Sara Blakely Quotes

“Courage is doing something despite the fear.”

“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.”

“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Every time I went on stage I was so terrified I almost threw up.”

“Failure to me became not trying versus not succeeding.”

“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.”

“Having a mental snapshot of where you are, where you are going, and what you are moving toward is incredibly powerful.”

“I aim to be pretty – I gave up dressing to be sexy in the eighties.”

“I always joke and say I want to invent a comfortable stiletto and then retire.”

“I did not have the most experience in the industry or the most money, but I cared the most.”

“I didn’t like the way it looked in white trousers, and I couldn’t find anything to work underneath them.”

“I didn’t want women to walk out of the dressing rooms feeling depressed and wanting a cocktail.”

“I feel like money makes you more of who you already are.”

“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.”

“I had been visualizing being self-employed.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I pledge to invest in women because I believe it offers one of the greatest returns on investment. I am committed to the belief that we would all be in a much better place if half the human race were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses, run for office essentially be given the chance to soar.”

“I shopped for body shapers for the first time in my life and I was horrified. They were thick – it was like wearing workout clothes and they all had a leg band on one side that showed through the pants.”

“I started thinking about joy. Everything in our society is so purposeful. Let's bring joy back to the experience.”

“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 at all.”

“I think my story says that, when women are given the chance and the opportunity, that we can achieve a lot. We deliver.”

“I think very early on in life we all learn what we’re good at and what we’re not good at, and we stay where it’s safe.”

“I took a Fear of Flying class, and I always missed the class, because I was always flying.”

“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.”

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

“Ideas, even million-dollar ones, are most vulnerable in their infancy. One negative comment could knock you off course so don't share them with too many people. Out of love and concern, friends and family give all the reasons or objections on why you shouldn't do it. However, don't hide your plan from people who can help you move it forward.”

“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.”