Breaking the belief barrier. “As I think back on my journey to Independent National Sales Director status, the word that comes to mind is awesome,” Independent Senior National Sales Director Emeritus Shirley Oppenheimer says. “To reach the top of a profession without experiencing burnout is one thing, but to do it without sacrificing my family time, giving up flexibility or ever compromising my ethical standards is another.”

As a personnel manager for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Shirley was burned out. She worked 10-hour days and missed spending time with her children. She didn’t think she had time for anything else in her life, including a Mary Kay business.

But with her husband’s encouragement, Shirley signed her Independent Beauty Consultant Agreement. “In three months, I left my job to start my Mary Kay business full time,” Shirley recalls. “In only nine months, I became an Independent Sales Director.”

When breast cancer threatened to halt her journey to success, Shirley pushed on. “The lessons I learned from Mary Kay Ash on attitude, goal-setting and listening, and being inspired by success stories made it easier for me to get through the challenges in my life,” she says.

Today, after surviving 14 surgeries, Shirley stands as a testament to success in more ways than one – as an Independent National Sales Director Emeritus and a breast cancer survivor. “Our momentum was broken from time to time, but that didn’t stop us from breaking every belief barrier.”