Unstoppable

Sara Blakely’s journey from selling office supplies to billionaire is one of modern business’s scrappiest success stories. For seven years, she pounded doors peddling fax machines for Danka and experiencing rejection at every no.

At 27, frustrated by pantyhose lines under cream slacks, she sliced off the feet — Spanx was born. With $5,000 in savings, no investors, and a self-written patent, she got shut down by every North Carolina mill until one owner’s daughters said yes. By 41 in 2012, Forbes crowned her the youngest self-made female billionaire.

But it’s her Dad’s dinner table rule that defined her passion to succeed: “What’d you fail at today?”

“Failure is not the outcome. Failure is not trying. Don’t be afraid to fail.”

Hear Sara’s own words here.