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:
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)