Financial Roulette

Courtney McCain, 25, is at once an unlikely and highly likely entrepreneur. She's got half a college degree. She married an Air Force man and moved to a remote base in the Midwest. After being re-stationed on the East Coast, she separated from her husband and moved nearer to family and friends, where she went through a string of administrative assistant jobs. She excelled at each job but was ultimately bored and burned out. Now an assistant account executive with a public relations firm, McCain is on a decidedly professional track.

Public relations might be her calling...but, then again, it might not be. "I know that I've got the brains and the talent to be a success," she says, "but it has to be on my terms. My big challenge is to find out what it is that I'm good at doing. Successful people aren't successful just because they're smart. I think they're successful because they've pursued things in which they have natural talent."