A Fresh Face in the World: Mary Kay Ash is Born
A Fresh Face in the World: Mary Kay Ash is Born
Born on May 12, 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas, Mary Kay Ash’s carefree childhood was short lived. Her parents operated a hotel and restaurant so popular that people would often come from Houston – over 25 miles away – to visit. However, when Ash was just seven years old, her father became seriously ill with tuberculosis and was forced to move into a sanatorium. Ash’s mother sold the hotel and restaurant and moved her family to Houston, where she opened a small café. Here, Ash was kept busy with the cleaning and cooking.
Ash was a fiercely competitive girl in school, attributing it to a rivalry with a girl who lived next door who, “had everything I wanted to have and did everything I wanted do to,” said Ash. Soon, Ash was bringing home straight A’s, winning typing contests and ranking in the top three at state improvisational speaking contests. “My mother’s words became the theme of my childhood,” said Ash. “They have stayed with me all my life: ‘You can do it.’”
After graduating from Houston’s Reagan High School, Ash had wanted to enroll in Rice Institute. However, for financial reasons, Ash was forced to give up on her dream of going to college. She soon married Ben Rogers, a musician with whom she would come to have three children. After eleven years of marriage, Rogers was drafted during World War II and would file for divorce from Ash while away on duty. “It was the lowest point in my life,” she later recalled. “I felt like a complete failure as a woman.”
Ash was now left to take care of her three children on her own. She began taking premed courses at the University of Houston, while also working part time as a secretary at the Tabernacle Baptist Church and as a sales representative for Stanley Home Products (SHP). SHP used home demonstrations and independent contractors to sell its merchandise. Soon, Ash made the decision to work for SHP full time, but success would come slowly to her.
With no sales experience, Ash’s profits were initially barely enough to support her family. However, a regional sales convention in Dallas would change everything. Here, in addition to learning more about sales techniques, Ash became fascinated with the convention’s annual crowning of a ‘sales queen’. Ash wanted to be the next sales queen. When she returned to Houston, Ash told the company’s president about her goal. “He took my hand in both of his, looked me square in the eye and after a moment said, ‘Somehow I think you will’,” Ash recalled. “Those five words changed my life.”
At the next year’s Dallas convention, Ash was indeed crowned ‘sales queen’. Nevertheless, it was precisely Ash’s success that would soon lead to her undoing.
A Fresh Face in the World Mary Kay Ash is Born
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“Most people live and die with their music still unplayed,” Mary Kay Ash once said. “They never dare to try.” Ash was not one of those people. Raised in a time when few women were in business, let alone successful in business, Ash broke down barriers on her rise up to creating a multi-billion dollar operation. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc. continues to be a leader in the industry, with outlets in over 30 countries that are staffed by 1.6 million employees.
Born on May 12, 1918 in Hot Wells, Texas, Mary Kay Ash’s carefree childhood was short lived. Her parents operated a hotel and restaurant so popular that people would often come from Houston – over 25 miles away – to visit. However, when Ash was just seven years old, her father became seriously ill with tuberculosis and was forced to move into a sanatorium. Ash’s mother sold the hotel and restaurant and moved her family to Houston, where she opened a small café. Here, Ash was kept busy with the cleaning and cooking.
Ash was a fiercely competitive girl in school, attributing it to a rivalry with a girl who lived next door who, “had everything I wanted to have and did everything I wanted do to,” said Ash. Soon, Ash was bringing home straight A’s, winning typing contests and ranking in the top three at state improvisational speaking contests. “My mother’s words became the theme of my childhood,” said Ash. “They have stayed with me all my life: ‘You can do it.’”
After graduating from Houston’s Reagan High School, Ash had wanted to enroll in Rice Institute. However, for financial reasons, Ash was forced to give up on her dream of going to college. She soon married Ben Rogers, a musician with whom she would come to have three children. After eleven years of marriage, Rogers was drafted during World War II and would file for divorce from Ash while away on duty. “It was the lowest point in my life,” she later recalled. “I felt like a complete failure as a woman.”
Ash was now left to take care of her three children on her own. She began taking premed courses at the University of Houston, while also working part time as a secretary at the Tabernacle Baptist Church and as a sales representative for Stanley Home Products (SHP). SHP used home demonstrations and independent contractors to sell its merchandise. Soon, Ash made the decision to work for SHP full time, but success would come slowly to her.
With no sales experience, Ash’s profits were initially barely enough to support her family. However, a regional sales convention in Dallas would change everything. Here, in addition to learning more about sales techniques, Ash became fascinated with the convention’s annual crowning of a ‘sales queen’. Ash wanted to be the next sales queen. When she returned to Houston, Ash told the company’s president about her goal. “He took my hand in both of his, looked me square in the eye and after a moment said, ‘Somehow I think you will’,” Ash recalled. “Those five words changed my life.”
At the next year’s Dallas convention, Ash was indeed crowned ‘sales queen’. Nevertheless, it was precisely Ash’s success that would soon lead to her undoing.
A Fresh Face in the World Mary Kay Ash is Born
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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