Success Never Smelled So Sweet: How I Followed My Nose and Found My Passion
The creator of Carol’s Daughter, a bath-and-beauty-products company, presents her life story, along with aromatherapy recipes, in this lightly enjoyable read. Price grew up in a loving, strict African-American family in Brooklyn and later pursued careers in singing and television. She also ran up huge credit card debt, and wound up owing the IRS tens of thousands of dollars—at 28, she was forced to declare bankruptcy. It’s undeniably fascinating to learn how, a few years later, she managed to start Carol’s Daughter with $100 in cash; she slowly built the company—without loans or credit—until she paid off her enormous debt. With such an honest and inspiring tale to tell, it’s unfortunate that Price devotes so much of her time to describing celebrities she’s met along her road to success. A brief encounter with Prince gets a whole page, for example, but her decision to declare bankruptcy takes up little more than a paragraph. Readers might also raise an eyebrow at Price’s repeated belief that "God is in my corner" and that He employs Oprah and other celebrities as messengers to ensure that Price’s business continues to thrive. While Price does seem to be unusually blessed, this materialistic spirituality undercuts a potentially empowering message about discipline and entrepreneurship. Stronger are her descriptions of her family; her mother, Carol, particularly stands out as an inspiration. She raised not just the author and her brother, but six more adopted children, all the while fighting chronic illness. Photographs.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.