No, not at all, or it’s done in a very frozen way. I always felt we were lucky to have those people working for us. A lot of our brokers could have gone elsewhere and made tons and tons of money. They were loyal to us, and I needed to be loyal to them.

And you personally liked to work in a certain kind of atmosphere.

Definitely. And that’s been part of my journey over the last few months. If I’m spending the majority of my time being unhappy, then maybe I need to think about the kind of atmosphere I need to be in. Because I don’t want to be somewhere where I’m not able to make changes, or where I’m not happy myself.

Is it still possible to be a quirky, smaller family business and be successful?

Yes, definitely. And the number of people who’ve left big companies to start hedge funds or their own businesses shows that. A lot of people don’t want to be in big, corporate structures. They have realized how difficult the whole political aspect of it is.

So you believe that small entrepreneurs can still be financially successful over the long term?

Yes. In private companies, perhaps, there is more of a chance than in public companies, where you really are serving a different master. If I’m running my financial services company and I have a 15 percent margin and that makes me happy, that’s fine. But if my shareholders are saying, "Well, you have a 15 percent margin, but these other people have 20 percent; if you don’t get to 20 percent your business isn’t going to do well and the stock price is going to go down," then I have to take my focus away from the business and the people and focus on the external more. In extreme cases, you have these corporate misdeeds where the stock price is served even in ways that are dishonest.

How did you juggle family and work?

My husband has been phenomenal. And we’ve had the same nanny for 12 years, so there’s been a continuity that’s been really important.

The balancing has worked as well as it could, which is not to say that once a year I don’t have a moment where I’m literally crying in the middle of the street not being able to get to where I’m supposed to be. Having friends who deal with the same issues is really important. So it’s all been OK.

I took Charlotte, my 9-year-old, with me when I had to go to the office to do the final cleanup. I said, "Charlotte, I want you to look around and always remember this. After 80 years, this is it. There’s Nana’s desk, which I’ll be taking with me." I guess I got a little dramatic, because she started to cry. But I felt it was important, because this business has been a part of our family.

Can you give us a sense of what you’ll do next?

Given that I like being in control, one could assume I’ll be in some sort of entrepreneurial endeavor. I have the financial services industry in my blood, so I’ll continue to be a part of that.

Photograph by Thomas Hart Shelby.