Joy Mangano likes to think of just about everything as a product.
It’s an approach to life that has resulted in incredible success for the 61-year-old Long Island entrepreneur, best known as the inventor of the self-wringing Miracle Mop, an HSN presenter and the real-life inspiration for the 2015 movie “Joy,” in which she was played by Jennifer Lawrence.
“I’ve always looked at life through product,” says Mangano, who has written a book, “Inventing Joy: Dare to Build a Brave & Creative Life” (Simon & Schuster, out Tuesday) encouraging everyone to reinvent their own life.
“It could be me sitting on a park bench eating ice cream and watching a scene in front of me where a man has just bought two pies from a bakery, and he’s fumbling with the pies and trying to get his keys out, and I come up with the idea for what [ends up as] the Piatto Bakery Box [a plastic hexagonal box with a handle that allows people to carry cakes and pies more easily]. The timing is always obscure. I never set out to build a rocket ship. I’ve been doing it as a little girl and never knew it.”
By her own tally, Mangano has invented more than 100 items.
Mangano’s book encourages the reader to look at their own lives as a product and evaluate what aspects they might want to change to make themselves happier, whether it involves ending a relationship that’s no longer working or embarking on a new career path.
“I think it’s very important that people keep rediscovering themselves,” says Mangano.
“If you can tell me you’ve never been in a rut, you’d be lying. It could be a tragedy, or many things. There are many ways to change that. If you Surround yourself with light, bright people. It’s a matter of defining your path, of continuing to move forward. The one thing that will create nothing is doing nothing.”