Clearing the Hurdles: Women Building High-Growth Businesses (Financial Times, Pearson Education Inc.: 2004) by Candida Brush (Boston University), Nancy M. Carter (U. of St. Thomas), Elizabeth Gatewood (Indiana University), Patricia G. Greene (Babson College) and Myra M Hart (Harvard Business School).

One of the best parts of this book is its willingness to ask the tough questions. For too long, we have heard only the myths and negative stereotypes held out as gospel truth -- it has been discouraging to study women in leadership. The other impressive part of the book is its positive tone: anything is possible as demonstrated by real women in the real world running real businesses very very successfully.

One example of the tough questions is “Are women-owned businesses really smaller on average?” The book, a product of The Diana Project, a multi-year and multi-university study of female business owners and business growth activities, goes beyond the obvious and asks more questions: Why might that have been the case in the past? What does the data tell us? What were contributing factors or motivators?

The five highly-regarded research academicians examine causes in context and in time. Some factors or motivators that might have been valid years ago may no longer be true. And others can be influenced or changed by conscious choices or actions on the part of aspiring female entrepreneurs.

The authors do not simply accept ancient myths as gospel truth for today’s more highly educated, experienced and informed business world. Things change. Women can change things. Women can leap over the hurdles or go around them (whatever is appropriate) rather than just stand there and stare, frozen in time and space. More data provides more perspective on old problems. Sometimes, it is simply a case of presenting the same data in a new or more appropriate framework. The writers are not looking for easy answers: they keep going and probing: “What other explanations might be suggested?”

The second valuable aspect is their citation of real world, real person examples of successful women entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter that many are not yet Fortune 500-scale public companies. What does matter is that they are approaching the top of the revenue pyramid and that their learning experiences are highly relevant. The women entrepreneurs are willing to be quote for attribution: “This is what I confronted and this is what I did to overcome the challenges I encountered.”

Finally, this is a book for all entrepreneurs – for men and women, minorities and majorities – because when you want to build a business and be among the top 5% in the economic marketplace, at that point the rules, the opportunities, the methods and choices are indifferent as to your color, origins, gender or faith.

Books written by men for the past 555 years have been read by women. The pathway to success is not the monopoly of either gender – in fact, the best business teams tap the best expertise (male and female). Competence is not chromosome-specific.

“Like their male counterparts, women entrepreneurs cannot be lumped into single categories.” [p 164]

It’s such a pleasure to read a book that defines “networking” as something other than bake-sales or silent auctions. Real networking “is the management of all the activities associated with developing and maintaining ongoing relationships [including] repeated interactions and mutual exchange of valuable information and resources. [p. 171]

This book will be among my top recommended suggestions for anyone interested in growing their business to the very top.