Entrepreneurs and investors work in an inherently risky environment. Business startups and their backers must take chances with their resources, as nothing is certain in the competitive world of buying and selling and profit and loss. These risks are especially pronounced in areas where there is little information: ignorance can lead not only to financial ruin but, sometimes, to personal danger.

In Russia, the spoils go to those who can see deeper into new situations and place their efforts where they will produce profitable results. The trick is to do so without suffering the all-too-frequent losses caused by officials and their cronies who, in an unstable marketplace, have elbow room to game the system and, now and then, hijack the hard work of foreign investors. This is what happens to Browder and his team.

Emerging markets are places in the world where otherwise impoverished societies begin to develop their economies with the hope of becoming prosperous. To do so, they need investors from wealthier nations who will risk their money in the hope that the emerging markets pan out.

Browder cuts his financial teeth on newly privatized countries such as Poland and Russia, where the risks to an outsider are great but the opportunities are greater, and he becomes one of the first to do so successfully.