SARA BLAKELY

"embrace what you don't know"

Forbes' neweset billionaire failed multiple times during her youth. Selling fax machines for 7 years, Sara Blakely knew one day she would make it and did. So inspirational!!

"Once I had a perfected prototype in hand, I called the buyer at Neiman Marcus
and introduced myself over the phone. I said I had invented a product their
customers would not want to live without, and if I could have ten minutes of her
time, I would fly to Dallas. She agreed! I put the prototype in a zip lock bag
from my kitchen, threw it in my good-luck red backpack, and was on a plane.
During the meeting, I had no shame... I asked her to follow me to the ladies
room where I personally showed her the before/after in my cream pants. Three
weeks later SPANX was on the shelves of Neiman Marcus! I then called all my
friends and begged them to go to Neiman's and make a huge fuss over the product
and buy them up. At just the moment I was running out of friends, Spanx caught
on and the rest is history. I did the same thing with Saks, Nordstrom,
Bloomingdales, and all my other retailers!"