Background Image

...

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.

-Sara Blakely

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

My Husband Is Such

Sara Blakely

...

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.

Views: 31374

Topic

More From Sara Blakely

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.

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.

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.

Where I Get My Energy Is: 'how Can I Make It Better'?

I Did Not Like The Way I Looked In A Pair Of White Pants.

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.

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.

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.

When I Was Growing Up, My Dad Would Encourage My Brother And I To Fail. We Would Be Sitting At The Dinner Table And He Would Ask, 'so What Did You Guys Fail At This Week?' If We Didn't Have Something To Contribute, He Would Be Disappointed. When I Did Fail At Something, He'd High-five Me. What I Didn't Realize At The Time Was That He Was Completely Reframing My Definition Of Failure At A Young Age. To Me, Failure Means Not Trying; Failure Isn't The Outcome. If I Have To Look At Myself In The Mirror And Say, 'i Didn't Try That Because I Was Scared,' That Is Failure.

The Smartest Thing I Ever Did Was To Hire My Weakness.

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.

The Word 'spanx' Was Funny. It Made People Laugh. No One Ever Forgot It.

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.

Don't Be Intimidated By What You Don't Know.

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.

Money Is Fun To Make, Fun To Spend And Fun To Give Away.

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 Knew That I Wanted To Start My Own Business. I Knew That I Wanted To Work For Myself. I Was No Stranger To The Word No. You Just Have To Keep Going.

You’ve Got To Embrace What You Don’t Know.

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.

If We Can Put A Man On The Moon, We Can Make Pantyhose Comfortable.

Don't Let What You Don't Know Scare You, Because It Can Become Your Greatest Asset.

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.

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.

I Always Joke And Say I Want To Invent A Comfortable Stiletto And Then Retire.

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.

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.

My Saddlebags Are Why Spanx Exist! Now That I Have A Baby I Also Have A Muffin Top.

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?'

Failure Is Not The Outcome - Failure Is Not Trying. Don't Be Afraid To Fail.

When I Was A Child, My Father Used To Encourage My Brother And Me To Fail. At The Dinner Table, Instead Of Asking About The Best Part Of Our Day, He Would Ask Us What We Failed At That Week. If We Didn't Have Something To Tell Him, He Would Be Disappointed. When We Shared Whatever Failure We'd Endured, He'd High-five Us And Say, 'way To Go!' The Gift My Father Gave Us By Doing This Was Redefining What Failure Truly Meant.

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.

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.

Every Time I Went On Stage I Was So Terrified I Almost Threw Up.

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.

I'd Never Worked In Fashion Or Retail. I Just Needed An Undergarment That Didn't Exist.

Ensure That You Do Things Differently From Everyone Else

Empowering Women

I Started Thinking About Joy. Everything In Our Society Is So Purposeful. Let's Bring Joy Back To The Experience.

I Feel Like Money Makes You More Of Who You Already Are.

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?

I Didn't Want Women To Walk Out Of The Dressing Rooms Feeling Depressed And Wanting A Cocktail.

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.

I Think Failure Is Nothing More Than Life's Way Of Nudging You That You Are Off Course.

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.'

Embrace What You Don`t Know

Successful Business

My Revenue Was $4 Million My First Year In Business, Off Of One $20 Item.

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.

Failure Is Not Attached To Outcome, But In Not Trying. This Way, It Is About Answering To Yourself.

I Aim To Be Pretty - I Gave Up Dressing To Be Sexy In The Eighties.

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.

I Would Say Where I Feel Like I'm Struggling The Most In Learning And Giving Myself Permission To Fail Is In Finding The Balance In Life. There Are Different Aspects To Women: There's The Mother, There's The Working Woman, There's The Wife, The Friend, The Sister, The Daughter And So Just Figuring That All Out. I Continue To Want To Try New Things And Give Myself Permission To Not Be Great At It.

I Think My Story Says That, When Women Are Given The Chance And The Opportunity, That We Can Achieve A Lot. We Deliver.

What I Most Identify With Is Effortless Fashion, Looking As If Someone's Not Put A Lot Of Effort Into Their Look.

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.

What You Don’t Know Can Be Your Greatest Asset.

It's Important To Be Willing To Make Mistakes. The Worst Thing That Can Happen Is You Become Memorable.

I Took A Fear Of Flying Class, And I Always Missed The Class, Because I Was Always Flying.

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.

Having A Mental Snapshot Of Where You Are, Where You Are Going, And What You Are Moving Toward Is Incredibly Powerful.

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 Feel That Women Have Been Neglected, Unnecessarily Neglected And Mistreated Personally By The Fashion Industry And Shapewear In That Entire Category Was A Definite Place That We Were Neglected.

Failure To Me Became Not Trying Versus Not Succeeding

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.

Everything In Our Society Is So Purposeful.

When I Was 7, I Came Up With The Idea Of 'charm Socks.' My Mom Would Take Me To Buy Bags Of Plastic Charms, We Would Sew Them On Frilly White Socks, And I Sold Them At School.

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.

I Couldn't Figure Out What To Wear Under My Clothes. The Body Shapers Were Too Thick At The Time.

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.

When Something I Can't Control Happens, I Ask Myself : Where Is The Hidden Gift, Where Is The Positive In This?

Courage Is Doing Something Despite The Fear, And I've Worked Hard On Being A Courageous Person.

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.

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.

Perseverance Is The Key To Starting A Successful Business.

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.

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 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.

I Didn't Like The Way It Looked In White Trousers, And I Couldn't Find Anything To Work Underneath Them.

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.

Shapewear Is The Canvas And The Clothes Are The Art.

Trending Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Philip Massinger

Jeanne Phillips

Philip Guedalla

Category