Follow Your Dream No Matter The Odds

Mary Kay Ash made the world a better place for hundreds of thousands of women and their families because she believed in P & L; people and love. She said that her goal in life was to live in such a way that when she died people would knew that she cared. This amazing woman not only fulfilled that desire but she left this world with many empowered women and their offspring who now know that they can do anything. She showed people how to follow their dreams.Mary Kay, of the world famous Mary Kay Cosmetics company, was born in 1918 when the world was run primarily by men. She cared for her father from her early childhood years  so her mother could work to support her family. Mary’s mother is the one that taught her that she could do anything she wanted. She often encourage her daughter, telling her, “You can do it!” These are some of the reasons that Mary Kay Ash changed business history for the times she lived in.

I talk to so many young people (and older people) that speak in such apathetic, pessimistic tones and views. I find it sad in the face of a world so full of opportunity. While it is true that many are going to go to or are in college they are doing it as a means to an end not because their hearts are in it. They aren’t inspired with a heart dream. They think that a college degree will give them the income that they want.

In much the same way many individuals work their lives away doing things they don’t enjoy just to have a paycheck. Mary Kay Ash was going to college to become a doctor but she realized that her real passion and talent was in sales. She quit her education to follow her heart. She advanced to the position of sales director but then was continuously passed over for promotions whcih went to men that she had skillfully trained. In those days men were the ones that got the big positions.

The world was a different place back when Mary Kay was starting her cosmetics company. She didn’t let gender bias stop her from achieving great things. Many of us get stopped in following our dreams because we feel the deck is stacked against us. We may feel that failure is inevitable so why even bother trying. This is the mindset of lack and limitation. We truly can accomplish whatever we want but we must have a winners mindset; that being that we will handle whatever comes up on our road to success no matter what it is. Hugely successful people identify a problem and find a way to overcome it.

The first step for Mary Kay was in starting to write a book which evolved into a business plan for her dream cosmetics company. When we take the first step in following our dream it always leads us to the next step. Sometime it is something we didn’t see coming. Mary Kay started her business with her son, Richard Rogers having only $5000. She operated in a small store in Texas with nine sales consultants. A tiny start up ended up with almost $200,000 profit the very first year.

Passion and tenacity equal power in realizing our goals. Mary Kay’s success won her an interview on 60 Minutes which caused her business to skyrocket even further. Mary Kay Cosmetics became a household word and her trademark bonus for her stellar consultants, the pink Cadillac, could be seen on city streets everywhere. Her sales consultants followed her coaching and became a loyal tribe committed to her vision of caring for people and providing excellent products.

When we look at why Mary was so hugely successful in building a giant sales force we find that it was because she treated people honorably and kindly. People felt that she really did care about them. Her consultants were mostly home makers that wanted to be part of a big vision. These women believed in Mary Kay and her “You can do it!” motto. They believed in themselves because of her zeal.

There are some great lessons to be learned here for us:
1) Truly caring for the people we serve is the best sales tool;
2) Our enthusiasm for our product can be contagious and cause our product/service to go viral;
3) Following our dream and taking the first step can take us to levels of success we only imagined

When we start our business we may have the idea that the people that work for us are serving us. Having a heart attitude of caring for those that work with/for us can cause people to care about us, our vision and our product more than if we are detached and strictly business minded. Mary Kay saw into the hearts of the women who wanted to achieve success; she had been there. She helped thousands of women to believe that they were more than their circumstances. It is because of this caring attitude that she went from nine sales people to over 1.6 million consultants today.

Having passion and enthusiasm for our product or service is a vital key to success. This is why it’s important to create or choose a product to market that is close to our heart. Picking something to market simply because it can make us money isn’t a good plan. Enthusiam is contagious and people crave that kind of excitement. People want to believe in good things so when we are bubbling over with passion about what we believe in they want to be a part of it.

So many people live their whole lives carrying a dream inside their heart but never following that dream. Success requires action to move us forward. Mary Kay could have given up when she saw that men had it better in the work place. Instead she created a plan that gave hundreds of thousands of women around the world the opportunity to realize their financial goals. I’m sure she didn’t expect her actions to manifest in such huge proportions but she took the first step and then the next one. This is what successful people do Mary Kay Ash is one of the world’s outstanding entrepreneurs showing how to successfully build a huge empire from scratch. She will be held dear in the hearts of millions around the world because she created new opportunities for women to realize their financial dreams.

“Fortune magazine recognized Mary Kay Inc. with inclusion in “The 100 best companies to work for in America.” The company was also named one of the best 10 companies for women to work. Her most recent acknowledgements were the “Equal Justice Award” from Legal Services of North Texas in 2001, and “Most Outstanding Woman in Business in the 20th Century” from Lifetime Television in 1999″   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Ash