New Excerpt - The Engine of America

We've got a new excerpt up on the Excerpts blog, chapter 4 of The Engine of America: The Secrets to Small Business Success from Entrepreneurs Who Have Made It! by Hector V. Barreto. CEOs of 50 successful small businesses, some of which have become large corporations, share their experiences of growing their own business. This chapter is about challenging conventional wisdom and accepted practices. The author profiles two women who in traditionally male-dominated positions, at a time when it was an accepted belief that they would fail, became successful leaders of major corporations.

Conventional wisdom often stops people in their tracks. This is not necessarily bad. If the conventional wisdom is that a small business will not survive and grow without proper financing -- a truism that has been shown to be true countless times -- and this rightly should act as a stumbling block to the nascent small business owner who intends to start a venture on a shoestring and hope for the best. But conventional wisdom should not stand in the way when the belief is based on outmoded facts, wrong premises, or prejudice.

Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007422.html