Welcome to Edition #89 of Gorick's newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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STORY
How Rihanna built a billion dollar beauty empire
It’s the fall of 2017. Robyn Rihanna Fenty—whom you may know as pop star Rihanna—just launched her first cosmetics brand, “Fenty Beauty.” A month later, product sales reached $100 million USD.1 It was also crowned by Time Magazine as a Best Invention of 2017.2
Fast forward 8 years later to today—and Fenty Beauty brings in an estimated $567 million per year.
But, Rihanna wasn’t always known as the founder of Fenty Beauty. For most of her career, she was known as Rihanna the singer.
When she was 17 years old, Rihanna left her home in Barbados. Newly signed with the US-based Def Jam Records, she released her first hit single “Pon de Replay” and was quickly propelled into the limelight of the American pop scene.3
Over the next 10 years from 2005 to 2015, Rihanna would go on to:
- Have 23 songs on the US Top 10 Singles chart4
- Earn 11 of her now 14 #1 singles on the Billboard Hot 1005
- Win 6 Grammy Awards6
But Rihanna knew she wanted to be more than a pop star.
“I don't think of [fashion or music] without the other. It’s like music, fashion, hair, makeup,” Rihanna shared in a 2011 interview with Glamour.7
That very year, Rihanna released her first fragrance. It made $60,000 in sales in 1 day and, by the end of the year, an estimated $80 million.8
2 years later, in 2013, Rihanna was on tour for her 7th album, which would earn her her 7th Grammy.
That very year, she partnered with MAC Cosmetics to release a makeup series. The line grossed $40 million in sales. John Demsey, the executive group president of Estée Lauder (parent company of MAC Cosmetics), called it “beyond successful.”9
1 year later, in 2014, news broke that Rihanna had trademarked her surname “Fenty” for 16 potential products, including Fenty Beauty. “It looks like she’s looking into her own thing now,” news outlets mused.10
Then, in 2016, word spread that fashion powerhouse LVMH and Rihanna were joining forces to launch Rihanna's new cosmetics brand named—you guessed it—Fenty Beauty.11
1 year later, in 2017, Fenty Beauty released its first product line, including Rihanna’s foundation series that boasted 40 shades to accommodate skin tones “for everyone.”12
A month later, the brand had generated $100 million in sales.13
Since its launch, Fenty Beauty has influenced other beauty brands to expand their shade ranges (dubbed “The Fenty Effect”).14 To this day, it’s ranked as the number-one celebrity beauty brand in the world and generated an estimated $567 million in revenue in 2023.15
In 2021, Rihanna became a billionaire—and all thanks to Fenty Beauty.16
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UNSPOKEN RULE
De-risk big career moves
Rihanna wasn’t an overnight success—we know this after reverse engineering her career moves.
But, Rihanna’s success wasn’t just about putting in years of hard work, either.
She took small but important steps to derisk her big move.
You also need to spend your time strategically to de-risk your career move.
Specifically, she:
1. Tried it as a side hustle
Rihanna didn’t just stop making music and start creating beauty products. She kept up her music—and tried the beauty venture on the side. That way, if her side project worked, she could invest more of her time and resources—which she did. And if it failed, she’d still have her music career to fall back on.
What does this mean for you?
If you have an idea, try it out on nights and weekends first so you can validate its potential before going all-in. If you’re tempted to switch careers, try to take on a volunteer project so you can confirm whether you actually like it more before quitting your job.
2. Collaborated with experts
Rihanna didn’t just hide away and come back with her own beauty product. She partnered with LVMH—and, specifically, with Kendo, their business incubator that helps new beauty businesses get off the ground. While it probably would have been more heroic for her to show that she could formulate her own products as well as write her own songs, she swallowed her pride—and saved years of trial and error.
What does this mean for you?
If you aren’t sure if a certain job is right for you, talk to people who hold the job or who used to hold the job. If you aren’t sure if your idea at work is any good, ask someone who’s worked at the company longer for their feedback.
3. Got involved personally
Many celebrities take the collaboration thing too casually and do nothing more than slap their name on a product—and it shows. Rihanna got involved in the day-to-day operations of Fenty and helped shape everything from the product’s formula and shades to its marketing and messaging.
What does this mean for you?
If you’re changing careers, don’t just assume that the job your friends think is cool is truly a good fit for you. Actually try it out yourself. And in the workplace, resist the urge to delegate everything away (if you’re a manager). Be involved in the early stages so you actually understand how things work.
In addition to the above strategies that we can verify using publicly available sources, I have 3 more de-risking strategies to share (and suspect Rihanna used as well but I just don’t have the evidence to prove it):
- Test it in private or with a small group (so if the idea tanks, no one has to know)
- Get feedback early (so, by the time the project is done, you know people will like it)
- “Double dip” by working on something that can repurposed (so even if you ditch your project, whatever you built can still be repurposed for something else useful)
Here’s the deal with risk: It’s inevitable—especially if you’re doing something you don’t have experience in, whether it’s a new project at work or a career switch. But, if even Rihanna finds it helpful to minimize her risk, you may find it helpful to do so, too.
What’s an “unspoken rule”? They’re the things that separate those who get ahead from those who stumble—and don’t know why. You can learn more about these rules in the workplace in my Wall Street Journal bestselling book called—you guessed it—The Unspoken Rules.
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Sources:
2. https://time.com/5023212/best-inventions-of-2017/
3. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rihanna
4. https://www.billboard.com/artist/rihanna/
5. https://www.billboard.com/artist/rihanna/
6. https://www.grammy.com/artists/rihanna/5943
7. https://www.glamour.com/story/rihanna-her-glamour-magazine-september-issue-cover-story
8. https://www.bet.com/article/84neg1/rihanna-s-fans-help-make-her-perfume-a-success
9. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/makeup/a38573019/john-demsey-mac-viva-glam-interview/
10. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/news/rihanna-trademarks-her-name-9656814.html
11. https://wwd.com/feature/lvmh-rihanna-makeup-brand-10409670/
12. https://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/article/rihanna-fenty-beauty-diversity
14. https://www.vogue.co.uk/beauty/article/rihanna-fenty-beauty-diversity
15. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1372858/leading-celebrity-beauty-brands-worldwide-by-revenue/
