Founder of mega successful retail store reveals how she secretly quit her job while living at home
Jane Lu would go to work every day. Just not the way her parents thought.
Started from the bottom, now she's here.
Thirty-six-year-old Jane Lu is the founder of Showpo, a highly successful online retail store based in Sydney, Australia. By successful, I mean that in 2019, the company raked in a total of $85 million in revenue.
And to think, if Lu had simply followed the rules, none of this would have ever happened.
At 24, Lu’s life looked very different. Her accounting job at Ernst & Young, one of the “big four” accounting firms, had left her miserable. So she quit and instead pursued her love of fashion. With one caveat—she never told her parents, who she lived with.
Instead, she pretended to still be working as an accountant and committed fully to the role. She continued to put on a suit and would venture into the city, pretending to go to work.
And in her defense … that last part wasn’t a lie.
As Lu revealed in what she calls her “immigrant success story” on TikTok, her family moved to Australia from China 28 years ago. And, as is a long-lived tradition and even a running joke among children of immigrants, her parents wanted their daughter to have the stable, financially secure career of a “doctor, lawyer or accountant.”
@thelazyceo I went behind my parents’ back and quit my corporate job, and well, the rest is history 🫶 #startup #businessjourney #immigrantparents #girlboss #showpo #entrepreneur ♬ original sound - Jane Lu
Lu chased after her dreams in secret. After putting on her corporate suit and leaving her parents' home, she began working on creating a pop-up store, which ultimately failed. As she shared in another TikTok, turning back was still no option—the business shut down during the 2010 global financial crisis, and no accounting firms were hiring. So she rolled up her sleeves and created her second business. She still didn’t tell her parents.
Luckily, business flourished this time around.
“I started to make more in one day in sales than my old yearly salary,” she shared. Showpo, short for “Show Pony,” now sells to millions of customers around the world and is one of the largest online fashion retailers globally.
After her windfall of success, Lu finally told her parents. Sure, they were shocked, but they also got their first new car, had their mortgage paid off and were able to finally retire. So shock probably turned into glee pretty quickly.
Lu’s story touched the hearts of more than 2 million people who watched the video. And she now dedicates a good chunk of her social media to offering advice to others who dream of starting their own business. Unsurprisingly, a major theme in most of her videos is not being afraid to make mistakes.
"I like to compare it to golf," she mentioned in an interview with BuzzFeed. "I don't play, but I don't have a better analogy. You first hit the ball in the direction of the hole. You know, it's just about getting in a general direction."
If you’d like to check out some of Showpo’s signature looks, you can find the shop’s Instagram here. No boring corporate attire to be found.
Beaver in water. Photo by 
An actual beaver dam on the now-thriving Price River
Not just coworkers—family, friends, strangers, kids…
Imagine having to go so badly but being out of euros. 
Anything hobbit-esque can't be wrong. 
But what if you need pain meds AND mascara?!
Imagine how this would affect childcare.
Honestly…where's the lie?
A brown buddha statue sits near a green mountain. Photo by 
Urgent dash to the bathroom! 🚪🏃♂️
Ladybug unexpectedly found during colonoscopyPhoto credit: 
Close-up of bottom of ladybug found in colonPhoto credit: 
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."