Best Sara Blakely Quotes

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.

Everything in our society is so purposeful.

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.

My revenue was $4 million my first year in business, off of one $20 item.

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.

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

My first account was Neiman Marcus. I cold-called them just like I had cold-called businesses when I was selling fax machines for seven years.

Perseverance is the key to starting a successful business.

I'd get kicked out of buildings all day long, people would rip up my business card in my face. It's a humbling business to be in. But I knew I could sell and I knew I wanted to sell something I had created. I cut the feet out of those pantyhose and I knew I was on to something. This was it.

With every obstacle that has happened to me in my life, my brain immediately says, 'Where is the hidden blessing?' In starting a business and growing a business, every day is learning how to manage obstacles.

I knew that I wanted to start my own business. I knew that I wanted to work for myself. I was no stranger to the word no. You just have to keep going.

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.

My advice for an entrepreneur just starting out is to differentiate yourself. Why are you different? What's important about you? Why does the customer need you?

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

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

I'm just like so many women - I was frustrated, I had these white pants that I had spent a lot of money on, and you get home and you think, 'What am I really supposed to wear under this?' So it was a frustrated consumer moment.

It's the power of the brand. We've never formally advertised.

You've got to visualize where you're headed and be very clear about it. Take a Polaroid picture of where you're going to be in a few years.

I think very early on in life we all learn what we're good at and what we're not good at, and we stay where it's safe.

I made a conscious decision not to tell anyone in my life. Now I tell people – don't tell anyone your idea until you have invested enough of yourself in it that you are not going to turn back. When a person has an idea at that conception moment it is the most vulnerable – one negative comment could knock you off course.

It's really a full-time job to manage our lives.

There is a hidden blessing in the most traumatic things we go through in our lives. My brain always goes to, 'Where is the hidden blessing? What is my gift?'