From the House of Entrepreneurs

As I sit here sifting through every expense related to my fashion house, C. Marchuska, I repeatedly wonder, why am I an entrepreneur? I decided to write this post tonight because so many emotions were stirred up when looking over the past year and remembering both the highs and lows. As part of our new found strategy, Brooke, my partner and I, are going to be sharing a lot more of our story with you here. We hope you enjoy these posts, and feel free to comment with any thoughts, criticisms or support.

I guess I should probably start at the beginning. I was born into an entrepreneurial family. My paternal grandparents came over to the US, specifically Binghamton, New York, from Lithuania. My grandfather held many odd jobs over the years, but never lost hope in the American dream. However, my grandmother always made him choose stability over risk. Similarly when my father approached high school graduation, his parents advised him to take the safe route and pursue college where he could study to be a teacher. Being the dutiful son, my father packed his bags for Buffalo State College– solidifying their dream, but not his.

After college graduation he moved back to the Binghamton area where he started a motorcycle shop while maintaining a full-time high school teaching job. Shortly after moving back to the area he met my mother, a country girl, as she would refer to herself, raised by her Slovenian immigrant parents on a farm in Northern Pennsylvania. My mom was immediately attracted to my father because he was a teacher and could play polkas on his accordion (oh how I tried to hide that story during my teenage years).

So it was a match made in teacher heaven…or so my mom thought. Growing up on a farm, my mother wanted to escape the 24/7 work hours. She was the only one of her siblings to graduate from college and move away from the family business. She thought marrying a teacher and moving to the “big city” of Binghamton would provide the stability she always longed for, but as I often tell friends, never underestimate the power of Marchuska’s.

Shortly after getting married, my parents began their double lives working as full-time teachers while purchasing real estate and various other businesses. It all seemed so innocent in the beginning. But, my father’s drive and motivation to fulfill his father’s dreams along with his own, was too strong. Thus, he kept taking bigger risks and getting involved in more businesses – all of which he had no previous background or knowledge in.

Now, imagine my two older brothers and me growing up in this environment. It was normal for us to see our father in the morning for breakfast before he took off to teach, followed by a quick break in the afternoon before he went to rebuild the apartment buildings he purchased. We might catch him again for a brief moment at dinner before he took off to play in his band that would provide him extra cash to fund his various business ventures. The man literally never slept.

One notable memory that stays with me even to this day is when I was probably around five or six years old. My brothers and I were helping my mom set the table and get ready for our father to come home for dinner. He finally arrived at the house forty-five minutes late. He ran into the kitchen and proclaimed to my mother that he just purchased a million dollar apartment complex in our area. My mother’s mouth dropped. In general, my father never consulted my mother about any of the businesses he purchased after seeing how it was a road block for his father in pursuing his dreams. In the upcoming weeks it would be revealed that the realtor had lied to my father about several parts of the transaction, including the most important fact, which was that less than half of the complex was rented.

Over the next few months my family pulled together to make my father’s purchase a success and most importantly, avoid bankruptcy. We prepared the vacant rentals while my mom unwittingly became a real estate broker. It was at this point in my life that I told my mother that I NEVER wanted to own my own business or be an entrepreneur. I wanted to work for IBM like the other kids’ parents in my first grade class. I mean those kids got to go on real vacations to Disney World for weeks at a time where they stayed in hotels, not like our once a year 3-day summer jaunt to the Jersey Shore, where we would be stayed at an Inn sharing a bathroom with other vacationers on our floor.

Obviously, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. In upcoming posts I will give you more details on my family’s entrepreneurial path, but more importantly how I started my own eco-fashion line while later joining forces with my business partner, best friend and sanity keeper, Brooke Bresnan. We also will be interviewing our mentors in the eco-fashion realm as well as fellow entrepreneurs who have inspired and helped us to continue on this exciting journey. Feel free to contact us if you are inspired or would like to share your thoughts on fashion, sustainability and the American dream.