Billionaire Diane Hendricks, chairman and sole owner of Beloit-based construction materials company ABC Supply, reflected on her entrepreneurial journey during a recent appearance at Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon. Hendricks, who grew up on a Wisconsin dairy farm, is now, at 76 years old, considered the wealthiest self-made woman in the U.S. She co-founded ABC Supply with her late husband, Ken, in 1982 and has led the company since Ken’s death in 2007. She also manages and develops real estate as part of the Hendricks Holding Co. portfolio of companies.
- “I met someone who told me to read a book called, ‘How I Turned $1,000 into a Million’ by William Nickerson. It was on real estate, a simple book on how you buy one (house), how you fix it up and how you rent it out. But, to me, it was a plan. It was the guide I was going to use to start my career.”
- “There was no limit in my mind that I couldn’t be successful. It’s like, how could you think that you were ever going to be when you’re doing menial jobs like cleaning toilets and painting walls? But I had seen my parents work and my parents did not die poor.”
- “I never really thought about the fact that I was a girl and that there were limitations to accomplish what I wanted to do. There were no limitations to where I could go in this nation. I never thought that I was working in a man’s industry and that I didn’t belong there. I didn’t know there was a glass ceiling. I knew there were roofs up there, and I liked it.”
- “I had a decision to make when I lost Ken. Everybody figured I would quit. That’s a word I was told never to use. You don’t quit, you don’t walk away from a challenge. You just don’t quit.”
- “Widgets are widgets. Women can run companies just as well as any man. For all the females, park your gender at the door when you go to work. I’ve been doing it for years. … I respect every woman for pursuing their own dreams and not thinking about the what-ifs.”
- “It was never my ambition or my goal to be wealthy. I actually had a very simple expectation of what I want out of life: I wanted a nice life, I wanted healthy children, I wanted to feel good about myself, I wanted my children to feel good about our life and their family, I wanted the associates to like working for us.”
