Rent the Runway

Life is too short to not be doing things that make you happy. We've heard the "chase after your dream" advice time after time, but many will say that it's simply not realistic. However, I think that huge reasons that keep people from chasing their dream are fear and complacency. Want to figure out how you can score your dream job? Start by trying to turn your hobby into a moneymaker, or read up on people who've attained your ideal career and try to pick up some tips from them.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the CEO of Rent the Runway, Jennifer Hyman, talks about the best piece of advice she has received:

Just do it. There's no benefit to saying, "I'm just doing this because it will get me to this new place," or "I'm just going to go into this analyst program because it will prep me for X." If you're passionate about something, go for it, because people are great at what they love and when they're the happiest.

We've been brought up into a culture which is very much about preparedness: you go to the right middle school to get into the right high school to get into the right college, to get the right job after college. At a certain point, you need to turn around and say to yourself, do I love how I spend my day every single day? Is this the most effective use of my heart and my mind?

The downside to starting a company is having it fail, but in the process of potential failure, there's the fun of doing what you love every single day, which to me means there's absolutely no downside. I think if more people actually pursued what they loved, we'd have a lot more innovation and creativity.

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

Wondering if you could turn your macramé skills into a money-making biz? Looking for tips on how to sustain and grow your business? Dreaming of a time you can stop answering to others and be your own boss?

We hear you. In our monthly  Entrepreneurship 101 series, we ask female entrepreneurs what it takes to run their own businesses, so you can learn from their mistakes and successes.

Jenn Hyman and Jenny Fleiss are the founders of Rent The Runway, a website that lets you rent designer dresses for a fraction of their cost. (We’ve recommended it for wedding season, along with other money-saving tips.) They realized that many women have a closet full of clothes but still find themselves without the perfect dress for a special event. So, they took on the macho world of venture capital, convincing a room full of men they had what it takes to run a successful company.

We talked with Fleiss and Hyman about their adventures in retail, how they found the confidence to pitch their idea and what skill they think every woman should have.

Tell me about your decision to leave your full-time job.

Jenny Fleiss: I was working in finance, and it wasn’t an industry I was really passionate about. It was good for my resume, but I knew deep down it wasn’t the best use of my skills. Deciding to leave was a little bit about getting up the courage, but it was also about putting a marker down and saying, “If I don’t make a decision by this time . . . ”

Were you really interested in fashion before starting RTR?

Jenn Hyman: I always loved fashion–I grew up as a shopaholic. I see shopping as a way to explore a new city and get a grasp on the culture. Women express their emotions through what they buy and wear.

Jenny Fleiss: I grew up on 59^th Street in New York, surrounded by department stores. I used to view fashion as functional. I’m a great test case: Rent The Runway enabled me to experiment, and now I love fashion.

Read on for to hear what advice the RTR ladies have for women who want to start their own thing.

Readers, we know you have impeccable taste, and now we want to help you save some dough on our favorite fabulous brands. So we've created PopSugar Exclusive Offers, offering discounts handpicked for PopSugar Network readers from the best national brands we know.

Case in point: today's exclusive offer curated by our FabSugar editors of $50 for $100 worth of rentals from Rent the Runway. This cornucopia of designer apparel allows members to borrow items by the likes of Proenza Schouler, Halston Heritage, Hervé Léger, Diane von Furstenberg, and more, at a fraction of the retail price. The rental process is ridiculously simple, and Rent the Runway takes care of cleaning and return shipping. No wear-it-once guilt, and with our exclusive offer, you can get $100 worth of this high-end finery for just $50.

Stay tuned for new national and local offers every week across PopSugar Network, featuring savings of up to 90 percent off. Each offer will be curated by our editors and available on a different site, depending on the deal. So far we've featured Hello!Lucky letterpress stationery on CasaSugar and our favorite new chemical-free sunscreen on BellaSugar, and we've got countless more to-die-for deals in the pipeline.

Want to make sure you never miss an offer? It's as easy as signing up for our insanely addictive email PopSugar Daily. Happy shopping!

Award season is in full swing, and we have been loving the red-carpet fashions from all of our favorite stars. Last weekend our editors shared in the fun courtesy of our friends at Rent the Runway. From Robert Rodriguez to Proenza Schouler, RTR provided us with fabulous dresses for the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, Art of Elysium Heaven Gala, Sunday's Golden Globe parties, and more. Check out all of their gorgeous gowns here!

Rent the Runway is an amazing service where you too can rent the best of the runway for all of the special events in your life. Here at Fab we wanted to give our readers a chance to share in the fun, so we have partnered with RTR on a fabulous giveaway in which one lucky winner will win five designer dress rentals! Entering is easy; find out more info here. Good luck!

Rent the Runway is already a master at designer dresses and jewels, but now it's about to become a handbag connoisseur as well. Kicking off the festivities is luxury handbag designer Judith Leiber — rent this Judith Leiber I Heart NYC Bag for $225 for four days for your next snazzy event.

The site is so excited about its new bags that it's giving away diamond bracelets. All you have to do is rent a Judith Leiber purse from now through December, then wait to see if your bag has a special ticket in it. If so, you get a $2,500-worth one-carat white gold Everlon diamond knot bracelet. Three customers will win the one-carat style, while one majorly lucky gal will get a $4,300-worth two-carat white gold diamond bracelet. Sweet!

Rent the Runway, the website that allows fashion-loving, budget-conscious shoppers to rent designer dresses for 10% of retail prices, recently added accessories to its offering (from designers like Lee Angel, Kara Ross, Janis Savitt, Chan Luu, and CC Skye) and for fall has announced a handful of new designer partnerships. We're excited to report that Preen, Nina Ricci, threeASFOUR, Vera Wang, Hanni Y, See by Chloe, and Roksanda Ilincic have all signed on to rent their dresses beginning this July.

Our favorite part of the site is that you can shop by body type, neckline, or dress length and sort according to the date for which you need each item. Plus, some designers are selling pieces to Rent the Runway that traditional retail buyers didn't pick up, meaning you can often find a truly one-of-a-kind dress. All orders come with an option to add a second dress for $25 and, according to CEO Jennifer Hyman, handbags, evening coats, bridal accessories, and maternity wear are on the list to be added to the site in the very near future.

The words "rent the runway" are music to my ears. It's the ideal situation for a gal on a budget — falling in love with a catwalk look, borrowing it for a day, then returning it to its rightful owner. Now I can do that with Rent the Runway. Dying to begin? First sign up to be added to the wait list. Once you're in, peruse its A-list selection (Proenza Schouler, Matthew Williamson, Yigal Azrouel), get the dress in two different sizes, wear it, keep it for four or eight days, and send it back in a prepaid package without dry cleaning it. Trust me, there's some good stuff in there, and the prices don't sting ($50 to $200). Perfect for that holiday wedding or office party!