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" There's a side of fashion that's very analytical and data-oriented and methodical, but there's also a side of it that's just like magic. You can't quite put your finger on it, and you can't quite describe or prescribe a formula for how to get that magic exactly, but when you feel it and when you see it,you know that's what it is. It's magic. "

Imran Amed

You

Magic

" Look at the way sports, music and film have become driving forces of popular culture. Fashion is the fourth pillar. "

" One person I find fascinating is J.Crew's Mickey Drexler. I would love to get into that brain and see how it works. "

" The way the media tends to cover fashion is as this superfluous, vacuous industry. They focus on models and shows, but behind all that is a massive global industry. "

" You might call me an accidental entrepreneur. "

" For someone who comes from my business background, getting fashion people aligned around certain things can be a challenge. In a way, the industry is so forward-looking. And yet, sometimes people in fashion are not open to change. "

" My parents landed in Calgary in December 1974, straight from Nairobi. They were immigrants, like many people coming to build a better life. My mom was five months pregnant with me when they landed. "

Imran Amed

Better

Life

" Education was something my parents always put a lot of emphasis on. It was naturally in me, and my sister is equally driven. She is a paediatric endocrinologist. "

" I realised I had to work in something creative, but with a business and global element. And that I had to do it while I was still young and had an appetite for risk. "

" I have always been drawn to fashion from an aesthetic and consumer standpoint. I honestly never thought that I could take my business training and apply it here. I worked in retail and was into fashion. It was something I liked, and people trusted my opinion. "

" I had long had an instinct about there being a role for me in a creative industry. Maybe I didn't listen to that voice as much earlier on, but when it had become a deafening sound in my head I realised I had to go and explore it. "

Imran Amed

Head

Voice

" Not everyone can be successful selling fashion at $25,000 for a wedding outfit. Certain designers are able to do that. And there is only a certain amount of consumers who can do that. The real opportunity is in that $25 garment. "

" As much as technology has made me so much more efficient, enabling me to run a small but global company from where I happen to be, at times it feels like the technology is running me, as opposed to the other way round. "

" I usually have eight to 10 meetings a day and travel 150 days a year..._It sounds crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. "

" I could have probably built a great career in management consulting, but one of the insights that I had early on is that just because you're good at something doesn't mean that you should continue to do it. Somewhere in my heart of hearts I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do. "

" I'm regularly speaking at London Business School and Harvard Business School. They're the next generation of leaders in the fashion industry. "

" When you come through a business education, a lot of what they teach you is to make decisions through analysis, and logic and rationale, and I'm a big believer in that. But I also believe in the power of instinct. The truth is you're never going to have a perfect answer or view of how it is going to work. "

" My advice to owners of fashion brands is that you have to give digital a seat at the board table. A lot of brands treat digital strategy as something on the side. "

" Even back in elementary school, I was a leader, but a leader who didn't know how to channel my leadership skills in a constructive way. When I was younger, it probably came out as being more of a bossy little kid. "

" As I began to take risks, leaving my very comfortable and secure job and taking this first leap into fashion, every subsequent risk became easier to take because I began to see the kind of opportunity and excitement that risk-taking offered. "

" I love nothing better than immersing myself in different street cultures; exploring all those neighbourhoods in Tokyo was quite amazing, or visiting Morocco to see an Inditex factory. "

" I'm not a designer, nor do I fancy myself a designer. "

" I've always had an affinity for the fashion industry - I've always been drawn to it. But I grew up in Calgary in Canada, which, being a fairly isolated city, is not particularly known for having anything to do with fashion. "

Imran Amed

Been

Fashion

" A whole series of events pushed me towards meditation, and now it's become such an integral part of the way I manage myself. It's a tool for me; when you're an entrepreneur, and you're pulled in every direction, it is wonderful to have this discipline. "

" Although he's no longer with us, Steve Jobs is still inspirational to me, as he managed to find the balance between right brain/left-brain thinking that is crucial to building a creative technology business. "

Imran Amed

Business

Technology

" Most of my ideas come from drawing patterns across conversations I have with different types of people - technology investors, young fashion design students, a CEO. This variety is stimulating and offers many different perspectives on the things I am thinking about. "

" One of my closest friends was a half-black, half-Jewish girl. Another good friend had a shaved head... but I was also friends with jocks. I was a 'floater,' I guess you could say. "

" Fashion is always seen as somewhat frivolous and self-indulgent. And I think people on the inside maybe don't see or understand how exciting and diverse a business it is. "

" It's not like I ever sat in my room and said I was going to start a media company and become an editor in chief. It was never my dream. It was something that just happened. "

" The most fascinating part is how fashion just attracts all these social rejects, if you will, from around the world, encourages individuality. They're the people who make the industry tick. "