A Company Must Have a Life of its Own
Mary Kay was talking about her legacy one time where she mentioned that she knew that hers was secured. The reason she gave was a little surprising because although the company obviously bore her name, it wasn't why her legacy would go on.
She said this concerning why it would go on:
"I know now that my legacy is assured. The Company has my name, but it also has a life of its own. And its life’s blood is the philosophy that many thousands of women have made a part of their lives. They embody that philosophy of sharing and giving and, as such, it will always live on."
In a sense she was saying that the company could be named anything and it would still go on because of the people working for it that embodied the philosophy she built the company upon: that of sharing and giving!
And because the women working for the company took that as their own and let it be part of who they were, it ensured that the company would grow strong and last long into the future.
One of the great attributes of effective leaders is the ability to take that essential thing that makes a company what it is, and encourage and motivate others to make it their own. Once that is done, it truly takes on a life of its own. Now it is organic and alive, and will survive long after the founder of it is gone.
Mary Kay knew the company would survive when she was gone because the women in the company had internalized what the company represented and were passsing it on to those coming up in the ranks.
More important than legacy here, is that a company that represents something bigger than the individual and is a cause to those working for it, are almost without exception the greatest companies with the best leaders in the world.
In reality it becomes something that is alive, not simply an organizational entity. That's what Mary Kay saw when she looked at what would happen to the company in the future. She was right.
Other Mary Kay Resources:
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