Over 800,000 Independent Beauty Consultants work for a little company which started from a kitchen table in the home of a retiree by the name of Mary Kay Ash. Knowing the direct sales industry as well as anyone in the business, Mary Kay retired in 1963 from a long career in sales and went home to settle into retirement.

Within a few weeks after retirement, Mary Kay Ash decided that she would put together a book which would be written in such a way to inspire women to take the reins in a male-dominated world of business and push forward to achieve their own dreams. Mary Kay began to construct lists of what her ideas of the perfect company consisted of including things that she had seen during her own lifetime of working for other companies.  

After she compiled two lists she realized she possibly had in front of her a marketing guide for a successful company and together with her son, Richard Rogers, Mary Kay Cosmetics was born. The birth of Mary Kay Cosmetics was conceived in a matter of a few short weeks yet no one, not even Mary Kay, could imagine what kind of world wide fame the company would achieve.

Mary Kay Cosmetics rapidly found a place within the direct sales market and Mary Kay Ash guided her employees and independent contractors to take up the Golden Rule philosophy while maintaining priorities within their own lives. According to Mary Kay, a very wise business woman, priorities should be in the order of God first, family second, and career third. 

Mary Kay’s philosophy for life and business certainly inspired women to work for her company. In fact, because of the philosophies for which Mary Kay Cosmetics were founded, Fortune Magazine named Mary Kay Cosmetics as one of the top 10 best companies for women to consider when searching for careers.  

Mary Kay Ash, along with Mary Kay Cosmetics and Richard Rogers, supported cancer research through The Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation which began in 1996. Later in 2000, Mary Kay became active in supporting the prevention among violence against women. Her ambitions to support women were surpassed only by her willingness to enable women to work in pleasant working environments while staying home to raise their children and take care of their families. Her charitable contributions, while geared originally toward research, took another approach when she chose to take a stand in helping battered women. 

Wealth and prosperity were not owned by Mary Kay Ash when she retired. In fact, her company was built on $5,000.00 in life savings and those savings were her retirement savings. The company achieved over one billion dollars in sales in 1996 and is still growing strong long after the beloved Mary Kay Ash passed away. Upon her death, Mary Kay left over 15 million dollars to the foundation which she started. She will be remembered for her generosity, determination and her willingness to help women succeed in all aspects of their lives.

Meg Whitman was the youngest of three children growing up in an affluent family in Long Island. She was able to attend the best public schools and was a competitive swimmer who held the highest grades academically from an early age forward. Later, she attended Princeton and graduated from Harvard. This lady is not to be taken lightly. She is intelligent beyond comprehension and is in a position that she well deserves. Meg Whitman is the President and CEO of the greatest online business in the world—eBay Marketplace.

When Meg Whitman joined the throes of the corporate giant, eBay was on its way to corporate notoriety but had not quite lived up to its full potential. Whitman took over her position as the President and CEO of eBay in 1998 when the company had 30 employees and was only available within the United States. Today, over 9,000 people work for eBay and the company is a global giant which can be attributed to Meg Whitman.

Meg Whitman is family oriented and because of her affluent upbringing, you would think that she would be ready to ride the wave that her prestigious position within the corporate world brings. That’s not Meg. She has an open cubicle in the workplace and is surrounded by family photos and dozens of mementos which she treasures from her past. It’s obvious that Meg Whitman has a strong family connection and it’s one of the charms about her.

If Meg Whitman isn’t well suited for her position, then no one is. She has been a very hands-on CEO and has never taken her position lightly. When eBay ran into a would-be catastrophe on June 10, 1999, corporate executives from all over the world began to see the kind of leader that eBay had. And Whitman experienced the kind of stress that most CEO’s would crumble under.

On June 10^th 1999, eBay’s site went down and it stayed down. Even though eBay’s site had crashed before, techs within the engineering team had always been able to revive the site quickly. Not this time and this time, all indications were that the eBay site as everyone knew it would not be coming back as it was before. Millions of people world wide were on a limb as they saw business transactions failing all because the site crashed without warning and was temporarily crippled. While some eBayers may have thought it was only temporary, a good number of eBay customers were very disturbed. And eBay engineers and executives joined the ranks of being disturbed.

Whitman could’ve waited from home as many CEOs might have preferred to do had they been her shoes, but not Meg Whitman. The President and CEO of eBay went into the trenches with her staff of fearless and dedicated individuals and from Thursday until that following Monday, they all camped out on cots for short naps and breaks whenever needed and possible. And their leader never left their side until eBay was back online and stable again.

Meg Whitman donated more than 30 million dollars to Princeton University and the university plans to use the money wisely. In fall 2007, Whitman College at Princeton will become the sixth residential college at Princeton University. Meg Whitman’s contribution will enable more dreams to be realized through a Princeton education.

Anne Mulcahy probably never envisioned herself as the CEO and Chairman of Xerox but that is exactly where she landed on August 1, 2001. Mulcahy may very well have been the last hope that Xerox had when they placed her in the position of CEO. The company was in debt so deep that the figure seems too outlandish to even mention. It is safe to say that bankruptcy and Xerox were about to become very acquainted. Then the company decided to put all that was left into the hands of the long time employee, Anne Mulcahy.

No one was better suited for the seat of CEO and Chairman of Xerox than Anne Mulcahy. She had given her life to the company and fortunately, the company realized her potential and placed her in the driver’s seat. And not a moment too soon. Mulcahy had been with Xerox since 1976. When she joined Xerox, it was only a couple of years after completing her education at Marymount College in Tarrytown, New York. Surprisingly, Mulcahy received her bachelor of arts degree in English and Journalism rather than a MBA from a more prestigious university.

Mulcahy’s positions at Xerox were varied. She began working for the company as a sales representative and worked her way through the ranks of the company. She held various sales and senior management positions and in 1992 was named Vice President of Human Resources. In 1998, she became Senior Vice President immediately followed by a promotion to Executive VP in 1999. Then, in 2001, she found her niche as CEO and Xerox found their leader giving her the whole ‘kit and caboodle’ when she gained the title of Chairman too on January 1, 2002.

Anne Mulcahy is a powerhouse in business. She serves on the boards of Catalyst, Citigroup Inc. and Target as well as a few others. She is considered one of the most powerful women in the world and has achieved that notoriety on Forbes’ most powerful women in the world list. Ranked in the top 10, Anne Mulcahy has finally made it to the top of the corporate world after a long climb to get there.

The most amazing story behind this woman is how Xerox was truly on the brink of bankruptcy, and yet Anne Mulcahy stepped in with all of the confidence in the world and immediately formed a plan to rebuild a failing company. What’s more, Anne Mulcahy had some of the stiffest competition in the corporate world. While Xerox could certainly lead within their industry with Mulcahy’s help, the company still faced challenges from highly competitive companies such as Hewlett-Packard and Canon. Anne Mulcahy was up for the challenge and because of her dedication and commitment to her company; Xerox has made a strong come-back.

Anne Mulcahy will continue to look for ways to improve the overall productivity of a company which has come a long way since its 1938 humble beginnings. She has already decreased Xerox’s mind-boggling debt load and continues to keep the faith of Xerox investors and employees.

Who else that walks this earth is any more generous than Oprah Winfrey? Who else holds record numbers in daytime talk show hosting? Oprah Winfrey has defied all odds and grown into a powerhouse entertainment executive, actress, and philanthropist. She is also a billionaire but that seems to be a minor detail that she is still unimpressed by as she forever remains ‘real people’ to the millions of people who watch her show.

Oprah Winfrey should have been a long way from where she is today. She began life on a Mississippi farm where her grandmother helped nurture her desire to ‘broadcast’ with performances both Oprah and her grandmother enjoyed. Later, she lived with her mother in Milwaukee and endured molestation from family members while her mother turned a cheek to the activity. After she ran away from it all, she landed in Nashville with her father and began to build a life with him.

Oprah’s father expected her to make something out of herself. He required her to be an achiever asking her to do things to encourage her intellectually. He knew that Oprah had the ability to do anything she wanted to do and he wasn’t willing to let her ‘slip through the cracks’ just because of the place where she was in her life when he welcomed her to his home. Oprah’s father wanted more for her and was strict enough to enforce that she see all that she could achieve.

At seventeen, Oprah was given the opportunity to work for WVOL in Nashville. Later she signed with WTVF-TV in Nashville while she attended school at Tennessee State University. She later moved to Baltimore and enjoyed a co-anchor position. While in Baltimore, she discovered that she had a knack for talk show hosting.

In 1984, Oprah Winfrey became the hottest radio show in town with a talk show on the radio which was appropriately named “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” And of course, that show became a national daytime talk show in 1986 and has continued to thrive since then.

Worldwide, Oprah Winfrey is known as ‘Oprah’ to all of those who welcome her into their homes for an hour each day. She is notably, “America’s Best Friend” but she has never forgotten those friends who were with her along the way. Her lifelong friend, “Gail” and the man in her life, “Steadman” have been influences that she carried with her through all aspects of her famous career showing that you can be humble and famous all at the same time while never forgetting those who were with you along the way. Oprah also contributes her dedication to reading to her father and other successes as well.

Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in America which is evident in her Oprah Book Club. Oprah Winfrey’s Book club selections instantly become best sellers and she has received much publicity for her work to bring authors and their books to the public eye.

To give a true account of Oprah Winfrey’s life would take an entire book to successfully capture her greatness. This woman is not just a tough act to follow but an act that will never be imitated by another. Her charitable contributions alone could fill the interior pages of a large novel. Oprah Winfrey is a leader who will never be surpassed by another. She is genuine and genuinely, she is Oprah.