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Ginny Fitzgerald's business, Runnin' Cool of Greenwich, evolved from her healthy lifestyle and the personal crises fate dealt her.
Fitzgerald, a grandmother of five, makes stylish insulated water bottle carriers and fanny packs. Her company's initial success surprised even this 65-year-old dynamo.
"If anyone had told me 20 years ago that I would be inventing products and selling them, I would have laughed at them.
"I now believe it was my destiny -- through a roundabout route," she said.
While serendipity played a significant role, Fitzgerald's survival instincts, coupled with a lifelong love of exercise, an innate faith in herself, and ingenuity all led her to where she is today.
In 1971, Fitzgerald found herself divorced, with four children, ages 6 to 16, to raise.
"My husband developed amnesia and, like the cliche, rode off on a motorcycle with a younger woman. I couldn't cry or drown in self-pity. I had four kids who now depended on me to be their emotional rock," she said.
Fitzgerald turned to health and fitness to keep herself steady, taking up running with a vengeance. She researched health articles, decided to have bottled water delivered to the house and banned all sugar from family meals.
It was the early 1970s and she was considered "the nut case of the neighborhood."
Aptitude and introspection
Within a few years, her grown children no longer needed her attention as much and she decided to work. She took some career aptitude tests. The tests revealed that she was a great organizer, that she loved to make people happy and that she should strive towards position of authority.
But what career could she pursue, having no experience?
Fitzgerald kept running -- and ruminating. One day while she was jogging a light bulb went on in her head. She knew that the special event planner had just left American Can Co. The following...