Carolyn Gable

The average workday for a waitress can be overwhelming. She has to tend to all her tables, talk to the cook, keep track of the bus boys and hostesses and only if done successfully, will she get a decent tip.While the hustle and bustle of the life of a waitress may not seem beneficial, Carolyn Gable thinks otherwise. She said the skills learned as a waitress have helped her in the business world. “Every day is a new day,every table is a new table,”she said.

Through her experience,she learned how to empathize with the customer and separate herself from tough situations. She said that working as a waitress trained her in customer service. “You have to be at your peak performance.There’s no free lunch when you’re a waitress,” she explained. Gable spent 15 years waiting tables but once she started having kids,the job began to interfere.Physically and mentally worn from working into the late hours of the night, she decided to make a change.

She joined an employment agency and was offered a position as a customer service representative in a transportation company.The success she had at her first job in the transportation industry led to a line of prosperous sales positions and later, the founding of a multimillion-dollar company. Certified as a WBE through the Women’s Business Development Center – Chicago,Gable is the CEO of New Age Transportation, Distribution & Warehousing Inc. She opened the company in 1989 from her home. Seven years later her company began doubling its revenues. “You just never know.You have great plans and God has greater ones,” she said.

The $30 million company is based in Lake Zurich, Ill., and provides transportation services by land, ship and air. Some of its customers included Cox Communications and Time Warner. But heading a transportation company and mothering seven children over the years, has not been easy.Actually, it’s been more like a circus. “You see the man spinning the plates and everyone yells ‘yeah!’— that’s how it is being a single mom. But very seldom do they all spin at once,” she said. Gable’s love for children doesn’t stop at her own. After maintaining double-digit million dollar revenues, she felt the urge to give back.

In 2001, she created the “Expect a Miracle” Foundation,which helps single,working parents pay for their children’s extracurricular activities. For Gable, receiving the “Thank you” letters from the children and their families is moving. She has compiled all of the letters into 20 scrapbooks,which she keeps as memories and said she hopes someday her children and grandchildren will read them and be inspired to give back. “To think that one person could have such an impact over the world or lives of others has been the most rewarding,” she said. “It’s all about loving and helping one another in our lifetime.” Gable said the process of giving is one big loop — the more she gives, the more she gets. Grateful for all God has given her today, she hopes the future of New Age Transportation will be prosperous.