Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
If you've never met a die-hard angler, let us introduce youto Brandon White, founder, president and CEO of World Wide AnglerInc.-aka WorldWideAngler.com. Hisgrandfather took him fishing in the first grade. By college age,the honors student was basing his college acceptance decision onwhere he could fish regularly.
Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, provided theangling action he craved-so much that he quit lacrosse and soccer.By the time grad school rolled around in 1996, his fishing schedulebegan disrupting his pursuit of a master's degree inpsychology. He scoured the then-sparse Internet for fishinginformation, but search results lacked. "A bell went off in myhead, saying '[The Chesapeake Bay is] a fragment of themarket,' " says White, 29. "Fishing'sregionally based all over the world. Let's build a company thatcould be the fishing brand."
To launch his "selfish" endeavor, White used wagesfrom a part-time job to hire now-Webmaster Tom Gattone to createthe site. Gattone contributed half the $50,000 start-up capital(partly infused by day trading), and, in December 1996, everyangler's dream company was founded.
White raves about his 15-employee Stevensville, Maryland,angling information and products provider-as he should, forit's uniting the worldwide fishing community.
"Pick a job you love and you'll never work again inyour life," says White. "Yes, I work 20 hours a day, butif I'm not fishing, I'm talking fishing. How much betterdoes it get?"
