Hi Everyone!
This month’s Fabu Interview is with marvelous money maven, Suze Orman. Suze is an Emmy Award winning television host, NY Times bestselling author, magazine and online columnist and was even named as one of the world’s most influential people by Time Magazine this year. How crazy accomplished is that?! Keep reading and hear what this personal finance powerhouse has to say about becoming who she is today...
When did you first know you wanted to help people manage their money?
I'm not sure I ever realized that. I just wanted to do what made me happy. What felt good to me. What gave me energy when I did it. Little by little I found that by talking to people about who they are and what they have, it gave me energy. Beyond the dimension of me making money, it brought me into the world of being happy myself, and this helped me bring great advice to others, which helped them make more money as well.
What was your first job? Did this job inspire you to become a businesswoman?
My first job was working at my dad’s little deli where I served people. Essentially, I worked as a waitress from almost 13 to 30. So my very first job and many jobs thereafter were serving people. Did that help me become who I am today? Absolutely. Now I just serve people a plate of financial advice instead of food! Being humble, having humility, and treating people with utmost respect is what a good waitress does and that’s also what I do. When you’re a waitress, you have to make sure your customers are very well taken care of so they’ll want to come back and sit at your table. This taught me how to serve a plate of financial advice with care. And so, you betya, it taught me everything I needed to know to become the business woman I am today!
What did you have to do to learn how to manage money? Did you go to school? Learn on the job?
I did not go to school to learn how to manage money. In fact I was a waitress for 7 years making $400 a month until I was almost 30. Then, by a fluke, I got hired as a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch. Truthfully, I think I was hired solely because I was a woman. At this time, because there were no women working in jobs like this, companies were being forced to fill what was called “a women’s quota.” I was told I wouldn’t last long, but they’d hire me anyway. I went in and gave it all I had. I learned what I needed to know as I was doing it. And before you knew it I was one of their top-producing employees!
What happened that made you believe that you could go from a waitress to a stockbroker?
I had always wanted to have my own restaurant. The customers that I had been waiting on for 7 years gathered together and gave me $50,000 to open my own restaurant. They told me to keep it in an account at Merrill Lynch until they could help me open the restaurant. I went into Merrill Lynch and I was greeted by a broker by the name of Randy. Randy lost all $50,000 in just 3 months. Now I didn’t know what to do because I owed these customers $50,000 and this was more money than I thought I’d ever make in my enter life. Then I thought, “It can’t be that hard to be a broker because all they do is just make you broker.” So I decided to go and interview for a job at Merrill Lynch, myself. As I mentioned, they had no women at the time and I think they just hired me to fill their women’s quota. And the rest is history!
What was the greatest lesson that you learned from losing money?
Every time one door closes another door opens. That every thing always happens for the best.If Randy hadn’t lost my money, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing to this day.
You're in a field that still has more men than women. How did this affect you especially when you started out?
Nothing can keep you down beside yourself. You don’t need to have other women around you to support you or to hold you up. You have to be strong enough to hold up everyone else. Nothing stops me from being what I want to be except me. Men and women are just people and when you see everyone as the same--no matter what sex, race, religion, whether they’re thin or fat, rich or poor, tall or short, beautiful or not--if you can see everyone as an incredible gift to this world and as someone who can teach you, then you know that everything is possible. Then you see possibilities not negativities.
What's the hardest thing you've had to overcome in your life?
My own self-doubt. My own thinking that I can’t do something, that I’m pudgy, that everyone else is more beautiful and better than me.
Are you fabulous, marvelous, kooky or zany?
All of 'em!
Will you tell me a quote you love that I can hang up on my wall o' quotes in my bedroom?
"It is far better to do what is right than to do what is easy." -- Suze Orman
That was an interesting interview..who would think that Suzie Orman was a waitress til 30 and not educated in finance and wow losing $50,000 I mean Randy I look forward to your next interview
Posted by: Tee | May 29, 2008 at 08:40 AM