Mary Kay: Not a Christian Company and No Direct Line to Jesus
Written by Havurah
I have always maintained that no one can save anyone from themselves if they do not want to be saved. Mary Kay Ash, the person, was not a so-called Christian in the way it is bandied about here and the company she founded was not a Christian company.
It was a cosmetics and skincare manufacturing business built on a specific marketing plan and her ultimate success was when MARY KAY CORP. went public and hit the bigtime about 30 years ago… give or take.
Then she got old and her son took it over. He leveraged the company into massive debt to take it private and morphed it into some sort of religious answer to the mystery of life using makeup as the means to salvation. Of course, this salvation also included the earthly rewards of valuable gifts and prizes and the chance at a lifestyle enjoyed by those other rich folks who did not use religion to attain that good life.
That being said, MARY KAY CORP. is actually a series of corporate entities tied to one another and dependent upon its Directors as a physical and contractual buffer against the new recruits and other signers on, including end retail customers…if there are any.
MARY KAY INC., is simply a factory. If the MARY KAY CORP., MLM disappeared tomorrow the factory would still be churning out other label products for other clients.
So, our objection is strictly to the marketing plan of the signature product. Simply speaking, if the MKC marketing method was really such a success, why is there any other business method at all? How do bricks and mortar retailers succeed? Why would anyone work in any other way if the Christian way of MKC and its army pink ladies is the way to a six figure income and a life of Christian wealth?
Is there a secret that no one else except the chosen few know? If Jesus is the path to all of our salvation, why is he co-opted by this one company? Can’t all companies have Jesus save us and lead us to the enriching of all lives?
What is the secret that churns through 40,000 recruits a month ? It can’t be much of a secret if that many people are churning through… or as Mary Kay, herself, described it… running the bath water with the drain open… recruits in, drained IBC’s out.
The marketing plan on its face is fraudulent. Combine an oversaturation of sales force with an expensive, yet middle of the road, product while restricting the selling area and method, and no legitimate and lucrative business can happen. The sales force are the end buyers and if no product ever makes it way to an end user/customer/client, the corporation doesn’t care. It sold its wares and it is through. What becomes of the stuff is anybody’s guess…least of all, MKC.
No, I am not Noam Chomsky. If anyone, I am Ayn Rand… lol. I understand this game and I understand Tracy Coenen’s need and ambition to educate the depleted and the vulnerable and gullible. I don’t know what the answer is because there is a sucker made every minute and precious few MKC Directors are trying to make a living out of finding those suckers.
Women who need income have to work at a real job. That is a holy truth. Some women marry their incomes, most earn it honestly. In the end there is no honest income without honest work. Work is whatever derives the income, but does not require recruiting and investment into a tenuous scheme.
Wall Street acknowledges that its products are risky and investment is a speculation. But that kind of financial speculation does not involve bringing ones friends, families and acquaintances into the group to further the groups ambitions. MKC is a speculation of the most evil sort. It promises to save women as it empties their wallets and punishes them for the built in failure. MARY KAY DOES SUCK.
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Did you mean to imply that stay-at-home wives/mothers are not earning an honest living when you said, “some women marry their incomes, most earn it honestly”? The research is pretty clear on the value of work done at home/for the kids.
She wrote: “Women who need income have to work at a real job. That is a holy truth. Some women marry their incomes, most earn it honestly.
There is nothing in this article that singles out stay-at-home parents. But if one does need to make money, MLMs are not the way to so it.
Tess – I think from your question you may have taken offense at what was said. I can assure you that no offense was intended, although the wording may have been unclear. Havurah is just saying that for those who earn money outside the home, it can be done honestly, in other words, without MLM.
It is not necessary to look for offense where none was intended. Havurah, herself, was a SAHM and that is an honest living. However, mothers and wives who need more household income must leave the nest and work to bring in that income. This is not a revolutionary principle.
From the times of earliest antiquity the female has worked for survival and to advance the clan or village. Supernatural and religious beliefs were attempted explanations of the unknown and not for profit benefits of the few at the expense of the group and children only made work that much more urgent. They had to be fed first and foremost.
MLM set up the group to envy the few and to grasp at dross while the substance eludes them. Money buys only temporary relief from unhappiness and psychic pain. It is not a cure and luring the ingenuous into an ethos that in turn harms others is not business. It is an ongoing confidence scheme whether fungible product is conveyed or not.
I think the phrasing sounds like “some women earn money honestly, others choose to marry well-off men so they don’t have to earn an honest living.” It’s not a matter of me taking personal offense to anything. I love this site and this line really stood out as strange to me. I think it’s good to avoid saying things that sound dismissive of the work of caregiving in the home, given that it’s valuable and it’s unfair how many people treat it like a joke. It’s hard work and for those who’ve chosen to have families, it’s necessary for someone to take care of the children. Yet, only paid caregivers are treated like adults, while unpaid mothers often deal with things like being called “unemployed” when they fill out forms or having others refer to them as “not working”, even though it would be considered work if they did it for minimum wage for a neighbor.
No question on my part that MLM is an unbiblical, unethical approach to selling/earning. I ended up on this site because I was trying to find a way to respond to a friend trying to recruit me into her scheme.
Is there a place here where I can find more stories about people who’ve had problems in their marriages/families because of MLM? Or people who have driven away friends? On one’s obligation to reach out to former recruits who are still trying to make money on this scam? I was in a skincare company, still use and love the products, but a friend who wanted a discount signed up as a consultant under me. She’s trying to make money on this two years later, but based on her results on FB, I find it hard to imagine that she’s doing okay. Once she mentioned stress in her marriage due to her not earning after losing her job and then doing this (at her husband’s suggestion initially). Is it rude to direct her to this site? I’m not trying to be a joykill, but she might feel relieved if she realizes it’s not her fault that it’s so hard to succeed in that line of work.
If you browse this category there is tons about how MLM came in between marriages and other relationships:
http://www.pinktruth.com/category/relationships/