Here’s some empowering advice from A Woman of Substance that holds true even three decades later:

1. Don’t let anyone discourage you. Just like Emma Harte, you can overcome those who stand in your way on the road to success.

2. Reinvention. Emma Harte evolved from a maidservant to a seamstress, a shopkeeper and eventually a department store mogul. She always found ways to change with the times.

3. Endurance. When Emma Harte was asked to explain the secret of her success, her reply was “to endure”. Learn to weather the inevitable personal and professional hardships in life and you too can become a woman of substance.