Sarah didn't have a lot of savings because she had an unpromising job selling office supplies. Once, she took out all her savings, a total of $5,000, to invent a kind of underwear. "I've heard 'no' at least 1,000 times," she said. But she did not follow the advice of others. On top of the $5,000 she put in, she also saved $3,000 in attorney fees (which she didn't have at all)—she copied a patent application herself from a textbook. Ultimately, the company she founded, Spanx, created a whole new category of products, dubbed "Shaping Lingerie," that became a craze for women all over the world.
Wearing a Spanx body shaper will fit every little bit of your fat in, and your waistline will be 3 inches smaller in no time. After famous host Oprah Winfrey wore the brand's underwear, she said on the show that Spanx is her favorite underwear company. Spanx lingerie sales soared immediately, and the company went from a small business to a global sensation.
Spanx is now worth more than billions of dollars, with more than 200 products under the brand. In addition to helping women look better, it also launched men's underwear.
Spanx men's underwear has also been a huge success. Sarah Blakely owns 100 percent of Spanx, has zero debt, and has never received outside investment. In 2012, Time magazine named Sarah as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".
When the kite flies the highest, it is with the headwind, not the tailwind. --Winston Churchill