Qualities of Audacious Leaders
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Audacious leaders are not afraid to challenge the status quo.
Are the odds against you? An audacious leader will say, "Bring it on." They believe they can find new solutions to even the most difficult problems—and they’re determined to prove it. In this article, we're rooting for the underdogs as we profile three business leaders who were able to achieve great success despite facing a fair set of challenges along the way.
So, cue the Rocky theme music and get ready to be inspired.
01—Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code
Back in 1995, women represented 37% of computer scientists. Leap forward into 2022 and that figure has plunged to just 22%. To address this alarming trend and encourage more girls to pursue careers in tech, Reshma Saujani launched Girls Who Code. This non-profit organization works to empower young women and close the gender gap in STEM.
But, Saujani's journey to becoming a leader in the tech world was not an easy one, nor a perfect one. In fact, she faced public loss and rejection.
Embracing failure and discovering purpose.
Saujani always knew she wanted to make a difference in the world. But, her drive for perfection led to doubt, anxiety, and fear of failure. Despite these fears—she persisted.
As a young lawyer, she paused her successful career to take a risk and run for political office—despite having no political experience. She was the first Indian-American woman to run for U.S. Congress, and as much as you’re cheering her on right now as you’re reading this, she, unfortunately, lost badly to the incumbent congressman. She recounted, "When you run for political office, everybody knows that you lose. You can't hide it."
And, despite this public loss, she ran for office again.
And lost again.
But, through this experience, Saujani learned that it wasn't failure she feared. Rather, it was the feeling of not being good enough, of not being perfect. She says that her loss was an awakening.
The most interesting thing about losing was that it didn't break me. I'm not broken. I failed, and I'm not broken. And I think because I lost that race, and I didn't die, that's what gave me the courage to start something that I knew nothing about.
Risking it all on something new.
In the midst of failures, something caught her attention. While campaigning for New York City Public Advocate, she noticed that the public school computer rooms were consistently packed with young boys, not girls. And this triggered an epiphany. Saujani realized that the lack of girls in tech was a significant problem, and the more she researched the issue, the more passionate she became about it.
Though she knew nothing about coding, she saw it as a unique opportunity to empower young girls and help close the gender gap in tech.
Teach girls, bravery, not perfection.
—Reshma Saujani, Founder of Girls Who Code, author, and activist
And, so, Girls Who Code was born.
Since 2012, Girls Who Code has been the leading movement to educate, inspire, and equip girls and women with the skills and resources to pursue careers in technology and engineering. Over 500,000 girls, women, and nonbinary students in all 50 U.S. states have been served by Girls Who Code programming classes, summer immersion programs, and other initiatives.
As a result of her efforts, Saujani has earned countless accolades and recognition. As an underdog, her audacity and resilient spirit have moved the needle for women in STEM and narrowed the gender gap for tech innovators and leaders.
02—Sara Blakely, SPANX
SPANX. It's one of the most famous underdog entrepreneur stories—and one of the most inspirational. I mean, it all started with cut-up pantyhose.
And from that genius idea and relentless determination, Sara Blakely founded SPANX and became the youngest female self-made billionaire in history. But her story shows that persistence and authenticity really do pay off.
I love the idea of CEOs showing vulnerabilities and the ups and downs. I don't feel I need to put on a facade to be taken seriously as a leader.
—Sara Blakely, billionaire, Founder and Owner of SPANX
Rejection and resilience.
Blakely's rise to undergarment success was not a quick one—nor was it necessarily what she had in mind growing up. In fact, she originally wanted to be a lawyer, like her father, but she didn't have a high enough LSAT score to get into law school.
With her dream busted, she moved from her hometown of Clearwater, FL, to Atlanta, GA, for a glamorous job as a door-to-door fax machine salesperson and part-time comedian. Seven years passed before the idea for SPANX came to her—and it hit her hard. Getting ready for a party one night, she cut off the feet of her pantyhose so that they wouldn't show under white pants, but would provide her a slimming effect.
She used $5,000 from her savings account and invested it all into the new innovation—SPANX.
Was it an instant hit? Not really.
As an outsider in the fashion industry with no business experience, she quickly received a rejection from every hosiery mill she attempted to pitch in North Carolina. However, just two weeks after being rejected by the manager of a facility in Asheboro, he called Blakely with a business proposal. And what started out as a small operation in her spare bedroom with two sewing machines is now a billion-dollar enterprise.
Failure as fuel for greatness.
Fear of failure and rejection have held back many entrepreneurs from achieving greatness. Blakely's mindset has been to learn from the moments of disappointment and error and use them as fuel to keep moving forward.
About this, she says, "I started realizing in everything there was some amazing nugget that I wouldn't have wanted to pass up. At SPANX, to encourage people to fail, I'm bringing up my failures in front of the team often . . . I'm always openly talking about it . . . If you learn from it and if you can laugh about it, then it's all worth it."
Blakely's attitude towards failure epitomizes the qualities needed to be a successful, audacious entrepreneur. Her vulnerability and willingness to take risks have allowed her to disrupt an entire industry, inspiring women worldwide.
03—Gary Erikson, CLIF Bar
Gary Erikson is an unlikely visionary in the world of entrepreneurialism. As a cyclist and avid mountain climber, Erikson isn't exactly the type of person you'd expect to become the co-founder and CEO of one of the largest energy bar companies in the world.
But, from humble beginnings an idea was born, and his audacious vision for a better energy bar quickly turned into one of the most popular protein bars on the market.
I didn't start Clif Bar to make money or to fill holes in my life. I did it because I wanted to make a better energy bar for my friends and myself.
—Gary Erikson, Co-Founder, Clif Bar
Gambling on a homemade recipe.
Clif Bar started as a simple solution to an urgent problem: a better-tasting energy bar. In 1990, at mile 125 of an epic 175-mile bike ride, Gary Erikson, a cyclist, gulped down his Powerbar, the only option available at the time for athletes. He hated it. The combination of chemicals and ingredients tasted horrible, and he thought to himself, "I can create a better-tasting energy bar!"
Erikson took matters into his own hands by formulating his own recipe (with help from his mom) to create an energy bar that tasted more like a cookie. Once created, Erikson and his friend Lisa Thomas passed out the Clif Bars (named after his father, Clif) to fellow cyclists. They became a huge hit, and Erikson knew he was on to something with his new energy bar business.
But, despite the demand for Clif Bars from his peers, it wasn't as though he had a booming business on his hands. When he launched Clif Bar, he said in his 2004 Memoir, "Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business," that he was living in a garage with no heat and no bathroom, making $10,000 a year. But two years later, he pulled together $1,000 to invest in his energy bar business.
Commitment to purpose, even through setbacks.
While many entrepreneurs struggle to launch their products, Erikson's biggest challenge was ensuring that his company stayed true to its purpose-driven mission. And it takes audacity to stay dedicated not to the bottom line but to the pillars of sustainability and social good.
The booming energy bar industry of the 1990s saw a surge in big food companies with deep pockets buying out Clif Bar's competitors.
Rather than giving in to the pressure of being acquired, Erikson doubled down on his original values and commitment to organic, natural ingredients for Clif Bar. He even turned down a $120 million acquisition offer from Quaker Oats in favor of keeping an independent brand that would maintain the integrity of its products and its vision.
Stickin' to your guns ain't easy. Especially with dollar bills flying at you from all directions.
But this audacious entrepreneur has shown that being true to your mission and values can be compatible with a successful business. Erikson said he went back and forth about selling the company, "I had been relying on the logical side of my brain," Erickson said. "Once I started listening to the emotional side of my brain, I had more clarity and knew keeping the company private was the best decision." But, this risky move wasn't easy—and wasn't cheap.
Early mistakes lead to surprising success.
Not everyone was happy when Erikson turned down the offer from Quaker Oats. Erikson's business partner, Thomas, asked to be bought out of Clif Bar for $62 million (half the market value of Clif Bar at the time). It took Erikson a decade to pay off that debt, and with interest, cost around $72 million.
About this setback, Erikson says, "Given that Clif Bar is in a really nice spot right now, it's easy to look back and see that our early legal structure was lacking."
In the beginning, we wanted to be scrappy, but we overlooked the fundamentals that cost us in the long run.
