Never Fear Failure

Sara Blakely’s father used to ask her every night at dinner what she failed at that day. He was actually disappointed if she didn’t fail at something! He got her to understand that failure should be embraced, not feared. And that trying was what was most important. This helped her build tremendous resilience.?

After she accidentally invented Spanx (she cut the feet off of her pantyhose one night) and had a prototype, she cold called Niemen Marcus. She told the lady she would fly to Dallas for 10 minutes of her time. The lady obliged and the rest is history! She gave Sara 8 stores to test her product. Sara personally went to every one of these beta stores and arranged the Spanx display. She did everything within her control to give her product better placement and visibility (including moving her product from the dismal undergarment and hosiery section to check-out counter displays).??

She also knew that the employees wouldn’t be near as motivated to sell Spanx as she was. She knew she cared a lot more than they did. So she rotated and circulated between all 8 stores and spent 8 hours a day selling it on her own! She would meet with the staff early in the morning to brief them… and then she would hang around the store all day promoting and selling Spanx herself. She did this every day for 2 years! Sara also reached deep into her Rolodex and called every friend, contact and acquaintance she had and asked them to go purchase Spanx. Sara then mailed them payment out of her own pocket to cover it.?

Additionally, she even had them memorize a short script to say when they went into the store (“Excuse me, can you tell me where to find Spanx? I keep hearing from all of my friends it’s the greatest product ever and I need to get some!”). Sara believes her lack of traditional business experience actually helped her success. She did things on feel, not by the book. She had a fresh perspective. She was so oblivious (I say that in a very respectful way!) to how every other business was being run… that she did things in a fresh, innovative way. For example, she never paid for advertising (until this past year).