Mary Kay Ash (1918-2001)

Mary Kathlyn Wagner  is an American business leader and  entrepreneur. She was born on May 12,1918 in Hot Wells Texas. Mary Kay stands out as one of the America`s business giants.Her story is unique.Her ideas were bold.  In her childhood she used to hear a lot fro her mother the words “ You can do it Mary , you can do it” these words helped her to encourage, it was the motivation.  her mother had to work 14-hour days to support Mary Kay and her ailing father, little Mary Kay had to take on responsibilities well beyond her years. To get success was not easy for her, however she had talent in marketing. The company story didn`t begin until Mary Kay Ash faced resigned a position as a national training director in the Stanley Home Products  which she was hired in 1939.   when yet another man she had trained was promoted above her in 1952 –at twice her salary. Her response was visionary.  At first, she started writing a book that would help woman gain the opportunities she  had been denied. Sitting at her kitchen table, Mary Kay made two lists on a yellow legal pad. One list contained the good things she had seen in companies. The other featured things she thought could be improved. When she reviewed the lists, she realized she had created a marketing plan for a dream company.

MARY KAY WAY 

After her bad experience in the traditional workplace, Ash set out to create her own business at the age of 45. she started with an initial investment of  $5000 in 1963. She purchased the formulas for skin lotions from the family of a tanner who created the products while he worked on hides. with her son,Richard Rogers, she opened a small store in Dallas and had nine salespeople working for her. Today there are more than 1.6 million salespeople working for Mary Kay Inc. around the world. The company turned a profit in its first year and sold close to $1 million in products by the end of its second year driven by Ash's business acumen and philosophy. The basic premise was much like the products she sold earlier in her career.Hercosmetics were sold through at-home parties and other events. But Ash strove to make her business different by employing incentive programs and not having sales territories for her representatives. She believed in the golden rule - treat others as you want to be treated - and operated by the motto: God first, family second, and career third.Ash wanted everyone in the organization to have the opportunity to benefit from their successes..All of her marketing skills and people savvy helped make Mary Kay Cosmetics a very lucrative business. The company went public in 1968, but it was bought back by Ash and her family in 1985 when the stock price took a hit. The business itself remained successful and now annual sales exceed $2.2 billion, according to the company's website. She was known by her personaly that her love is a colour pink. She was admired for her strategies and the result they achieved, she wrote several books about her experiences in Mary Kay and in her life. 

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PERSONAL LIFE 

While she stepped down from her position as CEO of the company in 1987, Ash remained an active part of the business. She established the Mary Kay Charitable Foundation in 1996. The foundation supports cancer research and efforts to end domestic violence. In 2000, she was named the most outstanding woman in business in the 20th century by Lifetime Television. The cosmetics mogul died on November 22, 2001 in Dallas, Texas. By this time, the company she created had become a worldwide enterprise with representatives in more than 30 markets. She will be best remembered for building a profitable business from scratch that created new opportunities for women to achieve financial success. She married 3 times. Ash had three children - Richard,Ben and Marylyn - by her first husband. J.Ben Rogers. The two divorced after Rogers returned from serving in World War II. Her second marriage to a chemist was brief;he died of a heart attack in 1963, just one month after the two had gotten married. She married her third husband,Mel Ash, in 1966, and the couple stayed together until Mel`s death in 1980