November 22, 2001, Mary Kay Ash passed away. At the time of her passing, there were 800,000 consultants in 37 countries netting $200 million. Today, Mary Kay Cosmetics is a multi-billion dollar industry in 40 countries with millions of consultants, and I am one of them. You may wonder how I can make money with a product that “everybody is selling”, but everybody is not selling and that is the point.
Mary Kay Ash started her company in 1963. After working many years in a ‘man’s’ world, she wanted to create a company for women with no glass ceilings. Women can make as much or as little as they wanted. They could move up to directorship if that was their goal. They earned rewards, both prizes and cash and yes, the coveted pink cadillac, but more importantly, they were appreciated. Today there are male consultants as well.
Mary Kay’s business strategies are taught at Harvard University. There was more to this lady than lipstick.
So what does this have to do with writing? Quite a bit. One of the simplest quotes from Mary Kay is, “nothing happens until somebody sells something.” Same goes for writing, nothing happens until somebody writes something. Another quote from Mary Kay is, “fake it until you make it”. Most people don’t like that quote, however, it means to dress the part, act the part as if you made it. Once you decide to write, you treat it as a job. You don’t put your writing on the back burner and think you will eventually get around to it, because you won’t. It doesn’t work that way. You wear what is comfortable to write in everyday, you sit at your computer everyday, you develop habits that eventually become second nature to you.
Mary Kay was big on letting go of what you do not have control of and not letting those things get the best of you. You have a book to write, or an article to submit or an essay to turn in. Situations are going to happen, that’s life, but as Mary Kay said, “no matter how you are feeling, get up, get dressed and show up.”
Next week: Holidays are not Merry for All
Until next time…
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