A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ
GET YOUR SPANX ON FOR THIS ONE
This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with what I will call one of the greatest entrepreneurs in history. Sara Blakely built an empire called Spanx, starting with just $5,000 saved from selling fax machines door to door and a promise to herself that she would write a new movie where she would play the lead role. She built that company from the living room of her apartment into one of the most recognizable brands in the world, eventually selling the majority of the company some 26 years later at a value of $1.2 billion. Yes, billion. What makes this story so unique is the fact that she built it without ever taking on any investment and owning 100% of the company at time of sale. It rocketed her to the front cover of Forbes magazine being labelled as the youngest self-made female billionaire.
While the value of a company doesn’t immediately determine the validity of the entrepreneur, I do believe the validity and real value shows up in what that entrepreneur does with what they have built and how willing they are to share what they have learned along the way with other entrepreneurs.
By that definition, then Blakely is worth far more than her billion-dollar exit. I spent a little over an hour with Sara on stage with my business partner asking questions about her origin story, her product launch, the scaling of her business, the sale of her business, and the lessons through all of it.
There were three moments of the interview that stood out to me as a masterclass in entrepreneurism. In many ways, they were answers to questions I asked perhaps more for me than for anyone else. They involved specific time frames on her journey and the lessons she learned through those times.
From Idea to Product
We all have ideas. Very few are willing to go from idea to the delivery of the product, the service, or the business. It’s the work, the lift, the grind. Blakely said it was two years of hard work after her idea to ever see an actual product. Meanwhile, her day job continued. Her normal life continued. Most ideas will die on the long field of dedication stretched out in front of you. Ideas don’t automatically turn into incredible products and non-stop sales.
Scaling
Blakely talked about a 6-year period of time when Spanx was in the middle of scaling. Six years of head down, hard work, solving problems from the beginning of the workday to the end of the work day. It is what needed to be done. It was who she needed to be for the business at that moment. She didn’t find herself loving her job every day. Was she willing to do it? Of course. Because she was in love with the mission. She also knew she had to return to what she loved to do - designing product - before she lost that passion. At the right time, she stepped back into doing what she loved to do every day.
Post-Sale
It’s been just about two years since Sara sold the majority of her company to Blackstone while agreeing to stay on as Executive Chairwoman. When I asked her what emotion she experienced since the sale, she was impressively open and honest. She shared her grief, her extreme sadness, as well as what she referred to as “moments of happiness”. The win has been the ability to free her mind from an all-encompassing project. Blakely presumed that while running an international company, up to 80% of her mind-space was consumed by the company itself - the product, the design, the manufacturing, the people, the sales. By being willing to sell something, it enabled her to ask what else she could do to improve the world around her. It sounds like we are just weeks away from hearing what that might be.
As I reflect on just 60 minutes with an iconic entrepreneur, I have a few things to take with me on my journey over the next few years.
We all have great ideas. Ideas on how to deliver a better experience. Ideas on how to connect with new clients. Ideas on how to build something new or improve something already built. Run those plays. Put in the focus and work you knew it would take. If it’s easy, it’s probably not a great idea.
There will be moments for all of us that we begin to question if it’s worth it. We will find ourselves asking a lot of “why” questions: Why does this matter? Why do I have to do this? Why is this so hard? Why did I agree to do this? It’s in those moments that we need to push through, acknowledge the reason we started, and remember what we truly love to do.
And lastly, make sure that our work or job or business never define us or become our identity. The businesses and projects that we are working on give us the opportunity to unleash our minds and hearts and energy. But never sell your identity. Sara shared a few quotes that have been a grounding for her over the past couple of years as she embarks on new projects. My favorite of the three she shared was this one:
“In order to discover new land you must be willing to lose sight of the shore.”
Go discover new land!