The idol life: Their fame will outlive them, their money will probably outlast their fame, and what they've learned about running businesses will be passed from generation to generation—starting with you

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2002 by Aliza Pilar Sherman

Quick. Think of the word "entrepreneur." Who comes to mind? Whether you look back in time and think of innovators such as Henry Ford or Nelson Rockefeller or look at today's headlines, each generation has just a handful of names that stand out as examples of the entrepreneurial spirit. We recently talked to five of today's entrepreneurial icons--people whose names are synonymous with success, risk-taking and independent thinking. How have they changed from their early days in business through today's volatile market, ever-changing technology and the always-crowded business landscape? And how has their entrepreneurial spark endured? Let's find out.

MICHAEL DELL

As a college student, Michael Dell declared that he wanted to beat IBM. In 1983, he began conducting business out of his dorm room at the University of Texas in Austin, selling custom-made PCs and components. A year later, with $1,000 in start-up capital, Dell officially set up his business and left school. "Being an entrepreneur wasn't on my mind," insists Dell. "What was on my mind was the opportunity I saw ahead, which was so compelling."

He had no idea how big that opportunity really was. Dell Computer Corp. is now a $31.9 billion behemoth. Though Dell himself had "no idea the Internet would come along," his company now sells approximately $50 million worth of products on the Net daily, making it one of the world's largest Windows-based e-commerce sites. These days, Dell spends most of his time planning company strategy. "Strategy is the biggest point of impact I can have as the company is much, much larger--it has 40,000 employees," he says. "So my ability to make an impact on anything else is pretty small."

Unless you're talking about the September 11 terrorist attacks. Dell's company did its part, shipping more than 35,000 computer systems to affected customers in New York and Virginia. Because the company already knew the configurations of customers' machines, replacements were ready to go.

ANITA RODDICK

Dell says he feels as entrepreneurial now as when he started. "There are plenty of markets to discover," he says, "and each new venture requires tenacity and a willingness to take risks."

As a young girl, starting a business was the last thing on Anita Roddick's mind. "I wanted to be an actress," she says.

Even when she began to pursue what would become The Body Shop, her environmentalism-minded skin- and hair-care company with more than 1,800 stores in 49 countries, Roddick's goal was not to be an icon. "My business was a response to the extravagance and waste of the cosmetics industry," she says.

Roddick opened her first shop in 1976 with 25 hand-mixed products, eventually franchising The Body Shop and then going public in 1984. The Body Shop now offers more than 1,000 items and reached sales of more than $1 billion in 2000/2001.

Though she no longer sits on The Body Shop's executive committee, Roddick still serves as co-chair, finds new products and keeps the company active in human rights, environmentalist and animal-protection issues.

In 1997, Roddick helped launch a master's degree program in conjunction with Bath University in England, with the aim of making business education more socially responsible. More recently, she established The Body Shop's Human Rights Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations that focus on social, economic and cultural rights.

The biggest challenge has been people's cynicism. "People feel there has to be an ulterior motive to The Body Shop's activism, as though our principles are a marketing ploy," Roddick laments.

Have the challenges affected Roddick's feelings about entrepreneurship? Not even slightly. "I don't think being an entrepreneur is something you question," says Roddick. "It's just something you are."

At press time, The Body Shop was considering buyout offers, but hadn't reached any decisions.

BEN & JERRY

Jerry Greenfield was trying to become a doctor. Ben Cohen was trying to become a potter. They joke that their foray into entrepreneurship resulted from being failures at what they were trying to do in their careers. Today, Ben and Jerry's names are synonymous with socially responsible business and all-natural ice cream in innovative flavors.

Starting with one ice cream shop in a renovated Vermont gas station in 1978, by 1999, Ben & Jerry's had more than $237 million in sales from nearly 200 shops and a vast array of products sold in grocery stores and other outlets.

More than just a monetary success, however, the pair brought to entrepreneurship a responsibility--to be a good business, not simply do good business. "The prevailing thought bad been that [being] a business engaged in social activities would take away from your ability to make money," says Jerry. "The more our company was involved with social interests, the more profitable we became."

As entrepreneurs, Ben and Jerry are complementary opposites. Says Jerry, "I'm more of a supportive person. Ben is a visionary. He would rather fail at something new than do something that has already been done before. Sometimes you just have to let someone go with something."