Access to wealth of course is one thing that makes me different-it is also what makes my life as I live it possible. Here is how it began. Beginnings – June 1977

I graduated from law school in 1976 and that fall joined a large corporate law firm in New York. After about six months, I knew I was not cut out for this regimented practice. First, I was beginning to spend a lot of my time managing the investments I was starting to make.

Second, I did not need the salary I was earning as a new lawyer and I did not need the possibility of advancing in the profession as the means to secure my future.

Third, I was not crazy about the work. The problems I dealt with were dictated by the needs of my firm's clients- not by what appealed to me. Fourth, I hated the loss of autonomy that working for the law firm dictated. I decided that I wanted to be my own boss, to set my own schedule and spend full-time managing my investments.

But I also knew that there would have to be some regimentation in my life. There was a period when I was in college when I lacked the discipline to go to class and my grades had really deteriorated. Once I got into the routine of forcing myself to go to classes, to go to the library for study, all on a schedule, my grades rebounded. I knew that I could not leave myself the option of not having a set of obligations each day. That meant to me that I would rent an office, employ a staff, and plan on showing up at work every day.

I hardly knew where to begin. I knew I had to rent an office, furnish it and hire the people who would work with me. I started with a first step. I rented a suite of offices for a short-term (six month) period. I believed that I would use that time to get my systems in place.

My next step then was to hire an executive assistant. I contacted a placement agency and described what I was looking for. I wanted someone more than a secretary; someone who could take charge of the day to day business of running my office; someone who would hire and supervise other clerical and support staff; someone who could do the leg work on furnishing the office; I envisioned the quintessential, efficient, all purpose gal Friday and that is what I described to the agency. There would be no problem in filling the position I was assured, and I was promised a stream of pre-screened applicants to interview the following week.