I wanted to be an actress until I was about 20. Then I realized maybe I just pictured myself accepting the Academy Award and not getting excited about doing summer stock in Des Moines.

I worked at Lebenthal during the summer and vacations, so in a way I fell into it. I started at Kidder Peabody, spent two years there and then went to Lebenthal. I didn’t quite realize when I was getting my foot in the door that it was going to be quite difficult to get my foot out. In a way, this Merrill deal has enabled me to do that; it was the cleanest way to break. [It is] not what I would have wanted ultimately, but as much as I am deeply sad about the loss of Lebenthal, I also am strangely unfettered.

Often when a family business is successful, the children do not perceive a need to work. What drove you to want to work?

In certain families there is a work ethic, and we have that in our family. Look, my grandmother worked until she was 93, and my dad has basically worked seven days a week for most of his career. I was thinking this week, "Gosh I’m not lounging around watching soap operas." Not that I should be doing that, but why aren’t I? And then I realized it’s just part of the DNA, the way I’ve lived my life.

How did you reinvent the business?

I joined in 1988 and became president in 1995 at 31. I joked that dad made me president because he thought it would make a good ad–and it did.

I spent six years diversifying the business, cleaning it up. It had not been profitable for a number of years. I made it profitable in every year I ran it. I was really excited with what we were able to do. But there are a lot of frustrations in a family business, and my dad and I had different ideas about how we wanted it to grow. He was still chairman and majority shareholder. There were other family members who didn’t work in the business who were shareholders who wanted their money at some point, and so I came to the conclusion that I could build it by selling it.

That is a double-edged sword, no doubt about it. The years post-sale to Advest [in November 2001] were difficult; when you go from being in control and only having your dad to deal with to being part of a bigger structure and corporate politics, it’s a struggle.

How successful was the business when you sold it?

It was about $20 million in [annual] revenues. The profitability varied, but we had about a 15 percent margin on the business. Each million-dollar increment over $20 million would have had a very significant impact on the profitability. But when we sold, the valuation was in large part a function of the brand, not just its net earnings.

In the years after that, Lebenthal went from one office to seven, from 40 employees to 80, from $20 million in revenues to $30 million. It was really in the process of doing what I had wanted it to do. It was exciting–I loved the people who worked for me, I loved seeing it grow and being a part of building it piece by piece. But I had a really, really tough time with the people I worked for. Suffice it to say, it’s very difficult to go from running your own show to having other people to answer to.