The Rule Of Relationships

The Rule of Relationships

Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

Luke 6:31

In 1963, Mary Kay Ash was passed over for a promotion in favor of a man whom she had trained. You can imagine her frustration. After all, she’d worked at Stanley Home Products in Houston for quite some time. She’d paid her dues, and she deserved the promotion.

So Mary Kay quit her job and decided to write a book to help women in business—women like herself. The book, as it turned out, became a business plan for her ideal company, and in September 1963, she began Mary Kay Cosmetics. She had just a five-thousand-dollar investment to get it started, but that’s all it took. The company became highly successful, and she became highly respected. The company now has more than five hundred thousand independent beauty consultants in twenty-nine markets worldwide. And Mary Kay Inc. is ranked as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America, according to Fortune magazine.

A guiding light for her company was the Golden Rule. She considered it the founding principle for her business interactions. In fact, her marketing plan was designed to allow women to advance by helping others succeed. Think of that! And her slogan “God first, family second, career third” expressed her insistence that the women in her company keep their lives in balance.

“Everyone has an invisible sign hanging from his neck,” according to Mary Kay Ash. It says, “Make Me Feel Important!” Mary Kay drilled this principle into her sales team. She told them again and again, “Never forget this message when working with people.” She knew compliments and affirmation were critical to enjoying success with others.

You may never sell cosmetics or anything else in the business world, but this principle is essential to the success of your relationships—especially with each other. So how are you doing when it comes to practicing the Golden Rule with one another?

Think through the next twenty-four hours of your life. What’s about to happen? What can you predict—especially as it relates to your spouse? Do you know when your spouse might be in need of some affirmation? Do you know when he or she might need a compliment or a little favor? Why not plan right now on putting the Golden Rule into practice in that moment and do unto your spouse as you’d like him or her to do unto you?

You never know, this guiding principle just might become the business plan for your ideal marriage.

We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.

—Edwin Markham