Ruben King-Shaw Jr. is proud to be Panamanian—and that doesn’t make him any less proud to be American.

Every single workday, José Pacheco sees the future. As the codirector of the master of engineering degree in advanced manufacturing and design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Pacheco doesn’t have to look far to see the inception of tomorrow’s innovations.

The late 1970s were the cowboy days for Silicon Valley. White men dominated the tech industry, but one young Latina named Isaura Gaeta, a 1982 Stanford University graduate with a master’s degree in engineering, worked her way into the field.

If you’re averse to it, constant change can feel chaotic. But if you’re hardwired for it, perpetual transformation is an opportunity.

Soaring thousands of feet into the air can teach you something about taking a risk. Javier Olivan would say his fearless approach to life began in the mountains of his tiny Spanish town, where he paraglided as a kid.

It was Christmastime in 1987, and Fidel Vargas was stranded. The oldest of eight children from Baldwin Park, California, was a freshman at Harvard University, and he had no way to get home from Boston, Massachusetts.

Imagine committing yourself to a discipline for seven years. Imagine investing time, money, and intellectual energy in a plan for your future.

Tom Castro didn’t grow up dreaming of a career in radio. “I wasn’t one of those kids who always had a microphone in his hand,” he says.

Talita Erickson doesn’t see limits. She’s a business school graduate who is fluent in three languages, can practice law in both the United States and Brazil, and holds two executive positions at an international corporation.