Mary Kay Ash

Ash spent twenty-five years in direct sales, with Stanley Home Products and World Gift, and retired in frustration at being passed over for men she had trained. In 1963, at forty-five, she put her 5,000 dollars of savings into Mary Kay Cosmetics, with her son Richard Rogers handling finance. Her long sales career is the real foundation: she knew exactly how to recruit, train and motivate a commission sales force.