One of my favourite shops is Space NK. This week I had the chance to meet the founder of the beauty chain which now has 58 shops on high streets across the UK.
Nicky Kinnaird is as impressive and compelling as her shops. But above all, she is real. By this I mean that she is what pyschologists call an authentic personality. She has admitted in the past that she is no diplomat. This may be true. However, she is a person who can tell her own story and make others listen.
Maybe we can all learn from this. After all, it is not everyone that can open a single shop and within fifteen years open 57 more across the UK, four in New York and a further nine outlets inside Bloomingdales stores around the US.
She is quite willing to talk about how she has done this. Of course she, like most other clever business people, did this with hard graft, research, due diligence and a pro-risk outlook.
But the real gift is her ability to harness her passion and past to the future.
Oprah Winfrey would say she can align her purpose with her personality.
She says her love of lotions and potions came from the three-month summer holidays she and her family took in Spain every year when she was a child. She adored visiting local pharmacies and investigating the lavender water and rose face creams which packed the shelves. Growing up in Belfast she had never seen anything like it. The memories and, more importantly, the aroma, stayed with her and still drive her determination for finding the best beauty products.
Everything she says about her childhood and family has the ring of truth. The stories of her early years and her first forays into the family property business - which reached a dead end - make her a real person. This gives her an ease of communication which has helped hugely with her success in business.
She is not unlike another British business success, Anya Hindmarch. Both women have managed to combine a commitment for craftsmanship and quality with great entrepreneurial acumen. Both now preside over multi-million pound empires and both understand the importance of being real.