Career
In 1899 with a German chemist named Hermann Hille, Barnes developed a mild silver nitrate antiseptic solution, marketed as Argyrol. Used in the treatment of gonorrhea and as a preventative of gonorrheal blindness in newborn infants, Argyrol was an immediate financial success. Barnes proved adept at running the business: to avoid having Argyrol being stolen by competitors, he convinced Hille not to patent it; he marketed directly to physicians, and took his product abroad. Within five years of starting the business in 1902, the firm cleared $250,000 in profits (roughly $5.8 million today). After buying out Hille, in 1907 Barnes had become a millionaire by the age of 35. In July 1929, he sold his business for a reported sum of $6 million. The move was well timed, as he sold before the 1929 stock market crash and the discovery of antibiotics, which replaced Argyrol in use.
Read more about this topic: Albert C. Barnes
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“They want to play at being mothers. So let them. Expressing tenderness in their own way will not prevent girls from enjoying a successful career in the future; indeed, the ability to nurture is as valuable a skill in the workplace as the ability to lead.”
—Anne Roiphe (20th century)
“The problem, thus, is not whether or not women are to combine marriage and motherhood with work or career but how they are to do so—concomitantly in a two-role continuous pattern or sequentially in a pattern involving job or career discontinuities.”
—Jessie Bernard (20th century)
“My ambition in life: to become successful enough to resume my career as a neurasthenic.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)