The E-Myth
By Michael Gerber
The E-Myth, or entrepreneurial myth, contends that very few businesses are started by true entrepreneurs. Instead, most businesses are started by technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure!
The technician, whether that’s a cook, an auto mechanic, a cardiologist or a hairdresser, makes the fateful decision that because he or she understands how to do the technical work of a business—-cooking, fixing cars, fixing hearts, fixing hair—-he or she automatically understands how to run a business that does that sort of work.
Not true, the E-Myth claims.
Understanding how to do the technical work of a business has nothing to do with building a business that works. Building a business that works is what an entrepreneur does. Building a business that depends on you to do all the work is what a technician suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure does.
The true entrepreneur goes to work on their business.
The unwary technician goes to work in their business.
The true entrepreneur builds a business that works for him.
The unwary technician, on the other hand, creates a job for himself. In fact, not one job, but many jobs. And, as you already know, trying to do many jobs quickly becomes the worst job in the world!
What to do, what to do? The E-Myth says that all you need to do is to change your point of view.
About what, you may ask? About what a business really is, and how to go about building one that gives you everything you want.
So, from an entrepreneurial perspective, what is a business? A business is a commercial enterprise that you build to sell. Let me say that again:
To a true entrepreneur, the only reason for starting a business of your own is to sell it!