Lucky Biz Break

      Tony Jimenez, CEO and founder of MicroTech: “In my experience, being good improves your luck. It’s like that old chestnut, ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ Not only do you increase the odds that good fortune will come your way but – and this is key – when the opportunity of a lifetime does present itself, you’re more likely to take the time to recognize and properly evaluate it instead of passing it by. As for bad luck, a good general rule is to plan for the worst and hope for the best. As a small business owner, you’re always fighting fires. The first time you get complacent and forget what kind of business you’re in, the business will remind you. It’s a bit like having a wild beast in your living room. You don’t sleep, you keep one eye on it, and you make sure it’s well fed lest it eat you for lunch.”           Leonor Gaviña Valls, co-owner of Gaviña Gourmet Coffee: “Luck goes hand in hand with perseverance. My family and I came to this country with nothing. Now we have over 250 employees and people say we’re living the American dream, but the truth is, we’ve worked hard all our lives. When we started out in the ‘60s, coffee was a commodity. Was it luck that we happened to be in business during the specialty coffee revolution of the 70s and 80s? Or was it the fact that we were able to anticipate that coffee would one day be sold by country of origin and appreciated like fine wine, and that we set to work carving a niche for ourselves?” Lynette Spano, C.E.O of IT firm SCI and president of the Puerto Rico Figure Skating Federation: “In 1979, I was a poor kid out of Brooklyn working as a receptionist at an independent software broker called Lifeboat Associates, and I was desperate to learn the business. The company occupied the fourth and fifth floors of an office building. I worked on the fourth floor. One evening, after everyone had gone home, I got into the elevator and hit the number five, and the doors opened onto a suite of beautifully-appointed rooms. I was squatting on the floor of a conference room, absorbed in a volume on systems operation, when a man walked in and said, ‘Young lady, what are you doing here?’ ‘Exploring,’ I replied. “How refreshing,’ he said. His name was Dr. Edward Curry and he was the company’s founder and he told me that if I showed up there on Fridays at six, he’d teach me the business. It was an incredible stroke of luck, but it never would have happened if I’d stayed on the fourth floor. I always tell new entrepreneurs that you have to risk exposure, put yourself out there so that luck can find you.”