Following Your Passion

When Debbi Fields decided twenty-five years ago to sell cookies for a living, having had what she calls a “passion” for cookies as a child, she was missing only four ingredients (pun intended). They were: (1) education, (2) business experience, (3) any kind of encouragement from her family, and (4) money. Other than that, Debbi was ready to go into business.

“I knew my disadvantages,” she said in a speech reported in the Huntsville Item (“Mrs. Fields Gives Recipe for Success,” by Emilie Hornack, July 14, 2004). “I was young, had no college credentials, and came from little means. I was blonde, and people figured I had no brains. Growing up, my sisters nicknamed me ‘Stupid.’ I love them dearly, and I know that happens in big families, but I really struggled with that and had a lot of self-doubt.”

Debbi’s father, however, had taught her that success is not about money but that it is about loving what you do. She grew up being called the “cookie girl.” She loved making cookies; she made them whenever she could. She even used her salary from her first job (the first female foul-ball girl for the Oakland Athletics) to buy butter, vanilla, and chocolate chips to make cookies.

Debbi Fields Rose knows what her work is all about. “Since I was a little girl,” she said, “I’ve believed I was put here to make people smile. I know it sounds like the silliest thing, but that’s what I think I’ve ended up doing with my life in this business—making people smile.”

Starting with this passion for her product and the desire to make people happy, Debbi built a wonderful and successful company.