Many successful entrepreneurs have had no formal education or cut their education short to start their businesses.   Remember the early history of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mo Siegel and other now world famous entrepreneurs?  If not, they're worth Googling.   What all of them did have was gut feel and street smarts.  In their later writings and speeches some even have made light of their early actions and decisions, saying that they succeeded because they didn't know that they could have failed.

Although written ten years ago by Jay Goltz, The Street-Smart Entrepreneur, 133 Tough Lessons I Learned the Hard Way is still in print.  A fast, easy read, it presents 133 one-page lessons every entrepreneur should know.  Jay has insights that include:

• Learn to say "No" to unprofitable customer orders and don't be afraid of losing a bit of business due to your prices. Goltz says you can't provide the best of all three of price, customer service, and quality. Rather, aim to be the best at two of the three.
• Don't worry about coming up with a brilliant, unique idea. Goltz writes: "If you want to be successful in business, execute well."
• Don't demotivate your employees and hire carefully. Goltz suggests a "BATH" criteria for hiring employees. Do employees Buy into your company's concept and way of doing business? Are they Able? Are they Team players, who are also ready to take individual responsibility? Are they Hungry? (Not for lunch, but to excel and succeed.)

You'll have to read the book to find out more.  Unfortunately, it is not in the Marion County Library collecton, but is available from brick-and-mortar and Internet booksellers.

How can you hone your street smarts?  Spend real or virtual time with other other entrepreneurs.  Virtual in the sense of reading Jay's book or researching some of them on the Internet.  Real in the sense of networking with other business owners through chambers of commerce, economic development groups, and trade associations. 

If you are a franchise, or your vendors have annual conventions, by all means go.  The education you can receive from your peers is worth as much as, and perhaps more than, an MBA degree.  The academic and practical approaches to business are often divergent.  In the academic sense, you should always purchase equipment you intend to hold a long time as the total cost is lower than leasing.  In the "real" world it is usually better to lease the equipment as both the down payment you save and the lower monthly payment of the lease provide you with dollars you can use elsewhere in the business (advertising, inventory, or payroll for example) and can enhance your cash flow.

Does anybody have a "street smarts" story to share?