Mary Kay Ash: The Woman Behind the Pink Empire

Mary Kay Ash and the Creation of Mary Kay Cosmetics

One of the most successful female entrepreneurs in recent American history was Mary Kay Ash the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. How do you know when you have become a top-earning consultant for this billion-dollar industry? Simple you get the use of a pink Cadillac, for Mary Kay Ash pink was the color of success. She used it everywhere, from the packaging of her products to decorating her office. Mary Kay Ash worked hard her entire live. When she was only seven years old, her father came home from the institution he had been staying at since he had contracted tuberculosis. She was the youngest of four children, but ended up taking care of her father so her mother could continue working. She had to go to school, clean the house and cook dinner, which left her with little time to be an average seven-year old. She would talk to her mother every day on the phone to get instructions on how to cook dinner and her mother always took the time to answer any questions she might have. "You can do it!" her mother would say. (Ash, Mary Kay 10) It was these words that became the motto of the Mary Kay Cosmetics Corporation. After working in sales for 25 years she retired, after getting tired of having one man

One of the favorite awards to receive was the diamond bumblebee pin. First introduced at the 1970 convention, Mary Kay Ash would tell the amazing story of the bumblebee and how after studying it aerodynamics engineers concluded that it should not fly. But despite everything it did! It was a perfect symbol for the sales consultants of Mary Kay Inc. and showed them that a can-do attitude could help them fly as well. Mary Kay Ash once said, “Your attitude determines your altitude. It really is true that if you think you can, you can; and if you think you can’t, your