America's best entrepreneurs may be largely off the grid and out of sight of most analysts.  Geoff Williams has an interesting article on Amish businesses in CNNMoney, and he shares a staggering statistic from Erik Wesner, author of Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive.  Wesner's research shows that more than 90% of Amish start-ups survive at the first five years after opening.  Williams writes:

It's a statistic he backs up with a variety of academic surveys, drawing particularly on a 2009 report by Elizabethtown College sociology professor Donald Kraybill. Studying several Amish settlements, Kraybill found failure rates ranging from 2.6% and 4.2%; interviews with loan officers, accountants and industry professions in other Amish regions yielded additional anecdotal evidence of closure rates significantly south of 10%.

Compare that to the average five-year survival rate for new businesses across the United States, which hovers just under 50%. So what's the secret?

Wesner, who worked in business management and sales before immersing himself in all things Amish, thinks it lies in the culture, which emphasizes "qualities like hard work and cooperation." Networking through Facebook doesn't exactly have the same community-building pull as teaming up with neighbors to build a barn, and few Americans these days can point to a childhood where they awoke regularly at dawn to milk the cows.

Here's Erik Wesner and some Amish businesspeople discussing small business success in their community:

Read Why Amish Businesses Don't Fail here.