The E-Myth Revised (Summary)
The E-Myth revisited gave some wonderful insight as to the root cause of why most small businesses go under and don’t work. I learned a great deal by reading it and it has given me foresight as to what I need to improve in my skill set to become the best entrepreneur I can be without sabotaging anything of value to my business.
The book focuses primarily on the entrepreneurial myth which is involved in a fatal assumption that the success of a business rides purely on the entrepreneur’s desire to own a business, the amount of capital he/she puts in, and Knowing the amount of targeted profit. The book teaches that this assumption could spell disaster rather than success. It also teaches us that the future of small businesses revolve around three concepts which are knowing the e-myth, understanding the turnkey revolution, and understanding the business development process.
One of the most important concepts I learned from this book was the actual e-myth itself. Prior to reading the book, I too had this very same notion that was directly comparable to what is explained in the myth. This forced me to think differently about what actually makes a business successful because if not for this book I would have this in the dark feeling. The book talks about how entrepreneurs should get in the habit of thinking more about the business itself, the people involved in it, and the phases it normally undergoes. Having knowledge of these things can have a beneficial impact of your business.
A second key concept that I learned from the book was that of the three main characters which are the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. The technician is an expert in whatever craft they are in and doesn’t mind doing the work but neglects other responsibilities of going into business even though they are eager to do so. The manager is detail oriented and wants a well organized environment that is very predictable. The entrepreneur is the dreamer, who sets out to do something new and who often lives in the future and get frustrated by how “slow the world is moving.
The book teaches us that these are not separate people but rather distinct elements of our personalities. It also says that the reason why most small businesses don’t work is because they are run by a technician or someone who knows the technical workings of the business but neglects the other two equally important personalities. So the bottom line is that even though we are biased towards one of these personalities, we all have them and to be successful, you need to be able to utilize all three of these roles. All of these roles are necessary in the founder of a business.
Without the entrepreneur, you might as well keep working for someone as a technician. Without the technician, the entrepreneur must rely on other people to get things done and without the abilities of a manager; the other two characters would find themselves in a disorganized and non functional environment. A third important concept that I learned from this books is the idea to “work on your business rather than in it. ” This was a big one for me and it really stuck out because it opened my eyes to how many business owners are really just doing a job for their business rather than running it.
For example, if you start a business where you can’t leave when u want because work will be unfinished, then you are not actually working on your business as an owner but rather as an employee. This could put a strain on other things that may have been planned for your business. It also hinders other abilities since so much time has to be put in for you to get paid. I couldn’t agree more with this statement because it seems like for a lot of business owners think they are in business for themselves but if they don’t work, they don’t eat and that is not being a business owner.
This also ties into class discussions when it pertains to one of the biggest problems with part time entrepreneurs is the risk of burnout because of all the extra activity you have to put into you business to keep it running. In essence, what the book is saying is that they don’t own a business, they own a job and you can’t close it when you want because you won’t get paid, you can’t leave when you want because work won’t get done, and you can’t sell it when you want because no one wants to buy a job. A fourth and final concept I took from this book was the importance of the business development process.
This process is the response of the ever changing dynamics of the business world and will equip an entrepreneur with the necessary tools they need to adapt to the continuous changes happening around them. The book described three elemental stages which are innovation, quantification, and orchestration. This is also a powerful concept that I particularly agree with. The book explains that innovation is the creativity applied to products or services to make them better and that continuous innovation is needed to improve your business.
Quantification is figuring out what works for your business and being able to measure whether it is worth taking the risk. Orchestration is the standardization of what works and becomes the essential part of your business that everyone learns and knows so that it can produce consistent quality for your customers. This is really important information to have because its uniform and it’s a streamline way of tackling issues head on. This also ties into what we have learned in class about having a solid plan of attack. As it says in the book, “any plan is better than no plan at all”, and this couldn’t be anything more than truth.
Although I would much rather suggest having a well thought out plan that could be of some benefit rather than a half-way done plan that could demolish your business. With all of these concepts I have learned in the book, I had to sit back and ask myself what I will do with this information. One thing I would definitely take heed to is the notion of being able to work on my business instead of in it because I don’t want to be stuck in a job for the rest of my life in order to put food on the table. So I would much rather design a system that can continue to pay me even if I’ve taken some time off.
Another thing I could use these concepts for is when formulating my business plan/plans for this class and in the future so that I have strategy to uphold rather than letting the chips fall where they may. A third thing I could uses these concepts to move forward with is with getting out of the mythical mind frame that has cost countless business owners their livelihoods and to start thinking differently on where success in a business actually stems from rather than generalizing the solution to just the entrepreneurial aspect. This will alter my attitude towards conducting business and ultimately prove to be better for me in the long run.
Finally, I would use this information to better understand what type of business person I need to be in order to deal with the ever changing business world. This could help me adapt to situations that I wouldn’t normally know how to handle having not been exposed to the reality of it. All in all, there wasn’t too much I disagreed with when it came to the material in this book, so I can safely say it will be a driving force in my business prowess and my future.
WORK CITED
- Gerber, Michael E. The E-myth revisited: why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it. New York: CollinsBusiness, 1995. Print.
