This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur needs no introduction as he has probably influenced all of us in some way in our lives at this point. I’m excited to welcome Michael Gerber. For those that maybe know the name, but not so much about him, Michael is the author of The E-Myth, the e-Myth Revisited which have been awarded New York Times best-seller status each year for over two consecutive decades. Michael and his ideas are featured everywhere from INC, Forbes, Entrepreneur, and just about every other top business outlet.
He is also the founder of Michael E. Gerber Companies which do everything from things like his Radical U Entrepreneurship school to Masterminds and Prodigy Business Books, the publisher of now 19 e-myth entrepreneurial development books.
Michael’s brand has touched the lives of over 5 million readers and small business owners transforming how they do business. Needless to say, over 45 years Michael has pretty much seen it all, done it, and probably invented a lot of what you are using in your business today, so I’m very excited to have him on and share his wisdom.
www.MichaelEGerber.com
www.ProdigyBusinessBooks.com
www.RadicalU.com
Freebook.MichaelEGerber.com
Michael didn’t start his entrepreneurial career until he was 40 years old. He didn’t ever plan on being an entrepreneur, nor had much interest in business. The only reason he became involved was because his brother-in law roped him to speaking to one of his clients of his advertising firm. The client was having trouble converting leads to sales for their high-tech business.
Michael didn’t have a clue what to talk to the client about but went anyway. The client was confused as to what they were talking because Michael didn’t know anything about their business. They both had no idea how to proceed but did.
It was that meeting that shaped the rest of Michael’s life and the lives of millions because by the time they were done talking, Michael was able to help the client understand that they needed a system to sell their solutions. Michael had learned that many years earlier when he sold encyclopedias for a stint. Michael succeed because he followed a system and the big “aha” for him with the client was that the systems were key and what were needed for the business, any business to succeed.
The client then asked Michael if he could create a system and Michael said, “Yes,” and hired Michael on the spot. That was the beginning of everything and birth of the ideas that became the E-Myth.
For those that have never read the E-Myth or E-Myth books, can you give the central tenants of the books and why they are so important?
- The E-Myth is the entrepreneurial myth that describes why most small businesses don’t work and never will.
- Small businesses are products of people doing everything from HVAC to Chiropractors that are working in someone else’s company that get the great idea that they can do it on their own.
- They go to work in their business, building a business that depends on them. They are chief, cook, and bottle washer. They essentially create another job for themselves.
- What they didn’t learn is the “business of business.”
- As they get more successful at “doing it, doing it, doing it,” they suddenly become aware of all the things they don’t know.
- They don’t know the money of business
- They don’t know the management of business
- They don’t know the leadership of business
- They don’t know the people of business
- And on and on….
- What they really don’t understand is the system of business. Lead generation, lead conversion, client fulfillment, finances, management reality, etc. The total integrated system structure that exists in highly successful businesses.
- As a small business owner, you must transform yourself from a technician doing a job in your business to a true entrepreneur.
What are the 4 hats that every entrepreneur must wear?
- They are the 4 definitive personalities within an entrepreneur
- An entrepreneur is really 4 people:
- Dreamer – Dreamers have a DREAM
- Thinker – Thinkers have a VISION
- Storyteller – Storytellers have a PURPOSE
- Leader – Leaders have a MISSION
- These are the most critical things a business must have to survive. If they don’t, it is an accident waiting to happen – the lack of these are why 90% of all businesses fail.
“It’s not the money, it’s the meaning that truly satisfies…”
What is your advice to bridge the gap of those that have a dream and mission, but fail in really executing to make it come to fruition?
- Let’s challenge this theory. It is the opposite. Most people don’t get the Dreamer, thinker, Storyteller, and Leader side of things and fail to appreciate how these are the absolute foundation of everything.
- They are more critical than execution because until they are truly internalized, almost like a religion or foundational belief system for the entrepreneur, they can’t survive execution.
- If you don’t have a profound belief in what you are doing, it won’t last and it will fail.
7 Essential Steps to Creating a Great, Growing Company
- Primary aim
- Strategic objective
- Organizational strategy
- Management System
- People development system
- Marketing system
- Systems of systems
People always rush by their “primary aim.” They focus on the money, making money, and miss the most critical aspect and underpinning of what it take to truly make the money – the anchored, aim that pushes them through to get to the dream.
At the 25 min mark, Michael goes more in depth on what it means to have a “dream.”
- In the discovery of your dream, you will understand that it is to transform the state of something worldwide.
- Your dream is and should be much bigger than you realize.
“It’s never a people problem, it’s always a systems problem.”
Of all the you have created, done, and been part of, what is the most important business less you’ve learned along the way? Life Lesson?
- That is the big question
- Michael doesn’t read business books
- The most important book Michael has read and tells others to read is “I Am That” and at the 37 min mark, he explains why….
- If you are passionate about the questions asked here, you will seek to find the true answer to “I am….”
- The most profound thing for Michael has been to watch the ordinary person, who is consumed by life (doing it, doing it, doing it), with no dream, vision, purpose, or mission except to maybe make more money, etc. change their life with simple knowledge that Michael has shared.
- We are born in God’s image which means we are born to create and pursue and do the right things.
- Your dream, purpose, mission, and vision give you the “right thing.”
Tell us about Radical U…
- Radical was created transform the state of small business world-wide by transforming the state of entrepreneurship world-wide in order to transform the state of economic development worldwide.
- Radical is the system to do this. It is the only entrepreneur development school on the planet that someone can go to online and complete the 8-fold path.
- It designed to take anyone and walk them step by step to build a successful business from scratch.
You can get the 8-fold path for free at Freebook.MichaelEGerber.com
Best Quote: “It’s never a people problem, it’s always a systems problem”
Michael's Misfit 3:
- It is not about us. Every single one of us are here to create a world fit for God. It is about your impact for them.
- It is never personal, it is about the system. Become a systems thinker and a systems creator.
- We must commit our everything and our all to the process of transformation in life, business, and all areas.