Mary Kay Ash : "enriching women's lives" : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

My ultimate goal for my Mary Kay� business is to achieve the status of National Sales Director. I feel that this position will be the most enriching position. However, there are other positions to obtain before this prestigious one. Therefore, I want to find out how Mary Kay® has enriched the lives of women at all status levels in the business.By researching something that is so personal, I will increase my knowledge of the business that I have started which I feel is a great thing, especially since I want to do this for the rest of my life.Answering the question of why Mary Kays is quite simple. First, I want to find out more about the business I have started. Second, I want to find out more about myself by analyzing how this business has enriched my life thus far. Finally, I want to find out how this business has enriched the lives of other women since it was Mary Kay Ash's goal to "enrich women's lives."The first part of my thesis will be composed of research about Mary Kay Ash. This will not be lengthy since this thesis is not a biography of Mary Kay. I will then go on to discuss the company. This will be composed of the history of Mary Kay Cosmetics®, how it has grown and developed, and the principles behind our company. This will not have a strong business base since I am not very familiar with the various business theories and strategies. I want to give the reader a background on the company because the reason the company was created was to enrich the lives of women (the company motto) and I want to be able to focus the rest of the project on that, not on the company itself.The second part of the thesis will focus on how Mary Kay Cosmetics® has enriched the lives of various women. I will first explore and explain how it has enriched my life since I joined in 2002. I will then go on to include interviews from 12 women at various levels in the business. Each interview will include the same questions. I will start with an Independent Beauty Consultant and go all the way up to an Independent National Sales Director (the highest level in Mary Kay Cosmetics®). I will conclude the paper by explaining how I hope Mary Kay Cosmetics® continues to enrich my life and how I would like it to enrich my life.The obvious thing that I would like to learn from this thesis project is how Mary Kay Cosmetics® has enriched my life and the lives of other women who have started a Mary Kay® business. I would also like to share the lives of these women, as well as myself, with others who read this thesis.The importance of this thesis is to learn more about the business that I have started and how it has enriched my life, as well as other women's lives. I also would like to learn more about myself in this business. Learning more about me is obviously an important thing.