I read Coco Chanel’s biography by Lisa Chaney. The thing that surprised me the most about her was her childhood and upbringing. She had such a hard life, and I had no idea. Her father was never there for her and her mother died when she was only 12 years old, so she had to live the rest of her childhood growing up in catholic convent. After the convent, life was still hard for Gabrielle (Coco) because she was born poor and in a low social class, meaning it was hard for her to make money without finding a man to help take care of her. I never knew how hard of a life Coco Chanel led before her fame and success. I admire how she overcame a life where people viewed her as poor and low-class, and instead of living off of men, she wanted to make something of herself and gain influence over others. I least admire how she lied and kind of bent the truth about a lot of her background and early childhood throughout her life because she was embarrassed. I hate liars and I think if she didn’t want people to know about something she should have just not discussed it instead of lying. Gabrielle experienced adversity throughout the beginning of her first hat business for sure because she had to convince her lover at the time to invest in her, and people of her status didn’t usually work so it was very unusual.
Gabrielle’s main competencies were that she was determined, and once she set her mind to something she wouldn’t give up until she was great at it. One thing that was confusing to me was all of the French words throughout the book, I know nothing about France so all of the French places, sayings and words used often throughout the book were pretty confusing to me. If I were to ask any two questions to Gabrielle, I would ask—what her one regret in life was? And what advice would she give someone at the beginning of their career? I think Gabrielle’s opinion of hard work is that it is necessary if you want to succeed in life. Everything she did she worked so hard for, she never settled for anything other than first place.
Hey Madi! I had no idea that Coco Chanel’s had such a hard life before her success. I also had no idea what her real name was. I agree that lying is bad however, sometimes I could see how someone may feel its necessary. Like if an opportunity would have been taken away from her because of her statues.I also really liked your question about advice to someone beginning their career. At this stage in life advice from someone successful could be just what someone needs.
ReplyDeleteHey Madi, reading your response to Coco Chanel's book reminded of a time that I had heard someone else speaking about this book and all of her accomplishments. Never realizing how great she was at all. I think the major similarity that we see across all of the great successful people is their competency to overcome adversity.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you hated the fact that she had lied, as I dislike this quality in anyone, although her lying may have been one of the reasons that ultimately lead to her success.
This is a very good post Madi. I can say this because i can see that you learned from reading this book that no matter the challenges, they can not prevent anyone from becoming successful, Gabrielle (Coco) is a real life example of that. I did not have the same selection of book that you had for this assignment but after reading your post, i believe this is a book that i most definitely check out.
ReplyDeleteI admire Gabrielle, through her adversities in her childhood she was still able to make a successful company. Its very inspiring to know that many people that struggle in the early stages of their life are able to make it. I agree that lying about her upbringing wasn’t the best choice, although I also understand her point of view not wanting share what she had gone through.
ReplyDeleteSo Although I love the content in Your work I will say that if your organized the information a bit more formally it would be a lot easier to read . After all these are post for people to read not essay which is kind of what it looks Like at the moment . But aside from that I really enjoyed reading your post and almost felt as though I did the reading myself and really felt like I understood what you were thinking upon reading it .
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