Entrepeneurs

Anita Roddick

Bill Thompson

In 1976 a British business woman started a small business to sell skin and hair care products.

But she also wanted it to reflect her ethics and values, including human rights, animal rights, and the environment.

Anita Roddick called her business The Body Shop.

Today The Body Shop has over 3,000 stores in 65 countries. But it is still loyal to Anita Roddick’s ethics and values.

In 2001 Roddick wrote a book called Business As Unusual, a look back at the sometimes-turbulent ‘90s for The Body Shop.

So here now from 2001, Anita Roddick.

Anita Roddick died in 2007. She was 64.

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Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea
USA Today founder A; Neuharth

Al Neuharth

Bill Thompson
Photo: John Mathew Smith

Do you have to be kind of an SOB to be a success?

What kind of connotation does that term even have anymore?

Those were two of the key questions that Al Neuharth tried to address in his bestselling memoir “Confessions Of An S.O.B.”

Al Neuharth was the founder of USA Today, as well as The Freedom Forum, and the Newseum. So apparently being an SOB helped him.

So here now, from 1990, Al Neuharth:

Al Neuharth died in 2013, at the age of 89.

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Howard Schultz

Bill Thompson
Photo: Gage Skidmore

When three guys from San Francisco started Starbucks 50 years ago, in 1971, they probably had little idea of what the future would bring for their little coffee bean business.

By 1986 there were still only six Starbucks locations. But in 1987, they sold the company to Howard Schultz. And under his leadershipp, Starbucks grew to 46 stores by 1989, and in1992 the company went public,

Howard Schultz was CEO of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, and again from 2008 to 2017.

In 1997, Schultz wrote a book called “Pour Your Heart Into It,” and that’s when I met him.

Now, a couple of times in this interview, you will hear us refer to “the tragedy in Georgetown.” Just weeks before this interview, there was a vicious crime at a Starbucks in the Georgetown section of Washington DC, in which 3 store employees were murdered.

So here now, from 1997, Howard Schultz…

Today Starbucks has over 32-thousand stories in over 80 countries.

Howard Schultz will be 68 in July. He and his family live in Seattle.

Ruth Handler

Bill Thompson

Raise your hand if you had a Barbie Doll, or Hot Wheels, when you were a kid.

Or how about a Chatty Cathy, or a See-and-Say?

Bu perhaps no toy of the 20th century in America was more iconic, more popular, and more widely known than the ubiquitous Barbie doll.

Ruth Handler was the key figure in bringing all of those to market, as the co-founder of Mattel Toys.

She told her story, and Mattel’s, in a 1994 book. That’s when I met her. So here now, from 1994, Ruth Handler:

Ruth Handler died in 2002 at the age of 85.

Ivana Trump

Bill Thompson

She was Donald Trump’s first wife, from 1977 to 1992. Ivana Trump is the mother of Don Jr, Ivanka, and Eric Trump.

Ivana Trump has also been a professional athlete, a designer, and a novelist. And that’s how I met her in 1993, the year after she and The Donald divorced. She had just published the second in what was to be a series of novels, about a beautiful Czech immigrant named Katrinka.

While we do not even mention the name Donald Trump in this interview, if you know their backstory, you can kind of read between the lines.

So here now, from 1993, talking about her new novel, Ivana Trump:

Ivana Trump is 72 now.

Paul Orfalea

Bill Thompson

Tomorrow, November 17th, is National Entrepreneurs Day. And perhaps no one better embodies what the day is about that Paul Orfalea.

Back in 1970, the young man with e kinky red hair started a small business, making photocopies for students at UC Santa Barbara.

The business took off, and before long Orfalea — known to his friends as Kinko — was a successful entrepreneur.

But Paul Orfalea’s story is all the more remarkable when you understand that all his life, he has dealt with dyslexia and ADHD. Wait’ll you hear what experts told his parents that he would end up doing for a living.

I met him in 2005, years after he had parted ways with the company he founded, and had become a teacher.

So here now, from 2005, Paul Orfalea.

Paul Orfalea will be 73 later this month.
He is a philanthropist and a visiting professor at California Lutheran University’s School of Management.

Dave Thomas

Bill Thompson

If you’ve ever eaten that Wendy’s, and most of us have, you probably know that the chain was founded by a guy named Dave Thomas. He needed a first daughter. And you probably remember his TV commercials:

Photo: John Mathew Smith

But here’s what you may not know about Dave Thomas. He was born during the Great Depression. Later he was adopted, but his home life was so unstable, he dropped out of high school and struck out on his own at age 15.

As a young man, he got into the restaurant business. And eventually, he started working with an older gentleman, who had just started his own business: Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

I first met Dave Thomas in 1991, when he wrote a book that was part Memoir, part How to Succeed in Business.

So here now, from 1991, Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas.

Now, there is more to the story. The following year, after our interview, Dave Thomas made a decision. He told me about it, the next time we met, in 1994:

Dave Thomas died just a few years later, in 2002, at the age of 69.

Debbi Fields

Bill Thompson

Mrs. Fields Cookies can be found in hundreds of cities across America, and around the world. It’s one of the largest names in the snack food industry.

It all started back in 1977, when Debbi Fields and her husband started a small business selling homemade-style cookies.

It grew into a major enterprise, which Debbi Fields sold in 1993.

When I met her in 1996, she had just published a book of dessert recipes — traditional classics ti which she had added the Mrs. Fields touch.

So here now, from 1996, Debbi Fields:

Debbi Fields is 63 now. She is spokesperson for the Mrs. Fields brand. She lives in Tennessee.

Sir Richard Branson

Bill Thompson
Photo: Chatham House

You could say that Richard Branson’s success in business has always been about disruption.

He disrupted air travel, he risrupted the music business, he disrupted retail — all through the Virgin Group, which he founded in the 1970s.

I met him in fall 1998. He had just written a memoir called “Losing My Virginity.”

So here now, from 1998, Richard Branson:

Richard Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace about a year and a half after our interview.

He was honored for, quote, “services to entrepreneurship.”

Today Virgin Group controls over 400 companies. Last month, Forbes estimated Branson’s net worth at $4.1 billion.

And romorrow, July 18th, is Branson’s 70th birthday.

Sir James Dyson

Bill Thompson
Photo: The Royal Society

Sir James Dyson will tell you, it’s not eas being an innovator.

Dyson is the guy who, a few years ago, came up with a whole new kind of vacuum cleaner, which he dubbed the Dual Cyclone bagless vacuum.

It was a revolution in vacuum technology that upended that well-established undustry.

But as he told me, in our 2004 interview, it isn’t as easy as just building the better mousetrap.

The company founded by Sir James Dyson is still innovating. Recently, the company announced it was building thousands of ventilators to help treat coronavirus patients.