The Risk Takers
16 Top Entrepreneurs Share Their Strategies for Success
Links
Links to entrepreneurs interviewed in The Risk Takers:
  1. Don Martin, founder and former CEO of the Cal-Surance Companies. I tell my own story—how I built a global insurance brokerage, which generated over $200 million in sales, from one tiny strip-mall insurance office. Cal-Surance fetched $64.5 million when I sold the business.
  1. Gary Heavin, founder and CEO of Curves International, the world’s largest fitness franchise company. He found an overlooked customer niche with 40- to 70-year-old women who felt intimidated by large, snazzy gyms with all their frills and spandex-clad patrons. Curves, which caters to women only, has 10,000 franchises worldwide—7,000 of which are in the U.S. 
  1. Linda Alvarado, founder and CEO of Alvarado Construction.  In a male-dominated industry where most Hispanics are viewed only as laborers, she ignored the naysayers, became a general contractor, and built the largest Hispanic-owned construction company in the United States. She also became the first Hispanic owner of a Major League Baseball team.
  1. Paul Orfalea, founder and former CEO of Kinko's, the one-time retail leader in copying, printing, and binding services. Struggling to get through college because of his undiagnosed attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia, Paul decided he needed to run his own business to ensure his own job security. He grew one 100-square-foot copy shop into a $1.5 billion-a-year company that FedEx eventually bought for $2.4 billion.
  1. Liz Lange, founder of Liz Lange Maternity, the leading design firm of maternity fashions in the U.S. Her designs changed the look of maternity clothes for every pregnant woman in the country. In addition to her upscale line sold at boutiques, she designs an affordably priced line sold at Target stores. In late 2007, Liz sold a majority stake in her company to Bluestar Alliance for an estimated $50 million to $60 million.
  1. Robert Stephens, founder of Geek Squad, North America’s leading technology-support company serving owners of home computers and home theater systems. Without big bucks, he built his company’s brand using ingenuity and chutzpah. In 2002, he sold Geek Squad to Best Buy for millions.
  1. Barbara Corcoran, founder and former chairman of the Corcoran Group, a $5 billion residential real estate company based in New York City, and founder of the prestigious Corcoran Report, the real estate bible for New York City. Labeled as stupid by her teacher when she was in the second grade, Barbara struggled with dyslexia as a child. But the learning disability sharpened her creative skills and she became a masterful marketer as an entrepreneur. In 2001 she sold her company to real estate conglomerate NRT for $66 million. 
  1. David L. Steward, founder and CEO of World Wide Technology Inc., the nation’s largest African American-owned company. Subjected to prejudice and segregation as a youth, David learned all about maintaining optimism in the face of adversity at an early age—a strength that ultimately served him well as an entrepreneur in the information technology industry. Starting on a shoestring in 1990, he built a privately held, billion-dollar company that provides technology solutions to companies in many industries. 
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