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Spanx Founder Sara Blakely's Guide to Surviving Anything The billionaire founder has been through 20 years of personal and professional ups and downs. And she's still thriving.

By Liz Brody • Jul 7, 2020

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This story appears in the July 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »

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.

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