Lesson #5: Nothing Replaces Hard Work by Vera Wang

Lesson #5: Nothing Replaces Hard Work

“I would have done anything,” says Wang. “I swept the floors at Scavullo’s studio when I was assisting Polly Mellen, and I would run out for yogurt for the models whenever they asked.”

When Wang was working her way up the ranks of Vogue, it never mattered to her what her official job title was; if there was something that needed doing, she was there to do it. “I was a great assistant,” she says, “a true assistant. I mean, if something was left in my hands, it was done, without even a concern.”

During her 16 years with the magazine, Wang worked around the clock and under tremendous amounts of stress. When it was collection season, Wang would attend fashion shows from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., rush back to Vogue to look at film, select her choices for clothing, edit that film, and then hurry to the studio to finalize everything. By the time Wang left work for the day, it was in fact early the next morning. And it would be like that every day for almost two months straight.

Wang’s dedication and hard work at Vogue paid off when she became the youngest editor ever at the fashion magazine, and all within just two years. After that, the schedule only got more hectic.

“To be a fashion editor at Vogue, which is about the highest you can attain in fashion magazine-land, there's nothing you haven't been exposed to, no conditions under which you haven't worked, and you had to produce,” she says. “You might be doing swimwear in January, or furs in July, with the makeup running and the hair limp and damp because the girl is sweating, but you have two days to do six of the biggest fur advertisers, and if you don't come home with extraordinary pictures, you're in deep trouble. And if your pictures aren't good over a period of time, you're in jeopardy for your job.”

Wang’s father once told her as a young girl, “Just do something and see where it leads you. But if you do nothing, then you have no one to blame but yourself.” Wang carried that advice with her throughout her career, believing that if she did not give her full effort to her work, she had no one to blame but herself. That is why whether it was skating, Xeroxing for the powers that be at Vogue, or working on expanding her own lifestyle brand, Wang never said no to a challenge, and never let herself stop working.

“It's like boot camp,” Wang says of her time at Vogue. “But when you walk out of there your mind functions differently. You don't ever see the world in the same way. And for that I'll always be so incredibly grateful.”

Learning a disciplined work ethic did not come easy to Wang. Coming home after work at 2 o’clock in the morning often took its toll on her. But Wang was determined and knew that it would be nothing but hard work that would take her to the top.

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