How She Managed to Build a Billion Dollar Company

The Influence a Dad Can Have

Have you ever heard of Sara Blakely?

She’s the founder of Spanx, a company valued at ~ 1.3 billion!

How did she do it?

Obviously, there are a lot of skills you need to pull it off. But one of the most important lessons she learned came from her father. When she was just a little girl, he taught her the #1 lesson for success at anything!

He’d often ask the same question to her and her brother:

“What have you failed at today?”

And he’d be severely disappointed if they didn’t have anything they could mention.

He’d be delighted when his children failed, because that mean they learned!

The lesson he drilled into her from an early age is that failure is a good thing. It’s nothing to be feared or to be avoided. And it’s this lesson that she cites as one of the most important lessons she ever learned.

Most people are terrified of failing, especially in public.

Successful people love it!

Retraining Yourself for Success

Sara's lesson might be the most important lesson a person can learn!

Here’s why:

By default our minds set us up for failure!

The main function of our mind is to keep us safe, not for us to thrive.

Because of this, we procrastinate on new things.
Because of this, we always think of the worst-case scenario.
Because of this, change tends to terrify us.
Because of this, we desperately want to fit in with others.

I’ll save you the long-winded lecture on evolution for now.

Just know this:

Our mind is like a computer. But, what if all the programs were coded by a toddler jamming on the keyboard? The result of those programs would be disastrous and should be reprogrammed immediately!

Creating Positive Reinforcement

We tend to repeat actions that get rewarded (positive reinforcement). Likewise, we tend to avoid doing things that get punished (negative reinforcement). This is the main reason why most people never achieve their goals.

Failure is painful, which is why most people avoid it at all costs.

Ironically, that’s the reason why they ultimately fail…

If you want to achieve your goals, you need to create positive reinforcement around trying and failing. Just like Sara’s father taught her that failure is a good thing, so will you need to pound that message into your skull!

Here’s a framework you can use:

Firstly, make sure you have a clear goal in mind.

When it comes to achieving that goal, what have you been doing so far? More importantly, what have you been avoiding? I’m sure you know multiple things that would greatly help you, but that you aren’t doing…

Instead, you’re probably doing the same things over and over again, aren’t you?

Doing familiar things feels safe, but it’s not where you achieve goals!

What I would challenge you to do is to try something that intimidates you, at least once a week. Preferably, you do something that pushes your boundaries and comfort zone every day instead.

Now here’s the crucial point:

When you take action, celebrate your win!

Even if you get rejected by the girl. Even if you looked like a fool in public. Even if your video only got 3 views. Even if you had no clue what you were doing. Even if it took you 5 times as long as it “should have”. Even if [insert negative outcome here].

Regardless of the outcome, taking action IS the win!

By celebrating your actions as wins, you’re creating positive reinforcement.

My Secret Mind Trick

When it comes to creating positive reinforcement, here’s a hack I use:

After I’ve taking action, I hype myself up for having taken the uncomfortable action. When doing this, I link my action & goal. Through my self talk, I’m building a stronger connection between what I just did and my goal.

I’m basically saying to myself Action —> Goal.

Here’s why I do this:

If you have big goals, they are far away into the future. This can be discouraging. After all, there’s still a huge path ahead of you. By reminding myself that my actions TODAY matter, I’m shifting my focus to a more pragmatic mindset.

It also helps unlock the power of dopamine.

I know it sounds simple, but it greatly helps you stay motivated!

Note: Want to further reinforce taking uncomfortable action & learning? Check out the implementation section below for a simple, yet effective method to use.

The Case for Creativity & Brute Force

Let’s uncover more of Sara’s secret sauce for success.

I remember watching an interview where she was telling her story of pitching a major retailer on her new brand. The meeting was not going well. The woman on the other side of the table seemed completely disinterested in the product…

She put a lot of time, money and effort into it, but everything appeared lost…

That’s where she used her creativity.

She went to the bathroom and asked the woman to come with her.

As you can imagine, she felt weird about it, but joined after some persuasion. When they were in the bathroom she could show off the Spanx leggings and underwear products she was wearing herself. At the time, they were different than what was out there on the market, and it was quite an improvement.

(Or so I think. I’m a guy, I have no clue about that kinda shit)

At least, the woman decided to give her the chance!

Your best move isn’t always obvious. Sometimes, it’s the creative option!

But… things still weren’t going well after that.

The retailer had to agreed to test out the product in a few stores. It was a trial that dictated the future of Spanx. Her products weren’t getting the best shelf spaces either. As a result, they didn’t sell very well at first.

That’s when Sara used brute force to tweak things a bit.

She would go to the store herself, find her product and move it herself to more prominent spots. She had a few of these tricks up her sleeve to basically become an in-store sales woman for her own product.

And with her helping hand, they started selling better.

1.3 billion dollars later, it turns out that brute force was exactly what Spanx needed.

Most people greatly underestimate the amount of sheer effort required to achieve a goal. The difference between failure or success usually isn’t 5% or 10%, it’s 2x, 3x or even 10x.

Once you find the right actions, go all in relentlessly!

How Smart People Make Great Decisions Confidently

The worst way to make important decisions is through your “gut feeling”.

If you want to make better decisions, you need some form of structure or framework through which you can analyze your options and get to the best conclusion.

Listen to today’s audio to learn 5 practical decision making tips:

Becoming a True Monster in Life

We’ve talked about overcoming the fear of failure.

This mindset helps you turn failure into massive success when you apply it:

The Daily Review

In order to get better, you need feedback.

No matter how consistent you are and no matter how fast you run, will you ever reach your destination if you’re running in the wrong direction? Absolutely not! Therefore, it’s crucial that you have a way of self-evaluation.

This way, you can do the following things:

• Use positive reinforcement for your own (positive) actions

• Learn lessons from things that you didn’t do well

• Encourage trying and failing, because you celebrate the lesson learned

• Adjust your actions and try it smarter next time.

Here’s the simplest way to get started:

Because complexity only makes it less likely for you to take action. Let’s keep it as simple as we can. My recommendation would be to get some sort of journal to do this with, rather than doing it inside your own head.

Before going to bed, ask yourself these 2 questions:

• What did I do well today?

• What could I have done better, and how could I have done it better?

This is the simplest form of self evaluation.

If you want to go deeper with this, you could add more questions like:

• On a scale of 1-10 how did I do in [category]? (categories could be health, relationships, energy, learning, career, finance, etc.)

• What could I have done to be an 8 or 9 in [category]?

• What is the most important lesson I learned or reinforced today?

• Did I do the things I said I was going to do?

• If not, why didn’t I finish those tasks?

• What is something that I failed at today? What did I learn from it?

Of course there are many other questions and nuances possible. As you go along, you’ll find a way that works well for you. Make this review a cornerstone and you’ll improve your life greatly!