Larry Chiang takes you backstage and deeper. He edits the Bloomberg BusinessWeek channel “What They Don’t Teach You at Business School”. After Chiang’s Harvard keynote, Harbus wrote: “What They Don’t Teach You at Stanford Business School“. If you read his scandalously awesome “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA” and “How to Get Man-Charm”, you will like his latest post: “9 Supermodels and Their Secret FICO Score”.

By Larry Chiang
New York – Lincoln CENTER — September 9, 2010

Fashion coagulates into one zip code for about a week for Mercedes Benz
Fashion Week starting tomorrow. The entire city is tipped and fashion
crazy to the point where even the cab drivers don their best (err,
cleanest) attire. Just as in high school chemistry class, the procedures
are known but the results vary massively.

Since I investigate “What They Don’t Teach in Business School”, I wanted
to take the massive amounts of time I was spending with models to write
something pithy and directly applicable.

My goal was to produce a piece of work that b-schoolers and others would
find educationally riveting, granular, applicable and copy-paste-able.

In short, something that would match my legendary post: “What a Supermodel Can Teach a Stanford MBA”.
It was the most read article of 2009 and it was the only NSFW article
to ever appear at BusinessWeek. NSFW is ‘not safe for work’ and I posted
nudity, adult content and adult themes.

Alas, I came up with zilch.

But in the back of my clouded mind I HAD a small itch… something that connects up after all the supermodel parties, AfterParties and one-on-one time with all… those… models.

Here is the lowest common denominator: Everyone has a FICO score. I reveal… “9 Supermodels and Their Secret FICO Score”

-1- Miss Omaha.

Is actually from Sioux Falls, South Dakota and lives in Nebraska (her parents are beet farmers)

Her auntie took her to one of those ‘Talent Search’ scam contest + coaching and she actually is the only one of her graduating class in the last four years to land a deal. A real deal that pays (versus you having to pay)

The fact that she’s 5’7″, does not weigh triple digits, has an uber Euro look and midwestern work ethic helped. Miss Omaha has the same bank since she was 12. So given the 5 year relationship her FICO is still its infancy.

I’m guessing that the FICO will be high because one of the best indicators of a kid’s FICO is their parents FICO.

-2- The Urbanator

Gawd she walks like a goddess but her FICO is far from heavenly.

Her last boyfriend wrecked her credit and the 4 girls she lives with can’t pay an electricity bill on-time to save their lives. Note: many women who have bad credit have men to blame. True story

-3- Miss 17 Languages.

Got her start doing an editorial, non-paying gig that hit the cover of Vogue Europe. This lottery winning, ‘It-moment-supermodel’ gets more comps than the Meryl Streep character in “Devil Wears Prada”.

Unfortunately, she treats her two month US banking relationship as a one-way street too. Like many lottery winners, she expects another lottery payday and saves zero. No cushion of saving pretty much guarantees a horrific FICO.

Right now her FICO is an anemic 400, but with her new IMG agent, her fico has a shot at hitting the mid 600s. IMG was started by Mark McCormack. He repped a golfer named Arnold Palmer. He’s like Tiger Woods (also repped by IMG) but white and older.

360 degree legal rep refers to the lawyer agent who value addedly manages other areas of your life.

-4- The All-American

Yes, the only model north of 115lbs (She weighs 155 lbs), but the good news is that she slid in because her father is CEO of a major brand.

FICO = 770

-5- The Designer/Founder Model

Has a multimillion dollar biz but a fico south of the mendoza line. It wrecked when she guaranteed a payroll loan with an asset that got repossessed. She paid the collection company, but surprise surprise, the collection company never reported to the original client. FICO = 545.

-6- The Asian.
Its high. Its always high.

-7- The Prosperous

She’s the real deal triple threat.

She’s a model.
She works full-time as a consulting paralegal
She is in law school in the Boston area… aka Harvard.

She also holds a patent in something engineering related. She told me and I had no idea what she said because most of the blood had left my brain when she said “law school in the Boston area”. The rest of the load left when she said “Harvard”

I’m still calculating her FICO.

-8- Heel Breaker. Punani Popper.

Failed forward during MBFW 09.

She wipped out and her vag got shot by about 15 photogs.

After full bounce-back, she became the poster model for my book’s Chapter 11: Failing Forward. Miss Heal Breaker takes bill paying seriously and has a treasure chest equivalent to two years pay.

Lives with CEO boyfriend who is 15 years her senior, so she pockets 120% of her paycheck. (She makes money off the books from her allowance)

FICO = 795. It could be higher but she doesn’t have a car payment (or a car). No car services don’t get reported by Equifax, Experian or TransUnion.

This is AOL Video: It previews Mercedes Benz Fashion Week

-9- Miss I-Wish-My-Boobs-Were-Smaller

Her use of a modified over-the-shoulder-boulder-

holder that resembles an uber thin sports bra mimics her financial outlook: “Keep it small and keep it all”. FICO = 780.

“Miss 32 C” has an idea to start a company based on one awesome product. (CONTENT removed. Google no-crawl)

This future entrepreneur’s high FICO will serve her well. Remember one of the first casualties of the 1st time entrepreneur is your FICO

*** BONUS ***
a party invite for you:
http://economist.eventbrite.com/
What a Supermodel Can Teach a Harvard MBA

If you liked this… Larry’s mentor Mark McCormack wrote this in 1983.His own book came out 09-09-09. It is called ‘What They Don’t Teach You At Stanford Business School‘

This post was drafted in an hour and needs your edits… email me if you see a spelling or grammatical error(s)… larry@larrychiang com

Larry Chiang started his first company UCMS in college. He mimicked his mentor, Mark McCormack, founder of IMG who wrote the book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School”. Chiang is a keynote speaker and bestselling author and spoke at Congress and World Bank.

Text or call him during office hours 11:11am or 11:11pm PST +/-11 minutes at 650-283-8008. Due to the volume of calls, he may place you on hold like a Scottsdale Arizona customer service rep. If you email him, be sure to include your cell number in the subject line. If you want him to email you his new articles…, ask him in an email

You can read more equally funny, but non-founder-focused-lessons on Larry’s Amazon blog .

Meet him at a party at Kauffman Fellows for SSE Labs or at the TechCrunch AfterParty