Sara Blakely Quotes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Embrace what you don't know

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

I couldn't figure out what to wear under my clothes. The body shapers were too thick at the time.

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.

Failure to me became not trying versus not succeeding

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

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.

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.

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.

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

My revenue was $4 million my first year in business, off of one $20 item.

Everything in our society is so purposeful.

Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away.

Shapewear is the canvas and the clothes are the art.

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

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

I did not like the way I looked in a pair of white pants.

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

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

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?'

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.

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

It's important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.

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.

Perseverance is the key to starting a successful business.

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