When it came to the U.S. in 1998, Sephora was a cut/paste of the Sephora stores bought by LVMH, begun in Europe a few years earlier. It was basically a European parfumerie with a couple of twists — distinctive black and white design stripes, black “costumes” for the “cast,” who also wore a single glove. The aesthetic was everything. The plan was focused on speed (many stores) as opposed to learn and evolve. And to make matters worse, the store locations were crazy expensive  and really large. When I arrived in 2000 from The Home Depot, where I was president of diversified business, the business was significantly under water — both financially and directionally. For the first two-to-three years we (mostly me) were known inside LVMH as black sheep (aka losers). Other than M.…