Late on a work night, Amy Mathews picked up her ringing BlackBerry to find a frantic customer on the other end. On an airplane nearing departure for Buenos Aires, a woman realized her debit card was on the verge of expiration. She would be out of the country for weeks without an easy way to access cash. Mathews knew she held the solution in her palm. From her BlackBerry, the corporate banking manager at Mechanics Bank fired off a couple emails and got a new debit card ordered in minutes.

When most people think of action heroes, they do so in Hollywood terms: big, brawling, muscle-bound guys for whom compromise is always a dirty word. But in politics, brute force rarely holds sway over the art of the deal. In that regard, Doris Matsui, who represents much of Sacramento in Congress, may just be our very own action star.

While some business people are perfectly content golfing or playing tennis in their time off, others apply their competitive spirit to more extreme pursuits. These high achievers share several characteristics: They search far and wide for challenges, they’re competitive, they have uncommon amounts of energy and they have the financial means to travel, whether to climb Russia’s Mount Elbrus, kite surf in Brazil or hunt rare black impala in South Africa.

Left unchecked, underachievers can drag down an entire team’s performance, and that goes double when the problem staffer is family.

It may seem that landing that New York Times interview, getting featured on the front page of AOL or winning a $135,000 business contest means that, as a business owner, you are set for life. In truth, it’s just the beginning.

Technological innovations, workforce trends and entrepreneurial spirits are allowing more American workers to step away from cubicles and corner offices and into the comforts of their own homes.

He’s the boss, she’s bossy. He’s assertive, she’s domineering. He strategizes, she schemes. He’s powerful and likeable, she’s powerful or likeable.

Every entrepreneur knows that it’s lonely at the top. Jeff Smith is no exception.

One morning last year, Cyberguys, a computer and tech accessories retailer, started getting a lot of calls from customers with the same question. Was the company really selling hard drives for $3?