When he left his homeland of Iran at the age of 17 to find success and opportunity in the United States, Isaac Larian eventually found both. On a journey marked by hard work, risks, and astute choices, Larian has transformed his original company as a game licensee into a formidable creator and licensor of some of the world’s most popular toy brands. Leading the list is the Bratz line of fashion dolls, launched in 2001 and now the leading fashion doll brand worldwide. Larian has continued to grow MGA Entertainment into a full consumer entertainment products company with more than 20 of its own product lines, including fashion magazines, CDs, television shows, movies, and apparel collections that leverage the Bratz brand.

It’s not everyone who can see new applications and markets for something as prosaic as stone, but Manu Shah sees potential everywhere for the beauty and durability of granite and other natural stone. He launched a small family-run company in the basement of his home, supplying stone for memorial monuments. But when the India-born Shah leveraged his connections to that country to supply black granite for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, it propelled M S International on a growth trajectory that includes natural stone imports from more than 30 countries on five continents and an inventory of 20 million square feet.

For brothers Michael and Steven Roberts, entrepreneurial ventures are something of a habit. Their latest, Roberts Hotels Group, began with the purchase and renovation of an historic hotel in St. Louis. Their model of taking existing properties and investing in them to create economic opportunity in urban communities has quickly expanded to nearly a dozen hotels, primarily in cities in the Midwest and South. The Roberts brothers are committed to making their properties assets for the communities as well as their company by taking a long-term view on their investments, actively recruiting women and minorities, and continually seeking ways to reinvigorate urban areas.

A hardworking nature and persistent belief in doing things a better way have taken Harold Hamm from his early days wildcatting oil wells to founding and leading one of the country’s most successful oil drilling companies. Hamm’s innovative thinking resulted in Continental Resources’ pioneering development of commercially feasible horizontal drilling techniques. And his ethical approach to business and passion for the oil industry have elevated him to one of its most influential advocates and highly regarded leaders.

When Ron Kruszewski took over leadership of Stifel Financial Corporation, it was facing litigation and rumored to be for sale. Vowing to get the company “out of the foxhole” Kruszewski adopted a focused strategy to reinvigorate the company, inspire its employees, and guide Stifel’s consistent growth for 11 straight years of record revenues—to an expected $800 million this year—and a nearly sixfold increase in stock value. Strategic acquisitions over the last two years have made Stifel one of the nation’s premier independent brokerage and investment banking firms.

The word “no” isn’t much of a deterrent to Pamela Morris, who has grown what began as a managed health care plan in Dayton, Ohio, for Medicaid recipients into CareSource Management Group, the largest Medicaid managed care plan in the state. The road was a steep one—beginning with an act of Congress to obtain an exemption on the percentage of commercial customers the plan needed to serve in order to qualify for federal funds. CareSource has expanded into Michigan and Indiana, and Morris is looking to take the CareSource model to other populations, including the aged and people with disabilities.

By never settling for the status quo and a strong belief in the learning opportunities that mistakes can provide, Michael Walrath has continually reinvented Right Media. What began as an online advertising consultancy has evolved into an open online advertising exchange that enables buyers and sellers to connect with each other, have open access to media, and see the market as a whole by sharing supply and demand information. Walrath’s successful model caught the attention of Yahoo!, which acquired 20 percent interest in Right Media in 2006 and the remaining equity interest earlier this year.

Hard work and solid relationships built on trust and integrity enabled William Gay to go from valued employee to owner of his own mechanical contracting company, with nearly 1,000 employees of his own. For 45 years he’s grown W.W. Gay Mechanical Contractor into one of the top 10 mechanical contractors by revenue in the United States. Along the way, he’s given the same opportunity to other entrepreneurs, providing capital and administrative services and retaining at least 51 percent ownership in the ventures. Of the 24 businesses he’s helped, 15 have repurchased their stock. More significant, however, is the fact that some of them are Gay’s competitors.

When Max Messmer purchased Robert Half International nearly 20 years ago, he intended to buck conventional wisdom at the time and build the well-known franchisor into a company-owned operation by acquiring the independent franchises. It was the first of many contrarian steps Messmer took to grow the temporary financial staffing company into what is now a more than $4.2 billion business providing staffing services to a host of professional disciplines, including technology, marketing, creative, high-level administration and law. Messmer continues to subscribe to smart risk-taking and look for additional areas where Robert Half can fill professional staffing needs.

The word “pioneer” hardly begins to describe Marc Benioff. He leveraged the online architecture popularized by consumer Internet companies to deliver an entirely new way to deliver the software applications that companies use to manage to manage their businesses. Salesforce.com provides customers with on-demand, integrated, completely customizable enterprise applications that are cost-effective and that deliver results for some of the world’s biggest companies. Benioff is also an innovator in corporate philanthropy, committing 1% of Salesforce.com’s equity, 1% percent of employee work time, and 1% of its product to non-profit organizations through the company’s foundation.