6 life lessons from the world's coolest billionaire

SARA Blakely is unlike any other successful entrepreneur on the planet.

An ex fax-machine sales woman working in a hot Florida climate in her twenties, she hated the look and feel of her hosiery and the inability for her to combine it well with open toed shoes. So one day she cut the feet off her tights (this original pair still exist in her Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, USA) and the idea of Spanx was born.

Sara noticed how hosiery had a slimming effect, and knew women everywhere could benefit from a better, more flattering and functional development of a product like this. And so it began �" her journey from a sales trainer at aged 25 to single-handedly building one of the world’s most recognisable and adored brands.

Now her company offers more than 200 products and is available in over 60 countries.

Sara has been featured on the cover of Forbes magazine which recognised her as the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire and she has been selected as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.

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In 2013, she signed the Giving Pledge to donate half of her wealth to support her broader mission of empowering women. The Giving Pledge is an incredible initiaive run by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to encourage the world’s richest people to donate to charity. Bill Gates invited Sara to dinner to see if she was keen to join up ... as you do.

Sara, now 43 and a mother of three, is an inspiration to thousands of self-starters and she sat down to share the key life lessons she has learned on her path to success.

1. Always trust your gut

Trusting your gut is like a muscle. The more you do it, the stronger it gets. I recognised, just by asking myself some personal questions and also being quiet with myself, that I hear my gut the loudest when I’m driving. I have about a 45-minute commute every morning, that my friends call my “Spanx commute.” That’s a really important, valuable time for me.

(With Spanx) I believed enough in it on my own, even though everybody that I was addressing and talking to was saying “No” to the idea. I saw what the product could do for me and never lost sight of that.

2. Get off autopilot

So often in life we’re doing things exactly the way someone else showed us how. I like to stop and do this mental exercise �" just close my eyes, or get quiet with myself, and say, “If nobody showed me how to do my job, how would I be doing my job? If no one showed me how to be a parent, how would I be being a parent? If nobody showed me how, I mean, as basic as how to wash the dishes, would I be washing them in the same way, or is there a better way?” By always asking myself that, you snatch yourself out of just autopilot. Take the time to learn how to think for yourself.

3. No means nothing

Cold-call selling teaches you the most unbelievable life skills. It teaches you to not listen to the word “No,” and to keep going. It teaches you how to get your foot in the door or win somebody over in 30 seconds or less. It teaches you perseverance. For two years people told me “No.” For me it’s really important that recognising that failure or the word “No” is not the end. I mean, it wasn’t even something that registered for me. A lot of people ripped up my business card in my face. I had to find a lot of inner strength (to forge ahead).

4. Embrace what you don’t know

Embrace what you don’t know as a gift. It’s not something that should hold you back. Spanx is a perfect example. I’d never taken a business off the ground. I’d never worked in fashion or retail. I had no contacts in the industry. I literally was just doing it the way that I thought it should be done and had no idea of the way that everybody else did it.

The really important thing is for you to have the confidence to trust yourself to do it. I think that’s where most people get stuck. I always say, “What you don’t know can become your greatest asset if you let it,” because what you don’t know ensures you’re going to be different and ensures that you’re going to do it differently from everybody else. What you don’t know for most people immobilises them or is a reason why they stop. They just get tripped up with, “I don’t know how this is supposed to be done, so therefore I shouldn’t do it.”

5. Creativity can be found everywhere (if you are open to it)

A lot of my creativity comes from listening to people, and to viewers, and also paying attention to what I need in my life or feel is missing. I get creativity in magazines. I get it in colour and definitely in nature. I get it from just that quiet time with myself, my imagination.

6. Select a supportive network

(Losing unsupportive friends) is not something that I could control or focus on during my journey. Along the way, some people liked me and some people didn’t. It’s important to surround yourself with people who elevate you and believe in you. (For women) don’t waste energy on men. If the right one shows up, it doesn’t require any energy. You cannot control what other people think of you, so don’t waste any energy on that. What you think about yourself is the most important thing of all.

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