Building a Fast-Growth CompanyThere are tried-and-true rules for growing a company. And then there are entrepreneurs who pay no attention to the speed limit, put their engines in overdrive and blaze their own paths to furiously fast growth.

Entrepreneurs don't follow rules--they break them. Rules about tradition, rules about convention, and rules about what can and cannot be done--they all fall before the perseverance and innovation of entrepreneurs.

At least that's the legend. But what about the rules for creating a fast-growing company? Are there certain financial, market or other conditions that must be met for a company to grow rapidly? To find out, we asked experts in small-business growth what they saw as the rules for rapid business expansion. Then we talked to successful fast-growth entrepreneurs for their takes. We found that entrepreneurs do not all take the same paths to fast growth, but they do all believe that rules were made to be broken.