Time & Perspective Quote by Mary Kay Ash

A lot of management advice flatters itself as strategy when it’s really etiquette with a payroll. Mary Kay Ash’s line makes that explicit: being “busy” isn’t an alibi, it’s the obstacle you’re expected to overcome to do the real work, which is emotional. The verb choice matters. You don’t just notice people or appreciate them; you “make” them feel important. That’s not accidental warmth, it’s deliberate labor.

Coming from a businesswoman who built an empire on direct sales and morale, the context sharpens the intent. This is leadership training for a culture where retention is fragile and motivation can’t be outsourced to salary alone. In Mary Kay’s world (and, honestly, in most customer-facing and people-heavy workplaces), recognition is a renewable resource: cheap to give, powerful to receive, and contagious enough to scale. The quote is a playbook for creating loyalty when you can’t guarantee stability.

The subtext is both generous and transactional. On one level, it’s a reminder that people experience hierarchy not through org charts but through moments: who looks up from the inbox, who remembers a name, who signals that your work isn’t invisible. On another level, it’s an admission that “importance” is often a feeling engineered by those in power. Ash isn’t condemning that engineering; she’s prescribing it. The line works because it frames attention as a moral obligation while quietly pitching it as the highest-ROI management tool.