A sit down with Susan Morse

FAQs

• How did Mike Morse first show entrepreneurial instincts as a child?

  Mike Morse says that at about eight, he went to work at his uncle’s drugstore in Trenton, working the cash register and suggesting where to put merchandise, and his uncle rearranged the store based on his instincts. Susan Morse recalls the uncle telling her, when he brought Mike home, that whatever Mike does, he’s going to be successful.

• What was the ice cream business Mike Morse ran as a teenager?

  Mike Morse says that at 15, before he could drive, he sold Chipwich ice cream sandwiches downtown for a dollar, earning 25 cents a sandwich and $20 or $30 a day. Wanting a better profit margin, he and his cousin arranged with a local Good Humor shop to get a free cart, buy ice cream each morning and keep the entire profit, about 30 to 40 cents a bar, and he made $50 to $100 a day that summer.

• What is Susan Morse's plan for retirement?

  Susan Morse says she has decided this is the year she will begin to retire after 35 years as a financial planner, though not totally: she will keep a little of her practice and has found a couple, including a woman she says is like she was 30 years ago, whom she thinks her clients will like. She wants to spend more time in Florida, noting that her husband, Ed, is seven years older than she is.

• What did Mike Morse learn about his first law office job after his father died?

  Mike Morse says his dad got him a job at the office of Sheldon, a lawyer who had been his father’s law clerk, where he answered phones, did filing and some weed whacking. After his father died, Sheldon told him at the funeral or shiva that he hadn’t had enough business to pay him, so Mike’s father had paid the wages himself and asked him not to tell Mike. Susan says it was the first time she was hearing the story.

• How did Susan Morse influence Mike's approach to health and fitness?

  Mike Morse says his mother taught him the importance of working out. He remembers her doing Jane Fonda tapes in their living room in crazy tights and leg warmers, and Susan says she would put him in a little bouncy seat. Mike says that because of her, he works out almost every day and eats healthy.