Shane Parrish

Her husband had returned from the war, decided family life wasn't for him, and left.

She was now the sole provider in an economy that paid women a fraction of what it paid men for identical work.

She needed flexibility.

She had to be home when her kids came home from school.

She needed to make parent-teacher conferences and stay home with sick kids.

Traditional employment didn't allow for any of that.

Miss too many days and you'd be fired.

So she went into direct sales with Stanley Home Products, a maker of brushes, mops, and cleaning supplies.

She chose it because it was the only path that gave her control over her own schedule.

The economics were brutal.

She earned $10 to $12 for each home party she hosted.

To make ends meet, she'd need to host three parties every single day.

Not three a week, three a day.

But first, she had to learn how to actually make money at this.

When she first started, it was catastrophically discouraging.

The first three weeks, she averaged exactly $2 of income per show.

She was working herself to exhaustion for poverty wages.

Most people would have quit, and Mary Kay nearly did too.

But then she heard about the company's annual convention in Dallas.

It cost $12 to attend, $12 she absolutely did not have.