Ruth M. Owades is founder, chairman, and CEO of Calyx & Corolla, Inc., the first-ever fresh flower catalog and Web site. Launched in 1988, Calyx & Corolla -- now a $25 million company -- uses FedEx to ship flowers direct from growers to consumers. A "serial entrepreneur," Owades launched her first catalog, Gardener's Eden, in 1979 and sold it to Williams-Sonoma three years later. At HBS, Owades, who was the only woman in her study group, hadn't considered running her own business because she'd seen her father struggle with the family bookstore. "I had always focused on how all-consuming it is to run your own business," she says from her San Francisco office. "But until I started working on Gardener's Eden, I had not thought about the factors of creativity and satisfaction. They really get the adrenaline going."