Dateline: February 4, 2022
Wanting something different out of life and prepared to go out on a limb for it, JR Ridinger, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Market America Worldwide | SHOP.COM, began his entrepreneurial journey when he was studying to become a marine biologist. He was captivated by the ocean and fascinated with its delicate balance of ecosystems and organisms.
“My studies involved some travel and I got to see new places and experience new things in the process. On one trip, we ended up sailing past some utterly spectacular seaside mansions,” Ridinger said. He came to discover that these were the homes of entrepreneurs, and it lit a fire inside him to pursue entrepreneurship as a way of life. It really is a way of life — not the same as a traditional career.
Although Ridinger was on his way to becoming a scientist, he applied his analytical mindset to his business endeavors as well and, along with his incredible wife Loren, founded Market America in 1992. In addition to her role as Co-Founder & Senior Executive Vice President, Loren subsequently founded Market America’s Motives® cosmetics line in 2008, empowering beauty lovers worldwide to build their own beauty businesses.
For years, Ridinger thought about the traditional marketing sector’s benefits, drawbacks, dangers, blunders and misconceptions. He had many fledgling ideas regarding how to address many of these problems. With Loren’s encouraging passion and practical advice, Ridinger fine-tuned his ideas and saw them take shape. The couple then surrounded themselves with a corporate team of forward thinkers and trailblazers to further strengthen their foundation. “The rest, as they say, is history,” added Ridinger.
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