SUCCESS THROUGH BEING PUSHY
She was harassed and told that she couldn’t be a saleswoman. More than $200 million later, this
entrepreneur shows what happens when you don’t take no for an answer. As told to Dinah Eng
FOCUS
When people tell Charlotte Jorst she can’t
do something, she gallops right past them.
When told she couldn’t sell beer in America,
she did just that, and founded her own watch
company to boot. When skin cancer threat-
ened her equestrian career, she started a
new line of UV-resistant ride-wear. Here’s
how she got started and kept competing.
34
FORTUNE.COM // JANUARY 2020
VENTURE
I ALWAYS WANTED TO GO into
business. Growing up in Den-
mark, I dreamed of being wealthy, which
probably came from being teased and bullied
in school as a young girl.
After high school, I went to France to work
as a hostess at a ski resort. I was tall, blonde,
and big-chested, and people made inappropri-
Charlotte Jorst
wears her Kastel
Denmark line at
the Arroyo Del
Mar stables in
San Diego.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN FRANCIS PETERS
