Hero Worship Welcome to the entrepreneurial hall of fame. You can't touch these exhibits.

Few will argue that the 20th century was an era of unprecedentedprogress, growth and accomplishment. Where would we be todaywithout the visionaries and dreamers, innovators and inventors,mavericks and rebels, trailblazers and pioneers? The world as weknow it--and that which we will live in tomorrow--has been shapedin large part by men and women who knew how to use their talent,drive, ingenuity and desire to make dreams cometrue . . . and influence the course ofhistory.

The four entrepreneurs to follow represent not only archetypesof 20th-century achievement, but also very human examples whofaced--and overcame--the same kinds of obstacles we all do in lifeand business.

Thaddeus Wawro is a Los Angeles-based direct-marketingconsultant, an author and an award-winning advertisingcopywriter.

Internet Evangelist

Marc Andreessen

Co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp.

Launched: 1994

"Right now, today, with a little luck and brains andtiming, any kid with a computer can do what Netscape has done.There are no barriers to entry anymore. Any kid can spark arevolution." --Marc Andreessen

To some, Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder MarcAndreessen is a cyberspace folk hero whose programming savvy madethe vast resources of the Internet's World Wide Web availableto anyone with a computer and modem. To others, he's littlemore than a computer hacker who rode to the top on theaccomplishments of others. But no matter how his supporters anddetractors feel about him, Andreessen is indeed a visionary, whosedream of creating an easy-to-use Web browser clearly revolutionizedinformation technology, sparked the Internet boom of the 1990s andlaid the groundwork for one of the fastest-growing companies inU.S. history.

Born in rural New Lisbon, Wisconsin, in 1971, Andreessen seemeddestined for a career in computers. At age 8, Andreessen beganteaching himself the BASIC programming language from a librarybook. By the time he'd reached the sixth grade, Andreessen hadcreated a virtual calculator to do his math homework. By theseventh grade, he was writing his own games and playing them on thefamily computer.

During his senior year at the University of Illinois,Urbana-Champagne, in 1992, Andreessen took a $6.85-per-hourprogramming job at the university's high-tech think tank, theNational Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It wasthere he first gained access to the Internet, which at that timewas a crude, text-based network accessible only through primitiveinterfaces.

Andreessen immediately saw a potential market for an easy-to-useInternet browser, and in one sleepless weekend, he hacked out acrude prototype. He showed his prototype to his friend, giftedhacker Eric Bina, and in just six weeks, Andreessen, Bina andseveral other NCSA colleagues built it into a fully functioningbrowser called Mosaic. They made the program available free ofcharge over the Internet, and within a year, more than two millioncopies had been downloaded.

After graduation, Andreessen was offered a job with the SiliconValley firm Enterprise Integration Technologies. Just a few milesfrom where Andreessen worked, Jim Clark, founder of SiliconGraphics (SGI), had recently left SGI and was looking to start anew venture. Wasting no time at all, Clark fired off an e-mail toAndreessen. As soon as Andreessen explained the World Wide Web toClark, the pair knew they should go into business, making browsersand servers for the Internet.

Using $4 million of Clark's money, the duo founded MosaicCommunications Corp. in April 1994. (Six months later, they changedthe name to Netscape, after the University of Illinois claimed itowned the rights to the name Mosaic.) Andreessen's first movewas to recruit some of his former colleagues from NCSA, includingBina. By year-end, Andreessen's "dream team" hadcreated a more powerful, more polished version of Mosaic, whichthey named Netscape Navigator.

In a brilliant move to generate a user base, Navigator, likeMosaic, was launched free of charge on the Internet (the companyeventually began charging for the program, offering free 90-daytrials instead). The browser immediately ruled the Net, claimingnearly 75 percent of the browser market.

With the success of Navigator, the company grew from three to200 employees. To keep the start-up from growing out of control,Clark and Andreessen hired former FedEx senior executive JimBarksdale to serve as CEO. Netscape also expanded its product lineto include high-end, high-priced software tools that companiescould use to create and maintain their own Web sites, and theyestablished virtual stores to conduct secure transactions over theNet.

By 1995, with $16.6 million in sales but no profits, Netscapewent public. Initially offered at $28 per share, Netscape'sfive million shares of stock immediately began trading at $71. Whenthe stock market closed, Andreessen, then just 23, was worth $58million. By December, the value of Andreessen's stock had risento $174 million.

Microsoft eventually usurped Netscape's dominance bybundling its own browser, Internet Explorer, with MicrosoftWindows. As a result, Andreessen and Netscape drastically changedtheir strategy. Rather than focusing solely on the Internet,Netscape turned its attention to intranets, producing software torun within corporate networks.

As Netscape lost its market dominance, Andreessen faded into thebackground, and Barksdale emerged as the new face and driving forceof the company. Barksdale brokered a deal with AOL in 1998 to sellNetscape for $4.2 billion. Under the terms of the buyout,Andreessen was named chief technology officer of AOL, but hisactual role and responsibility within the company remainedvague.

Wanting to play a more active role in the evolution of theInternet, Andreessen joined the board of directors of AccompanyInc.--the first Internet-based buying network to offer products andservices in real time--in 1999. He eventually stepped down asAOL's CTO.

The legacy of 29-year-old Marc Andreessen is firmly entrenchedin the annals of online history. He set the standard for Internetbrowsers, providing an "on-ramp" to the Web for computerusers and changing the way businesses access and use theInternet--paving the way for e-business and e-commerce.

Truth Be Told

It is a widely held belief that Marc Andreessen's Mosaic wasthe first Web browser. It was not. But what made it unique wasthat, unlike other browsers, Mosaic was easy to get up and running,and it was the first browser that could automatically displaygraphics along with text--leading to the cultural phenomenon thatcaptured the attention of the masses and eventually created amultimillion-dollar consumer Internet industry.

A Stylish Obsession

Calvin Klein

Founder of Calvin Klein Inc.

Launched: 1968

"Anything I wanted to do, I did. If there's something Iwant to do, nothing stops me." --Calvin Klein

Calvin Klein's casual and chic style brought Americanfashion into its own and on a par with Paris. He managed tosingle-handedly create the designer-jeans craze of the 1970s andrevolutionized fashion advertising in the 1980s. Now his nameadorns everything from underwear to perfume. And his stylishdesigns and business acumen have built an empire. But unlike hisclothes, Klein's rise to the top of the fashion world has beenanything but uncomplicated.

Born on November 19, 1942, Klein was largely influenced by hismother, who instilled in him a love of art and fashion. While otherkids played stickball, Klein tagged along with his mom while sheshopped at discount clothing stores in New York City. A loner whotaught himself how to sketch and sew, Klein claims he always knewhe wanted to be a fashion designer.

After graduating from New York City's Fashion Institute ofTechnology in 1962, Klein married Jayne Centre and went to work asan apprentice in the garment district for $75 per week. He sketcheddesigns from European runways for coat mogul Dan Millstein. Thetactic of copying was typical for fashion at that time, because nooriginal ideas were coming out of America. But Calvin wanted tochange that. He had dreamed of starting his own fashion company,and nothing was going to stop him--not even the fact that he wasnearly broke and still working at his father's grocery store tomake some extra cash.

In 1968, at the age of 26, with $2,000 of his own money and a$10,000 loan from his boyhood friend Barry Schwartz, Klein foundedhis own company, Calvin Klein Inc., with Schwartz as his partner.Their first order came literally by accident, when a coat-buyerfrom department store titan Bonwit Teller got off on the wrongfloor and wandered into Klein's workroom. Impressed by his lineof trench coats, the buyer placed an order for $50,000, telling theyoung designer, "Tomorrow you will have been discovered."And indeed, it was that order from Bonwit, along with a glowingeditorial in Vogue, that put the Calvin Klein name on themap.

In 1973, Klein designed a line of sportswear, creating whatwould become known as "The Calvin Klein Look" and givingbirth to American leisurewear. The money was pouring in as hisclean, muted, simple designs became hits with both the buyingpublic and the fashion press, which gave him the prestigious CotyAward in 1973, 1974 and 1975. But success did not come without aprice. In 1974, it cost him his marriage.

After his divorce, Klein embarked on a self-described "wildperiod," spending his nights partying at Studio 54, wherecocaine and casual sex were part of the scene. As his power andnotoriety grew, Klein maintained a high public profile--until 1978,when his 11-year-old daughter, Marci, was kidnapped. Although shewas released unharmed, both Klein and his daughter were indeliblyscarred. The once publicity-hungry Klein gave up partying andbecame a recluse.

The year 1980 marked a big turning point for Klein's empire.A series of commercials featuring 15-year-old model Brooke Shieldssaying, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins," madeKlein's new line of tight jeans a nationwide phenomenon,selling 200,000 pairs the first week alone. The provocativecommercials marked a revolution in clothing advertising, butprompted criticism from feminist leaders. The negative publicityonly fueled sales.

Klein once again courted controversy in 1982, when he put hisname on the waistband of men's underwear and then started acampaign featuring near-naked men modeling the new designerskivvies. Many publishers rejected the sexy ads. But again, thecontroversy spilled over into Klein's favor, and storescouldn't keep the underwear in stock.

In 1983, Klein and his partner bought Puritan Jeans, their jeanslicensee, for $65.8 million. But lifestyles were changing, and thereality of AIDS had minimized the casual sexuality of '70s. Asa by-product of this, the demand for tight-fitting, designer jeanswaned. By 1984, the designer jeans business had dried up, leavingKlein deep in debt.

When Klein married his second wife, model Kelly Rector, in 1986,he was once again experiencing a dark period in his personal life.He became addicted to vodka and Valium. When Klein's officeannounced that he had gone to the Caribbean on an extendedvacation, the truth was revealed--Klein had been admitted to theHazelden Clinic in Minnesota for alcohol and drug abuse.

Klein came out of rehab facing bankruptcy, but was saved by palDavid Geffen. Klein spawned numerous product lines, including amore affordable clothing line called CK, and licensed his name onsunglasses, watches, handbags and more. By the mid-1990s, his CKone perfume and CK jeans were selling well, his brand-newheadquarters store had opened in New York City and his companyexperienced its healthiest financial state in years.

Indeed, the man who popularized name-brand jeans, clean Americanlines and men's underwear for women is unquestionably a stylishsurvivor as he enters the 21st century as one of the world'stop fashion designers.

In Vogue

At the same time as his advertisements for jeans and fragranceswere being criticized, Calvin Klein's clothing was receivingcritical acclaim for its clean, modern lines. Time magazinecalled him the "Frank Lloyd Wright of fashion" and namedhim one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1996.

The First Lady Of Software

Sandra Kurtzig

Founder of ASK Computer Systems Inc.

Launched: 1974

"I think luck is seizing opportunities. There areopportunities all around. There are millions of good ideas, butit's those people who seize the ideas and seize theopportunities that appear lucky." --Sandra Kurtzig

In today's male-dominated software industry, women foundersand CEOs are practically nonexistent. But while software titanslike Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison have become theposter boys for Silicon Valley success, the firstmultimillion-dollar software entrepreneur was a woman. Startingwith just $2,000, Sandra Kurtzig built a software empire that, atits peak, boasted around $450 million in annual sales. And it allstarted as a part-time job.

In 1972, Sandra Kurtzig quit her job selling computer timeshares for General Electric to devote more time to starting afamily. An admitted workaholic, Kurtzig knew she couldn't giveup working altogether, so in hopes of making a little extra moneyand "to keep her mind occupied," she launched what shethought would be a small, part-time contract software-programmingbusiness in her snug second bedroom.

Her first client had asked her to create a program that couldtrack inventory and provide manufacturing information. Realizingthat other manufacturers might find such a program useful, sherecruited several bright computer and engineering graduates anddirected them to write standardized applications aimed at solvingthe problems of local manufacturers.

Unable to persuade Silicon Valley venture capitalists to investin her start-up, Kurtzig was forced to launch ASK on retainedearnings alone. To gain access to the minicomputers her companyneeded, she persuaded executives at a nearby Hewlett-Packard plantto let her and her programmers use one of the company's series3000 minicomputers after hours. "They let us in at 6 p.m., andwe came with sleeping bags and stayed until 6 a.m.," sherecalls. It wasn't long before Kurtzig's part-time job wastaking up 20 hours a day. By 1978, ASK had its first salableproducts--a package of programs called Manman (short for"manufacturing management") that improved both inventorycontrol and production management for companies.

Kurtzig struck a deal with HP to sell its minicomputerspre-loaded with her programs--which meant ASK could market acomplete product to computer-wary managers years before computerswould become common tools of the industry. The system was a hit,and sales quickly soared from $2.8 million in 1979 to $39 millionin 1983. Meanwhile, Kurtzig took the company public in 1981.Between 1981 and 1983, following a small equity offering and atwo-for-one split, earnings per share doubled, making Kurtzig worth$65 million.

But even with her tremendous success, Kurtzig was tired of thefast-track life. "When you're the CEO, you live it sevendays a week, 24 hours a day," she says. Wanting to devote moretime to her children and realizing she couldn't do that andcontinue at ASK, Kurtzig resigned from most of her duties in 1985,keeping only the title of chairman.

For a while, ASK continued to prosper. Over the next four years,profits increased. But sales flattened out after reaching $79million. More ominous, the company was living off a softwarepackage whose last overhaul coincided with Kurtzig'srelinquishing control. In 1989, when it became clear ASK was facingthe first of what would likely be several quarters of flat sales,ASK's board of directors persuaded Kurtzig to rejoin as CEO,hoping she could turn the company around. It was an offer she justcouldn't refuse. "When push comes to shove," shesays, "well . . . ASK is my baby, and ASKis what I know."

Upon her return, Kurtzig asked employees to rate the performanceof the division's managers. The top-rated managers wererewarded with greater responsibilities; those that got low ratingsreceived pink slips. She also stopped the practice of seniormanagers giving themselves hefty raises and bonuses.

She repositioned ASK as a database provider and re-engineeredthe software to run on a variety of computers. By 1992, theMountain View, California, business was back on top, boasting salesof $450 million, making it the largest public company ever foundedand run by a woman. Kurtzig once again retired. Two years later,ASK was purchased by Computer Associates International Inc., aprovider of software support and integration in Islandia, NewYork.

Today, Sandra Kurtzig is chairman of the board of E-Benefits, aSan Francisco insurance and human resources service provider shefounded with her son Andrew in 1996. Kurtzig was instrumental inlaying the groundwork of the modern business-to-business softwareindustry. Her innovative approach of creating easy-to-use softwarefor complex manufacturing tasks has been a model for virtuallyevery successful software company in the industry today.

I Am Woman

One of the reasons Sandra Kurtzig succeeded in themale-dominated software industry was because she didn't acceptthe status quo. When she first started ASK, she refused to followthe rigid, hierarchical "male" approach to management andinstead adopted a policy of being honest with employees, sharinginformation rather than withholding it, and keeping her office dooralmost always open.

The Candy Man

Milton Snavely Hershey

Founder of The Hershey Foods Corp. (originally Hershey ChocolateCo.)

Launched: 1894

"Give them quality. That's the best kind of advertisingin the world." --Milton Snavely Hershey

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when ruthlessbusinesspeople were creating steel, oil and railroad empires on thebacks of a hapless rural population forced into grim factory towns,Milton Snavely Hershey followed a different path to success. Unlikethe cold-blooded "robber-barons" who offered theirworkers callous treatment and backbreaking labor for menial wages,Hershey offered his employees dignity and prosperity, inspiringloyalty in his workers and making himself rich.

Even so, Hershey's path to sweet success was fraught withobstacles and set backs that would have crushed lesser men. Butthrough perseverance, ingenuity and his ability to bounce back fromfailure, he built one of the great American fortunes from theground up and brought joy to millions with a beneficent wonder thatwould immortalize his name--Hershey's Chocolate.

Hershey began his candy-making career at age 15, when he wasapprenticed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, confectioner Joseph H.Royer. Hershey blossomed under Royer's tutelage, acquiring manyof the skills and tools he would later use to build his ownempire.

In 1876, with $100 from his aunt, Hershey opened his first candyshop in Philadelphia. Although Hershey worked day and night makingcaramels and taffies, the winter of 1882 was dogged by illness andmounting debt and he sold the business and headed to Denver.

It was while working for a confectioner in Denver that Hersheylearned adding fresh milk to caramel improved its quality andextended its shelf life--a discovery that would later provecrucial.

Hershey eventually left Denver to start candy businesses inChicago, New Orleans and New York City. But none of the venturessucceeded, and Hershey wound up bankrupt. When Hershey returned toLancaster, he found he'd been cast out by his relatives--theyrefused even to take him in, let alone lend him money to startanother business. But Hershey soon found salvation in the form ofan old friend and employee.

Henry Lebkicher, who had briefly worked for Hershey in hisPhiladelphia store, not only offered Hershey a place to live, butalso lent him the money he needed to bring his candy-makingequipment from New York. The pair then scraped together enoughcapital to start Lancaster Caramel Co.

Drawing from his experiences in Denver, Hershey experimentedwith using fresh milk in the candy-making process. Impressed withthe quality and shipping stability of Hershey's new, chewy,milk-based caramels, an English importer placed an order for£500 worth of candy, enabling Hershey to secure a $250,000loan to expand the business.

By 1893, in addition to the original Lancaster factory, the nowincorporated Lancaster Caramel Co. had plants in Mountjoy,Pennsylvania; Chicago; and Geneva, Illinois; which togetheremployed more than 1,300 workers. But that was just thebeginning.

During a visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition inChicago, Hershey witnessed a demonstration of chocolate-rollingmachinery from Germany. Inspired, Hershey started Hershey ChocolateCo. the very next year and produced more than 114 different typesof chocolate candies, including the product that would make hisname world-famous--the milk-chocolate Hershey Bar. It became aninstant phenomenon, so Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Co. for$1 million and turned his attention solely to chocolate.

Before long, Hershey set out to build an ideal town where hiswork force could live, play, work and prosper. Because of its richsupply of clean water, proximity to some of the finest dairy farmsin the country, and plenty of land for expansion, Hershey choseland near his birthplace, Dairy Church, Pennsylvania.

In 1903, Hershey broke ground for his factory. It was modern inevery way, with high-tech machinery that eliminated the cost andtedium of making and wrapping chocolate by hand, and made possiblemass production of quality milk chocolate at affordable prices.

Hershey, Pennsylvania, the town developed by Hershey for hisfactory and employees, featured affordable housing, a sewagesystem, paved streets, electricity, schools, stores, a trolleysystem, churches, a library, a hospital, a zoo, an open-air theaterand even an amusement park. Both the community and the companyprospered; by 1915, the chocolate plant alone covered 35 acres, andcompany sales sky-rocketed from $600,000 in 1901 to $20 million in1921.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, Hershey embarked on abuilding plan devised solely to keep his workers employed. Theyconstructed a new high school, a sports arena, a community buildingand a lavish 170-room hotel. Both the company and the town survivedthe Depression and continued to flourish, thanks to Hershey'sefforts.

Hershey remained at the helm of his chocolate empire until 1944,when he finally retired as chairman of the board at the age of 87.He spent the 88th and final year of his life still experimentingwith new confections, including celery, carrot and potato icecreams and a surprisingly successful beet sorbet.

After Hershey's death in 1945, the chairman of the board ofthe National City Bank of New York proclaimed, "Milton Hersheywas a man who measured success not in dollars, but in terms of agood product to pass on to the public, and still more in theusefulness of those dollars for the benefit of his fellowman."

Sweet Success

Before the early 1900s, all chocolate was handmade through atime-consuming and costly process that made chocolate an expensivetreat, affordable only by the rich. But Milton Hershey wasdetermined to change that. By developing and using innovativemachinery that eliminated the need to make and wrap chocolate byhand, Hershey introduced the first method for mass-producingchocolate at affordable prices, allowing everyone to experience thejoys of his magical creation, the Hershey Bar.