My boss sat in my office. He's a close friend of mine. We'd been over to one another's houses. I still consider him a close personal friend. It was a difficult conversation for both of us. And something very peculiar -- I noticed he was kind of stumbling over his words a little bit, and this is a really well-spoken guy. And he kept looking over my left shoulder, just off to his right, and I thought, 'Well, this is a tough conversation. He's probably just thinking or getting his bearings.'
And he left the office and I thought, `Well, he seemed so uncomfortable. What's it like to sit in my office?' And I got up, and I walked around, and I sat in the guest chair where he was sitting when he was talking to me. And I looked. I wanted to see the perspective that he could see. And I looked over where my left shoulder would have been, and here's pictures of my wife and my three daughters. And I thought, 'Oh, gosh.' I mean, obviously I was having a little bit of a worse day than he was, but I actually felt a little bad for the guy.
From a Brooklyn craft brewer to an event tent designer, America's urban core is home to a host of novel, fast-growing small businesses. Here's the top 100, as ranked by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City.
