9 Business Icons who Faced Utter Failure

Dame Anita Roddick

Company: The Body Shop

Dame Anita Roddick is the founder of ‘The Body Shop’, a well known cosmetic brand. She opened the Body Shop in Brighton, U.K., with the aim of making an income for herself, but started her business with truth rather than hype. Two of her neighboring funeral parlors objected to her brand name initially.

Anita fought back by suggesting to one of the local newspaper, that ‘she was a women entrepreneur under siege’. This whole chaos fetched publicity and brought traffic to her store. Since then, she is doing very well and has more than 700 branches of ‘Body Shop’ stores.

Anita says, “If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito. Don't let minor setbacks throw you off course.”