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 More Quotes by Sara Blakely More Quotes From Sara Blakely Shapewear is the canvas and the clothes are the art. Sara Blakely canvas clothes art Money is fun to make, fun to spend and fun to give away. Sara Blakely fun giving 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. Sara Blakely machines dresses might Failure is not attached to outcome, but in not trying. This way, it is about answering to yourself. Sara Blakely outcomes trying way 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. Sara Blakely brother motivational children When something I can't control happens, I ask myself : where is the hidden gift, where is the positive in this? Sara Blakely asks i-can happens Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. Sara Blakely powerful-women female inspirational 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 fax-machines years firsts If we can put a man on the moon, we can make pantyhose comfortable. Sara Blakely pantyhose moon men The word 'Spanx' was funny. It made people laugh. No one ever forgot it. Sara Blakely laughing funny people I did not like the way I looked in a pair of white pants. Sara Blakely pants white way Everything in our society is so purposeful. Sara Blakely our-society 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 safe thinking 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 stories opportunity thinking 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. Sara Blakely shipping tvs two I aim to be pretty - I gave up dressing to be sexy in the eighties. Sara Blakely gave-up aim sexy 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. Sara Blakely fashion eye thinking 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. Sara Blakely neglected categories fashion 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. Sara Blakely daughter struggle mother 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. Sara Blakely my-own stranger wanted