Three (okay Four) Things I Wish I Had Known in My 20’s: Patti Pao

Patti Pao had a major “aha” moment when visiting a salmon hatchery in Norway. They do say that you can find inspiration everywhere! While on a sight seeing tour, Patti noticed that the workers’ hands, which were submerged in water all day, looked smooth and ageless. She soon discovered that this was the result of a remarkable enzyme that occurs in nature to help salmon eggs hatch.

Patti, a beauty industry veteran, knew immediately that she could use this enzyme to make a line of anti-aging skincare products. Two years later, her luxury beauty brand, Restorsea, came to fruition.

In addition to being sold online, Restorsea is sold at major retailers, such as, Bergdorf Goodman. Now that her brand is off to a smashing start, Patti looks back, and tells us some of the lessons she has learned along the way:

Every woman under 30 is drop dead gorgeous.  Unfortunately, in our 20’s we all are insecure and unformed that all we can look at are our flaws.  I spent my entire 20’s (and 30’s) extremely self conscious about my body weight.  I was looking at photos of myself in my 20’s and I am a toothpick.

Achievement is not success.  I spent my 20’s obsessed with trying to get promoted to the next rung on the career ladder.  When I finally got the big job running the sales and marketing team for a major cosmetics company, I spent every day for the three years that I was in this job telling myself, “Today will be better (which it wasn’t).”

You can’t run away from yourself.   I tell everyone that they need to face their issues preferably sooner versus later.  I avoided having the trials and tribulations most of us experience in our 20’s.  That being said, they finally caught up with me in my mid-thirties and were much harder to go through because I was doing it alone; everyone else had their “moment” in their 20’s.

It just gets better.  We are taught from birth to be afraid of aging.  When I turned 40, I said to my best friend, “I wish I was 22 but know what I know now.” She matter of factly told me “Well then, you wouldn’t be 22!”  At that moment, I was really glad to be 40.