Jamie Kern Lima - Believe It: How to Go from Underestimated to Unstoppable

Gallery Books

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Copyright 2021 by Jamie Kern Lima

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Gallery Books hardcover edition February 2021

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Photo on Amanda Ditzel; all other photos courtesy of the author.

Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Jacket photograph by Maggie Kirkland

Author photograph by Alexandre Weinberger

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

ISBN 978-1-9821-5780-7

ISBN 978-1-9821-5782-1 (ebook)

For the loves of my life: Wonder and Wilder

And for each and every person who has helped me to believe in myself, in a mission greater than myself, in God, and in the great potential each of us has to help heal humanity through love.

The greatest risk any of us will take, is to be seen as we truly are.

CINDERELLA

I TS A NO. Were going to pass on investing in your company. If you want the truth, Im just not sure women will buy makeup from someone who looks like you. You know, with your body and weight. This is what a potential investor said to me, face-to-face, on one of the most difficult days in my journey as an entrepreneur. And as a woman. Watching his mouth move and hearing those words come out, I felt flooded by the pain from a lifetime of battling self-doubt and body-doubt. It was also a moment when I worried everything was on the line, and my companys survival was in his hands. It would be another year before I could pay myself, when my diet staples consisted of ramen noodles, $1 hot dogs from the Costco to-go counter, and frozen yogurt samples from the shop down the street.

Has anyone ever said something so hurtful to you that you had to do everything in your power not to replay it over and over in your head? This was one of many moments when I had to figure out how to handle someone not believing in me, while still figuring out how to believe in myself.

I took a deep breath, looked him in the eye, and listened to his words of rejection graciously. Then I started to see my own fear staring back at me, and knew I needed to figure out how to keep my faith bigger than it. While the logical part of my mind wondered if he was right, deep down inside I felt this overwhelming gut instinct that he was wrong. And I also knew the journey of proving that would hinge first on me learning to truly believe it for myself.

Im excited to take you on this journey in the pages of this book, and my hope is that through the wild ride, filled with victorious peaks and devastating pits, youll discover inspirational takeaways that impact how you believe in your own power and dreams. Ive read a lot of books where I felt like the advice was coming from a faraway pedestal without including the real, raw, messy human side of it all. I was left wondering what the behind-the-scenes version was. And how I was supposed to connect to it and actually understand how to apply the lessons to my real life.

In this book, I hope you feel that the REAL YOU is accepted here. Because I am going to show you the REAL ME. Not just the celebrated person who started a company in her living room with close to no money, sold it for over a billion dollars, became the first female CEO of a brand at the largest cosmetics company in the world, helped change the way the entire beauty industry shows images of women globally, and is now splashed on fancy magazine pages, appears on TV shows, and is on the Forbes list, but the real me and real struggles, stories, and lessons behind the headlines. The real me who has struggled with anxiety, self-doubt, body-doubt, and God-doubt. The real me who has cried myself to sleep on countless nights when it felt like no one believed in my ideas. The real me who battles feeling not good enough, not smart enough, or not (fill in the blank) enough.

AFTER SEEING THE sexy, highlight-reel versions of my story in the press and on social media so many times, usually in the form of a business success story, and then receiving countless letters, emails, and messages from so many people, I realized that in our social-media/headlinedriven world, we rarely get to learn the truth. On the outside, the story the press tells about me looks like a fairy tale. Or it looks like it must have come easy. Or that I just got really lucky. Or that I am one of those other people or some bionic unicorn. It made me realize how important it is to tell the real story behind the flashy headlines, the story that will perhaps let you know youre not alone.

BEING VULNERABLE IS hard, but Ive learned that sharing our true, flawed, authentic selves is the only way real connection and love can happen. Its the only way to step into our full power and purpose in our lives.

In this part memoir, part manifesto, Im going to share several of the deeply personal and professional struggles and triumphs, risks and lessons, and failures and victories that have helped me learn how to step into my full power. The business lessons in this book have fundamentally changed my personal life in how I parent and love. And the personal lessons I share are the keys to how I turned a dream into a billion-dollar business. This is the story of how it all really happened and how it almost didnt. I hope it leaves you knowing that you have the power inside of you right now to believe in yourself and your dreams too, and then to truly live them! This book is for you if youve ever been underestimated, even if you were the one underestimating yourself.

See, I believe every one of us has a light inside of usa light that can burn self-doubt to the ground and illuminate your path ahead; a light that gives you the power and confidence to show up authentically and be seen. My hope is that by revealing my journey to find and spark the light of confidence and purpose inside of myself, you are inspired to find the light inside of you, even if its for the first time, or the first time in a long time. Once you are able to illuminate your own path (and celebrate it!), you not only help illuminate the world, you help clear the path for others to do the same by leading the way.

If you picked up this book, I dont believe its an accident or a coincidence. I believe you and I are meant to be connected in this way. And I believe we all have the power to ignite our light and to know were worthy and enough exactly as we are. Only by fully embracing this can you align with your true, authentic self and step into the purpose and calling you have for your life. You have everything you need inside of you. Its all in you already. My goal is to create a space with the words and stories shared here for you to embrace that more fully for yourself.