Finland to Florida
Lehtovirta has a penchant for adventure. In his younger days, if someone told him he couldn't do something, he was quick to say, "Oh, yes I can."

As a college student in his 20s, he would go climbing alone in the French Alps and ski down steep backcountry routes, triggering small snow slides as he cut sweeping turns through the rocky chutes. In the Gulf of Finland, he would windsurf farther out than his friends were willing to dare.

"It was definitely foolish," says Lehtovirta, now 40. "Thinking back, I can't believe I did those things."

He attended college in France for three years, then moved to America where he earned a degree in marketing from State University of New York at Buffalo.

When he graduated in 1993, Finland was going through its worst recession in years, but the American economy was booming.

Tempted by the lyrics of Jimmy Buffett songs, Lehtovirta moved to St. Pete Beach, Fla., and worked as a windsurfing instructor until he found a job with a Tampa e-commerce company, Fintech, selling money-wiring software.

An "old sales shark" taught the windsurfer how to make money. Lots of it. It was 1994, and "dot-com" was about to become a buzzword.

Prev   1   2   3   4   5   Next