Mary Kay Ash's Success Story

Founder of Mary Kay

If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right.

Mary Kay Ash is the Founder of the extremely popular Mary Kay line of beauty stores around the world. After her retirement from a sales job, she started her first store with $5000 she had as her life savings. She then grew the company to reach over $1 billion in sales.

Mary Kay Ash is the founder of Mary Kay Inc which has been included in the list of “The 100 best companies to work for in America” by Fortune magazine. Her line of cosmetic products is extremely popular. Even when she had achieved so much success in business, she has always held to her principle and told people that she put God first, family second, and work third in her list of priorities. Mary kept this as her guiding principal in life and has encouraged other women to achieve personal and financial success in their lives as well.

Mary was born in 1918 and named Mary Kathlyn Wagner. She married Ben Rogers at the age of 17 and had three children soon. When Ben was away serving in World War II, Mary sold books door to door. She was able to sell an amazing $25,000 worth of books within a short span of just 6 months. She then worked for Stanley Home Products where she was repeatedly passed by for promotions and pay raises which were passed on to men, even though she was one of the top sales directors. In 1963, Mary retired after 25 years of service.

She used this negative experience to list down all the negative as well as the positive traits she found in her previous employers. Once she was through, she had a list of powerful points which she knew was the perfect blueprint for the success of any company. So she started Mary Kay Inc. 1963 with the $5000 she had as her life savings and a little help from her son. The store opened its gates in Dallas with 9 independent beauty consultants. Mary based her entire company philosophy on her Christian faith. She also encouraged her people also to put God first in their life and family next. She made them understand the work came only after these two important priorities in life.

One of the most effective strategies used by Mary in her business is encouraging the staff with incentives. Mary Kay Inc. has a turn over of more than $1 billion with 37 markets distributed in 19 different countries in the world.

Mary Kay Ash died on November 22, 2001, Thanksgiving Day. One of her most memorable and insightful quotes is: “Do you know that within your power lies every step you ever dreamed of stepping and within your power lies every joy you ever dreamed of seeing? Within yourself lies everything you ever dreamed of being. Become everything that God wants you to be. It is within your reach. Dare to grow into your dreams and claim this as your motto: Let it be me.”