I caught up with Diane von Furstenberg at the first annual Lead On Watermark Silicon Valley Conference for Women on February 24th. She was the opening keynote and gave an empowering message to all women in attendance about life, careers and success. Diane entered the fashion world in 1972 and two years later introduced her famous wrap dress. Her luxury fashion brand, DVF, is now available in more than fifty-five countries all over the world. Codirector of the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, she is an active philanthropist and supporter of emerging female leaders and social entrepreneurs. She is the author of Diane: A Signature Life and her latest bestseller, The Woman I Wanted to Be.

In the following interview, she talks about how incredibly strong women are, the struggles that women endure at work, her greatest influence growing up in the fashion world, the challenges and opportunities she’s had from growing her business and the skills every professional needs.

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Dan Schawbel: What do most men not understand about being a woman in today’s workplace?

Diane von Furstenberg: I think that what men don’t understand is how much women can actually do. Women are incredibly strong. I have yet to meet a woman who is not strong – all women are strong. Sometimes they hide it though and there’s this tragedy that happens and then somehow their strength always comes out. What men really must understand above anything else is how good and how strong women are -the rest is details.

Schawbel: What were some of your early career struggles and how did you overcome them?

von Furstenberg: I was always my own boss and in the fashion business so I’ve never suffered from any glass ceiling thing because I was my own business, and a woman in the fashion business. But what I have always found difficult is that women are always trying to accommodate people, which at the end is not good about being an executive.

Schawbel: Who were some of your greatest influences growing up and what did you learn from them?

von Furstenberg: My biggest influence in my career was the first man that I worked with, who was an industrialist in the fashion business in Italy. He taught me everything. At the time, I did not understand that I was actually learning but everything that I learned from that man was the reason for my success. He taught me about textiles and printing and to this day, I use both.

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