SPANX, MENTORING, AND SUCCESS?
Laurie Anne Roemmele, Ph.D.
Creative Change Agent, Speaker, and Leader to NonProfits and Educational Institutions
I just read another awesome book by Gillian Zoe Segal about the significance of having mentors in our lives. Ironically, I am meeting my mentor very early on Friday morning who has made a tremendous impact on my life over the past year. He is tough, unrelenting, and one of the main reasons I made BIG changes in my personal and professional life within the past 6 months. I so look forward to his wisdom as a very successful person in his 70s. He truly makes me work hard and face the great things that are happening to me, as well as those times when he believes I am making mistakes and need to “get out” and “cut out the tap dancing” as he calls it, ” around the wrong people or situations in my life.” I don’t quite understand why a haphazard meeting with this man in 2014 would lead him to see the benefit of mentoring me, but hey, I will take it!
Okay, so where does SPANX fit into all of this? No, I am not writing how women can look dazzling and beautiful. The Founder of SPANX, Sarah Blakely, who started with a simple idea that became an empire for women (and now men), has a mentor herself. Most of us know of Warren Buffett, a gazillionaire and an icon in business. He saw a prize in Sarah. He believed in her idea, and listens to her vision. She then listens — really listens — to this incredible businessman. Just because she has women look even better with her products, she believes in growth in her business (thus, the new men’s line). The book discusses the power of mentoring, and how people can take that opportunity to learn and become better, always better at what they do each day. Sarah’s story is empowering to me and others because she is open to really making a product that makes people feel better about themselves….it is worth knowing how it all started and grew!
Sarah provides a wonderful product to women and men through the people that surrounded her, especially Mr. Buffett as a mentor. The message for me was that chance encounter with my own mentor reminds me that I need to celebrate my growing successes, and recognize the mistakes I make can be surely corrected and definitely enhanced! I am blessed that it all started in a little diner and I really knew that mentoring — most important– real mentoring is not a walk in the park It is filled with moments of hills and valleys….joy and admittedly, disappointments. We just have to face it!
I don’t need SPANX anymore after an over 80 pound weight loss and dedication to exercise and health (my Dad had his first heart attack around my age!), however, Sarah’s idea was profound and is a gift to thousands and thousands of women. I believe that book surely affirmed my belief that I have my own gift too… that someone (like Warren Buffett) thought this person, ME, was worth time, advice, and an ongoing pursuit to get me (and many others who believe in the worthiness of mentors in our lives) on the right path and SOAR LIKE AN EAGLE. I don’t think I will quite achieve a SPANX-like empire, but I sure know that the most successful people are not afraid to listen, learn — wearing SPANX or not!!!
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