Entrepreneurial Spotlight
Carolyn Gable, president and CEO, New Age Transportation, Distribution & Warehousing, Inc.

By Shari Lifland

Carolyn Gable is living proof that the American dream is alive and well. Gable, founder, president and CEO of New Age Transportation, Distribution & Warehousing Inc., based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, started out from humble beginnings as a waitress at the Chicago Hyatt restaurant. She is also the single mother of seven children, ranging in age from 29 down to 4.

How did a woman, with no college education, make such a dramatic transformation? And how does this 51-year-old dynamo keep it all going? In Part I of my interview with Ms. Gable, she explained how the customer service philosophy that she formulated as a waitress applies to the broader world of business. In Part II, she offers advice to would-be women entrepreneurs and discusses the ongoing quest for work/life balance.

AMA: What advice can you give to other women who want to become entrepreneurs?

Gable: A woman has to find her own path to becoming an entrepreneur. It takes time. It's almost impossible at say, 22, unless you started at 15, to find out what you really want to do. That's a whole process that takes place in your twenties and thirties. Then, when you know what you're doing—when you've learned what you're really good at—you're able to put it to use.

You have to believe in yourself. That's number one. You have to believe that there is a purpose, that you're here for a reason. There's nothing special about me. We all have the qualities to be successful and to be entrepreneurs. It comes down to how much risk you can take, how much of the fear you can put aside. I think that part of why I have been given this opportunity is to inspire other women. You could do a made-for-TV movie of my life! I'm living proof that you can overcome great adversity if you just have faith.

AMA: In view of your own experiences as a single mother faced with providing for her children, what kind of policies does your company, New Age, have in place to support its employees who are dealing with similar situations?

Gable: At New Age, you can bring your baby to work and keep it in a bassinet right by your desk for however long you want to. It works out. I know how important those first months are in bonding with a baby. If the baby just fusses a bit, everybody rushes over to help out if the mom is busy. It's a good thing. People are uplifted by it. At our new building we're going to have a daycare center with a nice play yard, but we'll ask parents to bring their daycare provider along.

AMA: How has your success affected your children? Have they been supportive? Do any of them work with you in the business?

Gable: My older children work in the business. My oldest is 29 and he is our Director of Business Development. The next one is 24 and works for me in sales part time and also just started a job at a radio station.

The downside is that being a single mother, I'm too indulgent with my children. I've probably given them too much. They would be so much better off, really, if they worked for it. I was one of six children and my dad died when he was 42. We had no money. But it was good for me. I had to babysit and work. It builds your character. You need to work for what you have—that's what it's all about. There's the old saying, that if you find what you really love doing, it will never seem like work. You've got to work, whether it's as a stay-at-home mom or a CEO or whatever.

AMA: Is there such a thing as work/life balance for today's working moms?

Gable: Although more women than men are now graduating from college, young women still have the same problems I had 10 or 20 years ago. We want to have children; we want to be nurturers. Mothering has a great impact on the world. But we also want to have impact in other ways. If the boss asks you to stay late and you've got children at home, that's a problem that has to be dealt with. As far as work/life balance goes, it's hard to cut yourself in half and do both. I love my customers and they love me. But if there's a problem, they don't want to hear that I've got to take my child to kindergarten.

But you know, New Age could be gone tomorrow. I am a mother first. Yet having said that, I have responsibilities I have to meet in order to take care of all these kids. It's tough.

Read Part I of Shari Lifland's exclusive interview with Carolyn Gable.

If you want to learn more about some of the topics discussed here, including leadership and customer satisfaction, consider these AMA seminars:

• Developing Executive Leadership
  
• The Voice of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire, Influence and Achieve Results
  
• Assertiveness Training for Women in Business