"Intelligent risking is sometimes actually taking a risk no matter how impossible or improbable it seems. The results are what catapult us into the next difficult task with greater confidence and charisma."

I'm sitting in my home office, well after 10pm and still in my business/cocktail getup. That is important information as I work from both home and my regular office giving me too much time to dedicate to yes…working! I have been asked to write a piece on intelligent risking. As I sit myself down to write this I am doing so with enormous enthusiasm and exhaustion not to mention accomplishment! I am a single mother with a toddler (4 ½ years) and I have been educated numerous times that I take risks daily by simply being an entrepreneur. But risks do come with very fantastic rewards!

Back to my fabulous story! I am the publisher of our state's fastest growing business magazine with a circulation of 20,000 and a very large page count. I am repeatedly asked who owns the company, as many do not in fact believe a woman is at the helm of a very male dominated business publication. I compete with another state publication that has published for over 30 years and I am recognized by the Business Journal for Colorado as being a force to be "recognized" after three years of persistent success. We successfully launched two others and are on our fourth - a technology publication depicting our state as the next Silicon Valley. The new Red Herring if you will. We also put on a fantastic entrepreneurial event "The Bold and The Bankrolled" on top of launching the pilot for "The Entrepreneur" --all to give Colorado a bit more flash and notoriety and to promote entrepreneurialism in our state. But at the end of the day, I am still one single mother with a rambunctious toddler and high hopes of making an impact.

This evening which fell on a Monday and followed a long day of bill collecting, employee dismissals, and the typical entrepreneurial hazards, and with a last minute invitation, I was to attend as the press a fundraising dinner for the University of Colorado's business school - Denver's most prominent. Over 986 persons rsvp'd to hear General Colin Powell speak.

I did my usual networking and attempted my infamous "celebrity photo op" which I manage on most accounts to sneak in. Nothing like having celebrity photos to prop on your walls to remind you that being an entrepreneur is a "rewarding experience".

However, the place was secured. VIP's were allowed photo ops if they paid the big donation ticket of $10,000. The muscle at the door ensured that only VIP ticket holders made it into the special cocktail reception (granted over 800 of us were on the outside reception). I tried every trick -literally and for many who know me, I am persistent until successful! I got nowhere. There was apparently a list and they were strictly adhering to the celebrity names that graced the page. I was not getting in. In fact, I found out later that they had to turn VIP's away in order to adhere to the schedule.

So I made my way into the grand ballroom where the lot of us are seated. Still amazed that almost one thousand of us were there and I was invited to be among them. John Hickenlooper, our celebrity Mayor was on hand to give a brief note. Pete Coors and his wife were the evening's hosts. So you can see we had only Colorado's finest sitting up front and with exclusive access to the allusive General Colin Powell. To make matters even more difficult for press, the Denver Post sent their best photographer to capture some great shots -who was promptly turned away and allowed to shoot only cocktail party scenes. There were to be no shots of our illustrious guest by any other camera except the hired professional.

I found my seat. I was at table 91. The last table at the far corner of the room in the back. In fact, it looked like a straggler as there were no tables in front of us. The tables had beautiful arrangements of lilies or roses. Ours had Gerber daisies. I found there to be two other guests making us the only unfilled table with three, and I promptly introduced myself, still enamored with attending this amazing $300/ticket event. You will not believe who I was placed at the table with. The official photographer assigned to shoot General Colin Powell exclusively and the short list of VIP's. To my amazement, the photographer worked for People Magazine, National Geographic, and Time Magazine. Wow. We of course exchanged cards.

I relayed my story and my history of no fear persistence. Risk taking at its finest. After an amazing keynote speech, my new acquaintance escorted me to the VIP room informing me that General Powell agreed to a second photo session for the volunteers of the event. I was first in the empty room that was filled with over 100 "who's who" only an hour ago. He placed me at the front of the line and with three flashes, I was moved along making way for the next. I shook hands and stood next to one of America's most influential and very charming historical figures.

I was not a VIP at a $10,000 donation nor was I part of the program and its staff. I was simply the woman at the back of the room with an agenda and a propensity for taking risks. The intelligent risk of this process: knowing your mission and vision. My vision was simply to meet General Powell. My mission became abundantly clear that I must get that photo! The challenge, the difficulty, the impossibility of it all! It would be a perk to have yet another story to tell every woman and entrepreneur as well as affirmation that risks are taken every day with great rewards right in front of you. It is a bad risk not to take chances and go with your gut when it is driving you to an end. You might call it luck that I was sitting at that table. However, many might have looked at it from a completely different perspective. "Didn't they know who I was? If they did, I would be at the front of the room and a secured VIP pass! Who needs a photo anyway?" Most people have no idea who you are, what you do and what your mission is. On occasion we do get lucky to be a the right place at the right time - but it is definitely not an aversion to risk taking that gets you going in the right direction. You may have your parachute. You may have the ideal location. But if you don't actually step off the cliff, how will you ever know the feeling of the wind in your face and the view on the way down or the butterflies in your stomach? And most importantly, the feeling of success when you land -even if it is upside down in a tree!