From family breadwinner at 11 to world-famous perfume entrepreneur

British entrepreneur and renowned perfumer Ms Jo Malone CBE has opened up about her difficult upbringing and how becoming the breadwinner for her family at the age of 11 sowed the first seeds of entrepreneurship.

Malone, the founder of successful fragrance brands Jo Malone London and Jo Loves, appeared with Steve Sedgwick in an episode of CNBC’s “Executive Decisions” podcast released Tuesday.

Jo Malone London was acquired by The Estee Lauder In 1999 the companies earned the founder an undisclosed amount of millions.

However, long before he became a millionaire, Malone recalled that he grew up on a council estate in Kent in the United Kingdom, his mother worked in the beauty industry and his father was an artist as well as a gambler and poker player.

“From the age of 11, I was actually that adult who said: ‘Do we have enough money for the electricity and gas meters?’ Because I knew if he gambled away all the money, there wouldn’t be anything left to eat,” Malone told Sedgwick.

Malone’s mother’s health deteriorated before she became a teenager, and she did not attend school for nearly a year as she tried to find a way to make ends meet for her mother, father, and younger sister.

A savvy Malone, using her mother’s experience and teachings, copied the face creams she sold – taking them by train to London and selling them to customers for £4.50 ($5.90).

“That’s how I kept my family together and my father would come home whenever he felt the need to come home,” he said.

“I think I was created during those moments and no matter what came at me, I always found a way out. I found an entrance or I found a tunnel or a staircase, and I think: ‘Okay, how can I make the next £20?’

On Saturdays, Malone remembered selling his father’s paintings because the family needed money for food and he used to waste it. On Sundays, she would participate in poker games with him, where he would teach her how to read marked cards.

Now, Malone is an accomplished entrepreneur, and she remembers those challenging childhood experiences as times that have shaped her into the resilient businesswoman she is today.

Malone said, “I kept telling myself: ‘When I grow up, I won’t live like this. I won’t have a family like this.’

“And I remember being in my bedroom one day, and we had no central heating. It was really cold, and there was ice on the window, and I remember scratching the ice with my finger and looking outside and thinking ‘I’ve got to change my luck’.”

Malone says she was lonely as a teenager because she couldn’t do ‘normal’ things like play sports with her friends. Instead, she was at home washing clothes, cooking dinner, and picking up her younger sister from school.

As she grew up, she realized that her independence fostered entrepreneurial tendencies.

“In the beginning it was just survival,” she explained, recounting her first few jobs at a flower shop, washing dishes at a restaurant, and walking people’s dogs.

“I was never embarrassed to do laundry or do any of those things to survive, and I think when I started my first skin care business, I knew I was in charge of my life, and I had to do that,” Malone said.

“And that’s when entrepreneur, even though I didn’t know what the word entrepreneur meant, that’s when entrepreneur really took hold,” she said.

Malone, who is no longer associated with Jo Malone London, now lives in Dubai and launched a luxury spirits brand, Jo Vodka, this year. She also has a fragrance business, Joe Loves.

Listen to the full episode of “Executive Decisions” with Steve Sedgwick wherever you get podcasts, or Click here,