{"product_id":"the-e-myth-revisited-why-most-small-businesses-dont-work-and-what-to-do-about-it-a-guide-to-starting-a-business-in-a-productive-and-successful-way","title":"The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It―A Guide to Starting a Business in a Productive and Successful Way","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBook info:\u003c\/strong\u003e The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It―A Guide to Starting a Business in a Productive and Successful Way (Paperback, 288 pages) – Harper Business, 1995. Language: English.\u003c\/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eE-Myth \\ 'e-,'mith\\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eVoted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn instant classic, this revised and updated edition of the phenomenal bestseller dispels the myths about starting your own business. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.\u003c\/p\u003e  \n        About the Author   \u003cp\u003eMichael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. The editors of INC magazine called him \"The World's #1 Small Business Guru.\" He is Co-founder and Chairman of the Michael E. Gerber Companies—a group of highly unique enterprises dedicated to creating world-class start-ups and entrepreneurs in every industry and economy. The Gerber Companies transforms the way small business owners grow their enterprises and has evolved into an empire over its history of nearly three decades.\u003c\/p\u003e           Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.   \u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Entrepreneurial Myth\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.\u003cbr\u003e--Aldous Huxley\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe E-Myth is the myth of the entrepreneur. It runs deep in this country and rings of the heroic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePicture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock--all to realize the dream of creating a business of one's own.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWell, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOf the thousands of businesspeople I have had the opportunity to know and work with over the past two decades, few were real entrepreneurs when I met them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe vision was all but gone in most.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe zest for the climb had turned into a terror of heights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe face of the rock had become something to cling to rather than to scale.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExhaustion was common, exhilaration rare.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut hadn't all of them once been entrepreneurs? After all, they had started their own business. There must have been some dream that drove them to take such a risk.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut, if so, where was the dream now? Why had it faded?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhere was the entrepreneur who had started the business?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe answer is simple: the entrepreneur had only existed for a moment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA fleeting second in time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd then it was gone. In most cases, forever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf the entrepreneur survived at all, it was only as a myth that grew out of a misunderstanding about who goes into business and why.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA misunderstanding that has cost us dearly in this country--more than we can possibly imagine--in lost resources, lost opportunities, and wasted lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThat myth, that misunderstanding, I call the E-Myth, the myth of the entrepreneur.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd it finds its roots in this country in a romantic belief that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs, when, in fact, most are not.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen who does start small businesses in America?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd why?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Entrepreneurial Seizure\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo understand the E-Myth and the misunderstanding at its core, let's take a closer look at the person who goes into business. Not after he goes into business, but before.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor that matter, where were you before you started your business? And, if you're thinking about going into business, where are you now?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWell, if you're like most of the people I've known, you were working for somebody else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat were you doing?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProbably technical work, like almost everybody who goes into business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou were a carpenter, a mechanic, or a machinist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou were a bookkeeper or a poodle clipper; a drafts-person or a hairdresser; a barber or a computer programmer; a doctor or a technical writer; a graphic artist or an accountant; an interior designer or a plumber or a salesperson.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut whatever you were, you were doing technical work.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd you were probably damn good at it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut you were doing it for somebody else.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThen, one day, for no apparent reason, something happened. It might have been the weather, a birthday, or your child's graduation from high school. It might have been the paycheck you received on a Friday afternoon, or a sideways glance from the boss that just didn't sit right. It might have been a feeling that your boss didn't really appreciate your contribution to the success of his business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt could have been anything; it doesn't matter what. But one day, for apparently no reason, you were suddenly stricken with an Entrepreneurial Seizure. And from that day on your life was never to be the same.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside your mind it sounded something like this: \"What am I doing this for? Why am I working for this guy? Hell, I know as much about this business as he does. If it weren't for me, he wouldn't have a business. Any dummy can run a business. I'm working for one.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnd the moment you paid attention to what you were saying and really took it to heart, your fate was sealed.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe excitement of cutting the cord became your constant companion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe thought of independence followed you everywhere.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe idea of being your own boss, doing your own thing, singing your own song, became obsessively irresistible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOnce you were stricken with an Entrepreneurial Seizure, there was no relief.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou couldn't get rid of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou had to start your own business.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e      ","brand":"Michael E. 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