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I had $5,000 and a pair of scissors. That was my startup funding. Every VC would have laughed me out of the room.
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My dad used to ask at dinner: what did you fail at today? That taught me that failure is not the opposite of success — it is the path to it.
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I never took outside money. I owned 100% of Spanx for 21 years. That patience was worth $1.2 billion.
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I pitched Spanx to Neiman Marcus by showing the buyer the before and after in a bathroom. Sometimes the best pitch deck is just showing the product.
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When we closed the Blackstone deal, I gave every employee $10,000 and two first-class plane tickets. If you win, everyone should win.