The flight of the Bumble Bee

Another unpublished post by Gerard- just found it. Enjoy!

For 25 years Mary Kay had been a juggler.

At work she was the Director of Training for a direct sales company called World Gift. At home she was mum, Director of All Household Duties.

When she was forty five, the kids had left home.

She finally got fed up with her employer, World Gift. Her assistant, a man, had just been promoted over her.

Although she was the champion sales person in the company. She was teaching everyone her sales strategies. Despite all this she was continually overlooked for promotions.

It had been going on for years. When she complained she was constantly told: “Oh, Mary Kay, you’re thinking female.”

Fed up, peeved, disillusioned, Mary resigned.

But with no family at home and no work, she quickly became depressed.

“I have never spent a more miserable time in my life,” she said. “I just felt my life was over. I lived across the street from a mortuary, and I almost called them!”

Mary was no quitter though. She started planning the next stage of her life. She wrote a business book that she hoped would inspire women. As she wrote the book, she got inspired herself.

If everything she wrote was true, why not go into business herself? The idea fired her up. Mary Kay Cosmetics was born.

With $5 in cash and twenty five years firsthand experience as a direct sales person, she threw herself into her new cosmetics business. Buoyed by her own experience of trying to juggle work and home life, Mary gave her new company a women-centric focus. It offered women the opportunity to start their own business, have flexible working hours. Best of all these women would be able to balance work and home life.

She made work for these women fun. They would be able to earn an income. She ran sales competitions where women could win certificates, then bumble bee badges and ultimately, the famous pink Cadillacs.

Most of all she gave women what many craved. She gave them what they could never get in the kitchen and the laundry. She gave them recognition and praise.

Fly

When Mary Kay started her business in the 60s, it was a “scientific fact” that bumble bees could not fly.

Scientists had studied the anatomy of the bumble bee. They were convinced that such a heavy, oddly shaped insect just couldn’t fly. The problem was nobody told the bumble bee!

Mary adopted the bumble bee as her inspiration when she started her cosmetics business.

Like the bumble bee, women were being told they couldn’t fly.

Like the bumble bee, Mary ignored this nonsense. She said a flight plan for herself and other women.

Mary shared other characteristics with bees.

She had a sting in her tail. She was fighter. When working for World Sales she was hard working, loyal and successful. In contrast the men at World Sales did not share the same personal qualities. Generally they were lazy and disengaged. Jealous, they discriminated against her.

They just didn’t want Mary to fly. Mary put up with it for a long time. Eventually she thought enough is enough.

Like the bumble bee she ignored conventional wisdom. She did not accept that women were not capable of achieving great things.

She started Mary Kay Cosmetics. She soared. She gave other women the confidence to take flight as well.

Are you a bumble bee? Are you constantly told you can’t fly? Are you constantly telling yourself you can’t fly?

Forget this nonsense! You can fly. You must fly. To do otherwise is to deny your DNA.

Start flying today and never looked back.

© 2019 well imagine that pty/ltd