Mary Kay Ash had a long career as the CEO and founder of her own company, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Inc. Ash was born in 1918, started her cosmetics company in 1963, and ran it until her death in 2001.
The world-renowned company came from a book on entrepreneurship Ash started in 1963. From hypothetical business plan to real business to business empire. At the time of Ash’s death, the company boasted sales of over $200 million. Here are inspirational quotes from a wildly-successful entrepreneur.
1. “Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn’t know it so it goes on flying anyway.”
2. “For every failure, there’s an alternative course of action. You just have to find it. When you come to a road block, take a detour.”
3. “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.”
4. “Remember, if you do the things you ought to do when you ought to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them…Whatever you do or dream you can do—begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.”
5. “We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared.”
6. “Left eyebrow raised, right eyebrow raised.”
7. “Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it a secret.”
8. “People are definitely a company’s greatest asset. It doesn’t make any difference whether the product is cars or cosmetics. A company is only as good as the people it keeps.”