00:30If you think you can, you can, and if you think you can't, you're right.
00:36Mary Kay Ash.
00:39Mary Kay was born on May 12, 1918 in Hauntwells, Harris County, Texas, as Mary Kathleen Wagner.
00:46Within two years of her birth, the family moved to the Sixth Ward, Houston, and it was there that she spent her growing up years.
00:53Her father, Edward Alexander Wagner, was afflicted with tuberculosis.
00:57When Mary Kay was around three years old, he was sent away to a tuberculosis sanatorium where he lived for four years.
01:05It was her mother, Lula Vember Hastings, who mostly took care of them.
01:09A trained nurse, she later became a manager at a restaurant, working there from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.
01:16In spite of that, she, as a female worker, was never adequately paid.
01:20Mary Kay was born youngest of her parents' four children.
01:24Her two sisters, Delia Koch and Daisy Wagner, and brother, Cecil DeWitt Wagner, left home by the time their father returned from the sanatorium.
01:33Therefore, it fell upon seven-year-old Mary Kay to take care of him.
01:37She was also entrusted with running the household, cleaning, shopping, and cooking for herself and her ailing father.
01:43When she found something unmanageable, she would call her mother and receive instruction over the phone.
01:49Mary Kay began her education at Dow Elementary School, later moving to Reagan High School, graduating from there in 1934.
01:58She was a good student and won many prizes as an orator.
02:01After her bad experiences in the traditional workplace, Ash set out to create her own business at the age of 45.
02:07She started with an initial investment of $5,000 in 1963.
02:13She purchased the formulas for skin lotions from the family of a tanner who created the products while he worked on Hyde's.
02:19With her son, Richard Rogers, she opened a small store in Dallas and had nine salespeople working for her.
02:26Today, there are more than 1.6 million salespeople working for Mary Kay, Inc. around the world.
02:31The 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.
02:42The basic premise was much like the product she sold earlier in her career.
02:46Her cosmetics were sold through at-home parties and other events.
02:50But Ash strove to make her business different by employing incentive programs and not having sales territories for her representatives.
02:57She 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.
03:07Ash wanted everyone in the organization to have the opportunity to benefit from their successes.
03:12Sales representatives, Ash called them consultants, bought the products from Mary Kay at wholesale prices, and then sold them at retail price to their customers.
03:21They could also earn commissions from new consultants that they had recruited.
03:24Married three times, Ash had three children, Richard, Ben, and Marilyn, by her first husband, J. Ben Rogers.
03:32The two divorced after Rogers returned from serving in World War II.
03:36Her second marriage to a chemist was brief.
03:38He died of a heart attack in 1963, just one month after the two had gotten married.
03:43She married her third husband, Mel Ash, in 1966.
03:47And the couple stayed together until Mel's death in 1980.
03:50All of her marketing skills and people savvy helped make Mary Kay Cosmetics a very lucrative business.
03:57The company went public in 1968, but it was bought back by Ash and her family in 1985 when the stock price took a hit.
04:04The business itself remained successful, and now annual sales exceed $2.2 billion, according to the company's website.
04:11At the heart of this profitable organization was Ash's enthusiastic personality.
04:17She was known for her love of the color pink, and it could be found everywhere, from the product packaging to the Cadillac she gave way to top-earning consultants each year.
04:25She seemed to sincerely value her consultants, and once said, people are a company's greatest asset.
04:31Her approach to business attracted a lot of interest.
04:34She was admired for her strategies and the results they achieved.
04:37She wrote several books about her experiences.
04:40In 1996, she established the Mary Kay Charitable Foundation.
04:44Bearing her legacy, it continues to support cancer research and work towards eradicating domestic violence.
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