Mary Kay Ash - Praising Women to Success
"I wasn't that interested in the dollars-and-cents part of business. My interest in starting Mary Kay Inc. was to offer women opportunities that didn't exist anywhere else.''
She was born Mary Kathlyn Wagner in 1918, in the small town of Hot Wells, Texas. At the time, the role of a woman in society was still firmly cemented in the house, not the workforce. It would be two years before women even got the right to vote in the United States.
Mary Kay, as her family called her, was no ordinary young woman. By the age of six, while other little girls were playing with their dolls, she had to care for her ailing father, while her mother worked a 14 hour shift at a restaurant to provide for the family.
She would take the bus alone to the grocery store to do the family shopping, and cook her father's favorite meals while being given instructions over the phone from her mother at work.
Her mother's indomitable spirit and constant belief in Mary Kay had a huge impact on the young girl. No matter what challenge she faced, her mother would tell her "You can do it!" This pride and self-confidence came to permeate and ground everything in her life.
The difficulties of her childhood came to a head at 17, when she married. She soon had three children to care for. When her marriage fell apart just a few years later, she was left as a young woman with three small children, no income, and no marketable skill.
Mary Kay moved to Dallas and began selling housewares at home parties to pay her bills. She was a natural "people person" who genuinely cared about others. She proved to be so adept at sales that over the next few decades she was able to build a good career... working her way up to a National Sales Director position at a giftware company, and extending its territory into 43 States.
But her ideas were often dismissed by male members of the board with the comment, "Oh, you're thinking just like a woman" – a remark that never failed to enrage her.
She was frustrated at being passed over many times for promotions, despite her proven abilities. The final straw came in 1963, when a man who had been hired as her assistant was promoted to a position at twice her salary. After 25 years in the direct selling business, Mary Kay had had enough, and quit her job.
"I learned back then that, as long as men didn't believe women could do anything, women were never going to have a chance," she once said.
She decided to write a book to help women survive in the male-dominated business world.
Sitting at her kitchen table, she took out a yellow legal pad and made two lists. One contained the good things she had seen in companies for which she had worked; the other listed the things she thought could be improved.
When she reviewed the lists, she realized that she had created the blueprint for a dream company of her own. A business in which working women could determine their own levels of advancement and compensation, be their own bosses, and set their own work schedules to still leave time for their children.
"I envisioned a company in which any woman could become just as successful as she wanted to be. The doors would be wide open to opportunity for women who were willing to pay the price and had the courage to dream."
But first she needed to find a product. It had to be something women could believe in, that they could recommend with all their hearts, and, most important, a product that could be used up and re-ordered over and over.
She knew that when people look good, they feel good, because their self-confidence is strong. And that idea set her on her journey.
With her $5,000 life savings and the help of her 20-year-old son, Richard, Mary Kay bought the recipe for a skin softener, furnished a small storefront in Dallas, and hired a local manufacturer to create a line of skin-care products. On September 13, 1963, with nine salespeople recruited from among her friends, Beauty by Mary Kay opened for business.
From the start, it was unique among direct-sales businesses. Instead of using high-pressure sales pitches, Ash instructed her salespeople (whom she called "consultants") to show women how they could use Mary Kay products to improve their appearance. Once women saw the results, she knew the products would sell themselves.
Her core value was simple - live by the Golden Rule. And she insisted that her consultants kept their priorities straight - "God, Family, Business - in that order"
By the end of the first year, they had reached almost $200,000 in sales. A year later, they had quadrupled that number, and their sales force had grown from the original 9 to more than 3000!
The company went public in 1968 and grew rapidly in the 1970s, breaking $100 million in sales by 1979.
Its growth was fuelled by a unique sales incentive system with its rewards targeted directly at women. They include luxury items such as mink coats, diamond rings and... of course... those crazy pink Cadillacs that go to the top achievers.
The gigantic annual sales conference or "Seminar" attracted thousands of consultants, who each paid their own way to hear and cheer Mary Kay's motivational presentations. These have become legendary examples of corporate recognition and team spirit.
Through their own hard work, she told them, any of the consultants could move through company ranks to reach the prized position of National Sales Director, with its salary of almost $1M. "I want you to become the highest-paid women in America," she said.
This was not contrived motivation. Mary Kay never forgot her mother's messages to her, and was a truly warm and generous person. Her handlers tried to avoid crowds by sneaking her through the hotel kitchens at her seminars, but Mary Kay would insist on stopping to greet the hotel staff along the way and ask them how they were. As a result, these "short cuts" could sometimes double or triple the time it took to get to stage! Mary Kay didn't care... she cared about people.
"Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says ‘Make Me Feel Important', she said. "Not only will you succeed in business, you will succeed in life."
It's a strategy she called "praising people to success"... and it remains a core value for the company. Mary Kay was a Five Level Leader - igniting her people's spirit and imaginations to create a powerhouse corporation.
Now you may laugh at "Pink". And I personally have some issues with the cosmetics industry and their images of women. But as of 2007, the company Mary Kay started at her kitchen table had an estimated $2.5B (US) in sales worldwide. And far more importantly, over 1,700,000 women in 35 different countries have gained financial independence and pursued their dreams because of one incredible woman's beliefs and vision.
Mary Kay herself retired as chairwoman in 1987, and was rarely seen in public after 1996... though she watched videos of each year's Seminar to keep track of her company. She died on Nov 6, 2001.
Within her lifetime, this talented entrepreneur had achieved recognition not only from the women whose lives she changed, but from the business world as well. She singlehandedly also opened the door for millions of women around the globe to experience success on their own terms. Her accomplishments left an unforgettable mark on American business and on the many communities to which the company has donated endless time and money.
When asked to name her greatest achievement, Mary Kay once proudly replied:
"I think the biggest legacy we are going to leave is a whole community of children who believe they can do anything in this world... because they watched their mamas do it."
Here's to Pink, Mary Kay! And to the power of genuinely caring for your people.
