Photo credits: Sara Blakely Instagram.
Secrets of Success, Love, and Life: The Legacy of the World’s Visionaries. A recurring Monaco Voice column exploring the lives, achievements, and philosophies of the world’s most influential visionaries, uncovering the secrets behind their success and enduring legacies curated by actress Vladyslava Garkusha.
If you’re still debating whether to launch that half-formed business idea, Sara Blakely has some news for you: clarity doesn’t come before action. It comes from action.
From door-to-door fax machine saleswoman to self-made billionaire, Blakely’s rise is one of those rare business stories that actually lives up to its mythology - mostly because she never waited for a perfect plan. She simply started.
Founder of Spanx - the now shapewear empire launched in the late 1990s - Blakely turned $5,000, a pair of scissors, and a persistent sense of practicality into a global brand. The idea emerged from her own frustration with undergarments: she wanted to wear white trousers without visible panty lines.
After cutting the feet off a pair of control-top pantyhose, she sensed she was onto something. She just didn’t know exactly what. Yet. But that’s the point.
Born in 1971 in Clearwater, Florida, Blakely grew up in a household where her father was a trial lawyer and her mother a school teacher. Even as a child, she showed determination - participating in debate and drama - which would later shape her ability to pitch ideas.
Photo credits: Sara Blakely Instagram.
As she put it in a shared Instagram post:
“Don’t focus too much on trying to predict the end result… focus on taking the next right step. Sometimes the only way to know if you’re on the right path is to keep walking it. You can’t have success without action. In life and especially in business, you have to make split-second decisions. I made most (if not all) decisions about @spanx without being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know entrepreneurs who get stuck in decision limbo for months because they want to know exactly how it’s going to turn out. Spoiler alert… you never will. That’s why getting in touch with your intuition is so important… it helps you make quick decisions that align with your purpose. So take the step. The clarity will follow.”
She wasn’t exaggerating. Blakely wrote her own patent, cold-called hosiery mills until one finally took her call (the male executive consulted his daughters), and pitched Neiman Marcus by modeling the product in the women’s restroom.
In 2012, Blakely became the youngest self-made female billionaire to appear on Forbes’ list - without a single outside investor. She bootstrapped Spanx from day one, kept full ownership for over two decades, and when she did sell a majority stake in 2021 to Blackstone, she remained executive chairwoman, retaining a meaningful stake and full command of the brand’s future.
Blakely understood her customer because she was the customer. She made decisions quickly, based on instinct rather than market research. While others obsessed over forecasting and hypotheticals, she moved - and the clarity followed.
But Blakely’s legacy isn’t limited to the boardroom. In 2013, she became the first self-made female billionaire to sign the Giving Pledge, committing to give away at least half her wealth. (The Giving Pledge is a commitment by billionaires to give away the majority of their wealth to charitable causes, launched in 2010 by Bill Gates, Melinda French Gates, and Warren Buffett). Through the Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation, she’s supported women through education, entrepreneurial grants, and economic mobility - from scholarship programs to microfinance.
She married entrepreneur Jesse Itzler in 2008. Together, they have four children - and, by all appearances, a household where motivation, humor, and chaos coexist comfortably. From kitchen whiteboards filled with mantras to elaborate costume parties, the Blakely-Itzler home appears to run on creativity, optimism, and maybe a bit of well-managed madness.
Photo credits: Sara Blakely Instagram.
Despite her wealth, Blakely has remained remarkably relatable. She still talks about failure as a necessary ingredient, praises awkwardness as a teacher, and continues to advocate for listening to your gut - especially when the world tells you otherwise.
In an era obsessed with optimization and algorithms, Sara Blakely’s success feels almost subversive: just action, instinct, persistence - and a pair of scissors.
Photo credits: Sara Blakely Instagram.
She moved. And the clarity, as promised, followed.