Myra Salzer today pooh-poohs the idea that she has been a success in her profession, but her modesty is nothing new. In a cover story profile for this magazine, which was then called Dow Jones Investment Advisor, in September 1996, Salzer recalled for writer Mary Rowland the dark days that arrived soon after she started her practice:
She had saved two years worth of salary to support her business. “I had planned for zero dollars and zero cents to come in for two years,” Salzer says. “But I hadn’t figured it was possible to go below zero.” What Salzer hadn’t counted on was not even making enough to cover overhead.
But her struggles to build a practice began to gather steam thereafter. This is how Rowland describes the epiphany Salzer experienced that helped launch her success.