????2008年時，朱迪·喬治的事業似乎一度走到了盡頭，她創立的家具連鎖店公司Domain Home在金融危機下奄奄一息。雖然喬治女士仍是首席執行官，但新的私募股東們決定提交破產保護申請，希望盡可能多地拿回投資。但這位接受過女子精修學院教育的四個孩子母親并沒有就此一蹶不振。她用了多少時間從公司倒閉和個人失敗中重新振作起來？僅僅約一周時間。接著，又創立了一家新公司。?

????如今，喬治女士已經年屆72歲，是Judy George International的所有人。這家新的家居裝飾公司是她和設計師合伙人金·薩梅拉共同建立的。如今，該公司的床墊已在600家Sleepy's商店中出售。而且，公司還計劃提供一系列家居裝飾設計的授權。該公司預計今年收入將達到3,500萬美元。喬治女士對話《財富》雜志（Fortune），暢談她作為職業母親的生活，如何獲得追求成功的超人動力，以及如何扛過最眾目睽睽的失敗。

????我16歲時曾參加面試，希望成為美國出生缺陷基金會March of Dimes的全美青少年代言人。當時正是小兒麻痹癥爆發高峰過后，我想為此做點什么。我沒有參加全美級的代言人選拔，因為母親不讓我遠行，但我成為了March of Dimes的新英格蘭地區代言人。從那時開始，我開始熱愛表達自己的想法，同時獲得別人的反饋，這讓我感覺很好。我能代表所有人，但我想有時候，企業家都是很饑渴的人。這種饑渴不是情感上的，而是在生命中做一些重要事情。我就很饑渴。

????我從女子精修學校Chandler School for Women畢業后，19歲就結婚了。我母親希望我能藉此學會如何引來金龜婿。這就是那個年代女子精修學院學習的內容。因此，我對它煩透了。

????從那時開始，我就將自己的想法和創意寄給一些公司。我會寫產品、電視劇和報紙專欄的宣傳語。等到26歲時，我已經有了4個孩子，每個孩子相隔一歲半。我把這些想法發給各個地方的公司，只是為了讓自己保持積極的思考。有兩個想法得以采納：有個電視節目喜歡我的想法，我成為了定期嘉賓，我開始為《先驅報》（The?Herald）撰寫專欄《家裝達人》（Decorator in the House）。我一直覺得，就算沒錢，也可以打造一個漂亮的房間，讓你走進自己家時不再有寒酸的感覺。這就是當時這個專欄談的內容。它背后的構想是將那些只有富人才有的東西的價格降到大眾能承受的水平。

????In 2008, it looked like it was the end of the road for Judy George. The company she started, furniture store Domain Home, had succumbed to the financial crisis. Though George was still the CEO, the company's new private equity owners were taking it into Chapter 11 to recoup whatever they could. But the finishing school-educated mother of four has never stayed down for long. Her recovery time from the bankruptcy and personal fallout? About a week. Then it was back to work on a new company.?

????Today, George is 72 and the owner of Judy George International, a new home furnishings venture she started with her partner, designer Kim Salmela. The company's mattresses are in 600 Sleepy's stores, and it has plans to license a range of home furnishings designs. The company projects revenue this year of $35 million. George talked with?Fortune?about life as a working mom, cultivating a superhuman drive to succeed, and overcoming even the most public of failures.

????When I was 16, I interviewed to be the national junior spokesperson for the March of Dimes. It was right after the polio epidemics, and I just wanted to do something. I didn't join on the national level because my mother wouldn't let me travel, but I became the New England March of Dimes spokesperson. That was the beginning really of my love of presenting ideas and getting feedback that made me feel good. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think that sometimes entrepreneurs are very needy people. And the need isn't necessarily emotional. It's the need to do something important in their life. I was very needy.

????I got married at 19 after I completed finishing school at the ChandlerSchool for Women. My mother wanted me to get an education in attracting a rich husband. That's what finishing schools in those days were all about. So I went absolutely crazy with boredom.

????That was when I began creating ideas and sending them out to companies. I would write down pitches for products, TV shows, newspaper columns. By the time I was 26, I had four children, a year-and-a-half apart. I sent in these ideas to companies really everywhere just to keep myself sane. Two of them caught on: A television show liked my idea and I became a regular guest, and I started writing a column for?The?Herald?called "Decorator in the House." I always felt that if you were poor, you could create one room and make it feel good, and you wouldn't feel poor when you walked into your home. That's what the column was about. The vision behind everything was to take what only the rich and wealthy could have, and bring it to a price point where the masses could afford it.