Shane Parrish

The wigs weren't a complete failure.

They did get people in the door and got them their initial customers.

Like anyone in the arena doing things, they made other mistakes, some more embarrassing than others.

For the first several weeks, they passed around the same jars of cream at demonstrations.

Multiple women would dip their fingers into the same product, and Mary Kay would later write she was ashamed of this, but at the time, they were brand new and had barely any inventory.

They also learned not to break up their basic skincare set.

The set contained five items designed to work together in a specific sequence.

There was a cleanser, a magic mask, a skin freshener, a night cream, and day radiance.

But customers would come in asking for just one product.

And desperate for any sale.

I think we've all been there before.

Mary Kay or one of the consultants would break up the set.

And that would be a disaster.

A night cream alone didn't produce the same results as the complete system.

And sometimes it caused more problems.

Without proper cleansing and preparation, some women's skin would react poorly to the night cream just in isolation.

Then these women would tell their friends about the bad experience.

And one bad review could kill 10 potential sales.

So Mary Kay put her foot down.

She wrote, "...breaking up the basic set in this manner was like giving you my recipe for chocolate cake and leaving out the chocolate or the sugar.