Pink Cadillacs & Beauty. How This Texas Legend Built An Empire.

Texas has been home to so many influential people, professional athletes that hail from our great state, innovators, tastemakers, and successful business people. Many companies were born right here in Texas and have spanned across the country.

However, there is one company that was born in Texas that doesn't span the entire country. No no, it spans the entire WORLD, and it's one of the most recognizable names on the planet.

The company I speak of was born in 1963, although its founder was born all the way back in 1918. A driven woman who set goals for herself after seeing someone in her company win a fancy alligator handbag for being the top salesperson, then achieved those goals just a year later.

Sadly, as she was named the "Queen of Sales" for the company that following year, it wasn't an alligator handbag she walked away with. No, it was just a trophy, nothing more. It was then she decided she was going to make some changes.

It started with her buying her own alligator handbag with her initials engraved in gold, and moving on to a different company. She had idea after idea, and all of them fell on deaf ears on the board. So she made it a goal to ascend to being on the board herself. As usual, she would succeed in reaching her goal, only to find out her ideas still fell on deaf ears.

That was when Mary Kay, this Texas native, had enough. She took $5,000 of her own money and branched out on her own. Beauty by Mary Kay was born.

She was determined to do things differently. She didn't want to employ a staff that worked for HER per se, she wanted them to be independent businesswomen, with a chance to create an incredible living for themselves. Something to show for their hard work outside of a base salary and a title. In the end, it was those salaries and titles that ultimately did nothing for her.

One thing she picked up though was a ton of knowledge and experience in what she DIDN'T want, as well as how to treat those that put the work in. You may have heard about her pink Cadillac program, cars provided to the top selling independent sales directors. She remembered how badly she wanted to win that alligator handbag, and then one-upped it.

As time went on, Mary Kay would be considered one of the greatest women in history. She was recognized as one of the "100 Most Important Women in America" by Ladies' Home Journal in 1983, one of “America’s 25 Most Influential Women” by the World Almanac in 1985, and ultimately recognized as the Texas Woman of the Century in 1999.

Today, there are approximately 2 MILLION independent sales consultants in Mary Kay across the world, with many of them experiencing great success, just as their leader, and Texas legend, Mary Kay did.