Sam Zemurray

American banana entrepreneur who built a banana trading company from nothing — working alongside his employees, traveling to the fields, and operating with extreme hands-on intensity — before staging a shareholder revolt to take control of United Fruit Company, the much larger company he had sold his business to.

Embodied the entrepreneur who acts when others debate — the famous incident of walking out of a United Fruit board meeting (when he was told he was too old and unsophisticated) with enough shareholder proxies to take control of the company on the spot — demonstrating that decisive action, preparation, and the willingness to be underestimated are competitive advantages.