LEADERSHIP CORNER
Summit Lending CEO looking to achieve balance

Interviewed by Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Personal profile

• Self portrait: I am constantly working to achieve an effortless balance in my personal, spiritual and professional growth. While I try to guide my family to some semblance of safety and happiness, I have real high expectations for myself and people in my personal and business circles of influence. I don't accept anything less than a complete effort in trying to reach individual and collective goals.

• Favorite book: I try to start each day by reading a passage from "The Promise of a New Day," a book of daily meditations. It's a compilation of authors, and it kind of sets the tone for the day with a proper mindset.

• Favorite business book: "Jack: Straight from the Gut," by Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric. It highlights his management style, which is a very straightforward style while embracing people. A lot of what he talked about was running real parallel with the infancy of our company, which is 2 1/2 years old. When Mr. Welch took over GE, he had to look at all of the divisions, and he started anew. Probably the most profound style he had was that you protect the company as best as you can, and provide a harmonious environment to the best of your ability for your employees.

• Favorite Web site or search engine: Summitlend.com, our company Web site. It's one of the things I'm most proud of. It's got a huge amount of detailed information on a daily basis, and it's readily available to our retail borrowers as well as mortgage brokers. But when I do Web searches, I use Google.

• Most remembered mentor: My mother, Ethel Arciero. At age 20 she owned a finance company in Colorado called Great Western Savings, and she sold it when she was 26. And then she and my dad owned a national chain of shoe stores. She raised three kids; she's very honorable. Probably the most powerful thing she has taught me is, "To thine own self be true." You hold your head high in the face of adversity and just never compromise for the sake of business.

• Best part of the job: The fast and at times relentless pace and demands of the business and the people I work with. I was raised in a retail environment, selling shoes in my parents' store, and I was in sales for a large part of my career in mortgage lending. It's just a faced-paced environment, constantly changing. There are so many variables that you cannot control in the mortgage-lending industry — vendors, the interest-rate climate, consumers. When they are all brought together it creates this incredibly energetic environment.

• Worst part of the job: Sometimes my job requires me to be in the office very early, and at times I need to leave late in the evening, and I miss an entire day of my 4-year-old daughter Kaile's life.

• Trademark expression: My favorite expression in both my personal and professional life is, "Don't stop short before the miracle." It helps me and hopefully those around me to persevere when efforts seem futile and there seems to be no end in sight.

• Best decision as a leader: The creation of a nonprofit foundation within Summit Lending whose aim is to help provide homes to homeless children within our community.

• Worst decision as a leader: I guess it's more of a trait: I'm fiercely loyal, sometimes to a fault. A few times in my career I have not been able to act more quickly and decisively to let go of partnerships, joint ventures or friends that I knew in my heart were not best suited for this unique business environment in which we thrive.

• What I worry about most: That the sacrifices so many employees have made over the last 2 1/2 years in building this organization have eroded special relationships with families, friends and significant others.

• Most difficult challenge: Creating and maintaining a healthy balance in the personal, professional and spiritual aspects of my life. I often find it difficult, since I'm very demanding of myself, to accept anything less than a wholehearted effort in any of those areas.

• Leadership tip: Surround yourself with ambitious and entrepreneurial individuals who can both learn from you and teach you. Hire people who demonstrate great attitude and a willingness to learn, rather than just aptitude and industry-related experience. Don't be stingy with positive reinforcement, because you simultaneously give and receive when you share in the accomplishments of your associates. Always express gratitude and admiration for a job well done. It's definitely the most effective motivator.

Taking on... Company expansion

• We moved from about a 4,700-square-foot office to an entire floor of over 10,000 square feet at Harbor Court because we're positioning the company for future expansion. That was scary for us: doubling the space in less than 18 months. And our staff has increased in this past year by 42 percent. Now we have a little less than 40 employees.

• We did this by surrounding ourselves with sound advisors, good guidance and tremendous beliefs. What really helped us were two very strong business organizations. The Young Entrepreneur Organization is a local group; the other, which is national, is the American Business Women Association. They provided people who helped guide me and mentor me in that decision, people who have walked this path before.