Tranh Quoc Lam couldn't speak English when he arrived in Hawaii from Vietnam. Mildred Council was everybody's favorite cook but had little education. Rather than complain about what they didn't have, these two fine tuned what they did know how to do and have made it big because of it.

Topic for Discussion: Why did success seem to come so quickly to Tranh?

Answer: We think it is because he chose to do what he knows. He knows things you could never learn in a book about baking traditional french breads. This is why he makes it all look easy to others. Of course you can learn what you need to know to be successful. We're simply saying you can succeed faster and with fewer heartaches if you stick to what you know. Trahn did not arrive in Hawaii and decide he wanted to get a Ph.D. in English! That could have taken ten years and he probably could have found a job teaching English to native-born Vietnamese but instead he built on strengths.

Topic for Discussion: What does the phrase "success breeds success" mean to you?

Answer: People who accomplish one goal are likely to accomplish the next goal they set. Success builds confidence and this quality is absolutely essential for a small business owner. If you don't have confidence that your idea will succeed, you will not attract employees or customers. Sometimes confidence appears as arrogance to others. Gerhard Von der Rhur, founder of CritiCare, told us that a small business owner needs a strong ego, not a big ego. He said that a person with a big ego is arrogant and doesn't see the value of others, whereas a person with a strong ego has deep belief that he can accomplish the task at hand. A strong ego is attractive to others while a big ego is off-putting.

You think about it: What can you be doing with your knowledge and experience that you're not now doing?