Stuart Weitzman, known for his iconic A-list shoe brand, spoke about his work and career at Rice Business's Shell Auditorium on February 12th. Paul Cerkulli, vice president of innovation at Rice, opened the event by introducing Weitzman as a world-renowned “innovator, founder, and entrepreneur.”
After selling his multimillion-dollar brand and company in 2019, Weitzman has been touring business schools, sharing his “entrepreneurial journey on the road less traveled.” Weitzman said he has always been inspired by Robert Frost's poems about taking a new path.
“Risk is not a four-letter word,” he said. “Risk is truly your friend. You wouldn't be an entrepreneur without it. Progress on this planet has been greatly helped by people taking risks.”
Entrepreneurs can take risks, he said, and that requires imagination.
“The risk I took when I started my own business after leaving (another) company was to build a small factory. Set up to make one pair of shoes at a time. Custom made. If you have a goal, there's a market. So we realized we needed a niche market to get into. How can we get space on that shelf?”
Weitzman noticed that no one was making custom shoes for celebrities on the red carpet. His big break came when he created a custom pair for Aretha and his Franklin at the Grammy Awards. When she received the award, she took off her shoes to thank Weizmann, which made him famous.
When answering a question about the best business lesson he's ever learned, Weitzman explained the value of learning from others.
“The answer is always the same because it's so true,” he said. “If you have an idea of what kind of career or industry you want to work in, first find a company that does it so well that you want to work for it.”
Weitzman continued that people who start a business right out of school have a failure rate of about 90%. He says people who work for a company in their target industry before starting a business have a 75% success rate.
This lecture was presented to students, faculty and staff by The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, Rice Business, and Rice's Office of Innovation.
