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profiles
Taking Risks to Meet Challenges How Howard Brodsky learned the value of working, and succeeding, collectively BY L I I SA R AJ A L A
HOWARD BRODSKY wouldn’t be a business owner and co-founder of the largest global co-operative in the world if he hadn’t taken risks. After all, being an entrepreneur is in his blood. He was about 5 years old when his father, a Russian immigrant who formerly worked in the flooring department at the Sears in Lawrence, Mass., opened his own flooring store in Manchester, Dean’s Carpets. Sadly, his father passed away from cancer when Brodsky was 13, leaving his mother, a trained pharmacist, unexpectedly in charge of the store and navigating the challenges of being a business owner. “He opened up the store, and it was his pride. It was his dream,” Brodsky reflects. “I saw how much passion he had and love for the business. At the age of 13, I told my mother that was what I wanted to do.” Brodsky ended up running his father’s business, but his pathway to ownership and experience as an entrepreneur was one of a series of trials and persistence. LEARNING FROM MISTAKES Brodsky’s plan was to take over the business right out of high school. His academically minded older sister did not endorse his plan. She told his mother, “If Howard doesn’t go to college – sell the business.” So I ended up applying to college and went to Wesleyan University,” Brodsky says. “But my focus was 100%, I wanted to run the family business.” His persistence paid off. As a college graduate, Brodsky returned to the store and grew it to a chain of four stores in the Manchester area. He became a part of the close-knit Man24 RESILIENT NH 2021
chester business community. At 27, after talking to another person in the home furnishing industry, he became fascinated with the idea of meeting with an organizational psychologist, someone who could help him find the best people and form a valuable team-approach with employees. “I proceeded to meet with the psychologist once a week, every week for 15 months. He told me, ‘If you learn how to find great people, it’s a skill set you’ll never lose,’” said Brodsky. “We had a whole plan, I was going to go from four stores to 20 stores. We had a team we were going to do it with, the banks were willing to back us. All during this time, my mother said, ‘I don’t know what they’re doing.’ I kept saying, ‘They’re very smart.’” But amid all the hope and optimism, things took a turn for the worse. “I started getting calls,” said Brodsky. “‘You’re not paying your bills.’ And I said to my controller, ‘What’s the story?’ and he showed me the cash flow reports.” Everything looked fine, but Brodsky continued to get “more and more calls.” One day, Brodsky, now 28, went into the office, and opened a drawer to find
