In the classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life," Jimmy Stewart's character is disappointed that he wasn't able to leave his hometown, but instead stayed to take over the family business. Along the way, the character learns that he really had a wonderful life and influenced countless people.

It might be a role Margery Lange Keskin could play. She never intended to work in the family business in DeWitt, but she did. And now she's majority owner and president of Statewide Aquastore Inc. and the sole owner and president of J. Andrew Lange Inc., the company founded by and named for her father.

Lange started his company in 1968. Aquastore was spun off in 1992. Since then, Aquastore has grown steadily, employing nearly 35 people and expanding into New England. It has sold and built hundreds of the huge tanks used by industry or municipalities to store water, wastewater or other liquids.

Like Jimmy Stewart's character, Keskin takes her responsibilities to people seriously.

"When I take on an employee, it's a commitment. It's very important to me," Keskin said. "When you're in a large company, if you have to lay off a bunch of people two or three tiers below, you don't even know those people. I know everybody that works with us, and we've always been a family business, even with the growth we've experienced, we still run the place as a family business."

But don't underestimate Keskin. When it comes to business, she's as steely as the huge tanks her company sells and installs.

Were you in leadership roles growing up?

Not at all.

The first time I was put into a leadership role was my sophomore year at Hartwick College. My dorm-room floor needed a rep and suddenly the girls around me said, "It's going to be Marge. Marge is gonna be our floor rep."

I've been taking on leadership roles ever since. It was always there, but it didn't come out and I didn't do anything to develop it until I got to college.

Why do you think the people on the dorm floor chose you?

I never asked the question, "Why me?"

I had a science major, where I had to be up early every morning as opposed to the others with sociology, English and other things that had 11 o'clock classes. I had 8 o'clock labs. I don't know. I just did it.

Walk me through your career.

I worked at Crouse Hospital for two years in medical biology. I didn't want to stay on the lab bench forever. The area to move ahead into wasn't something I was interested in. I decided to go back to school and get an MBA.

I went to Clarkson University and came out with a general MBA. I didn't specialize in finance or economics or accounting. That turned out to be the best, because when you're at the top of your little heap, you have to know something about all those areas.

When I graduated, I got a job in Rouses Point, which is the most northeastern town in the state of New York, on Lake Champlain. I was a production supervisor on the packaging floor at Ayerst Laboratories.

I got engaged, and we were trying to find jobs in each other's geographic location. My husband couldn't find anything in that area. After we were married, I came down here and I got a job at Anheuser-Busch in their quality assurance department.

It was in my background, paid well and had good benefits. The idea was people would be launched from this position into managerial positions. I did that for two years.

Then I had a baby, and I was not going to do shift work and try and be a new mom at the same time. I know a lot of women pull it off. I was not going to.

So it was a homecoming. Your family must have been happy.

Yeah. But I wasn't.

I really wanted to leave Central New York and go someplace else to have another experience.

I've never actually left, because after I had my first child, I came to work for my dad, very part time. That's how I got into the family business.

This was in the 1980s. PCs were just coming out. He bought a Kaypro 16. He wanted me to start computerizing the office. Everyone who worked with him at that point had no interest. He asked me. I said, "Well, I'll try. I know very little about computers, but I'll do it."

I started working maybe two days a week. One thing led to another. I started getting more and more responsibilities. About three years into it, the woman who worked right underneath him left suddenly. And everybody looked at Marge to fill those shoes.

That was my sink-or-swim moment.

Suddenly, I'm in charge of all sorts of things I hadn't really done before, from payroll to payables and receivables.

And you didn't sink.

I didn't sink. (Laughs) I've been here ever since. We've grown. My dad retired around 1991.

When someone is in a sink-or-swim moment, what should they do?

You have to keep your mind positive. You have to think about: What do I need to do next? What do I need to do so things go smoothly?

You can't let yourself think about the negative, because once you let those thoughts in, the potential is there for them to take over.

Who influenced you in developing your leadership style?

I developed my leadership style watching others. Mostly in my past, I looked at another manager and said, "I'm not going to do it that way. That way doesn't work because this person is my manager, and I'm not terribly happy, and I think I could be."

I said to myself, I'm not ever going to do that to somebody else if I can possibly help it.

The other thing I would say is that I always turn the table around, no matter who I'm talking to or what interaction I'm in: What if I were on the other side of that counter? What if I were on the other side of that cash register? I've always treated people the way I would want to be treated if the situation was reversed. That's played a big part in how I manage people.

Sounds like the Golden Rule.

Yeah. I would call it the Golden Rule.

What do you think people want from their leaders?

Direction. Security. Consistency.

I think the hardest environment to work under is an unpredictable, erratic leadership style.

I fight to always be consistent and predictable. I think that leads to people feeling secure.

And security leads to?

Better productivity. More focusing on the job rather than on what's going to happen tomorrow. Am I going to get a bad surprise?

Where have you taken leadership roles beyond your own business?

I have been active with the Chamber of Commerce, doing government-relations things.

I was a board member for nine years on the Southside Academy Charter School. I believe in school choice, and it felt great to be helping kids.

I'm also very involved with the NFIB -- the National Federation of Independent Business.

What is your advice for anyone tackling something hard to do in business or in our community?

Decide you're going to do it and then do it. I don't know if that sounds trite. It's the NGU thing, which is probably overused.

NGU?

Never give up.

"CNY Conversations" feature Q&A interviews about leadership, success, and innovation. The conversations are condensed and edited. To suggest a person for CNY Conversations, contact Stan Linhorst at StanLinhorst@gmail.com.

Last week: Peter Maier of Inficon on the value of finding win-win scenarios.