Page 23 - Tracy Anderson Issue

Donna Steward

Photo by Dawn Nicoli
to have something different. I switched jobs and earned a position as
a bank manager.” Donna enjoyed her new position and with so many
years working in banking she was a pro at it, but times were getting tough
and businesses were cutting back. Since she was in a small bank, they
decided that they really didn’t need a manager, and instead asked if she
would take a position in sales. “I was dumbfounded at first, I told them I was
not a salesperson and they quickly corrected me and said, everything you
do every day is sales, and you are wonderful at it. I went home that night
and cried, but I saw the handwriting on the wall and with two kids to care for
I knew that I had no option, but to accept this new position.”
Donna realized how right they were, after a year in that position she was
making more money than she ever had as a manager. Donna had built
up such a great clientele, primarily due to her ability to solve problems and
handle her position less like a corporation and more like a human being
with a heart and understanding of the needs of her customers.
Her position at the bank was a great one for her until she realized that the
bank was going to take away customers from her and she suddenly would
be making less and less money. Perhaps, it was time for Donna to make
one more change. It was at that point that Donna realized that she could
go out on her own and make more money than she was making working
for someone else. “I called my good friend Artha and I told her that I had
to do something to make money. I knew I could make loans, I knew I could
sell bank paper, few people knew about bank paper and I soon found I
could make $25 per transaction to do this on my own. Then I found out I
had to be licensed to do this. At about the same time an old bank client of
mine called and told me he had just sold his business for 10 million dollars
and asked for my help. I told him I wasn’t licensed. He told me, well get
licensed. So I once again called Artha, who was a licensed Real Estate
Agent, and moved forward toward my solo career. I have been an
entrepreneur ever since.”
With all of the great relationships Donna built over the years she started
receiving calls from her former bank customers seeking her help. People
remember you when you put them first and do what you can to help them
through hard times. Donna recalls one client who came to her for a second
mortgage on his house. “I had one man come in to me and he was so pale
white and sickly looking. He had to have a kidney transplant, and no one
would loan him money on his house for the medical procedure because
Sometimes the simplest of things can transform a person’s life. For Donna they gave him less than a year to live. Back then his collateral was income, San Diego Woman
Steward it was a senior trip in high school to the Federal Reserve Bank in
Los Angeles that was to be the impetus for a career that would span almost and so they feared he wouldn’t be here to pay it back. So I told him, 'well
5 decades. At the end of this trip a simple offer was made to the class, we won’t tell anybody.' So we made him a second mortgage on the home
an opportunity to fill out an employment application.The only position she for the surgery, which was 8 thousand dollars back then. Four years later 23
could be hired for at the time was that of messenger, since she was not yet he came back in the bank sat down at my desk and I had no idea who he
18.It was an exciting time for Donna, as a messenger, she was granted ac- was. He had dark hair and was healthy looking. When he told me who he
cess to all areas of the Reserve, parts that most people never get to see. was I said…You made it. I always wondered, the loan never went bad,
When Donna turned 18 she could be bonded, and that meant she would I checked that. So this little bit of faith and kindness changed this man’s life,
gain the ability to work on the IBM machines. actually gave him life. Its things like that, helping people that is passed
Donna stayed there until she married and had her first child, sadly her baby on to the next person and the next and they remember it and it
did not survive and she and her husband decided it was time for a change, eventually comes back to you. I never realized the cycle existed, but I
so they picked up and moved to Florida. With her experience in banking watched it happen as more and more of my ex-banking clients came to me
she found it easy to obtain another job in her field and soon started working for their banking needs.”
at the First National Bank of Cape Canaveral. It was there that she lived Donna has been in her own business since 1995 and each year she has
through the tense time of the Cuban missile Crisis. When she realized that seen the business grow. She currently does loans, property management,
her marriage was not going to survive, she and her children moved back to healthcare insurance, reverse mortgages, probate work and more. When
Hawthorne. It was back home in Hawthorne where she met the love of her asked her favorite part of her business she admits that she likes being
life and they were soon married. “He was an amazing man, he never had faced with a challenge. She will often receive calls from attorneys who
children of his own, I had two children and he raised them as his own. He are faced with probate challenges and they look to Donna to work her
was a wonderful father.” magic and come up with a solution. Somehow, the knowledge she has
Unfortunately, misfortune would again visit Donna. In 1989 her husband manifested after all of these years and all of the many experiences she has
received a very disturbing medical diagnosis. “He had just turned 50 and had, always allow her to come up with the perfect solution to even the most
we found out that he had to have a heart and lung transplant. At that time, complex problems.
they would only give him one organ due to his age. So they told him be Not only is Donna busy with her business, but she always finds time to
prepared, that he could be gone in a year. It was a year and one day later lend a hand to charitable endeavors. She served as the first president of
on June 4th that I lost my husband.” The loss of her first child, a divorce, Oceanside Civitan club in 1983, an organization that works to help the
and then the loss of her true love seemed almost too much to bear, but less handicapped and the homeless, and still does whatever she can to help
than one year later Donna would suffer yet another major loss, a loss that local charities. As Donna adds, “I will be 75 next year. I figure that I will
is said to be one of the toughest a woman ever has to endure. Donna tells work until I’m 84 or 85 then I will stop. Why would I want to stop before
me, welling up with tears, even this many years later, “Just a little over a I have to, I enjoy what I do.”
year later, on June 11th , my son was killed in a motorcycle accident.” LIFE IS GREAT IN REAL ESTATE
When life knocks us down several times, we can either give up or we move To Contact Donna Steward
on and use the strength that we find deep inside. With two children, she Phone her at 760-598-9889
knew she had to be strong and keep going, so she did. “ I had to pull or email her at
myself together because I still had a home and kids I had to take care of, dm-steward@sbcglobal.net
but I knew that I needed a change. I didn’t have to change, but I needed