How does one woman go from training fax-machine salespeople to the youngest self-made billionaire in history?  With determination, creativity, believing in oneself and a bit of moxie. Hailing from Clearwater, Florida, the daughter of a trial lawyer and an artist, Sarah Blakely displayed her moxy from the start – charging neighborhood kids admission to her homemade haunted house, or convincing them to do her chores.  In high school she was a cheerleader and on the debate team – developing both her interpersonal, analytical and communications skills. After multiple tragedies struck her sunny Florida childhood – her best friend was killed after being struck by a car in front of her; two prom dates died in horrible circumstances, and her parents separated – she turned to motivational tapes to help her find a path forward.  “I think that when you witness death at age 16, there’s a sense of urgency about life,” she says. “The thought of my mortality—I think about it a lot. I find it motivating. It can be any time that your number’s up.” Her first attempt at business came just out of high school: an unofficial kids’ club at the Clearwater Beach Hilton.  She charged $8 a child for a few hours of babysitting while moms and dads tanned. She had no experience, no CPR training — and no insurance. She got away with it for three summers before the hotel closed down the unofficial business. After two unsuccessful attempts at the LSAT test following college graduation, she tried her hand at being a Disney World amusement-ride operator, a door-to-door fax-machine saleswoman, and then became the fax machine company's sales trainer in Atlanta, GA. However, it was a pair of cream pants that became her inspiration to create a better undergarment.  Keeping her day job, Blakely took her life savings of $5000 to create a new product - one that both worked to smooth out a woman's figure while being comfortable enough to wear all day.  She worked for two years perfecting her prototype, conducting most of the research herself – including writing her own patent application.  Seaching for someone to manufacture her product, Ms. Blakely took two weeks off work to visit North Carolina mills in person.  While they all said “no”, one Charlotte mill owner called her back to say,  "I've decided to make your crazy idea." His two daughters insisted that he make the product. The next step was to have a place to sell her product.  As she recounts on the Spanx website: “Once I had a perfected prototype in hand, I called the buyer at Neiman Marcus and introduced myself over the phone. I said I had invented a product their customers would not want to live without, and if I could have ten minutes of her time, I would fly to Dallas. She agreed! I put the prototype in a zip lock bag from my kitchen, threw it in my good-luck red backpack, and was on a plane. During the meeting, I had no shame... I asked her to follow me to the ladies room where I personally showed her the before/after in my cream pants. Three weeks later SPANX was on the shelves of Neiman Marcus! I then called all my friends and begged them to go to Neiman's and make a huge fuss over the product and buy them up. At just the moment I was running out of friends, Spanx caught on and the rest is history. I did the same thing with Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales, and all my other retailers!” (Spanx website) With no budget for advertising, Ms. Blakely traveled widely to convince stores to carry her product and to sell on QVC, the cable shopping network.  She also sent samples to celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey.  Then came a phone call that changed her life – Oprah had chosen Spanx as one of her Favorite Things in her annual show.  Blakely had two weeks to set-up a website and ordering process that could handle the affection of Oprah viewers.  With that endorsement, Spanx' sales took off! Today, Blakely's company boasts $250 million annual revenues and net profit margins of about 20%.  The company is now run by a team of 125, only 16 of them men. It sells 200 products in 11,500 department stores, boutiques and online shops in 40 countries.  She owns 100% of the company, and has been named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2002) and the State of Georgia's Woman of the Year (2005). As she continues to grow her company and reach new markets, Sarah Blakely is giving back.  She signed the Global giving Pledge to give away half her money – and she created the Sarah Blakely Foundation to help empower women globally through education and entrepreneurship. Her advice to budding entrepreneurs?  “Believe in your idea, trust your instincts, and don’t be afraid to fail. It took me two years from the time I had the idea for Spanx until the time I had a product in hand ready to sell into stores. I must have heard the word “no” a thousand times. If you believe in your idea 100%, don’t let anyone stop you! Not being afraid to fail is a key part of the success of Spanx.” (Forbes Interview:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2012/05/23/10-lessons-i-learned-from-sara-blakely-that-you-wont-hear-in-business-school/ )