The beauty mogul died in 2021 on Thanksgiving Day at the age of 83, and inspired many salespeople during her decades of work
Credit: Colin Mcconnell/The Toronto Star/Shutterstock
NEED TO KNOW
- Mary Kay Ash founded Mary Kay Cosmetics after decades of perfecting her direct sales technique with other companies
- Mary Kay worked hard well into her 70s before she suffered a stroke in 1996
- Mary Kay’s journey is reviewed in Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay by Mary Lisa Gavenas
Mary Kay Ash worked hard to keep her beauty business afloat.
In Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay by Mary Lisa Gavenas, the author looks back at how Mary Kay built her direct-sales beauty empire through life's twists and turns.
The book describes Mary Kay as working hard into her 70s, so much so that her younger counterparts sometimes found it difficult to keep up. Gavenas describes the founder waking up at 5:00 a.m. and describing her schedule as "the nine-day workweek."
"Never stingy with self-improvement tropes, she not only encouraged consultants to join her in 'the Five O'Clock Club,' she personally telephoned new members at five thirty to chirp encouragement. She had to let them know that they could do it too. She just had to," the biography shares.
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Mary Kay was also a woman of habit, devoting 27 minutes of each morning to getting ready, while listening to a 21-minute-long self-improvement tape as she did.
When it came to lunch, she preferred to work through it, Ash's longtime assistant, Erma Thomson, noted. "Men were always trying to get her to go to lunch, but she didn't want to go to lunch with people. She liked to work."
Ironically, the long days were far from her original goal: a job she could succeed at as a woman without sacrificing her whole day away from home.
"I needed a method by which I could earn money and not be gone eight or nine hours a day. A Stanley party lasted approximately four hours, maybe five by the time you got there and got home again," Mary Kay once said, noting that she'd make "an equivalent amount that you might make in those days on a full eight-hour job" as a woman.
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Mary Kay continued to work hard, even after she was sidelined by a stroke in 1996. She was rendered unable to speak, and it was not her first stroke.
Though she'd pushed through other health struggles, this time it would be life-changing. She could no longer show up to the company's headquarters or appear at their sales events and seminars.
The same year as her stroke, Mary Kay made her final appearance on stage at a seminar, where Mary Kay sat as a message was delivered on her behalf. The message was, "It is true, I did see the dream! I did see the vision! I did provide you the vehicle, and for thirty-four years I have watched with such pride, because you just took my dream and this opportunity and ran with it."
Credit: Colin McConnell/Toronto Star via Getty
After the message was read, Mary Kay made a surprise appearance. She'd practiced a short message to say to the crowd, but was unable to in the moment, instead mouthing, "You can do it!"
She continued to weigh in on some company matters, as well as her charitable foundation, with hand gestures and eye movements. This continued until November 22, 2001, when Mary Kay died on Thanksgiving at the age of 83.
Selling Opportunity: The Story of Mary Kay is now available wherever books are sold.
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