"Dare to risk public criticism."
If there is one thing that Mary Kay has generated through her years in business and as a public figure, it was criticism. It seems like people either liked what she was doing and had to say or they didn't; there seemed to be no middle ground.
I think this is becoming increasingly important for business leaders in our day in age to be willing to risk public criticism. There are far too many managers in my estimation that backtrack and change directions the minute some type of negative press is issued about them or their companies.
No truly successful company will last if they run their business based upon public opinion. The problem is that the entire public will always have an endless array of opinions. You'll never make everyone happy. We need to be able to live with that.
This is completely different than customer feedback. Public criticism is simply somebody with special interests that doesn't like it that you're not supporting or touting their pet ideas or causes.
The greatest purpose of any company is to simply serve their customers well. Criticism is a form of manipulation to try to get you to go in a direction someone wants you to go. Unless it's your customers, I wouldn't bother taking the time to deal with it other than correcting something that may be falsely said about you.
We need to keep hammering on what it is we represent, not what we don't. Your customers will tell you if you're right by whether they continue to spend dollars at your business or not.
It's a hopeless cause to try to do things in a way that will please everybody. The task is impossible. Mary Kay understood this and was able to build the type of company she wanted, for the reasons she wanted, in spite of the criticism.
Other Mary Kay Resources:
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