Sharon’s Money History, in Her Own Words

When I hear the word M-O-N-E-Y, I think of the word independence.

I am the child of immigrants. My father came to the United States with only an airplane ticket and very little money. He enrolled in engineering school in New Jersey and made his way from there. He met my mom while in school. She too was an immigrant without much money.  When I was born, my parents did not have health insurance. My father had just lost his job one month prior and had to pay for the birth of twins. Money was tight.

Growing up, I was a lucky kid.  Unlike my parents and grandparents, we always had food on the table and clothes on our backs.   Relative to the rest of the world, I had absolutely nothing to complain about.  However, I knew—even though we never talked about it explicitly—that money was tight and we needed to watch our dollars carefully.

At a very early age, I made a decision. Once I was capable, I was going to make enough so that money would never be the driving force in life decisions. That’s why I started creating businesses at age five.  My first business was selling bookmarks with stickers (five cents) and “bear” magnets (twenty-five cents) to friends. I enlisted my twin sister to help me get the business going.

I have always viewed money as an enabler to lead the life you want to lead, from a position of strength.