13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

·       What surprised you the most?

• Mary Kay followed her dream business and did not quit when her husband died right before the business opened and at the same time she was tending to her sick father. She had the support of her family to continue the business.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?

• She believed in herself. She was able to follow her dreams as a single mom. She came home everyday at 7pm no matter how much work she needed to get done and talked little of the stressors she had at work at home. In other words, she left her stress at the office.

·       What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?

• She suggests only giving one-word answers when someone asks, “how are you doing?” She believes that no one is actually looking for more than that. This may be true but giving a one-word answer continues the trend of the phrase “how are you” not being meaningful.

·       Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?

• Mary Kay saw some failure in 1985 because of the stock exchange. She made the wrong decision. However, this made her keep her goals more flexible to achieve her ultimate dream.

·       What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?

• She held to her dreams and beliefs. Her vision of success included 3 components: desire to succeed, know-how, and applying yourself. The fundamental principles of her business: (1) Golden Rules and the Go Give spirit, (2) philosophy of God 1^st, family 2^nd, career 3^rd, and (3) praising people to success because of the belief that everyone had resident potential.  

·        Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

o   Her logic about not telling her family a lot about what she was doing. Also, I was confused about her thought process behind only using one word to describe how she’s feeling.

·       If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

o   What gave you the will power and determination to strive so deeply to accomplish your dream? In the book it does not touch very much on her background and why she wanted what she had so bad. Usually people have an interesting background when they are that determined.

o   Did you use many investors? There is no talk of investors and how she managed to start and keep the business going.

·       For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

o   Mary Kay believed hard work was the only way to achieve goals. she did remind a few times to keep goals flexible as things do not always work out as planned. I agree with this.