Florida State University awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters to alumna and Spanx founder Sara Blakely during spring commencement Friday, recognizing a career built on instinct, persistence and a willingness to do things differently.
When Blakely took the stage, she didn’t dwell on success. She talked about failure, self-doubt and the decision that shaped everything that came next.
“The most critical thing that I did — the thing that everyone here can do — is I made one big investment early on,” she told the graduates. “I invested in me.”
Blakely returned to campus 33 years after graduating from Florida State, where she said her dreams began, even if her path after college didn’t go as planned.
She had hoped to become a lawyer. She failed the LSAT twice. She went to a job fair and was rejected by 20 companies. She hoped to be Goofy at Disney World and didn’t meet the height requirement.
Eventually, she found herself selling fax machines door to door for seven years.
“It was brutal,” she said, recalling days of rejection while her peers moved into careers as lawyers, doctors and corporate executives.
At one point, she pulled her car to the side of the road and said out loud: “I’m in the wrong movie.”
Two years later, she started a company called Spanx.
What began as a simple fix — cutting the feet off a pair of pantyhose to improve the way clothing fit — grew into a global brand that reshaped the shapewear industry. Blakely built the company without outside investors, eventually selling a majority stake in 2021 after turning it into a billion-dollar business.
She has continued working on another venture called Sneex, a footwear company she launched to combine the comfort of a sneaker with the look and style of a heel.
FSU President Richard McCullough conferred Blakely’s degree during Friday evening’s ceremony at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, the first honorary degree awarded during his presidency.
In introducing her, he described Blakely as someone defined by curiosity and perseverance and a cultural force whose success began with a simple belief: There must be a better way.
After the hooding, McCullough turned back to the audience and said, “It is now my honor to introduce, for the first time, Dr. Sara Blakely.”
Blakely told graduates that the curiosity and persistence behind her success is available to anyone willing to do the work on themselves.
“You can be a spectator in your life or a participant,” she said. “You can be a passenger of your thoughts or the driver of your thoughts. I chose to be the driver.”
That idea, she said, traces back to her teenage years, when her father gave her cassette tapes by author Wayne Dyer that focused on mindset, visualization and not fearing failure. She listened to them so often she memorized them, even if it made her unpopular on car rides with friends.
Years later, after building Spanx and landing on the cover of Forbes for being the youngest female self-made billionaire, those same friends sent her a message: “Should have listened.”
Blakely’s speech mixed humor with hard-earned lessons. She told stories about scrambling to fulfill her first major order without the right manufacturing pieces, navigating embarrassing moments on international television and writing her own patent because she couldn’t afford an attorney.
“I had no experience, but I had belief,” she said.
She also warned graduates about the challenge of distraction in a fast-moving world and urged them to protect time to think, reflect and grow.
“You can distract yourself or you can discover yourself,” she said.
At one point, Blakely held up a worn red backpack, the same one she carried as a student at Florida State and later to early business meetings. Today, it serves as a symbol for her Red Backpack Foundation, which supports women and girls around the world.
“It’s a reminder that everything you need is already right there on your back,” she said.
Blakely’s recognition marks the 133rd honorary degree conferred by the university.