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Mary Kay: You Can Have It All: Lifetime Wisdom from America's Foremost Woman Entrepreneur

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Mary Kay may be the most successful woman entrepreneur in the world today, but she started her company as a single mother supporting three children—using her total life savings of $5,000. Following her priorities—God first, family second, and career third—and some sound, savvy business strategies, she managed to create a multibillion-dollar international company as well as a fulfilling life that reflects her values. Here she reveals to you how she did it, how thousands of other women have done it, and how you can do it, too!

Mary Kay accomplished all her goals without any special advantage—without trying to be a "superwoman." Instead, she rediscovered the timeless secrets of true success and happiness and applied them in her life. These are the secrets she now shares with you.
In Mary You Can Have It All, you will discover how

• Become more confident personally and professionally
• Deal with the male ego
• Plan your work and work your plan
• Do well by doing good
• And much, much more!

Mary Kay will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book to the Mary Kay Ash Center for Cancer Immunotherapy Research at St. Paul Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

Mary Kay Ash is the founder and chairman emeritus of Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc., listed among Fortune magazine's Most Admired Corporations in America and boasting annual retail sales of more than $1.5 billion.

Also available in Paperback.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 1995

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About the author

Mary Kay Ash

26 books72 followers
Mary Kay Ash was an American businesswoman and founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc.

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29 (16%)
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
7 reviews3 followers
January 23, 2010
There are many good thoughts in this book. Such as Mary Kay's definition of success as having a balanced life. She also thought it is important for women to be able to change from work hat to wife/mom hat when she comes home from work. And since the wife and mother usually sets the mood for her family in the morning, she encouraged her women readers to be positive and cheerful to set her family's tone for the entire day.

Another great ones are "don't waste dollar time on penny jobs". "Never turn down an opportunity to grow". "Do everything that's expected of you, and then some". "Every business is a people business". "People are happiest when they have goals, small and large, because the can look forward to attaining them". About this, she gave an illustration of a women who was sick with cancer, but by surrounding herself with "women who were setting goals and achieving them," she knew it would be good for her spirit. I also like her illustration of how praise and encouragement are essential to growth. When children are small, she observed, they often get praises from attempting the smallest thing like walking or learning to speak words. However, as the child grows up to adulthood, the amount of encouragement he/she is receiving is decreasing, which is detrimental to growth. Other general illustrations I like are the Japanese long term thinking illustration, how whether you fail or succeed starts in your mind illustration, the richest people in the cemetery illustration, Ivy Lee's six goals strategy, Robert Fulghum's funny observation about all he needs to learn he learned back in kindergarten. She also quoted great sayings that I never heard before like Disraeli's "The secret of success is constancy to purpose", Jefferson's "In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current".

However, to be able to distill the value of a 254 pages into only a few hundreds words like above doesn't really say much about the book. I personally dislike how much Mary Kay Cosmetics is permeating the content this book. Granted that she founded that company, but the book shines such a bright, blinding light on the Mary Kay Cosmetics company and the success that women experienced with it that it feels like a biased, promotional book instead of a semi-autobiography/business inspiration book that I was expecting to read.
Profile Image for Nadine Lumley.
26 reviews6 followers
March 21, 2017


Mary Kay Ladies Are Really Just Pawns in a Pyramid Scheme; the company's "girlfriend"-heavy tactics prey on your emotions while luring you into debt.

http://jezebel.com/5927139/mary-kay-l...



THE PINK PYRAMID SCHEME:
How Mary Kay Cosmetics preys on Desperate house wives
http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/i...

http://www.pinktruth.com/wp-content/u...



Most of today’s Mary Kay ladies are struggling, though, even as the company flourishes at their expense. Tracy Coenen, a financial-fraud investigator and the founder of the online community Pink Truth, estimates that Mary Kay consultants can hope to clear $25,000 per year, at best. Most who make money earn about minimum wage, while fewer than 300 of the 600,000 Mary Kay ladies in the United States net a six-figure income.

The women I interviewed for “The Pink Pyramid Scheme” told me stories about struggling to patch together daycare or to survive high-risk pregnancies while working long hours scouting prospects and hosting parties without any guarantee of a sale. Debts mounted, marriages failed. They couldn’t have it all because Mary Kay’s business model (like that of any multilevel-marketing enterprise) is designed primarily to profit from, rather than enrich, its workforce.

http://harpers.org/blog/2012/07/how-m...

16 reviews2 followers
June 27, 2008
Mary Kay has shit-tons of these books and I bought all of my at a thrift store in Montclair for a dime. She recycles the same stuff over and over again in all her books. Things have this weird fake corporate veneer that makes for some shockingly good reading. Oh the plucky anecdotes. She was a single mom and she sold her ass off door to door but she wanted more she took a leap of faith and blah blah blah giant pink house and women everywhere owe her big time! It's so great. I read it whenever I'm feeling down. And then I get up at 5am to clean my house before my kids kept up, cuz that's what Mary Kay did.
Profile Image for Melissa AuClair.
9 reviews4 followers
January 22, 2013
Women entrepreneurs haunt my bookshelves. Mary Kay's book was a fun read. Not all the practical applications are relevant to today (written in 1995) but the principles are timeless.

Mary Kay was not an overnight success- she worked hard, made a lot of sacrifices and truly lived her God first, family second, business third philosphy (I don't think there was much time in her life for anything else!)

For any woman looking to have a business herself (or enjoys a good book about women and business!), this is a good, fast read, very motivational and encouraging.
Profile Image for Christopher Lewis Kozoriz.
827 reviews272 followers
April 18, 2013
You can have anything in this world if you want it badly enough and are willing to pay the price. With you priorities in order, press on, and never look back. May all of your dreams come true. You can, indeed, have it all! ~ Mary Kay Ash

Written by the founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics. Some very good business and life lessons are shared in this book.

One time management skill that I obtained from this book was making a $60,000.00 list. That is, you create a task list of 6 things that are of the highest priority for the day and make an effort to accomplish these 6 things.
Profile Image for Cathy Caldwell.
167 reviews3 followers
February 2, 2016
I was challenged in January to re-read one of Mary Kay Ash's books. This book was released shortly before I became a Mary Kay Consultant 20 years ago. It has been a while since I have read it, and some of her thoughts now seem a bit dated 20 years later. However, the book is full of knowledge and wisdom from the top 20th century female entrepreneur. I love how her books are divided into sections so that you can read bits here and there as you are able.
Profile Image for Doug Boude.
3 reviews6 followers
October 10, 2017
Outstanding book! Nothing earth shattering in it, just good common sense from an experienced entrepreneur who practiced what she preached. Such a smart, refined, respectable lady...wish I could have met her in person. I will say though that after reading this, I want to attend a skin care class! And, I think that ALL women should attend a Mary Kay skin care class! It's far, far more than just makeup and products; it's self-esteem building!
Profile Image for DJ.
4 reviews
November 30, 2008
When you need a bit of inspiration, whether personal or business (maybe a bit of both), this is a good book to pick up.
Profile Image for Jack Lincoln.
2 reviews
Want to read
December 20, 2013
it's very interestting book for those who want succeed in life. I love this author and her quotes all the time! this must be read for all time of your life
Profile Image for Sabura.
121 reviews1 follower
October 25, 2020
It was okay. More inspirational than informational . Thought I would get more from this book on a professional level.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

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