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Kelly Hoppen on how a perceived weakness can actually be a strength
Head up a business or dream of doing so? Then you need to add Make it Work: Lessons from Life in Business – the new book from Nicola Mendelsohn, VP EMEA at Facebook, to your bedside table.
It brings together wisdom from inspiring female business leaders and founders, in the hope of encouraging more women into business. Those sharing their smarts include Julie Brown (COO/CFO at Burberry), Dame Carolyn McCall (ITV's CEO) and Chrissie Rucker (the founder of White Company).
Kelly Hoppen MBE is also one of the contributors. Here, in an exclusive extract from Make it Work, the interior designer and former Dragon says her dyslexia has actually been a blessing in helping shape her path to success. Download your free copy of the book from Facebook UK's #SheMeansBusiness website.
'I am very dyslexic. I didn’t know I was until I saw my daughter Natasha go through the same struggles that I did and was tested, but luckily we were able to pick up on her difficulties earlier.
I, however, went through school unable to read or spell and I just thought – and was told – that I was stupid. I was bullied horribly, and school was a nightmare. I have a lot of scars from that period of my life, and still feel them in certain situations, but I taught myself to get through this.
Reflecting back, I think that the experience has shaped me in lots of ways. One of the ways I helped myself study was to practise visualisation: I would use a story and imagine it in my head, then attach it to something I was learning about so that when that came up in a question, I could fire up my imagination and remember what I needed.
I later found out that it is a technique that is now taught to people with dyslexia, but I’d figured it out on my own. That power of visualisation has been essential to my career – I know that for me as a designer my visual strengths are way higher than they would be if I had not been dyslexic. I can walk into a blank room and visualise what it will be like, with furniture in certain places, changing the colours and picturing it complete.
I’ve learned to follow and trust my gut, which is something I don’t think we do enough.
One of the first gut decisions I made was starting my business when I was 16. My father had suddenly died very young, and I decided to leave school and set up my own business. I didn’t want to be in a situation where people made me feel bad anymore.
When I look back now, I realise that I drew on the pain that I was feeling at the time of his death and found my strength.
I work now with the Diana Awards as an anti-bullying ambassador, and it’s amazing to see the ways in which young people find their strength and do amazing things. It just proves that you can do anything you set your mind to with support.
After my father’s death, I was left a bit of money so I bought a small flat and set up my business from there. My stepfather had a friend who wanted his kitchen designed, and so he was my first client. The question I always ask now is, ‘How did they know I could have done it?’ and I don’t have a good answer for it. But I wasn’t frightened of the job. I really enjoyed it.
About a year later I had a friend whose boyfriend – who was a famous racing driver – needed his house designing and my friend liked the style that I’d decorated my own place. I got myself headed paper and business cards and went out to all the design shops to do my research on foot. Within five minutes of meeting him, I had the job.
I learned everything as I went along. My mother was a fantastic mentor to me. She taught me how to do important business admin things like invoices and VAT. I put time into building up relationships with clients and suppliers – I found a builder through trial and error and built up relationships with fabric houses – and I was really good at the people side of things.
I think today, now that lots of things are done online and that is an essential part of building your business. When you can see someone’s face, it makes such a difference to your conversation.
My business snowballed through word-of-mouth recommendations. At the time, my style hadn’t really been seen before. I didn’t have a big plan, I just embraced the successes when they came, and dealt with the inevitable knockbacks when they came too. As long as I was making more money than I needed to live on, and had a bit to put away, I was pleased.
I did have confidence issues in lots of areas of my life when I was younger – how I looked, how I went about business – but one thing I always believed in was the vision that I created for my projects.
It was a new look at the time – this east meets west – and I never changed my identity, even when other people started to copy me. I always say to young people now, you can always be copied, but as long as you own what you’re doing, you’ll be the best at what you do.
For me, the turning point when I started to have confidence in myself was winning the Andrew Martin award, which is like the Oscars of the interior design world. Shortly afterwards, Sir Terence Conran wanted to publish my first book, East Meets West. Then I read something in a magazine that described a look as “Hoppen style” and that was a great moment. I really started to believe in myself.
It is hard to start believing in yourself, especially as a young woman. I’ve seen my daughter go through confidence issues too. Her cookery books, Honestly Healthy, have come about because of her own battles with body confidence, but she’s made a huge success of her career. It’s another instance where strength and authenticity come from a perceived weakness.
There are some ways in which dyslexia still creates challenges. I can’t read a spreadsheet or copy down an email and my address book is the weirdest in the world, because I organise contacts using funny systems that no one else understands! But it hasn’t held me back at all. In fact, it has shaped who I am and what I’ve done with my life.'
Download your free copy of Make it Work from Facebook UK's #SheMeansBusiness website.
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