The old Pink Cadillac. The grandest prize of them all.
Or so it was in the circles of Mary Kay.
There’s no disclaimer for me to give for this particular blog. I’ve never used a Mary Kay product in my life. Although growing up, it seems that Mary Kay, Estee Lauder, and Avon were on every woman’s nightstand.
That whole pink thing started back on September 13, 1963. That is when the Texas-born entrepreneur Mary Kay Ash launched her cosmetic company in Dallas. She had a vision. A drive. So, with her $5,000 life savings and the help of her 20-year-old son Richard Rogers, she made a “go” of things.
And. It worked. Mary Kay Inc. would become a cosmetic empire with revenue of more than $3.5 billion and salespeople in dozens of countries.
But. She wasn’t just about “powders” and “eye shadows.” Mary Kay Ash was a fierce advocate for women. She quit a sales job in the early 1960s after a man had been promoted to a position above her at double her salary. The “good old boy” network struck a blow, so she, in her own way, struck back.
“Those men didn’t believe a woman had brain matter at all. I learned back then that as long as men didn’t believe women could do anything, women were never going to have a chance.” This is what she told Texas Monthly magazine in 1995.
She believed in women. And their brains. Ash relished mentoring her saleswomen and referred to them as her “daughters.”
The business “Mary Kay” became one of the world’s largest direct-selling companies. The company became renowned for an award system designed for women. Those “rewards” included mink coats, diamond rings, and pink Cadillacs.
Ash once owned a 19,000-square-foot mansion with a gigantic pink marble bathtub.
She started small and took it large, it seems.
At her death, she had a fortune of $98 million, and her company had more than $1.2 billion in sales with a sales force of more than 800,000 in at least three dozen countries.
She became one of the most recognizable businesswomen in America.
Mary Kay died in 2001. She was 83.
So. Why do I write about her? Why do I care?
Well, I don’t know too much about her personally, to be honest. I don’t know if she was much of a philanthropist or not. I don’t know if she held open doors for people. Or if she let them over in her lane in traffic.
But. I do know that she aspired to do something, and she did it. An aspiration. A hope or ambition of achieving something.
I think aspirations are important.
We have them all the time. Our days are often filled with little aspirations. Everywhere we turn.
You might aspire to clean the kitchen, to write a letter, to knit a scarf, to take donations to the food pantry, or trim the rose bush.
Or. You might aspire to start a new company, lose ten pounds, walk to the library, or volunteer at the church.
Whatever it is, aspirations are filled with “seeing” and “doing.”
I think we should give ourselves credit for these.
And in small — or large — ways, we are making the world a better place.
We need more of that. Where people try to make the world a better place.
When we aspire.
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Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. — Louisa May Alcott
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The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations. — Adam Smith
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True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others. — Alek Wek
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The Pink Aspiration. And also all of ours.
