Jessica Alba built the Honest Company into a $1 billion business by treating work like action heroes treat obstacles: as energy to push against. She started hustling at 12, landed Dark Angel at a turning point, and surrounded herself with mentors like Tory Burch and Diane von Furstenberg. Her company runs on zero bureaucracy and intuition.
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She's an American actress, model, and businesswoman. Her Honest Company business has become a huge success with a $1 billion valuation. She has an estimated net worth of over $200 million. She's Jessica Alba, and here are her top 10 rules for success.
When I was a kid, my parents said, "Anything that you want, you can achieve. You just have to work really, really hard for it." I spent a lot of time in my head fantasizing about being a superhero and about about being somebody else and what would it be like to live someone else's reality. There weren't so many women that were action stars.
I thought that it would be really cool to be able to kick some butt.
The resistance that anybody has, whether you're a man or a woman, to your idea should do nothing but drive you forward and force you to really hone in on your idea and give you energy. And if it actually holds you back and makes you second-guess yourself, then maybe you shouldn't be doing it. Creating a business is impossible at times, it feels impossible, and so you really have to be just so passionate about it and, you know, really don't take no for an answer. If anything can like deviate you from your path, then maybe it's, it's not necessarily the right one. So make sure it is what you want it to be, stay focused, and allow all that resistance along the way to really give you energy and fuel your engine to move forward.
I always help, you know, I think, um, I do unto others what they, what I would want them to do unto me. At the end of the day, my parents always taught me that, and so I treat people the way I want to be treated. And that's kind of the standards that I live by.
You know, we have direct access to our customer because I'm into social media and I want to hear feedback from parents, how they like our products and what they would like to change and how they would like to innovate on these products. To have like a brand that's for parents that, you know, is made by parents and then we're listening to parents on how to to change and grow and evolve.
I think the thing, the big differentiator with our company versus the other companies out there is, you know, they spend millions and millions of dollars on product development to make a product for 1 cent. They want to make the cheapest product as humanly possible, and they don't really look at the health ramifications or the healthiness of it. It's really just how cheap and high volume, and we're exactly the opposite. And so we spend a lot of money on product development, on high performance, on the best ingredients, the healthiest ingredients, but really honing in on performance.
I think it's important for there to be really no bureaucracy here. Everyone has a voice. I encourage people to be creative and inspired. No matter what position you're in here, everyone has an equal playing field in making this company the best company it can be. So whether it's someone in our warehouse who is a fantastic artist and he brings his art to some of our customers by spending, you know, he spent 12 hours, this one employee of ours, Dylan, who's a rock star, and he spent 12 hours customizing a box a month for one of our customers, whether he's doing a dinosaur or robot or whatever it is. It's just, we want to bring delight and happiness to people outside our customers, but also inside. So we do whatever we can. We have karaoke nights. We have, what do you think would be the best thing in the whole world that you would want this company to do days, which is every day. And you know, I'm an actor, so I really approach it from like a more playful, creative, kind of mentality, and I really want people to be inspired and have fun, and I want them to really challenge themselves, to push the limits.
Well, I was 12, so I didn't really have any idea of anything other than what I was doing, and I, you know, I just hustled, and I tried to be professional and tried to learn from my mistakes. And, uh, just try to stay two steps ahead of everyone and, and get those jobs.
Did you know that at that age that this is what you want to do for the rest of your life? Because a lot of people get these jobs when they're young and they think, okay, this is good for high school or whatever. But when did you make that decision, this is going to be a life?
When I got Dark Angel. Yeah, because I didn't want to be a struggling professional in anything. My parents, uh, you know, financially they didn't have a lot and they struggled a lot. And so I just wanted to make sure that I was gonna be set and I wasn't gonna struggle. And when I got Dark Angel, that was like, okay, maybe I can do this for a living and maybe it could be a real career for me.
Being intuitive is important. And then surround yourself with really smart business people that can support your weaknesses. Know what they are. I know I don't know how to create an e-commerce platform. I'm well aware of that. So I surrounded myself with people who can and who do do that. And then as far as mentors go, countless. I really, I was not shy about making phone calls to many people. I've been fortunate enough to know people like Tory Burch, and Diane von Furstenberg. And they, you know, got lots of emails and phone calls from me along the way with tears in my eyes saying, "I don't know if this is possible. Why is everyone telling me no? What do I do? What does it even mean to get venture capital? What is venture capital? What's a board?" Like, I just didn't know all these business terms. And so they helped me understand it.
I needed people telling me no. I needed people to not get it and look at me cross-eyed for me to really figure out exactly what I was gonna do and how I was gonna do it. It's something I had to learn as a woman in business is A, to ask for help and to not be afraid of criticism. And when you don't know what to do, to be okay with not knowing but learning, and also to not be defined by your mistakes. There's challenges, there's roadblocks, there's mountains, and you just have to figure it out. You just have to be malleable. You have to surround yourself with really smart people, and I didn't think I was smart for a really long time. Do you think you're smart now? Yeah, I think, I think I'm—
we agree.
You know, I'm not the smartest I'm not the smartest, but I try.
I had this idea on how a family brand can be built that was honest and convenient. The thing that drove me was wanting the best and setting the bar really, really high. There's always a way to do it better.
People looked at me like I was nuts. You want to do all of this? Like, it's too big of an idea.
They're like, why don't you just do an endorsement? It would just be so much easier. And it was about money for them. And I was like, but this isn't about money for me. I needed to do this for I needed to do this for other families. There was no way that I could give up until I gave it my all.
Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Robin Nicole Songwriter asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Jessica Alba's top 10 rules meant the most to you, you're going to take some action on. Leave it in the comments and I'm going to join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and we'll see you soon.
