Ferryman Panagopulos, for example, is determined to modernize the ferry industry, sending his ships into competitive international waters, but he has trouble getting a foothold closer to home.
Algeria has been opposed to military action but is also aware of the threat of radical Islam and affiliates of Al Qaeda keeping a foothold so close by.
With the conflict in neighboring Colombia worsening and the American commitment there growing, a new foothold so close to the theater of action will "improve our response time and enhance our ability to detect and monitor flows of cocaine and heroin," Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the White House drug czar, said in an interview earlier this year.
St Helens gradually began to establish a foothold in the game and closed the gap to 12 points by half-time, although not before wasting a host of scoring opportunities.
Etihad Airways is getting closer to gaining a foothold in the Indian market.
Michael Janssen, who has a Berlin gallery, said having a foothold in Singapore would help him get closer to a new generation of artists in Southeast Asia who had not yet been fully discovered by collectors.
Many women find it's close to impossible to gain a foothold in their old profession, especially in a position as senior as the one they left to have children.
But there can be little doubt that the company is eager to gain a foothold, if not actually in the United States, then as close as possible to it.
Alibaba has struggled to establish a foothold in the U.S., however (its Amazon competitor, 11 Main, closed in June 2015 just one year after it began operating).
"If young, emerging talent of all types can't find a foothold in this city, then it will be a city closer to Hong Kong or Abu Dhabi than to the rich fertile place it has historically been," he writes.
