Selling opportunity : the story of Mary Kay / Mary Lisa Gavenas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gavenas, Mary Lisa, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Businesswomen--United States--Biography.

Businesswomen.

Cosmetics industry--United States.

Cosmetics industry.

Businesspeople--Biography.

Cosmetics industry--Biography.

Direct selling--Biography.

Entrepreneurship--Biography.

Ash, Mary Kay.

Mary Kay Cosmetics.

Ash, Mary Kay, 1918-2001--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

435 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Story of Mary Kay

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2026]

Summary:

"The only woman in Forbes' Greatest Business Stories of All Time and the first woman to chair a company on the New York Stock Exchange, Mary Kay Ash has a life story that reads like a Barbara Taylor Bradford novel Growing up in Depression-era Texas, Mary Kathlyn Wagner is a dutiful daughter and diligent student with ambition aplenty and no place to use it. Married at sixteen, she is a grandmother at thirty-four. When she is not cooking or cleaning or taking care of the kids, she peddles cleaning products to other housewives. The work has no salary and no security but she sticks with it, sure that direct selling will somehow make her dreams come true. In 1963, after she has been divorced three times and widowed twice, she sets up her own company, selling second chance and self-invention for the price of a skin care showcase. Soon millions know her as the little lady in the big wig who gives away pink Cadillacs. From its unpromising start in a 500-square-foot Texas storefront, Mary Kay Inc. grows into a global phenomenon with 3.5 million reps in over 35 countries. She becomes the most famous saleswoman in the world. Maybe the most famous ever. Based on fifteen years of research, Selling Opportunity gives us a page-turning rags-to-riches story set against the background of direct selling in all its overstated, over-the-top glory. Here, for the first time, is the definitive history of a peculiarly American industry and a mid-century mindset that ennobled extreme self-reliance, sticking to your guns, and blind faith in the American dream"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The change-of-life baby

"You can do it!"

Confidence

Sell ten, get one free

Acres of diamonds within reach

An alligator bag

"S-T-A-N-L-E-Y, Stanley all the time"

"Salesmen are not born, but made"

The god of abundance

A house is not a home

Storyteller

"A golden door marked 'men only' "

Friday the thirteenth

Praise forward to success

That Mary Kay enthusiasm

Thursday-night Hallmark cards

"Next year, you'll do even better"

A pink Cadillac

Horatio Alger stories

Reach out and touch

A pink palace

"Something to work toward-constantly"

"My legacy is assured"

"The idealization"

"The face of business for women".

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780670015412

0670015415

OCLC:

1530783350

Publisher Number:

90104358695