The Lesson: Sara Blakely was selling fax machines door-to-door before she got the idea for her billion dollar company. Her journey through the world of business has taught her a lot of lessons – and in this podcast episode, she shares some advice on how others can navigate the same obstacles.
Notable Excerpt: “I am most proud of the fact that I was able to achieve this in a really kind way, that I can look at myself in the mirror and I am where I am, and I feel really good about it, really good about myself … You know, when I first started Spanx, I was at a cocktail party and three guys came up to me and said, ‘Sara, we heard you just started a business, and invented something,’ and I said, “Yes,” and they go, ‘You know, business is war.’ And I just looked at them and then one guy patted me on the back, and he said, ‘Yeah, I hope you’re up for it. I hope you’re ready for war.’
And I went home that night, in my apartment and I sat down on the floor and I literally started crying, and I was thinking, ‘I don’t want to go to war. Why does it have to be war? I want to go about this in a completely different way.’”
The Guest: Sara Blakely, the founder and CEO of apparel company SPANX, is America’s youngest female self-made billionaire. In addition to overcoming dozens of hardships and obstacles, Blakely is a mother of four, and the author of the maternal photography book “The Belly Art Project” that gives 100% of its proceeds to the charity Every Mother Counts.
The Host: After spending years of his young life and athletic career struggling with his own emotional wellbeing, a crippling injury left Lewis Howes without an identity and without any work. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, however, Howes recreated himself as a multi-million dollar media producer, motivational speaker, bestselling author, and podcast host. The ex-football player now spends his days chatting with the most inspirational icons of this generation on his School of Greatness podcast.
Podcast: The School of Greatness podcast is available for download on Soundcloud and iTunes. You can also watch footage of the interviews on Howes’s YouTube channel.
Books: Howes is the author of the New York Times bestselling book “The School of Greatness”: an in-depth collection of lessons and wisdom that he has gathered from interviewing hundreds of the world’s greatest role models and thinkers. Howes’s latest book, “The Mask of Masculinity”, is based on his experience with the dangerous stereotypes and expectations that are placed on men in modern society.
(LISTEN to the inspiring talk below)
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