“Incredible Innovation Comes Out of Dark Times”

Sara Blakely has steered Spanx through 20 years of ups and downs, including personal devastation and global catastrophe. It has taught her a lot about the value of adversity.

- By Liz Brody

Maybe your article should be titled “What to Do When Your Panties Are on Fire. ha ha”

That’s what Spanx founder Sara Blakely emailed me after we talked. It was March. The pandemic had just begun.

Blakely is famous for a few things: She’s a rare female billionaire, the defining personality in the estimated $1.8 billion global shapewear category, and just about every photo of her features a showstopping smile bright enough to reach the nosebleed section. But she has fallen on that happy face more than once.

“I believe a lot of really important, incredible innovation comes out of dark times,” she tells me. Spanx turns 20 this year, surviving September 11, the 2008 recession, and personal tragedy—and she expects no different now, despite closing her stores, watching sales slump, and losing a line of new product when a cargo ship caught fire. When we speak, she’s working from home, punting four kids under the age of 11 before they tackle her, and boldly reinventing herself and her company once again. “Actually,” she confesses, “I’m hiding in a closet.”

Here’s what she’s learned about crisis management.

CRISIS: Childhood trauma

STRATEGY: Train your mind