Sara Blakely credits this habit from her teen years with empowering her to build Spanx

The shapewear and apparel entrepreneur says a Wayne Dyer recording taught her to ignore limits, helping her turn $5,000 into a billion-dollar brand.

Sara Blakely [Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Fast Company]

Sara Blakely founded the $1.2 billion shapewear and apparel company Spanx with just $5,000 in savings, relying on offbeat marketing methods and a good bit of her own grit. The entrepreneur recently revealed that while working toward her success, she had help: a motivational cassette tape that shaped the way she thought about her future. 

Blakely spoke about the tape while addressing the graduates at Florida State University’s spring 2026 commencement ceremony. She told the crowd that when she was 16, her father gave her a tape called How to Be a No-Limit........

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