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Sara Blakely by Erica Connelly

Sara Blakely is a self-made billionaire who founded Spanx. She started the company with $5,000 after developing the idea for her product. Through hard work and without outside investment, she grew Spanx into a $250 million company that is now a leader in the undergarment industry. Blakely remains highly involved in the company and uses her success to empower other female entrepreneurs through her foundation which has raised $17.5 million. She emphasizes balancing her career with family by spending quality time with her husband and son.

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Sara Blakely: The Undercover Billionaire
Background & Biography • Born in Clearwater, FL in 1971 • Daughter of an artist and a lawyer • Wanted to be a lawyer, but changed direction after scoring poorly on LSAT twice • 7 years of sailing fax machines before following her dream of being an entrepreneur • Launched Spanx based on a need that she felt was unmet in her own life • Invested $5,000 in savings and two years of late nights to developing and launching her business • Grew a one product business sold and marketed out of her apartment (in 2000) to a leader in the undergarment industry, generating $250M…all without investment or advertising
Achievements Youngest, self-made female $17.5M raised through Sara Mother and Wife billionaire in the world Blakely Foundation Extraordinaire Still owns 100% of Educating and Training Married to fellow entrepreneur Spanx equity Female Entrepreneurs and former rapper Jesse Itzler; 3- year-old son Lazer Undergarment Runner-up on Rebel provider to the stars Billionaire Breakthrough after Oprah chose Despite fear of heights, flying, and Spanx for Favorite Things episode being on stage
Connecting Her Domains Work Community • Leveraged a personal want and • Aligns community involvement need to launch her company with passions • Embeds herself “in the DNA” of (entrepreneurship, female Spanx (mascot, comedy) empowerment) • Space that supports “recreational • Raised $17.5M for her foundation thinking” and fun so far • Actively used network to achieve • Includes her family in her her success volunteer work
Connecting Her Domains Self • Strong core values have guided her actions in all domains (e.g. resilience) • Takes time for “recreational thinking” and strong believer in visualization • Keeps health as top priority – hired live-in Navy Seal to train her Home • Shares passion for entrepreneurship with husband • Dinner time is sacred • Limited after-hours work talk • Hires personal assistants, chefs, nanny, etc. to maximize quality time spent with family and friends • Maintains position as the ultimate
Lessons Learned While reading about her life, I could hear my own father’s voice. The following are lessons that he has always told me, but Sara’s success story demonstrates that my dad may just know what he is talking about. 1 Visualize your own success…see it and be it 2 Permission to fail, encouraged to rise again 3 Do what you love and the money will follow