How Spanx Got Me An Interview With Warren Buffett

While working on my book Getting There: A Book of Mentors, I found myself at a charity event with business legend Warren Buffett. The idea for Getting There was that leaders in a broad variety of fields would share their secrets to navigating the rocky road to the top, so I of course desperately wanted Buffett to participate. I had already sent a request to his office and been rejected, however, and the prospect of approaching him cold was daunting to say the least.

Then I thought about Sara Blakely, the inventor of the shapewear company Spanx. A few months earlier, I’d interviewed Blakely for Getting There and she told me how she camped...