Beate Chelette was the youngest photo editor in the history of Germany’s Elle Magazine. At 22 years old, Beate seemed poised for a lifetime of success. But she gave it all up. “I just knew there was a bigger adventure waiting for me,” Beate says. “I was fascinated by the United States, by the fact that there was a whole country that believed that anything was possible,” she continues. “One of the reasons that I left Germany is that the Germans are very conventional and by-the book. You know, you’ve got to work X number of years to gain credibility, then only once you’ve done X, Y and Z can you take the next step.”
Another reason Beate decided to leave Germany was the professional experience her father had: a successful manager at a major company in Munich, Mr. Chelette was fired inexplicably after years of hard work. “He got fired overnight. And I looked at him and I looked at myself and I realized I was on my way to becoming exactly what he was. And I realized that I wanted to be judged, or evaluated by what my work was, but I wanted to find out a way of becoming who I truly was for myself,” says Beate.
But life in the United States was not categorized by immediate success. In fact, Beate faced her most difficult challenges just before her company took off. Despite a well-organized business plan and plenty of creative inspiration, Beate had not been able to find funding for her photo design company, Beateworks, based in Los Angeles. Beate was running out of money when her father was suddenly diagnosed with cancer and died within weeks. While she was burying him in Germany, her landlord sold the building where she was living in L.A. Facing both funeral costs and eviction, Beate contemplated bankruptcy. But, when Beate returned from Germany, she found a letter from the White House in response to her plea for funding. Within the month, her business found its footing. “The month after I buried my father was the same month that my company got off the ground,” she tells me. “My reward at the end of the day was beyond my wildest imagination.”
When I ask Beate what her advice would be for budding entrepreneurs, she said this: “When you are truly convinced that your idea is right, don’t give up. You just have to find the right way to do it, and sometimes that takes a little bit of time. I’ve found that most people that fail have the right idea, but they give up too early. I always believe that you get the big test, just before you get there. There’s always the final question: how badly do you want it?”
Read the fD Interview with Beate Chellete.
Isabel Cowles
Senior Writer
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