Never Too Old to Get Rich

CHAPTER 3Military to Merlot

Destiny Burns, CLE Urban Winery

Home is where the heart is and sometimes your newest love – a start-up. In April of 2015, Destiny Burns headed to the hometown of her childhood, Cleveland, Ohio, to create CLE Urban Winery, a handcraft winery and tasting room, in a 4,400-square-foot garage in Cleveland Heights.

It may seem like a bit of an unlikely next act for Burns, 54, who enjoyed a 20-year military career as a Navy Cryptologic Officer with posts around the world from Japan to the Persian Gulf. After she retired from active duty in 2003, she then spent 13 years in business development positions for defense contractors such as General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman. But she was restless.

A series of major life events shifted her mindset and gave her the impetus to step it up. First, she turned 50. Second, her marriage of 26 years came to an end. Her daughter, Aimee, had graduated from college and was on her own, and for the first time in more than 20 years, Burns, then living in Northern Virginia, was footloose. “I had always dreamed of having my own business. I had a desire to do something different and to, well, feed my soul,” says Burns. “It wasn’t easy walking away from the income I was making working for a defense contractor, but I was drained.”

In time, she decided to return to Cleveland to spend her next chapter. “No matter where I lived ...