Anastasia Soare on Failure, Resilience, and Building a Brow Empire

In ELLE’s monthly series Office Hours , we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. This month, we spoke with Anastasia Soare, CEO of Anastasia Beverly Hills. Soare was born in Romania and came to the U.S. in the ’80s. At the time, she didn’t speak any En glish and found a job as an aesthetician in a boutique where her first client was Cindy Crawford . Through word of mouth, she developed a reputation for being able to expertly shape brows using the Golden Ratio. Appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show followed and she built her brand into a hugely successful business, which now fully encapsulates makeup. She recently released a memoir and advice book, Raising Brows: My Story of Building a Billion-Dollar Beauty Empire . Below, Soare talks to ELLE about the magic that comes from asking for a favor, how she learned about the art of the Golden Ratio, and her secret connection to actor Sebastian Stan. My first job I was 12 when I started working with my mother-it was child labor, but in Romania, it was part of survival. I used to help design clothes for her clients. She would take body measurements, and then I would adjust them. It was probably the first time that I was introduced to the Golden Ratio. My mother didn’t know what the Golden Ratio was, but in learning so much about the human body from measurements, she would tell me, “Our client has smaller shoulders and bigger hips, so we need to balance this. Let’s add some shoulder pads or make adjustments so the design would complement her body.” I would do my homework between the sewing machines. My worst job I tried to learn from every job that I’ve had. It helps you in so many ways. My favorite job What I do right now: I love to work with clients, to shape their eyebrows and make them feel good. It’s my biggest joy. The best career advice I’ve heard Always have good people to advise you on your contracts. Go work for somebody in the business that you want to be in, so that you can learn everything, and be aware of the mistakes that could be made. Then, when you open your own business, you know not to make them. Watch your cash flow. You have to figure out how to maintain your business and grow it. When I first heard this advice, I didn’t even know what cash flow was. I came from a country where financial literacy wasn’t what it is here. The worst career advice I’ve heard You can learn from even bad advice. I’ve made so many mistakes. When I launched at Nordstrom, I thought, They will buy the products and that’s it . Well, I learned that they have to sell them; otherwise, you have to take them back. Another mistake was when we did a body line with...

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