Entrepreneurs
60 Sara Blakely Quotes That Will Empower You
Sara Blakely is an American businessperson and founder of Spanx, an intimate apparel company.
Her success came through inventing and marketing the amazingly successfully Spanx undergarment which enabled her to create a multi million dollar clothing empire.
Whilst her success made her the youngest self-made female billionaire at age 41 in 2012, it required a lot of hard work, vision and a unique attitude to failure.
I’ve compiled the most empowering Sara Blakely quotes and sayings which you can adopt in your own life to help you become more successful.
Best Sara Blakely Quotes:
1. “You’ve got to embrace what you don’t know.” – Sara Blakely
2. “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.” – Sara Blakely
3. “I failed the LSAT. Basically, if I had not failed, I’d have been a lawyer and there would be no Spanx. 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.” – Sara Blakely
4. “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.” – Sara Blakely
5. “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.” – Sara Blakely
6. “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.” – Sara Blakely
7. “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.” – Sara Blakely
8. “Trust your gut.” – Sara Blakely
9. “My training of cold-calling and everyone under the sun telling me no, and my keeping going, was a huge part of the first two years of Spanx.” – Sara Blakely
10th Sara Blakely Quote: “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.” – Sara Blakely
11. “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.” – Sara Blakely
12. “My revenue was $4 million my first year in business, off of one $20 item.” – Sara Blakely
13. “I’ve always had that gratitude that I had the opportunity to pursue my potential. So I think my story says that, when women are given the chance and the opportunity, that we can achieve a lot. We deliver. We can make the world a better place, one butt at a time.” – Sara Blakely
14. “It’s the power of the brand. We’ve never formally advertised.” – Sara Blakely
15. “It’s really a full-time job to manage our lives.” – Sara Blakely
16. “I’d never worked in fashion or retail. I just needed an undergarment that didn’t exist.” – Sara Blakely
17. “Every time I went on stage I was so terrified I almost threw up.” – Sara Blakely
18. “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.” – Sara Blakely
19. “When I cut the feet out of my pantyhose that one time, I saw it as my sign. I had been visualizing being self employed prior to this happening. It was my mental preparation meeting the opportunity in that moment.” – Sara Blakely
20th Sara Blakely Quote: “I feel like money makes you more of who you already are.” – Sara Blakely
21. “I’m just like so many women – I was frustrated, I had these white pants that I had spent a lot of money on, and you get home and you think, ‘What am I really supposed to wear under this?’ So it was a frustrated consumer moment.” – Sara Blakely
22. “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.” – Sara Blakely
23. “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.” – Sara Blakely
24. “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.” – Sara Blakely
25. “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.” – Sara Blakely
26. “Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away.” – Sara Blakely
27. “I think my story says that, when women are given the chance and the opportunity, that we can achieve a lot. We deliver.” – Sara Blakely
28. “Within the first year of launching my company, Spanx, I decided to go over to England and cold-call Harrods, Harvey Nichols, and Selfridges the same way I had cold-called Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, and Bloomingdale’s here in the United States.” – Sara Blakely
29. “It’s important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.” – Sara Blakely
30th Sara Blakely Quote: “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.” – Sara Blakely
31. “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.” – Sara Blakely
32. “Where I get my energy is: ‘How can I make it better?'” – Sara Blakely
33. “I started thinking about joy. Everything in our society is so purposeful. Let’s bring joy back to the experience.” – Sara Blakely
34. “Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset.” – Sara Blakely
35. “Differentiate yourself! Why are you different? What’s important about you? Why does the customer need you?” – Sara Blakely
36. “I grew up in a house where my father encouraged my brother and me to fail. I specifically remember coming home and saying, ‘Dad, Dad, I tried out for this or that and I was horrible,’ and he would high-five me and say, ‘Way to go.'” – Sara Blakely
37. “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.” – Sara Blakely
38. “There is a hidden blessing in the most traumatic things we go through in our lives. My brain always goes to, ‘Where is the hidden blessing? What is my gift?” – Sara Blakely
39. “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.” – Sara Blakely
40th Sara Blakely Quote: “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 going to do things in my life because of fear.” – Sara Blakely
41. “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.” – Sara Blakely
42. “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.” – Sara Blakely
43. “Failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. This way, it is about answering to yourself.” – Sara Blakely
44. “Failure to me became not trying versus not succeeding.” – Sara Blakely
45. “Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know.” – Sara Blakely
46. “When something I can’t control happens, I ask myself : where is the hidden gift, where is the positive in this?” – Sara Blakely
47. “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.” – Sara Blakely
48. “Failure is not the outcome – failure is not trying. Don’t be afraid to fail.” – Sara Blakely
49. “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?” – Sara Blakely
50th Sara Blakely Quote: “Perseverance is the key to starting a successful business”. – Sara Blakely
51. “Having a mental snapshot of where you are, where you are going, and what you are moving toward is incredibly powerful.” – Sara Blakely
52. “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.” – Sara Blakely
53. “Ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” – Sara Blakely
54. “The smartest thing I ever did was to hire my weakness.” – Sara Blakely
55. “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 (women) were empowered to prosper, invent, be educated, start their own businesses, run for office essentially be given the chance to soar.” – Sara Blakely
56. “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.” – Sara Blakely
57. “Courage is doing something despite the fear, and I’ve worked hard on being a courageous person.” – Sara Blakely
58. “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.” – Sara Blakely
59. “The qualities I most admire in women are confidence and kindness.” – Sara Blakely
