Reading Reflection No. 1

What surprised you the most?
What always amazes me is the difference between the beginning and end of one's journey. Before Mary Kay Ash founded Mary Kay cosmetics, she was a door to door sales woman way back in the 1930s and had various other jobs, three marriages, and a daughter and two sons before she undertook her project.

What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
Mary Kay cosmetics was kickstarted with only $5,000 and 9 employees. It wasn't a paradigm business model that drove Mary Kay's business into a cosmetic empire, but her faith in her employees and positive philanthropy. Mary Kay firmly believed that the returns you yield are proportional to the work and faith you put into the project. Mary Kay expanded her brand and products to 32 countries by investing in her employees as she wished to have them invest in her and the brand, continually recognizing her employee's accomplishments and "praising people to success".

What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
There is a quote in the book that did rub me the wrong way. "I believe that the only difference between successful and unsuccessful people is extraordinary determination." There was once a time I was so righteous about this claim that I could not be convinced otherwise. I thought, surely where there is failure there is a lack of will, and accomplishments are not achieved without determination and pursuit. When I read this quote, after a few years of service with various groups of those in need, I had a pang of guilt rise within me. Mary Kay rose from very little and has trail-blazed magnificent paths for women in a man's world, but I wish she would have examined this quote more in regards to those who are truly unfortunate before making her claim.

Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
During this time, it was a man's world and the workforce did not provide gender equality. While Mary Kay worked herself to the top of her company, Stanley Home Products at the time, she was being bypassed for promotions and watched men who hadn't work nearly as hard as she transcend her in the company. When she wasn't satisfied with the way she was being treated, she moved on to a new company and was the driving force to World Gift's international success. After ten years of devoted work, she left the company with haste once a man she personally trained was rewarded double her salary and promoted to her supervisor. Working under extreme gender inequality is what propelled Mary Kay Ash to begin her own company.

What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?
Furthermore, she knew how to set priorities and identify the needs of her business, others, and herself. Mary Kay always kept her goals in mind, exhibiting diligence, and always working her way to the top despite her challenges.

Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.?
I have been fortunate to not lose a member of my immediate family or friends. Mary Kay's husband passed one month prior to the opening of her company of natural causes. Due to the traumatic incident, she was surrounded by advice from others including her lawyers and accountant to halt the momentum of the company and bring her entrepreneurial plans to a halt. With all of this going on, aside from her own mental workings and emotion, Mary Kay refused to stop the clock and pushed on with the process, opening up her company regardless of the death of her recent husband. Mary Kay does not extrapolate so much on her obstacles or challenges but more so on overcoming them. I was confused as to how she was able to remove her emotional environment from her business endeavors and decisions, as I don't quite know if I would be able to do the same with the loss of someone so dear to me.

If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?
Mostly due to my confusion from the question above, I would ask Mary Kay how she was able to cope emotionally with the loss of her husband during the turning point of her company and why she pursued the endeavor when she had no idea how the company would turn out. Furthermore, I would like to ask her about her insane incentives and what HER incentive was by providing such extravagant rewards like diamond jewelry and pink cars! Many successful companies apply incentives such as bonuses, certificates, gift cards, but I'm genuinely wondering where on earth she decided that giving away diamonds and cars were going to catalyze her sales, and what the numbers that justify these incentives look like.

For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?
Certainly, her opinion of hard work was determination with every course of action taken: have the confidence that you will excel beyond others. She stresses, "“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe remember you can achieve,” and instilled in me that for every obstacle that I will come across, I can find an alternative route and still succeed with my goals. I firmly believe in her opinion of hard work. Coming from an impoverished and homeless family and suffering from abuse and neglect, I employed many of Mary Kay's mantras and ideas of hard work and diligence in order to pave a path for myself to higher education. I am an unaccompanied youth that transcended her rough environment through hard work, and am currently a student at the University of Florida on a full ride. Working hard means having faith in yourself and keeping your goals in sight, no matter what.