When I was a child, my father used to encourage my brother and me to fail. At the dinner table, instead of asking about the best part of our day, he would ask us what we failed at that week. If we didn't have something to tell him, he would be disappointed. When we shared whatever failure we'd endured, he'd high-five us and say, 'Way to go!' The gift my father gave us by doing this was redefining what failure truly meant.

It's important to be willing to make mistakes. The worst thing that can happen is you become memorable.

I got a call from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah had chosen Spanx as one of her favorite products in 2000. I had boxes of product in my apartment and I had two weeks notice that she was going to say she loved it on TV and I had no shipping department.

Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.

I'd never worked in fashion or retail. I just needed an undergarment that didn't exist.

The smartest thing I ever did was to hire my weakness.

Most of the reason we don’t do things is because we’re afraid to fail. I just made a decision one day that I was not not going to do things in my life because of fear.