Stephanie Rice reflects on business failures and admits she can’t handle another ‘disappointment’

Stephanie Rice has reflected on her business failures in a post she says she “tossed and turned all night” before sharing.

The former Olympian, 38, opened up about her experience in the industry for the past 15 years before revealing she would soon launch a new business.

“For 15 years I have started businesses based on my own ideas, none of them have worked,” she began.

“If I’m honest I just don’t know if I could handle the disappointment of another business failing.”

She said this time she will take on business differently, not just building it alone but also with her followers.

She looked back at a string of start-ups including healthy muesli bars, kids swimwear, e-books and online swimming programs that haven’t worked out.

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“None of them have grown or built into the desires I had for them,” she said.

She continued that none had been “lucrative”, let alone covered the costs of running them.

Looking back, she said her heart wasn’t in the right place, nor did she have the right people around her to support her.

“I had some really bad people around me, people that were supposed to have my best interests at heart that just really took advantage,” she said.

Rice has found healing in rediscovering her Christian faith and said she prayed to God for a new business idea.

It eventually came, and she was overjoyed to throw herself into a new opportunity combining her love of stationery, goal setting and vision boarding.

But even through her excitement, she was still scared about how others would receive her.

“I tossed and turned all night worried about the response I would get to posting this,” Rice admitted in her caption.

“I can tell it’s my ego fighting to protect itself out of fear of peoples perception of me as a businesswoman ... but when I started posting again, I made a commitment to myself and you to share the messy in-between, not a highlight reel, so I’m sharing this anyway, and trusting God will do what he wants with it.”

Rice retired from professional swimming in 2014, having won three Olympic gold medals. She went on to manage her own sponsorships, endorsements and appearances as a motivational speaker for years.

While Rice didn’t grow up religious, she found faith later in life, marrying pastor Mark Lassey in February 2024 and moving to Dubai.