Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriguez is a story of the ultimate enterpreneurial challenge. Take one inexperienced businesswoman fleeing a bad marriage, put her in a country hostile to women, and then watch her empower powerless women and win over the locals, administrators, and other relief workers by teaching them how to apply highlights.
I’m not going to use my review space to talk about the cultural differences, because while interesting (and infuriating), that was not the part that intrigued me. Instead, I was looking for clues as to why she succeeded under the most extreme circumstances.
Entrepreneurs still need a team. Never once was Rodriguez convinced she could do this alone. Everything was a group effort. And most telling was that when she found out someone bigger, with more funding and more clout was attempting to do the same thing, she didn’t give up. She didn’t even get discouraged. Instead, she called them up to join forces. Personally, I don’t see this enough in my business - in fact everyday I see competitors fracturing a market when they could all be more successful if they teamed up.
Logistics can kill you. Literally in her case, what with everyone running around with machine guns. But, the majority of her hardships were logistical. It’s one thing to convince Paul Mitchell to give you several years worth of supplies, it’s another thing to ship them across the world into hostile territory. Simply throwing a party to celebrate the first graduating class proves a nightmare due to the fact that there is no phone system and no way to deliver invitations. Rodriguez throughout the book is nothing but resourceful and willing to fight for solutions to setbacks rather than give up (and part of that resourcefulness was having a strong team working with her).
Know when to delegate (or bring a translator). Setting up the school was only the first part of the venture. Next, Rodriguez had to teach women who were coming from a totally different place than her (literally and figuratively). Rodriguez realized at one point that after she finally got through to one student, it was better to let that student explain things to her peers. Sometimes even when we know our stuff better than anyone else, we may not always be the best one to deliver the message.
Empathy can breed success. Funny, but in an earlier review I downplayed a review of a book about empathy as not being relevant. I now take that back. Rodriguez was fleeing a man who basically held her prisoner. This meant that she could identify with the women she wanted to help. It also meant that she could take risks because to her they’re not necessarily risks. It’s almost as if she has no choice and nothing left to lose.
Dream big for yourself and for others. In some senses teaching 20 women a year to cut hair might not seem like a big dream. On the other hand, doing this half-way across the world in a country that’s war-torn and hostile to women may seem too big. This is why it’s helpful to share your entrepreneurial dreams with others, and when it involves huge benefits for others, that’s much easier to do!
The Bottom Line: Great light read for anyone who has an interest in women’s issues in Afghanistan, or who has ever had someone tell them that their business plan will never succeed.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Kabul Beauty School”
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July 30th, 2007 at 9:35 am
An update on the status of the actual Beauty School is not so good: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10634299.
August 4th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
i just loved the book!!!!!!!!!!
im afghan myself and live in UK-London and just fell in love with the book. Just goes to show that anything is possible and for a foreigner to fulfil the dreams of afghan women is just too amazing. I wish i had the guts and courage to do the same as she did….i wouldnt have been able to the same even though its my country as to what she did, all the journeys she made…alone! etc. totllay amazing!
but what made me laugh was her marriage to Sam..i thought it started off all as a joke but turned out towards the end that it was serious hahaha. oh well..lol
anyways loved the boook!! beautifully written and informative.