Abdiel Marin, 38

You could never say Abdiel Marin lacks hustle. Like the time he started his own computer-support company, when he was a teenager in Miami. He was working at a big-box store, and a customer offered to pay him to install a modem. “I saw a million opportunities after that,” he says.

He came to Southwest Florida for college, but stepped away from that to manage IT for a medical billing company. When that company ran into some trouble, Marin started his own medical billing firm. That led him to his current endeavor: creating electronic medical record software for ophthalmology practices.

He went down that road because no one else was doing it. “There was a need, and no one was fulfilling it,” he says. It wasn’t always easy. It took a long time to convince local ophthalmologists to give his software a try. Faith in himself and something bigger kept him going.

“My No. 1 core value is the golden rule,” says Marin, who’s not afraid to ask experienced businesspeople at his church for advice. “I want to treat everybody fairly, and when you do things with that mentality, it changes how people see you. You develop meaningful relationships with everyone you come in contact with, because they know that they can trust you.”

Over his many years in the computer business, Marin has seen how lucrative it can be. And while he wants to make a living, of course, growing his bank account isn’t his primary focus.

“The harder you pursue money, the more it runs away from you,” he says. “The No. 1 reason I’m successful today is we treat all our customers the same, whether they’re the largest clinic in the U.S. or a one-doc practice doing everything by themselves. When you do things for the right reasons and realize there’s more to this world than just making a quick buck, it changes how you interact with people.”