Open Book: Small Business Is 'The Engine of America'

I grew up the son of immigrant entrepreneurs. My mother and father came from Mexico to become U.S. citizens and small-business owners. My father worked his way from practically nothing to a seat at the White House, where he advised the president, and he helped mobilize a nation of Hispanics with dreams like his.

Years later, as administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, I traveled in normal and extraordinary circumstances to mom-and-pop stores and growing firms in every state. I saw first-hand that while many minorities retain cultural ideas and habits, and while women and veterans bring particular approaches to their companies, essentially all of us are the same. Small business wants more business. Often those entrepreneurs are too busy taking care of daily challenges to chart a course for growth and success.

In the government, I had an opportunity to initiate a series of public-private partnerships that produced events to open doors for small business. We were able to substantially increase the government and major corporation contracts for every imaginable product or service that small businesses offer. ...