Maxine paetro biography

My life has been a jumbled succession of accidents and incidents, tough luck, dumb luck, good breaks, and damned good breaks fueled by curiosity, fear, naivete, determination, and optimism.

In the late ‘60s, after two years of college – I dropped out — and after a year living and working as a shop-girl in London, I moved to New York and got a good dog, a walk-up apartment in the Village and like my father, I went into sales.

From carrying 25 lb. electronic calculators through the meat market on Gansevoort Street in all kinds of weather, I realized that I would like sales better if I worked at a desk indoors.

I became a headhunter and recruiter and was assigned to a territory.

My new specialty was finding jobs for “advertising agency creative people.” That job was one of those dumb luck things because I knew very little about advertising. But I took to it, made placements and new friends in advertising, and became an expert.