Master Your Mindset #9:
Think and Grow Rich: Imaginary Board Member #4
Sara Blakely: Shaping BUTTS and Mindsets
From one of the self-help exercises in Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, my imaginary board member # 4 is Sara Blakely, inventor of Spanx.
With very little startup capital (only $5,000) and absolutely no experience, Sara Blakely used the power of mindset to create a product for women that had previously only been developed by men. Her Spanx brand of products revolutionized shaping undergarments, are sold in 50 countries, and later sold to Blackstone in 2021 for over a billion dollars.
She accomplished all this while also advancing the corporate workplace to embrace and foster feminine energy which has had an everlasting effect. And like every one of my imaginary board members’ belief in the responsibility of giving back, she too, signed the Giving Pledge, to give away at least half her wealth to charity.
In an interview with Forbes magazine’s editor, Sara stated verbatim:
“Mindset is the single greatest asset an entrepreneur has, and it is something we have to work on daily.”
In my Master Your Mindset series, last week was board member # 3, Richard Branson. Sara was one of the entrepreneurs feature in his reality television series I referenced last week, Rebel Billionaire. Here not only did entrepreneurs have to prove their worth as business leaders but also had to overcome fears and participate in unbelievable, thrill-seeking adventures of such a grandiose, Branson-type magnitude that it would scare away 99.9% of us.
And while she fell just a smidge short of winning first place to become President of Virgin Worldwide, Branson still awarded Blakely $750,000 for a charity to empower women.
Personally, I think Branson wanted to choose Sara as the winner, but he knew she had her own empire to build. And that she did, by becoming a self-made billionaire about a decade later.
She is beautiful! Her smile lights up any space physically and emotionally and her obvious gratitude and ability to remain humble allow her to inspire entrepreneurs to not only achieve career success but to do so for all the right reasons by putting more value on people and experiences versus return on investment. Sara encourages us to be in touch with our feelings which I think ultimately allows us to be the best versions of ourselves.
Sara promotes hiring professionals to fill the gaps of entrepreneur’s weaknesses and she has done so, so successfully that her products are sold worldwide. In my imaginary board meetings, I ask Sara for direction in hiring the key individuals that I can trust to fill my shortcomings and help me evolve our services worldwide.
I admire her mindset as an inventor, business leader, philanthropist, wife, and mother. You can follow Sara’s life on social media. She is great about sharing business insight, thoughts on mindset, balance and encouragement.
– Christi McAdams