Great Throughts Treasury

"Our success is much, much deeper than just dollars and cents and buildings and assets. The real success of our Company is measured in the lives that have been touched and given hope! "

"What you are speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you're saying. How you live your life the image you project, the example you set, speaks so loudly that if it's not in harmony with what you are telling people, what you're saying will just never be believed. "

"Have the will to win. Go after it! Remember that work will win where wishing won't. "

"The real success of our personal lives and businesses can best be measured by the relationships we have with the people most dear to us - our family and friends. If we fail in this aspect of our lives, no matter how vast our worldly possessions or how high we climb, we will have achieved very little."

"Good managers are good listener. God gave us two ears and one mouth. Let's use them proportionally. "

"When you listen, you receive the benefit of receiving the necessary information and you let the other person feel important. "

"?If I were this person, how would I want to be treated?? To this day, when I am searching for a solution to a people problem, I ask myself that question. And when I do, even the most difficult problem soon becomes unraveled."

"Aerodynamically the bumble bee should not be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn?t know it, so it goes on flying anyway."

"A company is only as good as the people it keeps."

"A company is only as good as its people."

"At our beauty shows we do not like a beauty consultant to think, ?How much can I sell these women?? Instead we stress, ?What can I do to make these women leave here today feeling better about themselves? How can I help them have a better self-image??"

"Be the kind of person who can always be counted on to do what you say you?ll do."

"All through school we?re taught to read, write and speak ? we?ve never taught to listen."

"Each of us wants to feel good about himself or herself, but to me it is just as important to make others feel the same way."

"Anytime I made a suggestion my boss would say, ?Mary Kay, you think like a woman!? I had this terrible burning inside that said, ?Women deserve more than they?re getting.? [Before starting her business in 1963]"

"Building my career and caring for my family had been everything to me. I never liked those things other people seemed to enjoy for relaxation."

"All I did was listen, nod my head, and ask, ?What do you think you ought to do?? I asked her that several times, and each time she went on to tell me what she thought she should do. The next day I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers with a lovely note thanking me for my terrific advice."

"Before our doors opened for business, I vowed that no one associated with my company would ever be subjected to unfair treatment or unjust management."

"Conduct yourself in business with the same scruples you would want your children to observe in their lives."

"Central banks don't have divine wisdom. They try to do the best analysis they can and must be prepared to stand or fall by the quality of that analysis."

"Do not desire to fit in. Desire to lead."

"Don?t our biggest thrills in life come from realizing goals?"

"Each of us craves to be recognized."

"Enthusiasm? moves mountains!"

"Every basic analysis of leadership emphasizes the importance of integrity."

"Every failure, obstacle or hardship is an opportunity in disguise. Success in many cases is failure turned inside out. The greatest pollution problem we face today is negativity. Eliminate the negative attitude and believe you can do anything. Replace 'if I can, I hope, maybe' with 'I can, I will, I must.'"

"Every person is special! I sincerely believe this. Each of us wants to feel good about himself or herself, but to me it is just as important to make others feel the same way. Whenever I meet someone, I try to imagine him wearing an invisible sign that says: Make Me Feel Important! I respond to this sing immediately, and it works wonders."

"Give yourself something to work toward ? constantly."

"God didn't have time to make a nobody, only a somebody. I believe that each of us has God-given talents within us waiting to be brought to fruition."

"Each person whose hand I shake is the most important person in the world at that moment."

"Everyone wears a sign that says ?Make me feel important.?"

"Every person should have a lifetime self-improvement program."

"Everyone has an invisible sign handing from their neck saying, ?Make me feel important.? Never forget this message when working with people."

"God does not ask your ability, or your inability. He asks only your availability."

"Good people are a company?s most important asset. People are more important than the plan."

"He knew absolutely nothing about the specifics of the business. When salespeople would go to him for answers, there wasn?t anything he could tell them ? because he didn?t know anything! Nonetheless, this man really knew how to listen. So no matter what they would ask him, he?d answer, ?What do you think you ought to do?? They?d come up with the solution; he?d agree; and they?d leave satisfied. They thought he was fantastic."

"Help other people get what they want ? and you?ll get what you want."

"I always look each person squarely in the eyes and whenever possible, try to say something personal. It might be only a comment such as ?I love your hair?, or ?What a beautiful dress you?re wearing,? but I give each person my undivided attention, and I don?t allow anything to distract me. Each person whose hand I shake is the most important person in the world at that moment."

"God first, family second, career third."

"I believe that work if often the best antidote for grief."

"I believe every person has the ability to achieve something important, and with that in mind I regard everyone as special."

"I had spent many years working for somebody else, so I knew firsthand what it was like to be accountable to another person."

"I do believe in encouraging a person to compete with herself? at Mary Kay Cosmetics, we?ve made that philosophy a company policy."

"I believe that you should praise people whenever you can; it causes them to respond as a thirsty plant responds to water."

"I hope not. I sincerely hope not. I hope he?s using me instead. [On being asked ?Don?t you think in a sense you?re using God??]"

"I never tell my age. Why should I? I believe that a woman who will tell her age will tell anything."

"I try to make that person feel as though we?re the only ones present. I shut out everything else. I look directly at the person. Even if a gorilla were to walk into the room, I probably wouldn?t notice it."

"I put a lot of emphasis on how to treat people. The reason for this is simple. The real success of our personal lives and careers can best be measured by the relationships we have with the people most dear to us ? our family, friends, and coworkers. If we fail in this aspect of our lives, not matter how vast our worldly possessions or how high on the corporate ladder we climb, we will have achieved very little."

"I vowed that my company would never repeat the wrongs that I had witnessed in other companies for which I had worked."

"If Mary Kay Cosmetics failed, I wasn?t going back into an easy retirement. I?d be broke! And that meant that I?d have to work for someone else for the rest of my life. That?s a very strong incentive!"