How I Did It: Sidney Frank, founder, Sidney Frank Importing
"I wanted to be a billionaire," says the man responsible for your Jägermeister headache. At age 85 he stunned the liquor industry by getting his wish.
First he disrupted the brokerage business. Now, with Vonage, Jeffrey Citron is changing the game on the phone companies.
Midgets? Nuns who give massages? Disco Demolition Night? Free vasectomies on Father's Day? If there's one thing Mike Veeck learned from his father and from building a profitable empire of minor league baseball teams, it's this: Fun is good.
How I Did It: R. Donahue Peebles
R. Donahue Peebles built the largest African American-owned real estate development firm in the U.S. by mastering the art of taking risk -- but not too much risk.
How I Did It: David Blumenthal
The family yarn business was just getting by until knitting became cool (perhaps you've seen Gangsta Knitter?). Now it's on its way to becoming a $200 million success.
Former Army officer Randy Slager has two goals: continue expanding his $30 million IT company and keep knocking down walls that prevent disabled veterans from achieving entrepreneurial success.
From Jerry Seinfeld to Jay Leno, scores of standup comics have cut their teeth on the stage that Caroline Hirsch built.
Fleeing Uganda, Amber Chand came to the U.S. and built Eziba, a company that provides a creative and business outpost for artisans in war-torn nations.
Gloria Pink, of the famous Pink's, gives reasons Angelenos of all stations will wait an hour for a hot dog.
To save his ad agency, Jeff Goodby sold to a holding company. Fortunately, he also managed not to sell out.
John Zogby backed into his career as a pollster, and for a time had to cede the national spotlight to bigger names. Now he has his sights on becoming the Gallup of his generation.
Rather than open a used-book store, Michael Powell decided to start a business selling used books. That entrepreneurial point of view launched him on a path that ended in Portland, Oreg., with an enormous flagship store that's become a city landmark and tourist destination. And he still sells used books.
How I Did It: Howard Rubenstein
Howard Rubenstein is PR's top dog, a man who represents the corporate and the celebrated, a neat combination of blue chips and black eyes.
Marrying the immediacy of the Internet to the ephemera of what's hot created one sweet, and profitable, company.
Building a company has been a lesson in balancing ambition and compromise for the co-founder of Burt's Bees.
