There's been a lot of buzz around Joy Mangano lately, the famed creator of the Miracle Mop, a widely recognized household product. That's probably because she's been the inspiration behind Joy, the new film, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper. While Mangano's trials have earned her recent fame in Hollywood, she's had to weather more than two decades of business ownership to get there. Against the odds, she found success with the invention of a self-wringing mop, which she marketed through the television sales giant QVC. Now, more than twenty-five years later, her company, Ingenious Designs, has topped $150 million in annual revenue. (To date, she's generated about $3 billion in her career.) It all started back in 1991. "At that time, it appeared to be insanity," Mangano recalls, "to stand there and say, 'I have an invention. I'm a single, young mom--and I'm going to go after this.'" Joy now has over 100 patents for her inventions.
