, we all got legalized right away. We decided California weather would be better for my parents, so we all moved out to Los Angeles.

Kaizen: When did you first have the idea of starting your own boutique?

Luu: I came out here and my first job was working for a bathing suit company. It’s a division of Warnaco called High Tide. They manufacture everything about beachwear, so I got a job there as their vice-president’s assistant. Their head designer, Maggie, really liked my sense of style and often suggested I should go and talk to her sister, who was the head of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) school. So I went and talked to her sister, but since I had no money to pay for my school, she helped me to get a basic grant. That’s how I started.

Kaizen: How long did that degree take?

Luu: It was really hard for me, because I had to work and go to school at the same time, so it took me a year and a half to finish.

Kaizen: Then in 1982 you opened your own boutique in Rolling Hills Estates?

Luu: While I was at High Tide, my friend Sharon, the president’s assistant, was going through her divorce. She and her husband owned a little coffee shop in Manhattan Beach, and since I needed ways to support myself while I was in fashion school, they sold it to me for very little money. The income from the restaurant helped to support me, paid back the coffee shop’s loan and the school loan. Those were hard years, because all I did was work and go to school; but looking back those were the happiest times of my life: school was really fun.

While I was living in Manhattan Beach, I shopped a local boutique. The owner of the store always found my personal sense of style was unique. It’s a high-end boutique, which offered personal service. The owner offered me a job to work there as a salesperson, and I thought, “How in the hell could I do that? I am going to school. I am working day and night at my restaurant.” I said to him, “I really can’t.” But he was very persistent and said, “Well, if you just give me some time working in my store, you can get half off anything you buy.” I was laughing.

I went home and gave the idea some thought. Well, I wanted to get into fashion; I already worked for a manufacturer, and wouldn’t this be a good chance for me to see the retail side of this business? But my schedule was so tight with school, running the restaurant, school projects at night …. But I took a chance. I called him back and said, “You know, I have another job and I have school and I really can’t work a lot, but I could work four hours every Saturday.” And I thought, “Oh my god. That is terrible. He must think this is a joke.” I told my sister, “Who would hire me working four hours a week?” But surprisingly, without any hesitation, he said, “Good, I’ll take it.”

So every Saturday I went there for four hours, and I turned out to be the best sales person there. Then my boss decided I should work with special clients by appointment only. He was a very smart man, thinking that since I only could be there four hours a week, that would be the best way to maximize my time.

In no time, I began dressing a lot of celebrities. After I was there for a while, school, running the restaurant, and working part-time wore me out. Something needed to give. So I decided to quit my part-time job, but my boss said, “Listen, my business is really growing and I need a good buyer with a defined vision, a strong sense of style and your name is on top of my list. I want you to be my fashion buyer.” I think the offer came at a good time, because I had just graduated from FIDM and the restaurant was supporting me, but fashion was my calling. This buying job would give me exposure to the fashion world, so I went for it. I sold my restaurant and became a fashion buyer. This job was a real door-opening for my career. I worked there for two years, travelling all over the country. Then my boss’s divorce put a lot of financial stress on the business, so I decided maybe it was time for me to get out and be on my own.

It was a very interesting time in my life because there were so many changes. At that time my little sister was killed in a car accident. I was trying to adjust to my life in the U.S. and trying to adjust to the idea that this is home now. Financially it was tight because now, besides myself, I had my parents to support. Emotionally it was difficult, because I was torn between staying on my job and getting out and being on my own. But my entrepreneurial gut took over. I decided, “What did I have to lose? I should go for it.”

Kaizen: How did you fund the new store?

Luu: With very little saved money. But as a buyer for two years, I had a really good working relationship with my vendors. And being known as a good stylist, I built up a wealthy clientele. My vendors thought that was a brilliant idea having my own store, and they wanted to help me, because they believed I was a natural with fashion. Many of my vendors shipped me merchandise on credit terms, and I already had a loyal clientele who would not shop anywhere else, so it was an instant success. It was a tiny, little store, 400 square feet, but business was there from the first day.

Kaizen: There are many boutiques in Los Angeles, so what did you do to make yours distinctive?

Luu: From 400 square feet I grew and moved into a store about 800 square feet. I was making a living, but it wasn’t something that would secure my future. Then my sister died. The next year I got married. An attorney, my husband taught me a lot about life in America and American history. I adjusted to my new life in the U.S. with his help. I was doubling my store size and having fun dressing my customers. Once I got married, the financial pressure was off, because we both made a decent living, especially my husband who was a senior vice-president of a major bank.

Kaizen: 1996 was an important year for you—the year that you began designing accessories?

Luu: It was actually a freak accident.

It was a time that my dad died of lung cancer. I was really close to my dad; it was a big loss to me. By then, I also knew I needed a change; I needed more creative challenges. A retail store was fun but not enough to fulfill my dream as a designer, a creator per se. My husband was climbing the corporate ladder, which put a lot of stress in our marriage. When my dad passed away and we couldn’t resolve our differences at home, I knew I needed a big change in my life. I decided to split and went on my own.

I was quite athletic and adored all outdoor sports. It was a freak skiing accident, while I was confined in bed recovering from a torn ligament, that I was toying with the idea of putting some beads together, making some fun jewelry because I was bored! Although I am a trained fashion designer, I sure was not a trained jeweler! But whatever I created and put in my store, we sold. The experience triggered a strong desire to venture out, testing my talent in the fashion design world, so I did just that. I quit retail, jumping with two feet into the design world.

Kaizen: What was unique about your designs?

Luu: I loved shopping at flea markets, and I still do, looking for good vintage fabric, beads … anything that’s intriguing. So, making jewelry out of unusual collectible components created a collection of one-of-a-kind jewelry. A jewelry sales rep took an interest, showed the collection to two reputable high-end shops in Los Angeles, and right away sent me two large orders.

Kaizen: Then you started your design company?

Luu: Yes, in my studio—actually a converted garage!

Kaizen: Was there a key event early on that made you know your business was going to be successful, or was it more a matter of slow and steady growth?

Luu: Actually, it’s a long process. I needed to find ways to gain my market shares, since I knew nothing about marketing. So, I began by finding a good showroom in New York to represent me. Once I had representation, I needed translate all my ideas into good products. I must say the experience of working as an assistant to a manufacturer, a salesperson, and a fashion buyer helped give me a sense of how I should approach this competitive, difficult, and complicated market.

Kaizen: Demand for your designs was going up—which is great, but scaling up can be a challenge. What did you do?

Luu: As a rookie designer in a huge market, I knew I was a little fish in a big pond. What helped me was that from experience I could see things from a buyer’s point of view, a vendor’s, a designer’s, and a retail customer’s point of view. I knew also that I had to find a niche in the market that was not yet fulfilled. I knew I needed to stay focused, have a point of view, and send a clear message about what my collection was all about.

Instead of using this and that, like most jewelry designers would do creating a collection, I decided fresh water pearl should be my main source of raw material, knowing there was no such collection of just fresh water pearl in the market at the time. It was a good decision. The collection was performing from day one and I made a name in the fashion world.

Kaizen: Was this your business education coming through here?

Luu: Actually, I learned everything through experience. I am a self-taught person with a lot of common sense—maybe because I come from a war country—I was taught survival skills since I was a kid, like if a bomb dropped on my parents, we would be on our own. So, I was taught to always think ten steps ahead. If plan one doesn’t work, plan two should be handy. I am structured into that kind of thinking.

Kaizen: Are the best showrooms spread around the United States?

Luu: They are only a few in New York, and I got into the best one. I went and met Jimmy Moore, one of the two owners of Fragments showroom, and told him that I was looking for a showroom to represent my collection. He said, “What material did you use?” I said that my whole collection was freshwater pearl. He said, “I’ll take it—we just mentioned this morning that we need a freshwater pearl collection in our showroom.” So it was perfect timing.

This is the best jewelry showroom in the world, with good infrastructure, their PR department work with stylists, celebrities, magazines … my jewelry began to be seen on celebrities, movies, newscasters, fashion magazines, pop stars.

Kaizen: At that point, is it under your control who buys your product? For example, do you know when a celebrity wears your product?

Luu: When I was represented by Fragments, if celebrities’ stylists pull something, then you kind of know. But once they have credit in Elle magazine and book magazines, then the showroom will let you know. They credit you in the magazine. And that is how it works.

Kaizen: Do you find out about it afterwards or do you get advance notice?

Luu: You kind of know it’s coming. Getting your name out there is very important in my business. The fashion and entertainment businesses somehow are connected, because celebrities need to look fashionable.

Kaizen: Is this about when you opened manufacturing facilities overseas?

Luu: No, it started out that I had this idea about hand-painted seashell necklaces. Using my common sense, I figured with all the hand-painted paper mache boxes I collected from India, there must be some good painters in India. Since the Taj Mahal was decorated with inlaid mother of pearl, India should be a good place for me to start using mother of pearl as component, and find some painters to paint it. Pretty crazy ideas, thinking about it now! Well, the idea took off like wildfire. Actress Jennifer Aniston was photographed between George Clooney and her then-husband Brad Pitt wearing my hand-painted seashell necklace. The business really took off. In my business, certain celebrities could really put your name on the map. That was the first trend I created that created a huge momentum for the rest of my career, and because of that trend I started to explore manufacturing overseas.

Kaizen: Now the business operations in India are contracted out?

Luu: They just paint the seashells. They ship them and we put them together—the assembly is here in L.A. At that time, I had to move downtown, because I needed more craft people working for me, and most of my craft people don’t drive. So downtown L.A. was the most sensible location for a factory.

Kaizen: The seashell designs went big?

Luu: The seashell collection put my name on the fashion map.

Kaizen: Do you have a sense of how many units of the seashell collection you sold? What is the approximate retail price?

Luu: I must have sold half a million of them. At the beginning, I sold it for $18 dollars and I went all the way to $42. It depends how intricate the work is.

Kaizen: At some point you know the seashell trend is going to end. Are you moving in another direction?

Luu: In our business when a street vendor starts knocking you off, as a good business person, you kind of know that it is time to move on.

I am known to be prolific—creating beautiful things comes very naturally to me. Also momentum is everything. When you create a buzz and everybody wants your product, you have to keep the momentum going, keep creating newness, reinvent yourself, being sensitive about your customers’ needs.

Kaizen: Did you end up manufacturing in the Philippines?

Luu: I decided not to, because already I was knocked off from everywhere in that country.

Kaizen: You now have manufacturing facilities in Vietnam and India?

Luu: India became bigger and bigger. I have a factory in India that employs almost 800 people. I don’t own it. I collaborated with somebody I met there and we became really good friends—almost like my second family. I am very interested in craft. I like to use old craft, modernizing it into something new. I like to work with villages. I don’t understand why, but the villages get along with me really well. We connect really well. Everybody says, “How do you do that? I have not seen anybody connect with craft people in the village like you do.” These people are very poor, living in houses with no running water or electricity. But every province in every village has a certain craft and they only know that craft. And they have never had any exposure with the world, so their craft just stayed like that. Everywhere in India, Vietnam, Indonesia, everywhere I have traveled, I have seen this same pattern. But I came in and I gave them my ideas and my vision using their craft. I said, “Okay, using your ancient technique, but do it my way. Do it this way.” And these people are like kids in the candy store. They are like, “Wow, this is really beautiful.” It’s almost like a dance between two people—a collaboration in designing. What I do is very unusual, handcrafted. Every piece is created through many skilled hands. I created a good niche in the market for my products. Since we work with villagers, this line of products feeds and changes many lives.

Kaizen: In 2004 you moved into clothing design, launching your Ready-To-Wear (RTW) Collection. In 2005 you opened your New York corporate showroom, and you followed that quickly in 2006 with showrooms opening in Dallas and Atlanta. Is the RTW Collection a whole clothing line?

Luu: Yes, keeping the same integrity and culture of my company, since we are known for making handmade products. All the garments we make are also hand-beaded and embroidered.

Kaizen: All this growth brings new management challenges for you. With so many locations across the globe and many more people working in your business—were management issues challenging for you?

Luu: Well when my business grew to certain size, I found myself busy running my business instead of doing what I do best: designing. That was the hardest part—learning how to delegate responsibilities. In 2005, I hired a Chief Operating Officer/Chief Financial Officer and Vice-President of Sales. That’s the best decision I have ever made for my company.

Kaizen: Since you are still CEO, what percentage of your work week is actually spent on design?

Luu: I design every day. I have many designer assistants working under me; they realize my vision under my supervision.

Kaizen: Your designs have appeared in many magazines—Elle, Cosmopolitan, Sports Illustrated, Vogue—in movies and television shows such as Twilight: Eclipse, Good Morning America. When high-profile exposure happens, what does your marketing team do to capitalize on it?

Luu: The fashion business is very interesting. I think today everything is about social media .We hire a lot of young people in our company, because you do need young influence to keep up with the fast internet business. Facebook, Twitter, blogging are all very important in today’s fashion business. If anything catches on, within minutes it could go viral—very powerful and scary!

Kaizen: When celebrities like Hilary Duff, Britney Spears, Jared Leto, Megan Fox, Nicole Richie, Drew Barrymore wear your designs, are there ethics guidelines for using the names and photos of celebrities to promote your products, or is that simply an accepted practice?

Luu: We go both ways. We work with a lot of stylists. When stylists pull our products for their celebrities, sure we could use their name. Also, this is Los Angeles, the closest market to celebrities, great exposure market for your products.

Kaizen: Your lines are also carried in stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Banana Republic, and in high-end stores in London and Japan. But in 2006 you also went online with your Online Store.

Luu: Online business today is the fastest growing retail business, so as a good business person that should not be ignored. We had a retail store before, but we found our online store works so much better for us.

Kaizen: Have you found online marketing to be different?

Luu: It’s the fastest growing business I’ve ever known. It’s exciting but it’s an endless chase, it’s always something newer, faster every day. It’s pretty crazy!

Kaizen: Can you project whether online sales or in-store sales will be more significant to you, or is it too soon to tell?

Luu: I supply many stores globally. My online store is growing by the minute but is still small, but I really believe if I do things right, it will become a significant part of the future of my company.

Kaizen: Your headquarters are still in Los Angeles. Do you also have a showroom here in L.A.?

Luu: Yes, my L.A. showroom is my first corporate showroom. It works really well for me.

Kaizen: Do you have a men’s line? Or is that market too small or not interesting to you?

Luu: I was asked to design a men’s jewelry line for years but was not interested. But just the last two years, all the Japanese pop and rock stars begin to wear a lot of Chan Luu bracelets, which creates a huge demand for a men’s line in Japan, a very important market for any fashion designer. So, yes, I have a men’s line now.

Kaizen: You create five lines per year? Why five?

Luu: Very standard—Spring, Summer, Fall 1, Fall 2, Holiday.

Kaizen: After the many years of successful growth, what are your annual sales currently, if I may ask?

Luu: I can’t tell you the exact number, but it’s in the eight figures.

Kaizen: You’ve been designing for many years now. How do you continue to keep your designs fresh and original? Travel, art, other sources?

Luu: Traveling, art history, cultural influences …. I travel a lot for inspiration. I also am a painter; painting exercises my sense of color, form and shape, one feeds off the other.

Kaizen: You have achieved design success and financial success. Why do you continue to work so hard in your business? Presumably you could relax and work a lot less.

Luu: Knowing me, if I stop creating, my mind might go … sideways! I am in a very good position, although I still work a lot, but every day when I get up and get to work, I get to do the thing I am most passionate about.

Kaizen: What has been the most challenging thing for you about being an entrepreneur?

Luu: Everything today is where I want it to be. I used to struggle more, before my COO/CFO came along. My biggest challenge in business was hiring the right people for the right job in my company. Maybe I don’t have the patience to deal with nonsense. Now it’s perfect because my COO handles that part of my business. I still make all the major decisions in the company.

Kaizen: For younger people interested in becoming fashion entrepreneurs, how important are business or fashion college degrees?

Luu: A fashion design degree certainly will help, but business sense is better learned through experience. To be successful in this business, you need to understand the business inside and out.

Kaizen: In closing, what advice would you give to young people just starting out in their careers?

Luu: Get some experience working for a successful company, stay focused, since you want to be in the trend business, be very aware of what’s going on with the media. Stay true and honest to what you could create, because to be successful, you need to establish a “signature” look of who you are. Be prepared to work hard—it might sound difficult, challenging, but it’s also very rewarding when you make it to the top.

Kaizen: What would you say to people who have an idea and they want to go in a certain direction, but they are wondering whether they could really make it work?

Luu: If you don’t believe in yourself, it is very hard to make it happen. I don’t know how other people think, but if I want to do something, I read up about it. Being resourceful will help. Being relentless is the most important quality. I am relentless about how I approach every project; I won’t back down because my project meets challenges. Your inspiration should be honest. Try not to be a copy cat—it’s an “inspiration freezer,” regardless of how big the knock-off market is. Creating is like exercising. The more you do, the more you could do. Be proactive, on your creative journey, there will be many beautiful surprises coming your way.

This interview was conducted for Kaizen by Stephen Hicks. The full interview will soon be posted at our website, www.EthicsandEntrepreneurship.org. For more information about Chan Luu and Chan Luu, Inc., visit www.ChanLuu.com.

Kaizen

Read the article here.

Read our in-depth interview with Ms. Mazzio here.

Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Farzaneh Farhangi, Kelly Foster, and Rebecca Robinson; Extreme Entrepreneurship Day; filmmaker Jeffrey Van Davis‘s discussion panel for his film Only A God Can Save Us; and guest speakers Douglas Den Uyl, who visited us from Indianapolis, and Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, who visited us from Argentina.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Chan Luu.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

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For more information about the organizations Ms. Johnson works with, go to:

International Trade Center

Export Impact For Good YouTube Channel

International Women’s Coffee Alliance

Part I:

Part II:

Francesco Clark is founder and CEO of Clark’s Botanicals, based in Bronxville, New York. At age 24, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming pool accident. Some physicians thought he would never move or breathe without assistance again. But with great effort over several years, Mr. Clark made strong progress and, given his physical-therapy experiences, developed an award-winning line of skin-care products that became Clark’s Botanicals, now sold in Europe, Asia, and the United States. We met with Mr. Clark in New York to discuss coming back from tragedy, what it takes to fight against overwhelming odds, and entrepreneurship as an option for people with disabilities and special challenges.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Clark: I grew up in Italy — in Bologna — for seven years and then we moved to New York. Since sixth grade, I grew up just outside of New York City in Westchester.

Kaizen: When you were a teenager, what were you thinking your likely career would be?

Clark: My original career path was to be become a diplomat. So I went to Baltimore and studied at Johns Hopkins. I double majored in International Relations and Romance Languages. I liked that because it gave me kind of a wide funnel, a wide array of options to go into. I took the Foreign Service Exam and I passed, and it gave me the option in going into that aspect, or business, or law. But in reality, I didn’t really know what I wanted; I was just curious. I love learning and I’m still just as curious as I was before about that. And then I just kind of started working after I graduated.

Kaizen: You are now an entrepreneur — during your teen years, did you ever think you would start your own business?

Clark: Yes. My father is a doctor. He was actually one of the first homeopathic and natural doctors, as well as being a regular M.D. So he opened his own practice, but the way that medicine works now is that it’s almost as if you are your own business. You have to have that kind of entrepreneurial spirit, so I grew up around that. I always knew that I wanted to be my own boss in one way or other. I have always been very creative in that sense, that I knew I wouldn’t take the typical route of being a consultant at Andersen Consulting, or go to law school, or anything like that. But I knew that I had the drive to do something more than a typical 9-to-5 job.

Kaizen: After high school, what did you do next?

Clark: I made a pact to myself when I was a senior in college. I wanted to live in a city I’d never lived in and do something that I’d never done. So I moved to Chicago for six months and I was a project manager at a company that makes websites for law firms. I learned there how to manage teams and became very time-efficient. I was working with small groups of people — a different group of people that I would probably never work with — law firms. Then I was recruited to work at Condé Nast at Mademoiselle Magazine, and from there I was recruited to work at Harper’s Bazaar.

Kaizen: How old were you when you went to work for Harper’s Bazaar?

Clark: I was 23.

Kaizen: That’s a lot packed into a year or two.

Clark: I was only in Chicago for six months. I went there in August and then I left there and then I was at Mademoiselle for a year and then Harper’s Bazaar for a year.

Kaizen: What was your job at Harper’s?

Clark: I was an assistant in the editorial department. Bazaar is not under Condé Nast; it’s Hearst Publications. They run a little bit of a tighter ship. For me, it was very advantageous and wonderful because you went from a substantially larger to a smaller, tighter ship. That means you have much, much more responsibility; your hours are a lot longer, but you’re working with the best in the field. I had a lot more of responsibilities at 24 years old, but I also learned a lot more there.

Kaizen: Where were you physically located?

Clark: New York City.

Kaizen: What happened that weekend in Long Island?

Clark: It was Memorial Day weekend and I had a summer share in Long Island, which is very typical in New York. To escape the city life, people often go to Long Island on the weekends or in the summer. It was with friends of friends of friends, so complete strangers. The house had an above-ground pool, but it was built like an in-ground pool. They had put the metal ladder — that typically is in the deep end — into the shallow end. When I saw it, I thought it was the deep end so I dove in. The second that I dove in, my chin hit the bottom and my head snapped back. I was completely paralyzed in the blink of an eye.

Kaizen: How old were you?

Clark: I was 24 years old.

Kaizen: What was the doctors’ early prognosis after your accident?

Clark: I was told six times that night that I was going to die, that there was more than an 80 percent chance that I was going to die. My left lung had totally collapsed. I had inhaled so much pool water that I could smell and taste the chlorine coming back into my mouth. He said, “If you do survive the surgery” — the next stabilization surgery, where they take titanium and stabilize your spine and then they take a piece of the bone from your hip to also stabilize your spine — “If you survive that, you will never speak on your own, you will never breathe on your own, you will never move your arms on your own.” What he could have said was, “I don’t know,” instead of being so bleak. I understand that there was a part of him that was trying to protect himself from malpractice, but it is also somebody’s life. So it’s not so much a business decision. That’s what it felt like at that time, that I was signing my life away to this surgery. I felt like my life had ended, the way that it was being presented to me.

Kaizen: At time of accident you also felt, “I knew I’d be okay. I just knew it.” Where did that come from?

Clark: I have no idea. I think that parlays into every aspect of my life, even with the business. The second that I dove into the pool, there were two things that were happening concurrently. I was face down and I could see the bubbles floating up from my nostrils, and part of me was very angry at myself because I knew I was going to be okay but it would take a lot of work to get better. Another part of me was realizing, “Wait a minute, I have been under water now for 45 seconds and I can’t move — how am I going to get out of the pool?” I was alone. Luckily, somebody noticed I was in the pool and grabbed me and lifted me out of the water.

Kaizen: Do you know who that person is?

Clark: No. I don’t, actually. I haven’t kept in contact with anybody from there. I didn’t know them that well, and it was just that emotional connection to that traumatic event … it’s almost like you shy away from it…

Kaizen: But you had great challenges ahead. Tell us please about the biggest physical challenges.

Clark: Everything. I mean, breathing was the hardest thing to do at first. To physically breathe through the night, I would be woken up 4 or 5 times by this blood oxygen machine that would beep every hour and a half, every 45 minutes. I felt robotic. Technically I was on life support at that point, and to be sitting there with 14 or 15 different tubes and monitors all over your body you start to wonder, “Is this even worth it?” But then you start to do exercises, breathing exercises. My best friend and my sister brought over a Discman with speakers. I just started to sing horribly and loudly; it was like a saving grace. Then my lung capacity started to come back.

Kaizen: One unusual therapy you tried was loud singing—what was its purpose?

Clark: I didn’t really care if I got embarrassed; it was in the ICU. It was typical of who I am. It lightened the mood. It didn’t feel like death anymore in the hospital. The guy in the next room had stage four cancer and his likelihood of living was much higher than mine when I first got there. But then after forty days— to start to see that I was getting better, he was still getting worse, it made me very thankful to be alive.

Kaizen: You spent about five hours a day doing physical therapy, including treadmills?

Clark: Christopher Reeve was very involved in this treadmill study at Kessler Institute in New Jersey. I immediately contacted them when I left the ICU and Mt. Sinai. I enrolled in that for about two years. What they found was that I started to get back voluntary movement in my legs. They now are using my data from that study for all the treadmill studies. But it’s not enough; you always have to do more. Because they were like, “Oh this is incredible; it’s just incredible work.” And I’m like, “Yeah, it’s really incredible but I’m still in a wheel chair. So, what do you want me to say?”

Kaizen: As difficult as the physical challenges were, the psychological were equally or more so?

Clark: I think it was particularly difficult when you’re 24 years old, you’ve just graduated from college, and suddenly to need help to have a glass of water, to have to be fed like a baby at first. Now I can eat on my own; now I can use a regular fork. But to go back to that infantile state, that you are now trying to prove that you’re an adult and to be thrust back to that level of humanity that you felt like you had grown beyond is the most difficult part.

Kaizen: For how long were you depressed, initially?

Clark: Two years. It was hard. I had become very one-dimensional. I just wanted to focus on my rehabilitation. I wanted to get better and that’s all I could focus on. There was a level of shock in what had just happened — with not just me but also my family and friends — that I completely became this robotic existence of physical therapy.

Kaizen: It was also a philosophical journey: What is the point of my life? What will lead to a fulfilled, happy life?

Clark: It’s interesting that you should ask that, because the point in which my life started to get better was also the lowest point of my life. It was the day that Christopher Reeve passed away — Superman had just died. He was the biggest advocate for people with disabilities and spinal cord injuries ever. He testified in Congress. He had enacted his own law, the Christopher Reeve Act, and he pushed for stem cell research and other kinds of research that pushed the envelope.

When he passed away, I felt like there was nobody left to really push for that cause. It made me really reflect inward and say “Wait a minute. What have I been doing to become part of the cure, instead of just doing physical therapy and being home all day and wallowing in what had happened? What am I doing?” And I realized I hadn’t been doing anything. I could have. It was a point in my life where I couldn’t really focus on how I could help, but the trauma of his passing away made me take that risk and take that next step in becoming an advocate and deciding that I wanted to do more than just therapy.

I was doing therapy, lying on a mat, and I realized I wanted to become an advocate for people with disabilities. As soon as I thought that, this very subtle shift in my thinking happened and I no longer wanted to be a wallflower. I no longer wanted to be invisible. Up to that point I didn’t want anyone to worry about me and didn’t want anyone to stress out about me or to look at me or talk to me. But I also hadn’t looked in the mirror for two and a half years.

So suddenly, in becoming an advocate, the way that I looked became somewhat important to me. I wanted the way that I looked be the way that I felt, because I didn’t look like myself and I didn’t feel like myself. I wanted to be seen by strangers as me and not by this wheel chair. And so suddenly my skin became important. I didn’t want to wear the same paper pants that I wore every day. I didn’t want to wear the same hospital t-shirt that I wore every day. I didn’t want to shave my head bald. I wanted to go out with my friends. I wanted to become part of this advocacy group for people with disabilities. I wanted to become part of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, then … who knows? Part of my mission was to become part of the cure for spinal cord injuries.

Kaizen: We sometimes talk about success traits in the abstract: Courage despite fears. Persistence despite setbacks. Effort despite resistance and a sense of futility. Overcoming anger at felt unfairness. Can you say which was most important for you in your transition?

Clark: I’m a bit of an idiot sometimes, in that I’ll want to do something and then I’ll just do it, and then think of the obstacles to overcome my goal later. But I’ll know what my goal is immediately and then, despite knowing how difficult it might be, I’ll pursue that. Having a spinal cord injury, I don’t have anything wrong with my body; I don’t have a disease. I just know that I have to figure out a way to make my nerves grow in my spine.

Thinking about it that way, starting your own business then seems very easy. Starting Clark’s Botanicals felt like, “Well of course, I want to do Clark’s Botanicals.” Because you are talking about an industry, the beauty industry, that can seem so fickle, it can seem so shallow and unimportant and without meaning. To start a company in that field and to make it more meaningful — to make sure that all the products get back to spinal cord injury research, and make it more than just a skin cream — is more of a testament to your mission. I wanted to make sure my mission was strong.

Kaizen: With your father, who is a physician, you experimented with oils and extracts. What did you try and for how long?

Clark: Three years. So many dead ends. We went through 78 different botanical extracts and oils before we found Jasmine Absolute.

Kaizen: What properties did Jasmine Absolute have?

Clark: It’s a very precise mixture of essential oils from jasmine, botanical extracts from jasmine, and it has to be done in the right way because it can be very basic. And if it’s too basic, it can burn your skin. So it has to be just the right combination of oils and extracts from the jasmine flower.

Kaizen: In your case, having lost the ability to sweat, you had lots of skin blotches?

Clark: Sweating is important, as gross as it sounds. Your skin has to rebalance itself, and I lost that ability for my skin to rebalance itself from released toxins.

Kaizen: Why did you decide to start a business, rather than simply use the products personally?

Clark: No, I didn’t start it as a business. I started it for myself, for the selfish reason that I wanted to look good again. My sister started using it and then my mom started using it and then my dad’s patients started using it. Then I started to see my friends again, just becoming more social. And they noticed that I looked better — “What are you using?” I had these little glass vials with me — “I’m making this stuff with my dad here.”

My ex-boss from Bazaar, Glenda Bailey, the editor-in-chief, really liked it. She started using it and about six weeks later the beauty director, Alexandra Parnass, called. She said, “We want to shoot it because it actually works. We’re all using it.” I was like, “What?!” I said, “I don’t even have it in jars; we’re making it in the kitchen. What am I going to do?” And she was like, “We’ll figure it out because we are going to shoot it and we really like it.”

Kaizen: How did you launch your first product — it sounds like word-of-mouth was key?

Clark: It started to float on its own. But the thing is that I had this product, and before even this marketing opportunity came up with the magazine, it was making money because people were already buying it — my dad’s patients.  It was such a strong testament to the product that we have a 98 percent customer retention rate. We don’t make 15 new products a year; we’ll make two a year. Everything is about the formulation. Everything has to be amino stimulating. Everything has a very strong core. Everything is unisex, except for the lip tints. It’s about something that works. It’s such a basic idea that was missing and lacking in beauty.

Kaizen: Saks Fifth Avenue only has the pink one in stock right now.

Clark: I know, we sold out! That’s a good problem.

Kaizen: How did you finance the start-up?

Clark: The business has always floated on its own. You hear so many horror stories of new businesses that open in beauty (and other fields) too many stores too quickly and don’t have the capital to support it. So, I wanted to make sure that we were slow and steady and deliberate with every product launch. Every store that we open has to be successful. My biggest fear would be opening a store and then closing it because it wasn’t doing well enough. So we were very deliberate, and it’s a very hands-on approach with whatever we do.

Kaizen: As your business grew you have more training and managing of staff. As CEO, did you have to work at those skills or did it come naturally to you?

Clark: I think that there are always challenges, especially in the current economy. But everyone is a human being and so you don’t look at yourself as having a certain title or saying, “This is my company.” It doesn’t matter whom you’re meeting with or who works with you. It could be salespeople; it could be your V.P. If you treat everybody with the same kind of respect as anybody else, then they are willing to put as much commitment and effort and passion as you. You want them to have that passion that you have for products. You can’t fake that. So you really have to translate that well into the people that you work with.

Kaizen: How many Clark’s Botanicals products are there now?

Clark: Fourteen.

Kaizen: What differentiates your line from other skin care products?

Clark: Clark’s Botanicals is different because they are all amino stimulating: they all boost collagen production in your skin. They’re completely paraben free. We don’t use any unnecessary chemicals in our formulations. At the same time, it’s a unique synergy of botanicals and naturals with lab science. It’s about making your skin act younger and it’s not a quick fix. Typical beauty is a moisturizer that will work for four hours but the next day your skin looks the same. Our Smoothing Marine Cream, for example, our moisturizer, isn’t good for every skin type because it has sugar glycolic acid in it. So it’s going to burn if you have sensitive skin. But you can’t make a product that is so bland that anyone can use it, because then it doesn’t do anything. We maintain a very results-oriented product.

Kaizen: What are your major sales outlets?

Clark: We just launched Anthropologie nationwide. We just launched Space NK in Europe, and Saks Fifth Avenue, C.O Bigelow, Fred Segal. We launched in Russia and Japan and China in early 2011.

Kaizen: You chose high-end stores — what went into that decision?

Clark: That wasn’t a marketing ploy at all, because our formulations are expensive because we don’t use the parabens. Parabens are preservatives that you can use in any skin care product. If you add a couple of drops, they’ll stay fresh on the shelf for years. Parabens, however, have been proven to lead directly to breast cancer — elevated estrogen levels in women that lead directly to breast cancer. So we did away with that. You can use natural preservatives that cost more than a hundred times more than these parabens. That is one factor that drove the price up. Our active ingredients — we use enough that the clinical testing shows that they actually will make a difference in your skin. We don’t just add a couple of drops of apple stem cells to the cellular lifting serum just to say that we use it. We add as much as you can use so that you are going to see a significant difference in your skin.

Kaizen: What has been the biggest business difficulty you have encountered?

Clark: You know, I’ve never been asked that. Fear. I think fear can be good, but it can also be crippling. A lot of business owners have a fear of success, I think. You can stifle your business because of this fear of growing, or you can nurture it and make sure that your business grows in a steady way.

Kaizen: What’s scary about growing?

Clark: A lot of my competitors failed in the first three years of my being in business. It’s scary to be part of these trade shows where they have these elaborate booths that say they were on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show, so they seem indomitable. They seem like nothing can knock them down, and two years later they’re shut down. That was my biggest fear — being a flash in the pan.

Kaizen: The skin-care industry is fast-moving and innovative. What are your plans for staying competitive?

Clark: We are very focused on scientific development. For example, the Cellular Lifting Serum we launched last year was the first product to use fruit-derived stem cell. We launched the product the day after President Obama repealed the stem cell law. It’s the first and only beauty product to be endorsed by Michelle Obama. It’s one of those products that delivers clinical results in your skin after just 30 days of use that looks like you had an eyelift. It’s about the results, and the scientific formulation, and products that you use, and the ingredients that you use, and making sure that they’re all relevant to each other. It goes back to what the customer wants. As much as the company is a feel-good company that started because of my injury and gives back to research, if you’re going to Saks to buy a skin care product you want your skin to look good after using the product. The product has to be result-oriented.

Kaizen: Your company has won several awards and seems well poised for continued growth. What has been your biggest personal reward from developing your own business?

Clark: I get a lot of letters and emails from other people who have had injuries, or their parents had cancer, or a loved one had cancer. They’ll say other lip balms — for example, because they’re petroleum based — don’t work. “My mom’s undergoing” — and this is a quote from somebody — “My mom’s undergoing chemo and nothing is making her feel good. Just using something as simple as your lip balm makes her feel great.” So something that seems as frivolous as a lip balm is making somebody in the ICU feel good. I know what that feels like from first-hand experience. Singing ABBA horribly in the ICU lightened my day; it made me live.

Kaizen: Your story is inspiring to many and has led to positive coverage in the New York Times, Vanity Fair, Bazaar. Are your surprised at the response to your saga?

Clark: I’m always surprised. You could be featured eight times in any one magazine and be surprised every time because it’s an honor, it’s a privilege. It’s humbling to know that other people appreciate the work and passion you put into something. I would wake up at three in the morning — and I still do — when we’re launching a new product and look at the packaging and think about the formulation and memorize the percentages of active ingredients. To have other people acknowledge that — the hard work, and that it isn’t a marking ploy, and that it isn’t just something that I want to do for a couple years; it’s my life. So it’s truly an honor.

Kaizen: Your book, Walking Papers, came out in 2010. How did the idea of writing the book come about?

Clark: Just like the business. I started emailing my former colleagues — updates from physical therapy and my life since my injury. Then my ex-boss started to write me, “You know, you should flesh these out, because these emails are funny and interesting to read. We need to work on your writing a little bit … But it’s fun. You learn so much about a different part of life that, at 24, you would never expect to learn.” At first, I was like, “Nah, I’m not a writer; you’re a writer.” She wrote nine books. And then, on a lark, I started to write more, and it became cathartic and therapeutic for me to put all these words on paper about my injury, and it made me feel good. The fear of writing had overcome itself. I found a good agent in New York on Fifth Avenue, Carol Mann, and I literally emailed her the first six chapters. She read them, liked them, we set up a meeting, and I kept writing. If you want to write, you have to write. If you want to work, you have to work. Writing a book wasn’t as complicated as it felt like it should have been. If I didn’t want to write, then there were obstacles I could have set up in my head. But writing a book, you physically you have to sit down and type and write. You have to put in the work. And that’s it.

Kaizen: You are a role model for people with disabilities. Do you also see your story as championing entrepreneurship as an option for people with disabilities or limited options?

Clark: Yes. Having a disability — to think about being in an office setting from 9 to 5 can seem overwhelming. But to have your own business and to be able to work from home … That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to have your own business. There are many job options where you can work from home or at a different schedule. But when you think of a job, you typically think of being in an office setting at specific hours. From my experience, being an entrepreneur works out to be the best option because I can be doing physical therapy while I work. The bad thing about it is that you have no hours so it’s a double-edge sword. I love what I do so I can work seven days a week, but then you’re working seven days a week.

Kaizen: One inspiring thing about your story is that entrepreneurship is hard enough in normal cases, but it seems like you must have superman-like will-power to have made it happen. Does it feel normal to you, or do you have a sense that you really have accomplished something outstanding?

Clark: No. I think that people treat me the same as anybody else who is starting a skincare line. It’s interesting you should say that, because at first when I would tell my friends I would get that glazed look in their eyes like, “Oh, that’s great!” But you know that they are like, “That’s not going to happen.” So I would keep it more to myself, and then as the idea actually gained some traction, they started to say, “Well, wait a minute he’s now sold in Los Angeles and C.O. Bigelow in the city, and — oh my God — Saks Fifth Avenue is selling the products. And look, Vogue wrote about him, and Vanity Fair. He’s writing a book; he wrote the book.”

I guess I proved myself, but that’s true for anybody. You can talk the talk, but eventually you have to walk the walk. If you talk about starting a business, make sure you do your homework and have a viable business model.

Kaizen: Speaking of Superman, you have a connection to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. How did that come about?

Clark: I’m noticing now that it’s very repetitive. I just called them. I spoke to Peter Wilderotter, the president. He set up a meeting later that day and came to my house. I met with him, like I was auditioning for working with the foundation. Because it was literally me talking for two and a half hours and him listening. I’m lucky to say now that Alexandra Reeve-Givens and Matthew Reeve are two of my very good friends. I work with them almost on a daily basis on keeping the foundation stronger than it was before and keeping the meaning and the mission of the Reeve Foundation strong.

Kaizen: What is the scope of the Foundation’s activities?

Clark: They are looking to fund the cure and care for people with spinal cord injuries. They give grants throughout the world. Also funding for people who need care right now. So it’s about having the best quality of life, getting people physically out of the wheel chairs, and finding the cure for spinal cord injuries.

Kaizen: In your judgment, what are the most promising approaches: stem cells, exoskeletons, spinal cord injury research, developments in physical therapy?

Clark: Personally, I am most interested in the combination of stem cell treatments with non-traditional physical therapies. For me, the exoskeleton seems like something that can help you with limited mobility, but it doesn’t seem like it’s to the point where it can help you with rehabilitation. It can certainly help with getting more independence, but when you say “cure,” I want to move my leg organically and not having a robot help me do it. Ironically, I’m also using robots to facilitate my rehabilitation right now, in a research study that I’m involved in. So it’s not one over the other; it’s everything all together. It’s collaborative.

Kaizen: What is your role as ambassador?

Clark: It can be anything. They keep it very open-ended with me. It’s about raising awareness. It’s about having that contact with anybody who wants to be involved with the foundation. When we have events in the city, they can meet me, they can volunteer with the foundation. If they just want to donate money, they can just donate money. Or if they want to physically give time. If they want to run the Team Reeve New York City Marathon, they can do that. I meet with other people with spinal cord injuries. I meet with research scientists. I meet with other parents and siblings of other people who have disabilities. It’s anything and everything.

Kaizen: You’re 32 now?

Clark: Yes.

Kaizen: Where would you like Clark’s Botanicals to be ten years from now?

Clark: In ten years, I would like to partner with a bigger company like a Procter & Gamble, so that I can focus more on developing new products, where they would help me take on the back end of the business. Ten years from now, we expect to be in more than 250 doors. At that point, you need a much bigger structure and a bigger sales team. I want to focus on creating the products and kind of keeping the core of the business model alive and strong. You have to evolve the business to the growth that your business model focuses on.

Kaizen: Looking back, is there a piece of life advice you have received from a mentor that has stuck strongly with you over the years?

Clark: You can always apologize for something after doing it. What that means is take a risk and don’t play everything too safe. I think that when starting a business a lot of people play it too safe. It’s not just about taking one risk and starting the business; it’s about taking a lot of little, calculated risks. Even with my therapy, even with me now being able to move my wrists, I underwent two experimental stem cell procedures. One was in China and one was in Germany last year. All the therapy I do is against the traditional physical therapy — I’m doing nontraditional physical therapy. But if I hadn’t taken these little calculated risks in my personal life and my professional life, I wouldn’t be where I am.

Kaizen: For young people just starting out in their careers, knowing they will encounter challenges and, sometimes, apparently overwhelming odds against them — what advice would you give to them?

Clark: If it was easy, it wouldn’t be worthwhile. If it was easy to get a college degree and to graduate college, it wouldn’t really be that meaningful. Taking your class, you have to do reading, you have to write papers. There’s an element of sacrifice that you put in to every aspect of your life. The challenge and the obstacle make it fun. So you have to make sure that the challenges and the obstacles are fun. Even if it’s overwhelming, you have to really love what you’re doing at the end of the day.