Sara Blakely | Florida State University 2026 Commencement Address
Key ideas
Blakely tells graduates that her biggest early investment was in her own thinking, and that this self-work is what carried her through rejection, embarrassment and uncertainty.
From a machine transcript of the audio. Quotes link to the moment they are said.
- 1
Invest in how you think first
Blakely calls investing in herself the most critical thing she did. She traces this to self-help tapes her father gave her at 16, and describes the habits that followed: journaling, scheduling time to think, asking herself hard questions and trying things that scared her.
- 2
Years of rejection came first
Blakely recounts failing the LSAT twice, getting rejected by all 20 companies at a campus job fair, working at Disney and then selling fax machines door to door for seven years. She says she pulled off the road after one hard day and declared this was not her life, and that she started Spanx two years later.
- 3
Inexperience can force an original approach
Blakely argues that not knowing the standard way can help, since it pushes you to do things differently, and says that is where real change comes from. Her examples are writing her own patent from a bookstore guide because she could not afford an attorney, and trademarking the name online herself with a credit card.
- 4
Let embarrassment lose its power
Blakely tells of hunting through the yellow pages for a part her factory could not supply after landing her first big order, and says that when you drive your own thoughts a crisis pushes you rather than derails you. She then tells of accidentally saying something mortifying in a BBC interview while launching Spanx in England, and argues the worst outcome of embarrassment is being memorable, and that self-work protects you when it happens.
- 5
Protect time alone to think
Blakely warns graduates that the world is competing for their attention and tells them to guard time for daydreaming, picturing where they want to end up and challenging their limiting beliefs. She frames the choice as distracting yourself or discovering yourself.
In Sara’s words
“Real innovation and real change happens when someone is willing to do it differently.”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely | Florida State University 2026 Commencement Address·Watch at 10:34(opens the original in a new tab)“When the fear of being embarrassed loses its power over you, that's when you become the most powerful.”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely | Florida State University 2026 Commencement Address·Watch at 12:47(opens the original in a new tab)“Everybody has self-doubt. But the people who are the most successful have just learned how to manage it.”
Sara Blakely·Sara Blakely | Florida State University 2026 Commencement Address·Watch at 15:48(opens the original in a new tab)About this entry
- Published
- May 6, 2026
- Channel
- FloridaState
- Type
- Video
- Length
- 19:38
- Language
- English
- Added
- Nov 2, 2026
- Source last checked
- Nov 2, 2026
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Draft. Written by us with AI from a machine transcript of the video’s audio (Whisper) and checked against it. Machine transcripts can mishear; each quote links to the moment so you can hear it. Not yet rights-reviewed.
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