'I've Never Been Interested In Money.'

WITH A BACKSTORY WORTHY OF A FILM SCRIPT, IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT SHAHNAZ HUSAIN WAS A CASE STUDY, AND IS NOW A SUBJECT, AT HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL. THE CEO MAGAZINE MEETS INDIA’S HERBAL QUEEN.

- Chrissie Mcclatchie

Shahnaz Husain, India’s pioneer of organic beauty care, has received worldwide acclaim. With international cosmetic empires pumping billions of dollars into a “hysterically mad cosmetic industry”, selling youth and dreams in bottled jars, Shahnaz stood up and started selling India’s ancient civilization in a jar. She recounts the time when she was appointed World President at the CIDESCO world beauty congress, when India was not even a member country yet. Her impassioned and unscheduled speech on Ayurveda in Monte Carlo made a great impact, leading to her World President's appointment.

There was also the time when, as a young wife and mother, she was working so hard as a writer to fund her beauty studies that her fingers would bleed from all the typing. “The doctor told me that if I didn’t stop, he’d have to cut off my fingers,” she recalls. She quietly asked, ‘Doctor, how much will you cut off?’ “I thought even if he did, I would still have enough left. Stopping was not an option. He made me leave his office, he was so angry,” she says. “I knew I could not stop. I needed the money. This incident made me believe that in life it is not what you want that matters, but how badly you want it.”