Students learned about the challenges and rewards two entrepreneurs faced in starting their businesses during the Sage Hill Internship Program’s (SHIP) entrepreneur career panel on Jan. 24.

Urban Decay and Caliray founder Wende Zomnir and American Realcorp president Ernie Cohen offered students an inside look into the fast-paced and creative world of business. 

Cohen started his first side business in high school by selling flowers on street corners. Later in life, he got into real estate and grew to love the creativity that his job offered. For Zomnir, it all happened in her Laguna Beach apartment 27 years ago. Since then, Urban Decay has grown into an internationally-recognized brand. 

“My preacher came up to me and said ‘you are hiding behind that mask of makeup’, and I thought to myself, ‘I am not hiding at all…I’m expressing myself.’ So that little moment turned into Urban Decay,” Zomnir said. “Take that thing that pissed you off and turn it into something. Take that thing that gives you amazing happiness and turn it into something.”

In 2012, the company was acquired from a California private equity firm by L’Oreal in a deal worth at least $300 million, according to The Guardian.

When asked about a typical day in their lives, both panelists gave responses about the variability of their jobs.

“What I love about what I do is the number of different things I could do,” said Cohen, who has been a real estate developer for over 40 years in real estate development, construction and  management.

Students were able to get an inside scoop on the different facets of working in real estate, including some more creative aspects such as picking out furniture and interior design. Although he originally wanted to be an artist, Cohen said real estate gave him more freedom and ability to exercise his creativity in a way that he’s never been able to do through art. 

“I think the best thing about being an entrepreneur is that it rewards someone who is a generalist… It rewards people who love to touch every aspect of their business,” Zomnir said. 

Zomnir highlighted the subsections of her business that make working in the field of entrepreneurship so fascinating and refreshing. From working on marketing strategies to packaging options and the product appearance itself, there is always something new to do.

Yet, with a company that largely depends on the marketable vision, there comes the push-and-pull of the creative and the practical approach. For visionaries in an entrepreneurial world, it is important to take time to focus on the monetary side of things as well.

“You have to be really resourceful… when I started my business, the challenge was getting people to take me seriously. I was a young woman. I didn’t have experience in the beauty industry,” Zomnir said. 

In the current generation where one could hack into the barriers of an industry with the click of a google search, starting a venture gets easier but differentiating oneself from a crowded industry gets harder, Zomnir said. When Zomnir wanted to incorporate nail polish, she lacked the resources to find a polish manufacturer. 

“I went to a car paint [shop]… I asked them where they got their car paint and I called that place, and I said do you also make nail polish and they did. So that’s how I figured it out,” Zomnir said. 

After years of being in the business world, Zomnir and Cohen learned how to be resourceful, experienced their favorite parts of their work, and decided to share their stories with an inspired audience. However, the biggest successes weren’t the revenue brought in or the recognition received. 

“When you build a building, especially an apartment building, you get the opportunity to drive by and you see how pretty it is. And you go inside and you see all these kids running around having so much fun… and maybe it’s on the sports court that you designed or the playground that you figured out… and you see the families so happy; that makes me feel good,” Cohen said.    

Throughout all those years of being in real estate, some of the most valuable moments don’t correlate with business-defined success, Cohen said. During the pandemic, he refused to raise rents for families even as other apartment owners hiked their rates.

“I didn’t do it for the thanks. I did it because I wanted to be part of the solution, not part of the problem,” Cohen said.