Home-Grown, Over-the-Shoulder Excellence

I was having a conversation about business with my father recently. He asked me how I knew how to build the company when I'd had no formal training. I told him, "Somehow, I just 'knew.'" And in saying so, I realized once again, how very much alike you and I are in this regard; most of us haven't had "formal" training, yet as small business owners, we define the very foundation of our economy.

I am not, by any stretch, knocking the value of formal training. It is an excellent asset; in addition to my college classes, there are several courses I took over the years that have been absolutely invaluable. But courses necessarily have their limitations, which brings me to a subject we're all familiar with: over-the-shoulder training.

Because so many of us were trained this way ourselves, we know that formal training is not a requirement for performance excellence. When each of us first opened our doors, did we actually think about how well-prepared we were or did we just do it?...