Contacts: Rich Petersen, Owner, Entertainment Alternatives (Amityville, Long Island)

Rich Petersen, a one-time building contractor who now owns a home entertainment business on Long Island, lives with the grateful aplomb of one who’s survived a near-death experience. In August of ‘98, Rich was six and half storeys up a scaffold in Manhattan when his foothold gave way.

“Luckily,” he says , “I hit a couple of things on the way down and only ended up falling about three stories. But that was my last day of construction.”

Obstacles saved his life then, and Petersen says a different sort of obstacles are now helping invigorate a home electronics business he developed after the accident. “My key focus in business today is 3 things: women, architects, and interior designers,” says Petersen. “The reason being, for 10 years, those have been my 3 biggest obstacles! The wife and designers walk in and say oh no, you’re not putting those ugly boxes in my room!”