The Accidental Entrepreneur: 3 Tales of Entrepreneurial 'Eureka' Moments Sometimes life throws you a curveball -- and it just may mean opportunity. Here's the story of ordinary people who fell into big ideas and took them all the way to the bank.

One day in January 2014, Violet Alexandre headed out for a run with her baby boy bundled into a jogging stroller. Trekking along a popular Boulder, Colo., trail that heads into a shaded canyon, she slipped and fell hard on black ice. Attached by a safety strap, Alexandre was dragged as both baby and stroller plunged toward the icy stream below. She was able to stop the descent just in time.

"I was very banged up and very shaken up," she says, recalling that she texted her husband, Sharif, to tell him what had happened and that she would head home. In a panic, Sharif called back. When she didn't answer right away, his distress worsened.

"When you're in that emotional situation, every second, every ring just takes so long," he says. ""Why isn't it going through?' "Why isn't she picking up?'"