Mary Kay Ash: One of the Great Leaders of the Twentieth Century

From humble beginnings, Mary Kay Ash used her past experiences and a ‘You can do it” attitude to achieve great success in a world dominated by men. She was a driving force in a world that passed her over in favor of men she had trained. She retired from that world to write a book about how she would run a business; instead of writing that book she used her research, notes, and the book draft as a business model to start one of the most successful cosmetic companies of the twentieth century. Her great leadership’s skills and mentoring abilities allowed her company to excel and created a place in the business world for women as equals to men.

Mary Kathlyn Wagner was born in Hot Wells, Texas, the daughter of Edward and Lula Wagner. The year was is a mystery, but most have guessed between 1915 and 1918. Texas has no record of her birth. She never confirmed or denied the date, but sometimes alluded to 1916. In 1920 her family moved to Houston’s Sixth Ward, the tarnished edge of a historic city, uninviting almost dismal at the time. At the age of seven or eight she became the caretaker of her invalid father, her mother worked fourteen hours days to support her family. “Coaching [Mary Kay] through the cooking, shopping, and chores, Lula would say, “You can do it Mary Kay! You can do it!” words that later became a “Mary Kay-ism”… (Gavenas, 2010), there is a whole book of them now. She was even allowed to buy her own cloths, something she loved. A rough beginning for sure but Mary Kay would not give up.

At seventeen she married and had three children with her first husband Ben Rogers, a gas station attendant and part-time musician. Their only choice they was to live with her mother; Ben’s pay just was not enough. After eleven years of...

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...llion dollar global business and changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of women. She has received over 75 awards for her great work and accomplishments. Mary Kay Ash, one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century. Her legacy lives on in the global company she created, now called Mary Kay Inc. and the charitable organization she founded The Mary Kay Ash Foundation.

Works Cited

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Gavenas, M. (2010). Mary Kay Ash. American National Biography, 1. Retrieved from

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Marilyn, M. (2010, September 30). The Hopeful Face of Mary Kay. Investors Business Daily.

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Williams, P. & R., and Mink, M. How to be like women of influence.

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