Phyl’s philosophy a lesson for business owners

Phyl Rubin, co-owner of the Bernie and Phyl’s furniture chain, has multiple sclerosis.

A closely guarded secret for decades, Phyl has decided to break her silence and appear with Bernie in a series of public service announcements about the disease, according to an article in the Boston Globe (Bernie and Phyl share a long-kept secret).

I had the pleasure and honor of meeting the couple several years ago working on a story about the then-new Nashua store. Contrary to the old commercials where Phyl played the wise-cracking “bad cop” to Bernie’s slightly-clueless “good cop,” Bernie was the one responding to most of my questions.

Now it’s Phyl who’s speaking about this debilitating diseas that strikes some 400,000 Americans.

“It’s important to show people are living a fulfilling life with MS,” Phyl said in the Globe article. “But it’s a horrible disease, and I want to help people and find a cure.’’

I was talking to my husband just this morning as we watched a commercial for credit cards aimed at business owners – I don’t know how business owners do it? Do you ever get the time to actually do the thing you’re passionate about? If you’re not 24/7 selling your company, you don’t make sales, you don’t make money, you don’t make mortgage, dental check-ups for your kids or a car payment to get anywhere.

Now imagine having a disease where walking can be difficult some days.

I remember Bernie talking to me during our interview about “his bride of 40 years,” spoken in his delightful New England accent making “40” sound like “fawty.” He spoke about how many nights they ate peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, scrimping to save money for their little mattress store. That store, of course, became the flagship of their Bernie & Phyl’s furniture empire.

Some business owners might have used an illness such as Phyl’s to effect. Not Phyl. According to the article, she didn’t even tell her kids when they were young about her condition let alone business associates. The family and store came first before everything.

“I am a private person. I didn’t think it was anybody’s business,” Phyl told the Globe.

She is right, of course. But what amazes me further is that she didn’t give up for herself. How incredibly hard it must have been to start and grow a business, while having this on your plate as well, not to mention being a public face and raising a family.

That kind of strength comes from a well that goes far deeper than just wanting to make a solid profit. It comes from drive ingrained in one’s moral character.

Like I asked before, how do business owners do it? I don’t know, but apparently Phyl Rubin does.

*****

March 8-14 is MS Awareness Week

On March 26, Women on the Move of the Greater New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, serving Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, will be holding its annual luncheon, with updates about treatment of the disease, which strikes three times as many women as men. The event, with keynote speaker Dr. Ann Cabot of the MS Clinic of New Hampshire, will take place 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Nashua.

To register for the event, call 800-344-4867 or visit http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/MAM/index.aspx.

If you’d like to learn more about MS, visit the Web site of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, http://www.nationalmssociety.org.

From The Boston Globe:

Bernie and Phyl share a long-kept secret