Building a Business One Bagel at a Time

I wish my career in journalism was the culmination of a childhood dream, but I kind of fell into it.

I considered being a lawyer, but the thought of three years of law school was too daunting. Engineering? Too much math. Business? No way. In journalism, a mistake gets a correction. In business, you can lose millions.

So my summer job at the Syracuse Newspapers in the thick of the 1970s stagflation turned into a full-time gig at $155 a week. Later, I became a reporter and was fortunate to work for good editors who nurtured and motivated me.

I was reminded of my indirect career route as I noshed on a bagel and chatted with Steve Fleishman, founder and president of Bethesda Bagel -- who studied electrical engineering but ended up as the bagel supplier to Washington. His truck fleet heads out between 1 and 3 a.m. every day, delivering 15,000 bagels to 200 wholesale clients from George Washington University Hospital to the World Bank.

I've eaten hundreds of Fleishman's bagels over the years (onion with Nova Scotia lox, a little cream cheese, tomato and those tart little green capers).

A breathless Steve (he is always hurrying about) and I sat one sunny day on a bench outside his store, where he told me how he became a bagel man. It's an instructive tale about starting a business from scratch, working nonstop and figuring out a way to create a nice life for you and your family.

"I grew up hungry," said the Bronx native.

After studying electrical engineering and liberal arts at Queens College in the late 1970s, Fleishman married and went to work for his wife's uncle, managing 1 million square feet of commercial real estate scattered around New York and New Jersey.

He was in his car five hours a day and was unhappy.

When the uncle asked Fleishman what he wanted to do the rest of his life, "I knew it was time to leave."

Fleishman was allowed to stay on while he looked for another living. On a trip to Washington around 1980 with his wife, Fran, Fleishman looked up a friend who was studying at Georgetown Dental School. Fleishman liked the area, and he asked the friend if he had an idea of a good business to open around Washington.

The friend told him the local bagels were terrible and suggested he do something about it.