"I want to be the richest little woman in the world," said a little girl named Florence Nightingale Graham

She had no idea what she would do to make her dream come true, but this did not lessen her determination. Years later she became the world's famous woman entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden, having adopted this new name for her company and for herself.

Elizabeth Arden would be remembered for her beauty empire she started from scratch, for her famous "Red Door", and for the fabulous success of her company in the years of the Great Depression. She loved to point out that there were three American Names known to anyone in the world: Singer Sewing Machines, Coca Cola and Elizabeth Arden.

To summarize the background of the incredible success of Elizabeth Arden, the following three facts should be mentioned:

1. She had a dream.

She had a childhood dream of being a rich powerful entrepreneur, and she did not let any drawbacks in her career interfere in this dream.

The beginning of her career was not glamorous. Florence dropped from the nursing school in Toronto, Canada, having decided that the nursing profession frightened and depressed her. She began her career as a receptionist, then teller in a bank, real estate secretary, receptionist for a dentist. She kept working very hard, and felt she was going nowhere. After some time she made a decision to move to New York, where her brother had a job. She thought there were much more career opportunities there. Her success in New York would come later, after she had let her self doubts go and decided to pursue her dream.

2. The power of focus on a single idea.

Florence made up her mind about what she really wanted to do in her life. Her tremendous success came after she had managed to focus her every effort on making her business idea work.

The business idea of making a beauty cream came to her year in a nursing school, when she got to know a young man, who was trying to develop a formula against skin blemishes. She got excited about the idea of making a crème, but for the purpose of skincare. Even though she did not succeed in developing the beauty formula by herself on that early stage, she never forgot about her original idea. In New York she had tried several approaches to learn the "know how" of the beauty business, before she finally felt confident about opening her own beauty salon.

3. The principle of effort.

Her efforts to develop her own beauty formula did not bring any luck on the initial stage. Later in the course of her career she tried several times to get a cooperation from the reputable chemists to develop a beauty formula, but they did not share her opinion about the importance of creating such a product.

Instead of giving up, she made an attempt to find the way around, by researching the competition.

Soon Florence was able to get a low-paid job of a cashier at a skin-treatment parlor of Mrs. Adair and waited for her chance. After a while she begged Mrs. Adair to train her to do the treatments. Mrs. Adair agreed on the condition that no extra money would be earned by Florence for doing the treatments. Florence agreed without hesitation. She was an eager learner and soon exceeded Mrs. Adair in her popularity with clients. The dream of Florence was no longer to sell a beauty cream by mail, but to have her own beauty salon.

The first beauty salon named "Mrs. Elizabeth Arden" was opened in 1910. She considered her own name, Florence Nightingale Graham, unsuitable for the beauty business. Having chosen the business name, she soon started thinking about herself as Elizabeth Arden, the successful business woman. The new name gave her much more than a flair, it gave her self-confidence.

By then, Elizabeth had acquired the necessary understanding and skills to make her own products. Even more important, she had an intuition of how the beauty salon of her dreams should look like, and how to make her treatments so luxury, that the clients look forward to their next appointment.

Later, when Elizabeth Arden had become already a well-known beauty business, Elizabeth Arden managed to persuade scientists to develop cosmetic formulas for her business, which exceeded in their quality the overseas and local competition.

Elizabeth Arden was known for the meticulous planning of her business expansion and her personal devotion to her business. She remained actively involved in her business until her death in 1966 at the age of eighty-seven.

The most famous clients of Elizabeth Arden included Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mother, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford and Mamie Eisenhower.

About the Author

Tatiana Sidorova is the owner of the website http://www.famous-women-and-beauty.com