(MONEY Magazine) – OCCUPATION: Small business owner RESIDENCE: Honolulu

Paula Sussex finds opportunity wherever breezes blow. Raised in Chicago, she fled the Windy City's winters for balmy Hawaii after college. She quit her first job to sail in the South Pacific. Later, when a boss was liquidating operations, she opted for a new adventure, purchasing one of his shore stores for $30,000. Fifteen years later, Sussex's business is easily worth 40 times that.

Her six Sandal Tree stores, located in upscale resorts, sell hundreds of styles of novelty footwear. Her big item: the Maui Snowboot--an elaborate ankle bracelet with a strap that wraps around the second toe.

Sussex has weathered two recessions and more. After Hurricane Iniki hit in 1992, she took $175,000 in proceeds from business interruption insurance and opened the first of her three coffee bean kiosks. Her operation's total sales top $5 million a year.

Sussex says her favorite time in business was early on, when she did everything herself. Now she delegates to 80 employees. Up next: politics. Sussex wants to start working on state economic development issues.

--Judy Feldman