Quotes By Sara Blakely

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.

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.

Shapewear is the canvas and the clothes are the art.

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

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.

Where I get my energy is: 'How can I make it better?'

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

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.

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

I cut the feet out of control top pantyhose one night, threw them on under my white pants and realized that the toning and shaping was perfect and that the hosiery material is thin enough that I could make shape wear out of it.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Everything in our society is so purposeful.

Every time I went on stage I was so terrified I almost threw up.

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

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.

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.

What I most identify with is effortless fashion, looking as if someone's not put a lot of effort into their look.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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