How I Made My First Million

How do you make a million dollars? For women launching businesses in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, pulling in that first million was especially hard work. Mariann MacDonald, Karen Van Arsdale and Gail Markham entered their professions when their industries were mostly male-dominated. They faced discrimination, juggled family crises—one even battled cancer—but still went on to build wildly successful empires.

Being female does, though, have its advantages. As Gerri Moll, president of Bank of America Southwest Florida, points out, "Research highlights that intuition, collaboration, multitasking and using power to do good are particularly female contributions. As business has shifted from the old command-and-control model of leadership to one of shared vision, women are especially well positioned to lead."

These three women are gutsy and driven, and they stepped up to take charge of their business lives. Here are their stories.

Strawberry in a Vanilla World

For nearly 30 years, Mariann MacDonald climbed the corporate ladder at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals. As vice president, her on-the-job training came in handy when she and longtime friend and co-worker Carol Ammon decided to leave the pharmaceutical giant to start their own generic drug company. “We never looked back after that,” she says. At 50 years old and having just overcome breast cancer, MacDonald founded Endo Pharmaceuticals with Ammon in August 1997. The fledgling company started with 40 employees and 20 products, but it also had painkillers Percocet and Percodan in its corner, from which the two women expected sales of about $100 million. By the time she retired in 2003, MacDonald was one of the highest-paid women in Philadelphia. She now lives in Naples with her husband, Bob.

Her secret: I learned in business that you don’t have to be brilliant; you have to be good at what you do and know who to hire.
In command: When I walk in, people underestimate me. I’m small and bubbly, and people think I’m a ditz. The CEO of DuPont said to me, ‘You are strawberry in a vanilla world.’
New venture: After [breast cancer], a new business wasn’t much of a risk. Maybe it made me take the risk—I had nothing to lose. It made me continue to be a fighter.
Starting fresh: It was so much fun to be able to say, ‘Let’s put the corporate structure behind us and roll up our sleeves and do this from scratch.’
On partners: [Carol and I] would laugh because it was like a marriage made in heaven. She was the heart, I was the hammer.
Growing pains: I started getting a little nervous when I didn’t know everyone in the halls [of our offices]. I’d walk the halls, because that’s how I could feel the pulse of the company.
On family: I was good about balancing everybody’s work and family and not so great about balancing my own.
The first million: I don’t think it was a million, I think the first was $8 million. It took us about seven years before we cashed out, and I remember Kelso [our investor] looking at Carol and me and saying, ‘You two ladies are multimillionaires.’ And we kept going, ‘Phssh, it’s on paper.’ If you don’t grow up or live with that type of money, you don’t change.

Quick Fingers

In August 1979, after a four-and-a-half-year stint at a local CPA firm, Gail Markham decided to set off on her own. With the encouragement of her former clients, the then-28-year-old opened a CPA firm in Cape Coral. Within two months, her company was in the black, and she started adding employees.
 
“I have this theory,” she says. “Don’t look backward, you’re wasting energy. Just keep moving forward.” Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Company P.A. now has two offices, four partners, 40 employees and 1,600 customers. Markham is a certified public accountant, financial planner, valuation analyst and family mediator.

Time spent: When I started I was working 80 hours a week. [My partner] Joni Norton and I would go home at 3 a.m. or so and take a shower and come back and start all over. It’s crazy, but that’s how we built the business.
Getting started: We didn’t have computers so we hand-did everything. I remember staying up all night more than once to put together spreadsheets. I still have very quick fingers from the adding machine.
Facing discrimination: I went to my banker and said I’d like to borrow $25,000 for my business expansion. And this gentleman said, ‘Why would you want to do that?’ I felt like I had been slapped in the face.
On entrepreneurialism: A certain amount of that was born in me. I look back at my family, which was basically a blue-collar, hard-working family. My grandmother was very much an entrepreneur, and I’ve always been, since I was born, very driven. It’s just the nature of me.
The first million: It was just Joni and me when we did our first million, and we had a party. It took five years of hard work.
Working moms: There’s one thing that’s unified in this firm—and we have a lot of moms in this firm—we all feel guilty. We don’t feel like we’re giving 100 percent anywhere.
Gutsy girl: I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years. Lots of them. But I don’t live life with regrets. You’ve got to follow your gut. Her secret: You just reach out and give more than you expect to get back. It comes back in multiples.

The Multitasker

It was serendipity that made Karen Van Arsdale follow an old boyfriend down to Naples after college. With a degree in business administration and finance, she intended to become a stockbroker, but started out as a manager at Marissa Collections. In 1983 she got her real estate license and started with the Mueller Company. “It was like, ‘OK, go!’” she says, and she ran with it. In November 1998, Van Arsdale and some associates approached Scott Lutgert with a proposal to open a boutique office for Premier Properties in Old Naples. Now, with only one assistant, Van Arsdale is one of the top-selling realtors in Naples, continuously closing on multimillion-dollar mansions from Port Royal to Bay Colony.

Closed doors: I interviewed with all the different brokerage firms that were here, and they all told me to come back when I was 35, graying at the temples and a man.
Stepping up: [My first husband’s] business [Provincetown/Boston Airline] had a tremendous setback, and we went through bankruptcy. I worked really hard during that period because the responsibility shifted where my income became important.
Taking off: Any lead that I would get I looked at as a learning experience. I got my experience as the market started to improve. Then by the mid-to-late ’80s, it was on fire—it was a great time.
On the go: It helps to be a woman in real estate because women are multitaskers. I make sure my clients feel like they’re the only ones I’m working with, when I’m often working with six or seven in one day.
Early sale: I sold a property to Bob Vila back in ’91, and I was on his TV show. It was great exposure.
On perceptions: I just don’t believe that stereotype of being a pushy realtor.
The first million: I do remember, and it wasn’t so long ago, where I had acquired properties and bank accounts in excess of $1 million dollars, and I was thinking, ‘Whoa.’ All of a sudden you look back and see what you’ve accumulated and you go, ‘Wow, it really happened.’
New rewards: Now I go back to my roots, back to Marissa. When I worked there I couldn’t afford the clothes. Now I get to be a customer and that’s a big treat for me.