Sue Nabi didn’t become the CEO of multibillion-dollar beauty company Coty overnight.
Nabi, who worked her way up from sales representative to president at L’Oréal, has a career that’s spanned more than 30 years. In 2020, she became CEO of Coty — the parent company of brands like Covergirl, Kylie Cosmetics and Tiffany & Co. — and she’s grateful for the time it took to get there.
She even refers to it as a significant factor to her success, running a business with a $9.68 billion market cap, as of Friday afternoon. “What takes time is respected by time,” Nabi, 55, recently told LinkedIn’s “The Path” podcast. “So don’t try to create things that are an overnight success.”
Say you have a project at work or school, for example. You breeze through the assignment, wanting to finish as quickly as possible and turn it in — causing you to miss the chance to correct some of your mistakes.
Aiming to become an “overnight success” can increase these kinds of pitfalls, Nabi said. If you don’t rush, you can potentially execute your project with fewer mistakes and feel more accomplished.
“Take your time,” she said. “It’s not your enemy.”
Time, it turns out, can play a large role in your happiness and fulfilment — both in your career and beyond. James Wallman, a trend forecaster and author of “Time and How To Spend It,” recommends asking yourself these seven questions to determine what’s worth your time and energy:
- Does it leave you with a story?
- Does it change you?
- Does it allow you to unplug?
- Does it improve your relationships?
- Does it feel challenging?
- Does it make you feel a sense of awe?
- Does it improve your social status?
“[Free time] doesn’t improve quality of life unless one knows how to use it effectively,” Wallman told CNBC Make It in 2019.
For Nabi, the first question is particularly important. Being able to tell a story through her work has been a driving force in her career, she said: Each time she experiences a “seminal moment” in her life, she finds a way to incorporate it into her work.
“Everything that you have done in the past, each choice has gotten you to where you are today,” said Nabi.
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