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The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Kay Ash
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $12.31
You Save: $9.64 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1551
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0470379952
Dewey Decimal Number: 658
EAN: 9780470379950
ASIN: 0470379952
Publication Date: July 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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Product Description
The Mary Kay Way: Timeless Principles from America's Greatest Woman Entrepreneur is back in print and updated to reflect developments in today’s business environment for the modern entrepreneur. You will find inspiration and real, proven success principles that represents the forty-five year old success story of Mary Kay Ash, founder Mary Kay, Inc., the cosmetics company that provides women with unlimited opportunities for success. A foreword by Mary Kay’s grandson, also a company executive, introduces her timeless guide to entrepreneurial success.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Timeless, yes, but also timely August 19, 2008
This is a reissue of a volume that was first published in 1984 to which personal comments from Independent National Sales Directors from throughout the world were added, accompanying a Foreword by Mary Kay Ash's grandson, Ryan Rogers. Credit Yvonne Pendleton with a brilliant job of editing all of the material in this updated edition. Frankly, I did not fully appreciate this book when it was first published and then recently, my friend Randy Mayeux presented a brief program to a local business book breakfast group here in Dallas to which I belong. He carefully explained why, of anything, Mary Kay's insights concerning effective leadership are even more relevant now than they were more than 20 years ago. So I immediately obtained a copy of this edition and now share my own reactions to it.
As with so many other prominent CEOs, Mary Kay learned most (if not all) of what she considers to be the most valuable business lessons from negative experiences, both hers and others'. Prior to opening the doors to Mary Kay Cosmetics in a 500-square-foot store front in Dallas (Friday, September 13, 1963), she had been the victim of all manner of gender biases, broken promises, betrayals of confidence, etc. From the beginning of her new company, she included The Golden Rule among its core principles. The policies and procedures she formulated all shared the same objective: To create a workplace culture that nourishes and supports everyone's personal as well as professional development. The only limits on that development would be self-imposed. Mary Kay didn't stop there, however. She was determined to do everything humanly possible to help her associates to reject or eliminate such limits. She also expected everyone else to provide such help to those in need of it.
To guide and inform such supportive efforts, she devised eight management principles:
1. Praise People to Success
2. Tear Down That Ivory Tower
3. Be a Risk-Taker
4. Be Sales-Oriented
5. Be a Problem-Solver
6. Create a Stress-Free Workplace
7. Develop and Promote people from Within
8. Keep Business in Its Proper Place.
When the Independent National Sales Directors were surveyed prior to publication of this edition, they identified #1, #7, and #8 as having had the greatest impact on their personal as well as professional development and were most critical. They also ranked the chapters of this book in terms of their importance to them and four of the 23 chapters emerged: "Help Others Get What They Want - and You'll Get What You want" (Chapter 12) " "Golden Rule Management" (Chapter 1), "The Invisible Sign" (Chapter 3), and "The Speed of the Leader Is the Speed of the Gang" (Chapter 9). "Whenever I meet someone," Mary Kay once explained, "I try to imagine him or her wearing an invisible sign that says: MAKE ME FEEL IMPORTANT! I respond to this sign immediately, and it works wonders." Apparently it has also done so for others in her organization. The company began with nine Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultants; in 1984 when this book was first published, there were 200,000 in its sales force; today, there is a worldwide sales force of 1.8 million whose wholesale sales generate $2.4 billion.
Here are other representative examples of Mary Kay's "way" of thinking:
"A diamond bumblebee is the ultimate symbol of recognition at Mary Kay. It's the `crown jewel,' and its recipient is recognized as a queen...We think the bumblebee is a perfect symbol because, as aerodynamic engineers `proved' many years ago, the bumblebee cannot fly! Its wings are too weak, and its body is too heavy. Fortunately, the bumblebee doesn't know that and goes right on flying. At Mary Kay we teach people how to spread their wings and fly on their own. I can't think of a better way to help people."
"Enthusiasm is not just contagious - it spreads like wildfire. Employees often reflect the personalities of the company's owners. A chief executive's enthusiasm and positive personality can permeate an entire organization...Conversely, a lack of enthusiasm can produce devastating results. Hesitation and self-doubt are also contagious."
"In a well-run company that offers equal advancement opportunities for to all employees, the cream always rises to the top. In fact, a recent study of the best-managed companies in America shows that they are structured in a way that [begin italics] guarantees [end italics] the best people will be promoted to top levels of management. I view it as a sign of weakness when a company fails to develop a leadership team from within. Nothing prepares one better for the responsibilities of leadership than on-the-job training."
Although Mary Kay passed away in 2001, who she was and what she believed as well as the organization she created all live on in the lives she continues to nourish with her wisdom, her compassion, and most of all, her faith. Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have much of value to say about how to create customer evangelists. That is certainly a worthy objective. However, as Mary Kay suggests in this remarkable book, it is perhaps even more important to create employee evangelists. As she would correctly point out, no company will have customer evangelists unless and until it first has people representing it who are evangelists. That was her objective from the beginning and remains true of the company that bears her name 45 years later. Of how many other companies can that also be said?
Wow.Just Wow.Must read.Be succesful.Do it with care and kindness. August 14, 2008
This woman was a success and her company lives on in legacy for a reason.She knew what she was doing and her succesors would be wise not to doubt for a moment the things she put in motion.I am wildly inspired and equaly moved by this book.Practicing trating people with respect is common sense but so often forgoten in todays society that the proven power of it with the forfront leadership of the company is motivation enough for me to keep that the #1 in my futur direct sales.
Thumbs up for this one!
get your copy today! August 4, 2008
Get your very own copy today you will want to underline or highlite it and refer to it again and again!
THE MARY KAY WAY August 4, 2008
Mary Kay Ash gives Us Life Lessons as well as Business Lessons. Anyone that is in Sales would love learning Tips from Mary Kay Ash. Her Ideas and Tips are Timeless... in Life and in Everyday Selling!
God bless Mary Kay July 10, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
In an academic study by Baylor University, Mary Kay Ash, who founded Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1961 has been hailed the Greatest Female Entrepreneur in American History. After you read the Mary Kay Way, you'll know why. She built her company based on the Golden Rule--and she always practiced it, never deviating from the principle of treating others as she would want to be treated herself. She also instilled her values in others, and gradually over time, the company became one of the best-known brands in America and throughout the world. This is an amazing fact. Think about it. When did you ever see an advertsement for Mary Kay Cosmetics? The company advertises so rarely that chances are, you never saw one. But who doesn't recognize the name, Mary Kay? In reading the Mary Kay Way, Mary Kay's integrity and caring for others comes through loud and clear. Although Mary Kay Ash passed away in 2001, her legacy lives on through the countless success stories of the independent saleswomen who sell her products, build their own dynamic sales organizations under the Mary Kay umbrella--the ones who succeed and earn impressive incomes comparable to top executives at Fortune 500 companies are the ones who adhere to Mary Kay's philosophy of believing that anything is possible if you work dilligently, believe in yourself, and inspire others to believe in themselves. If everyone would follow the lessons that she shares throughout this book, he or she would succeed in any field. Today, the company has 1.8 million independent sales representatives selling the company's skin care products all over the world. Mary Kay Ash's legacy lives on--providing women around the globe with opporuntities to succeed and enjoy a piece of our free enterprise system--even in places where free enterprise is a rare commodity. For this, I salute the company for the tremendous goodwill it is exporting. The Pep Talk: A Football Story about the Business of Winning
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