Ulta Beauty CEO: “You can either choose to be bitter, or you can choose to be better”

Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman told Fortune MPW that when a setback hits, you should face it with grace and persistence, not resentment.

Transcript

00:00There have been times in all of our careers where we've been passed up or we didn't get that next

00:06role when we even felt like we were ready for it. And I said that the one thing that's really true

00:11to me is I think that you can either choose to be bitter or you can be better. And I took this

00:16opportunity the last few years getting ready to be the CEO of Ulta Beauty to really focus on being

00:23better. I really supported Dave Kimball who was our CEO. I learned as much as I could to prepare

00:30myself for the next role. And I think that actually allowed me to hit the ground running. If I would

00:35have been bitter I could have left and taken a CEO job someplace else. I had plenty of opportunities

00:39but this is the company that I wanted to be with and I took that opportunity to be better instead

00:44of being bitter.