Once upon a time in the concrete jungle of New York City, someone named Burt Shavitz made his living as a photographer. Then, one day, he snapped a picture that changed his life forever: one of an elderly neighbor looking longingly out their window. Burt took a look at the image straight out of a life-alert commercial and thought to himself, “If I don’t get the hell out of here, that’s how I’ll end up. Old and unable to go outside.” Within days, Burt dropped everything and escaped to the wilderness of Maine... In Maine, Burt stumbled across an abandoned beehive while out gathering firewood. He saved the bees, kept the hive intact, and somehow figured out a way to make a living selling honey to the locals. Then—one day, Burt picked up a random hitchhiker that would become his business partner (and partner for other things). Her name was Roxanne Quimby. First, they fell in love. Second, Roxanne started making lip balm using Burt’s honey. Once Burt’s Bees started gaining popularity, everything took a dark turn. Burt and Roxanne’s relationship went down the tubes. Long story short, Burt was accused of having an affair (bee better, Burt) and was forced to leave the company with only $4 milly in compensation. That seems like a lot, but—a few years later—Roxanne sold Burt’s Bees for $970 million. So go forth knowing this: Burt, the face of Burt’s Bees, only got $4 million dollars, a lawsuit, and a divorce for his hard work. Stay loyal. **To learn more, check out these sources: this article, and their website. **You can read more FS Stories here. If you liked reading this article, you might also like The Wedge: a quick-to-read weekly e-mail newsletter with awesome business stories that'll increase your creativity and resourcefulness just by reading them. Learn more and sign up here. Comments are closed.
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