Risktakers

From Zen gardens to custom floral arrangements for any spectacular event, turning visions of grandeur into reality is a serious business for Oleta Collins.

When Al Adler opened The Aviator Casino in February 2011, he wasn’t well-known in the industry. Oil and gas had been his game since the early ‘80s.

It is dedication to this creed, this way of approaching life, that turned a group of Italian immigrant farmers settling in Mettler into a successful farming operation. And it’s an attitude that was passed on from father to son...

Being President and CEO of a bank was pretty impressive. But creating a successful financial institution from the ground floor up in the face of one of our nation’s worst economic downturns was downright amazing...

It was the science that pulled Wade Bowen in. He was curious about the chemistry that took place during the distilling process of producing alcohol. This curiosity would eventually lead to the creation of his very own whiskey company called Bowen’s Spirits—no easy feat in America, where ancient, prohibition era-spawned laws governing alcohol production remain strictly enforced...

Christie Ludwick’s passion for fashion started early in life, and it began with a best friend, a couple of parakeets, and a wedding that was for the birds.

Precision Pharmacy, a locally-grown specialty pharmacy, has beaten the odds and turned what could have been just a sleepy little Bakersfield business into a leader of the medical compounding (preparing, mixing, assembling, packaging, or labeling of a drug or device according to a doctor’s specifications to meet a patient needs) industry...

His company began with what sounded like a pie-in-the-sky start-up plan: A 17-year-old Stockdale High School student turned information technology entrepreneur, turned DJ, turned wedding cinematographer. It just didn’t add up in most people’s minds.

Starting your own company is a daunting task no matter what business you’re launching.

But add a 3,000-plus hour work year, no steady pay, and a business that’s based on a fast-moving technology and you could be headed for disaster...

“I remember being so excited when I started working at State Farm,” Pete recalls. “I had been working in the restaurant business where I didn’t know what my schedule was from week to week and started this great job that had the same hours every day, didn’t have to work weekends or nights...I thought, ‘This is IT!’ ” Then Metallica rocked his world...