It wasn't easy getting there. In 1948, the newly-married Wolstein opened an appliance shop in Cleveland called Kalamazoo Sales and Service. It closed after just eight difficult months.

Writing decades later about that short-lived venture, Wolstein analyzed it practically and concisely, using the episode to spin one of his many business maxims:

"Sometimes you have to recognize that you've made a mistake and walk away with the marbles you have left," Wolstein wrote. "The trick is to find the best exit strategy possible and to obey the First Law of Holes: When you are in one, stop digging."

This book is packed with such advice, learned over decades in the business world. Wolstein offers guidance on a wide range of business areas, including:

• Balancing work and family
• Maximizing performance from employees
• Moving on after parting with a business associate
• The pluses and minuses of diversifying a business
• Micromanaging and delegating

This is not a sugar-coated exercise in ego-massage. It is an honestly-told adventure of a man who explains how he started with very little and made it big.

Click here to read excerpts from the forward and chapter one of Crossing the Road to Entrepreneurship.