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The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It Paperback – October 14, 2004
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E-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
Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.
An 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.
Gerber 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.
The E-Myth Revisited will help you grow your business in a productive, assured way.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarper Business
- Publication dateOctober 14, 2004
- Dimensions5.31 x 0.65 x 8 inches
- ISBN-109780887307287
- ISBN-13978-0887307287
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Gerber loves to exhort people to develop powerful visions for theircompanies." -- Fortune
"Thanks to Gerber l have freed up over three hours a day, significantly increased my sales, more than doubled my bottom line, and been able to take my first vacation in four years." -- Trish Lind, T. Lind Graphics, St. Paul, Minnesota
"Without a doubt, the most important message for our company over thenext decade." -- The John Hancock Insurance Group
About the Author
Michael 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.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Entrepreneurial Myth
They intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see how they really are.
--Aldous Huxley
The E-Myth is the myth of the entrepreneur. It runs deep in this country and rings of the heroic.
Picture 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.
The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals.
Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.
Of 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.
The vision was all but gone in most.
The zest for the climb had turned into a terror of heights.
The face of the rock had become something to cling to rather than to scale.
Exhaustion was common, exhilaration rare.
But 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.
But, if so, where was the dream now? Why had it faded?
Where was the entrepreneur who had started the business?
The answer is simple: the entrepreneur had only existed for a moment.
A fleeting second in time.
And then it was gone. In most cases, forever.
If the entrepreneur survived at all, it was only as a myth that grew out of a misunderstanding about who goes into business and why.
A misunderstanding that has cost us dearly in this country--more than we can possibly imagine--in lost resources, lost opportunities, and wasted lives.
That myth, that misunderstanding, I call the E-Myth, the myth of the entrepreneur.
And it finds its roots in this country in a romantic belief that small businesses are started by entrepreneurs, when, in fact, most are not.
Then who does start small businesses in America?
And why?
The Entrepreneurial Seizure
To 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.
For that matter, where were you before you started your business? And, if you're thinking about going into business, where are you now?
Well, if you're like most of the people I've known, you were working for somebody else.
What were you doing?
Probably technical work, like almost everybody who goes into business.
You were a carpenter, a mechanic, or a machinist.
You 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.
But whatever you were, you were doing technical work.
And you were probably damn good at it.
But you were doing it for somebody else.
Then, 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.
It 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.
Inside 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."
And the moment you paid attention to what you were saying and really took it to heart, your fate was sealed.
The excitement of cutting the cord became your constant companion.
The thought of independence followed you everywhere.
The idea of being your own boss, doing your own thing, singing your own song, became obsessively irresistible.
Once you were stricken with an Entrepreneurial Seizure, there was no relief.
You couldn't get rid of it.
You had to start your own business.
Product details
- ASIN : 0887307280
- Publisher : Harper Business; Updated,Subsequent edition (October 14, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780887307287
- ISBN-13 : 978-0887307287
- Item Weight : 7.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 0.65 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,101 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
- #25 in Business Management (Books)
- #41 in Leadership & Motivation
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

Michael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine called him "the World's #1 Small Business Guru." He started over 40-plus years ago addressing a significant need in the small business market: businesses owned primarily by people with technical skills but few business skills, and no place to go to get meaningful help.
Over the years, Michael E. Gerber's companies have helped hundreds of thousands of small business owner-clients to successfully transform their businesses into world-class operations.
Mr. Gerber's E-Myth books include: The Most Successful Small Business in the World, Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, The E-Myth Enterprise, The E-Myth Mastery, The E-Myth Manager, along with co-authored E-Myth Vertical books: The E-Myth Attorney, The E-Myth Accountant, The E-Myth Optometrist, The E-Myth Chiropractor, The E-Myth Financial Advisor, The E-Myth Landscape Contractor, The E-Myth Architect, The E-Myth Real Estate Brokerage, The E-Myth Insurance Store, The E-Myth Dentist, The E-Myth Nutritionist, The E-Myth Bookkeeper, The E-Myth Veterinarian, and the first of Gerber's newest C-Level series: The E-Myth Chief Financial Officer. Soon to be released, The E-Myth Real Estate Agent.
To find out more visit:http://michaelegerbercompanies.com/ & http://www.beyondemyth.com
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The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It inspired me to build Fivecat Studio as a Franchise Prototype, even though we knew selling our business systems as a franchise was never a planned goal. The systems we created for the firm have allowed us to thrive and have given us the freedom we need to balance the requirements of our firm with the responsibilities of our family. It is the book that inspired me to begin to work “on my business, rather than in my business.”
This book, written by Michael E. Gerber, had a major influence in the success of our firm and continues to guide many of our business decisions to this day. Fivecat Studio has been in business for 15 years. Annmarie and I experienced the startup pains of “infancy”, the hard earned success of “adolescence” and recently, with our return to the home studio and the launch of our new virtual business model, we are surprisingly “getting small again”.
As I re-read the words of this inspirational how-to guide for successful small business, it is shocking to me how accurate Mr. Gerber is as he describes the different stages of the typical small business. As I read it, I can follow the path of Fivecat Studio through good decisions and bad, through ups and downs and I can see the next steps we need to take.
I’ve read The E-Myth so many times that I have lost count. A quick peek at my Amazon order history documents that I have given this book to no fewer than 10 friends and acquaintances as a gift from one business owner to another, struggling to find a life of fulfillment and freedom.
Michael Gerber breaks his book into three sections.
In Part I, The E-Myth and the American Small Business, he defines the E-Myth as the Entrepreneurial Myth and discusses how most small businesses are the result of an Entrepreneurial Seizure. He says,
“The technician suffering from an Entrepreneurial Seizure takes the work he loves to do and turns it into a job.”
Does that sound familiar? How many architects do you know who have launched their own firms, with dreams of “doing it better” than their former employer and found themselves way over their heads in all the responsibilities of running a small business?
Gerber describes the three phases of business; Infancy, Adolescence and Maturity. He explains why it is so important to build a Mature company from the start.
“A Mature company is founded on a broader perspective, an entrepreneurial perspective, a more intelligent point of view. About building a business that works not because of you but without you. And because it starts that way, it is more likely to continue that way. And therein the true difference between an Adolescent company, where everything is left up to chance, and a Mature company, where there is a vision against which the present is shaped.”
“Successful companies don’t end up as Mature companies. They start that way.”
In Part II, The Turn-Key Revolution: A New View of Business, Mr. Gerber introduces the concept of the Franchise Prototype and the concept of “working on your business, not in it.”
He encourages us to create systems which allow for predictable results and happy clients.
“The system runs the business. The people run the system. The system integrates all the elements required to make a business work. It transforms a business into an organism, driven by integrity of its parts, all working in concert toward a realized objective. And, with its Prototype as its progenitor, it works like nothing else before it.”
Many architects I know, including Annmarie at first, reject the thought of building systems for their firms. They feel that the routines and consistency of such will limit their creativity, that they will lose their flexibility to create amazing works of architecture. When, in fact, systems will do just the opposite. When everything else required to run a successful business is set to run on “autopilot”, an architect will actually have more time and flexibility to be an architect.
Gerber continues,
“Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people, but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things. But for ordinary people to do extraordinary things, a system – ‘a way of doing things’ – is absolutely essential in order to compensate for the disparity between the skills your people have and the skills your business needs if it is to produce consistent results.”
This is also the section where some readers become frustrated with Gerber’s example of McDonald’s as a model for small business success. I know, as an architect, it is difficult to see the connection between the home of the Big Mac and our aspiring high-end residential design firms. Please trust me and read the book to the end. You will not regret learning the lessons he teaches using the examples of this successful business franchise.
Here is some of what Gerber says about McDonald’s;
“It delivers exactly what we have come to expect of it every single time. So that’s why I look upon McDonalds as a model for every small business. Because it can do in its more than 14,000 stores what most of can’t do in one! And to me, that’s what integrity is all about. It’s about doing what you say you will do, and, if you can’t, learning how. If that’s the measure of an incredible business – and I believe it is – then there is no more incredible business than McDonalds. Who among us small business owners can say we do things as well?”
Part III, Building a Small Business That Works is a step by step, how-to guide for a successful small business. He leads us through a fully developed Business Development Program and describes the many strategies required for small business success.
The E-Myth Revisited is not only your answer to building a successful small business, it’s also very entertaining. Gerber structures the information around a narrative about a woman named Sarah struggling with her small business named All About Pies. Many readers will see ourselves in Sarah as she evolves from frustrated Technician into a successful small business owner.
When I posted recently that The E-Myth was my favorite business book of all time, many from the Entrepreneur Architect Community reached out and asked me why.
In short… If you take action to implement the lessons Michael Gerber teaches, The E-Myth Revisited will take your firm to places you only imagined. I know it will work for you, because it has already worked for me.
As I read through the book, Gerber pointed out things about how most small business owners are "technicians" turned business owners; the problem, we may be skilled in what we do, but now we take on multiple jobs that we do NOT know how to do. The problem continues as we immerse ourselves in the "technician" work, but never actually work ON the business, so many aspects of the business suffer (sales, marketing, finances, operations) or just plain don't exist.
In the first part of the E-Myth, Gerber discusses finding the balance of our inner selves: the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician, and the responsibilities that each of these roles must take on to drive the business toward success, as well as some pitfalls that each face unless there is a cooperative effort by each within you to work ON, not IN, the business.
The second part of the E-Myth talks about the Franchise Prototype. While this sounds like Gerber is going to talk about how to build a franchise, it's not! What he discusses here is the importance of setting up your initial (and perhaps for many, the only) company the right way ... YOUR way. This will inevitably lead to the "prototype" company, so that, in theory, you can take that business system and replicate once, twice, 5000 times ... always running the "system" the same way in each business.
The third, and final, part of the book guides you through the system that you will think through, the business processes that make up your business system, so that the business can run ... even without you in it! It talks about this becoming your own turn-key solution so that you have a business model in place that your system can effectively reproduce, as you need to.
I took about a week to read through the book and soak in much of what Gerber has to say in it. Gerber includes interesting examples, and the book is very easy to read and understand ... and most importantly, incredibly enjoyable. While some of the text in describing his interaction with a particular business owner is a bit over the top, it doesn't detract from the primary message of the book. I will read it again, and have already begun to get my (new) business system in place. I now have plans to grow my company, and have the vision of what my company will look like. The fog has already started to lift, and the steps are being put into place to reach the success that I have been longing to reach.
If you have, or are planning to start, a small business, this really is a fantastic book, and should be manditory reading. If you have a successful business in place, and don't agree with this book, please remember one thing before you post a negative review ... you are in the absolute minority of small business owners due to the fact that most small businesses fail within the first 3-5 years; due in large part to NOT having a system in place that helps drive the business. Most small business owners would most definitely benefit from reading this book, if for no other reason than the awareness of where they are and where they could be.
Thanks to Michael Gerber for such an eye-opening experience, and a viable blueprint. I'm looking forward to the journey!
Top reviews from other countries

This has been a life changing book for me.
It first taught me that I don't want to own a job, I want to own a business. Since that moment, I've learned to work on my businesses, not just in them.
This book provides the material to help change the mindset of any technician (be they in IT, bakery, floristry on any business!) and offers practical advice on how to systemsise your business.
I can't recommend this book enough for anyone who runs a business.

The second section was completely turning the self-employed business to franchise model which I can call it as so…so for me as I was expecting more illustration apart from restaurant franchise.
Giving it 4 stars just because the name of the book is quite appealing but the recipe in the book is not that spicy.
It is a must buy if you are or want to be in franchise business model.
If you find the review useful, consider clicking helpful!


Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on July 11, 2019
The second section was completely turning the self-employed business to franchise model which I can call it as so…so for me as I was expecting more illustration apart from restaurant franchise.
Giving it 4 stars just because the name of the book is quite appealing but the recipe in the book is not that spicy.
It is a must buy if you are or want to be in franchise business model.
If you find the review useful, consider clicking helpful!



This book is for people who own and run a small business (or want to create one). This book is for people who have spent long, long hours building a business only to find that it is not all flowers and light, but is, in fact, all-consuming hard work. This book shows a way out of that hole - how to reshape your business so that it can run without you there, not permanently, but, you know, for weekends and holidays and the other stuff you lost along the way. It also shows you how to create a business that you could sell in the future if you wanted to - rather than a business that grinds to a halt the moment you are not there to do the work.
I'm currently reading this book fo the third-time, and it is more relevant now than ever, as I am much further along the small-business owner journey.
This is a great book, but only for those who truly understand what it is like to be Sarah...

The author argues that there are 3 roles in any startup business.
Entrepreneur = visionary
Manager = order, consistency
Technician = doer
The author says most small businesses fail because it is started by technicians who do not entrepreneurial and managerial skills. He advises the technical business owners to think their business as franchisee model i.e. something scalable and think how they can scale their business in this fashion. This would force their thought process to shift their mind away from THEM (as doer) to developing a SYSTEM (establishing a process with help of others).
