Sara Blakely Quotes

My dad encouraged us to fail. Growing up, he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn't have something, he would be disappointed. It changed my mindset at an early age that failure is not the outcome, failure is not trying. Don't be afraid to fail.

I'll mix a lot of things. I'll wear a Temperley dress with flip flops, or I might be in head-to-toe Gucci and have on a ring that I got from a gumball machine for 50 cents.

I got a call from the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Oprah had chosen Spanx as one of her favorite products in 2000. I had boxes of product in my apartment and I had two weeks notice that she was going to say she loved it on TV and I had no shipping department.

Embrace what you don't know, especially in the beginning, because what you don't know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.

I think failure is nothing more than life's way of nudging you that you are off course. My attitude to failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. It is liberating. Most people attach failure to something not working out or how people perceive you. This way, it is about answering to yourself.

You’ve got to visualize where you’re headed and be very clear about it.

Take a polaroid picture of where you’re going to be in a few years.

Ensure that you do things differently from everyone else

Don't be intimidated by what you don't know.

My husband is such a healthy eater. Except when it comes to sweets. He never consumes anything except fruit until noon. And then from noon on he might have some brown rice and some tofu, and then, come eight or nine at night, he orders three mud-pie double-chocolate pieces of cake and eats all three of them.

When I'm bored or tired of being blonde, I'll throw on a wig.

It's a lot less of a permanent way to change your look, and I have about 10 - all different colors, shapes, bobs, long hair, short, feathered.

I've always leaned toward a feminine, funky style, even in business settings.

I used to paint my nails blue in 1993, before it was mainstream.

My saddlebags are why Spanx exist! Now that I have a baby I also have a muffin top.

I think failure is nothing more than life's way of nudging you that you are off course.

If we can put a man on the moon, we can make pantyhose comfortable.

My advice for an entrepreneur just starting out is to differentiate yourself.

Why are you different? What’s important about you? Why does the customer need you?

Don't let what you don't know scare you, because it can become your greatest asset. And if you do things without knowing how they have always been done, you're guaranteed to do them differently.

Failures are life's way of nudging you and letting you know you are off course.

Trying new things and not being afraid to fail along the way are more important than what you learn in school.

If somebody can do something 80 percent as good as you think you would have done it yourself, then you've got to let it go.

Failure is not the outcome - failure is not trying. Don't be afraid to fail.

The thought of my mortality - I think about it a lot.

I find it motivating. It can be any time that your number's up.

You've got to embrace what you don't know.

The thing about fashion - it's like ducks going quack, quack quack.

It's being dictated from above, and it just makes me want to rebel against it.

Where I get my energy is: 'How can I make it better?'

I aim to be pretty - I gave up dressing to be sexy in the eighties.

I made a conscious decision not to tell anyone in my life.

Now I tell people - don't tell anyone your idea until you have invested enough of yourself in it that you are not going to turn back. When a person has an idea at that conception moment it is the most vulnerable - one negative comment could knock you off course.

My first account was Neiman Marcus. I cold-called them just like I had cold-called businesses when I was selling fax machines for seven years.

I cut the feet out of my control top pantyhose to wear under these white pants and that was the ah-ha moment that started Spanx. My own butt was my own inspiration!

Everything about my journey to get Spanx off the ground entailed me having to be a salesperson - from going to the hosiery mills to get a prototype made to calling Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus. I had to position myself to get five minutes in the door with buyers.

Embrace what you don`t know

The word 'Spanx' was funny. It made people laugh. No one ever forgot it.

Most of us want to tell our coworkers or friends, or husbands or wives, our ideas. For what reason? We want validation. But I feel ideas are most vulnerable in their infancy. Out of love and concern, friends and family give all the reasons or objections on why [you] shouldn't do it. I didn't want to risk that.

It's really a full-time job to manage our lives.

Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' is my go-to song to pump myself up if I'm having a tough time or if I get really nervous right before a speech.

Failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. This way, it is about answering to yourself.

I'd get kicked out of buildings all day long, people would rip up my business card in my face. It's a humbling business to be in. But I knew I could sell and I knew I wanted to sell something I had created. I cut the feet out of those pantyhose and I knew I was on to something. This was it.

Don't solicit feedback on your product, idea or your business just for validation purposes. You want to tell the people who can help move your idea forward, but if you're just looking to your friend, co-worker, husband or wife for validation, be careful. It can stop a lot of multimillion-dollar ideas in their tracks in the beginning.

Most of the reason we don’t do things is because we’re afraid to fail.

I just made a decision one day that I was not not going to do things in my life because of fear.

With every obstacle that has happened to me in my life, my brain immediately says, ‘Where is the hidden blessing?’ In starting a business and growing a business, every day is learning how to manage obstacles.

What I most identify with is effortless fashion, looking as if someone's not put a lot of effort into their look.

In the next decade, I see Spanx going worldwide.

Everywhere. No butt left behind. It's going to be all over the world and it's going to be an aspirational brand that transcends categories. There's so many things we can improve upon and make better.

Trust your gut.

We don't have the luxury of time. We spend more because of how we live, but it's important to be with our family and friends.

Ideas, even million-dollar ones, are most vulnerable in their infancy;

don't share them with too many people. However, don't hide your plan from people who can help you move it forward.

I have this system where if I buy three or four new things, I give away three or four things. Sometimes, it's a very painful system, but shopping is even better when you know that someone else who needs it will be getting. Keep the clothing karma going, I say.

Whatever you can think, you can create;

just have a very clear vision... Once you have your snapshot, work on filling in the blanks to get to that place.

I'd never worked in fashion or retail. I just needed an undergarment that didn't exist.

I'm obsessed with the customer. I am the customer. I really don't think you can go wrong if you don't take your eye off of that. Serving the customer. How does she feel? I feel like the fashion industry has cared a lot about how we look but not about how we feel.

Instead of failure being the outcome, failure became not trying.

And it forced me at a young age to want to push myself so much further out of my comfort zone.

Failure to me became not trying versus not succeeding