Net gains from the art of reinvention

With her lucid writing and relatable takeaways, blogger, content creator, entrepreneur, and influencer Masoom Minawala has successfully translated her life's hard work into an accessible guide

She’ll never Make It: My Journey from Doubt to Dominance

Author: Masoom Minawala with Aditi Shah Bhimjyani

Publisher: Juggernaut Books 

Price: Rs 399

The age of the internet has thrown up a host of new professions —bloggers, content creators, entrepreneurs and influencers. And no one personifies these new opportunities better than Masoom Minawala. She is all four — a blogger, a content creator, an entrepreneur and an influencer; or perhaps even more, if we count her styling quotient and adaptability in general. In her book She’ll Never Make It, she looks back at the highs and lows of her 12-year-old career and, at the same time, looks forward to opportunities and challenges that are yet to come. She reflects on the turns she has taken to reach where she is and despite having come so far from where she started — from being a 17-year-old who was passionate about fashion trends and blogging to an international icon in the fashion industry to a successful businesswoman — she believes in the beauty (and power) of the climb instead of the view at the peak.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, it is important to clarify that this is not a typical biography or a self-help guide. It is not about the changing nature of the Cannes Film Festival where more and more influencers enter the field and from where Ms Minawala herself started building her brand name on an international stage; neither is it about the looming financial crisis or the body-image issues that the influencer economy enables; nor does it raise the need to act on Robin Hood-like values and protest the (presumable and often unintended) arrogance of the rich and influential.

Although Ms Minawala checks all these boxes, her book is more about the person than the profession. It is a story of success, a journey lived between successes and failures, and of dealing with both in and beyond her professional capacity. A humble introspection of the mistakes made and an (almost incessant) acknowledgement of the privilege she comes from. This repetition seems to be a measure of caution in the age of cancel culture. 

Ms Minawala comes from a traditional Gujarati business family, brought up among enterprising minds and with the business value of ambition. Her go-getter attitude from a young age has enabled her to move upward and onward in life. She believes in turning the lemons life gives her into pickle; in getting up and moving on to the next thing.

When an internship boosted her confidence in analysing fashion trends, she learnt how to code and started her own blog at a time when the power of the internet and its users were limited. When shifting to Belgium after her marriage affected her ability to reach the Indian diaspora, she found alternatives to staying relevant and travelled back and forth to London for shoots. When she found herself at the bottom of the social-networking chain, she wrote tirelessly to designers and brands, built connections and showed up at events as much as she could. When the viability of an online career was questioned by friends and family, she proved over and over that it can be done, defying all doubt and emerging triumphant. Now at the cusp of motherhood, she again chooses to make difficult decisions instead of avoiding them. The secret of “Masoom Magic” appears to lie in remaining undaunted in the face of uncertainty, rejections and criticism; being relentless; and focusing one’s energy on finding solutions instead of feeling stuck and burdened by the problems.

She’ll Never Make It is Ms Minawala’s story of constantly realigning her goals in life and the means of achieving those goals. She writes: “The secret to success is the ability to ride out a stormy wave — whether it is because of an error you made or a bad surprise that was thrown at you. There are always failures, mistakes, setbacks, misses, changes and bad days. But you obviously don’t stop. You adapt, learn and course-correct. You ride it out. You reinvent yourself. You move to Version 2.0. And then to 3.0 and beyond.”

With her lucid writing and relatable takeaways, Ms Minawala has successfully translated her life’s hard work into an accessible guide. As we turn into a truly global generation, memoirs/ lifestyle books like hers will help netizens navigate the alternative, untraditional careers and businesses on the internet, and inspire them to build a brand for themselves. The book is also a lesson in dealing with the growing sourness of commenters and trollers online facilitated by the anonymity that the internet provides. Her insights are validated by her decade-long experience in the industry. She has in the past used her reach to support Indian designers, small businesses and women in business. She continues to use it sensibly and this book is one example. Overall, a teachable moment delivered well.

The reviewer is an independent feature writer @read.dream.repeat