Out Of Business What happens when your personal dream turns into every entrepreneur's nightmare?

Failure is perhaps the scariest word in an entrepreneur'svocabulary. Like some evil thing lurking in the corner of everysmall business, the shameful closing is the unanticipatedantithesis of the celebrated grand opening.

But it happens. Although statistics show that manysmall-businesses fail, W. David Waters certainly didn't expectto become a statistic. He intended Honolulu-based Centaur Zone Cafeto be the prototype of an international franchise of coffeehouses."This," he says, "was supposed to be the launchingpad."

Instead, Waters found his plans dashed after just one year inbusiness. "I thought we'd either be an overnight sensationor we'd flop," he says, "but I never dreamed we wouldjust drag along, hanging on to tidbits of hope here and there. Itwas emotionally and psychologically trying."