Story Musgrave
Astronaut and Entrepreneur

From the outside looking in, one might think Story Musgrave has had quite the random life. But spend some time with the man, and you will see that it all makes perfect sense. He is just doing what he does.

"My basic mantra is getting the job done," Musgrave said. "It's looking at outcomes; looking at results. It's looking at the finish line and getting the job done. That's my basic overall theme."

Dustin Goss
CEO & Founder POW Gloves

Dustin Goss' favorite day at work says it all.

"“We have a 22-inch powder rule in every employment contract," ”explained the CEO and founder of POW Gloves. “If it snows 22 inches within 24 hours - within three hours of where you're currently located - you have to go to the mountain or else you're fired. So I would say I love 22-inch days."

Right alongside a pile of U.S. Black Engineer magazines and other "techie" reading, Tessa Hoskin keeps the latest copy of Bloomberg Businessweek. She's a degreed electrical engineer, but is also involved with integrating corporate acquisitions.

There's a new breed of engineers out there, and Tessa Hoskin is one of them.

Chris McCann never pictured himself making a career of selling flowers and chocolates. So when his eldest brother Jim approached him about helping full-time with his 7-year-old flower business, the 20-something McCann was skeptical, to say the least.

"My reaction was not necessarily enthusiasm, because I didn't go to college to be a florist," asserted McCann. "It's not what I was intending to do."

When a million dollars in cash earned from illegal diet pills is tucked in the basement walls of a doctor’s home, you might suspect some crooked business. When you’re one of the FBI agents who finds the money and nails the guy like Jen Ngo did, consider your job well-done.

What you might fail to recognize is that this particular agent is detecting fraud and prosecuting criminals in part thanks to her degree in accounting.

David DiGregorio's travels have provided him with a variety of professional experiences, which–in turn–have provided additional opportunities to see even more of the world.

While his experiences have ran the gamut, one thing has remained consistent: For DiGregorio, travel is not just part of the job, but a true passion.

When the CFO of Consolidated Edison, Inc. in New York retired in 1996, Joan Freilich was waiting in the wings as a candidate well-groomed for the position.

"It was a big accomplishment for a woman. There have been a number of women CFOs of utilities since then, but I was the first in a major utility."

For Jesus Lara, music and TV played an essential role in being bicultural and bilingual.

"Growing up in Latin America myself, I remember clearly buying and listening to U2 records and reading the lyrics to the songs as the songs were playing," explained Lara, who is now the founder and CEO of a new language learning product called Amusse.

Matt Renaud always wanted to join the Peace Corps.

Even after obtaining an accounting degree from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, it was a desire he just couldn’t shake. It was something he had wanted to do since hearing one of his junior high teachers share stories about her Peace Corps experience in Costa Rica.

Two years after college, Renaud could fight the urge no longer.

If you catch Caroline Moore unplugging from work, you might find her playing the popular game “Angry Birds Space” on her iPad. The popularity of smart phones and tablets has turned everything into an application—or to borrow from popular vernacular, an app—including newspaper articles, ninja games, and nutrition calculators.

Moore and her company, LearnAhead, have created an app for English language learning.

For Fabian Banchiero, the key to business success is all in the pitch. The soccer pitch, that is.

In the mid-2000's, a friend of Banchiero's began managing sales and fan development for the New York Red Bulls professional soccer team. His friend had years of experience in professional sports, but never worked with soccer. Banchiero's advice quickly became extremely helpful.

At the January 2012 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Yan E. Yanovskiy, President and Board Member of Bioenco Bioenergy Corporation, discussed transforming the world by shaping new models. Yanovskiy’s effort to shape a new system for energy production in Russia makes him something of a model himself.