How Failure Molded Spanx's Founder

As a kid, Sara Blakely was advised to fail. The founder of Spanx, a $150 million hosiery company, says it was the best advice she ever received by

What's the best piece of business advice you ever received?

It probably came down to my father. When I was growing up, he encouraged us to fail. We'd come home from school and at dinner he'd say: 'What did you fail at today?' And if there was nothing, he'd be disappointed. It was a really interesting kind of reverse psychology. I would come home and say that I tried out for something and I was just horrible and he high-fived me.