Shane Parrish

She was responsible for cooking, cleaning, laundry, and caring for her bedridden father.

Every afternoon around 3.30, she'd pick up the heavy telephone receiver and dial the restaurant.

And always, she'd end the same way.

You can do it, Mary Kay.

You can do it.

Talk about belief before ability.

Her mother had no choice but to believe in her.

There was no one else.

Mary Kay had no choice but to rise to that belief and believe in herself.

Those phone calls continued for years.

Each call embedded the same pattern deeper.

Someone believes you can do something difficult, therefore you can.

You must.

That phrase, you can do it, became so deeply wired into her that decades later it would become her company's unofficial motto.

She'd repeat it to thousands of consultants willing them to accomplish what they didn't think possible.

She built an entire company around one idea.

Ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things if someone believes in them loudly enough, consistently enough, and relentlessly enough.

But first she had to survive 25 years in corporate America.

Those years taught her exactly what she did not want to build.

After World War II, Mary Kay found herself newly divorced with three children to support.