Reading Reflection 1

The thing that surprised me the most is how abruptly that Mary Kay started her company and with how little money she did it. I thought it was amazing that she went from selling Stanley products to starting her own dream cosmetics business with very little money and sort of on a whim.

I admire Mary Kay’s passion for hard work the most of anything. Most of this book talks about working non-stop even with kids and a family. Mary Kay talks about sacrifice and how many hour she had to put in to just make ends meet before opening her business, but also how hard she had to work to get her business to the pinnacle that it reached.

One thing that bothered me is how Mary Kay spoke about looking good as a woman and how it could help you to attain jobs and special treatment especially with males who were higher up on the totem pole. I think that whether you are male or female you should be judged the same on the work you do.

Mary Kay had her husband Die right before she had a large meeting in Dallas for her company. This did not stop her from taking the trip anyway and continuing with her company afterwards. She talks about how difficult it was because Mel was always at her side but she put on a happy face because she did not want to lower morale in the company. This shows real perseverance through adversity.

The main competencies that I noticed about Mary Kay was her hard work and that she always had goals that she strived to accomplish daily. This is something that I have always tried to do but it is difficult to write goals every day for that day. Mary Kay has done this every day for a long time and that is impressive.

I thought that this book bounced around a lot but talked about the same thing or period multiple times. For me it was a little confusing but also just frustrating to read on the same topic multiple times.

Being a woman what was the biggest barrier of entry getting into sales with Stanley first and then to start your own company?

What was the most difficult part of the startup process with your own business and how did you get past that?

I think that Mary Kay loved hard work and that she strived to work hard every day because working hard meant she was reaching her goals. I do share this opinion because I want to be the best at what I do every day and Mary Kay also did this striving to win awards that did not have a prize other than being recognized.


Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 15, 2017 at 9:29 PM

    I like that this post is about Mary Kay because my mom has used her products for her whole life and my sister even went through a time when she was selling Mary Kay makeup. I agree that it’s not the best that Mary Kay would use her looks as a tool to advance through her career but it’s inspiring to see how much she’s gone through to become such a success.

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