The Dangers Of The E-Myth
April 11, 2008
I don’t know if you’ve read the E-Myth Revisited. It’s a book about systemising your business, so that you can work on your business instead of in it. And it’s a pretty good book, but it can also be dangerous, depending on how you interpret it.
Why The Emyth Can Be Dangerous
Until I read the E-Myth, I’d been pretty good at focusing on my passions. But after reading it, I got the impression that it was best to start a business that you didn’t have a lot of interest in – that way, you’d never be tempted to be merely a technician, who found it impossible to delegate to others. So, I figured that so long as what you were doing wasn’t morally or legally wrong, it didn’t matter what type of business you started – they were all pretty much the same.
So Does It Matter What Type of Business You’re In?
Absolutely. And my idea that it didn’t matter was ridiculous. I’m really obsessed with customer service, so I figured that any business that allowed me to provide good customer service would be fine. But, it just isn’t enough. You have to be truly passionate about what you’re doing and 100% interested in learning about new developments in your industry.
I’m not saying you can’t make money in business if you’re not passionate about the industry you’re in. But life would be pretty empty if it was about business alone. And it’s a bit of a waste of your life if you don’t love what you’re doing.
The Wake Up Call
My wake up call came when I realised the things I was truly passionate about were no longer the things I was doing in life. They became things that I hoped to get round to when a huge part of my life was over. This is a foolish way to think, as the rest of your life may never come.
Don’t Cling To What You’ve Lost
Are you passionate what you’re doing right now? If not, it may be time to re-evaluate your life too. And when you’re doing so it may be tempting to think – stuff it, I’ll just carry on. After all, I’ve invested too much time or money to pack this thing in now.
The trouble is, when you think this way, you’re liable to become even more bored with what you’re doing and wind up wasting even more time and money.
The Emyth Is Still A Great Book
I still think the Emyth is a great book. It shows how you can free up your time by systemising your business, so you’re working on your business and not in it. However, further reading/learning is required after you’ve read the book, in order to do all this.
Are you enjoying what you do? Are you living life the way you want? Or are you just making do with what you have in the hope that one day, you’ll be able to aim for your goals?
If so, it may be time to re-evaluate your life.
Comments
14 Responses to “The Dangers Of The E-Myth”
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You’re dead right about that. Passion for me is crucial. I love the service we provide. And so does my partner and team.
And that really comes across to the clients. And I love the e-Myth too, but that passion gives the spark of enthusiasm to step across the chasm and enjoyt building the business.
I accept the principle of the e-Myth, but do think it underestimates the importance of people.
You need that spark of enthusiasm from people. You can’t expect them to smile and say “Is there anything else I can help you with Sir?” if they detest what they’re doing.
It has to be genuine and come from the heart. And in most businesses, the people “touch” the customers.
MacDonalds always delivers a burger and fries fast. But the words sound hollow when and that spark of passion for what they do isn’t there.
I suspect that in nearly every business, a genuine level of engagement with clients is needed. And that comes from passion.
That engenders more loyalty. The anti-MacDonalds campaigners can very quickly sway their clients away because you could argue that people have a very loose attachment to the brand.
I read an article by Drayton Bird recently talking about branding. He talked about research which showed that consumers are aware that there is little difference between most products they buy.
But the brand they are loyal to will more often win the purchasing decision. And loyalty doesn’t come from a logo. It comes from people and their morality and core values.
If that theme is repeated from top to bottom in an organisation, then success I suspect will naturally follow.
In business, it is therefore very important that you follow your passion. I think the e-Myth principals are excellent, but a bit of passion and due care towards your people are a requirement.
I suspect that is true in blogging too. If you make an informed choice on your topic/products/services/audience and the best choice and balance is for a theme you lack the passion for, that will sub-consciously creep out into your content.
If you are covering a topic you are knowledgeable and passionate about though, it will seep out with far more positivity.
Ian Denny’s last blog post..How Awful Is My First Attempt At An E-Book? Tell Me The Brutal Truth
Hello Cath,
I have never read the E-Myth book, but totally agree with you on passion. Every business I have ran I have been passionate about, it makes getting up in the morning that much easier.
My current blog is also -my passion and my life- and I enjoy it very much, just wish I made enough money out of it to do full time and quit my dreadful day job.
Regards.
jsanderz’s last blog post..18 Ultimate Image Editing Add ons For Firefox
I don’t consider myself a salesman. For women, you are often bombarded with the home party products to sell. I never considered this, but several years ago, I got into selling Pampered Chef. I did not stay with it for various reasons, but the part I liked most was doing my sales pitch. I believed in the product and truly liked it. I had a passion for sharing it with others. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it at all if I didn’t believe in the product or love cooking. I guess there are some people who can sell anything, but for the majority of us, I’m guessing we really need to do something we have a passion for in order to be a success.
Debbie Yost’s last blog post..A Quiet Evening
I love this part:
“My wake up call came when I realised the things I was truly passionate about were no longer the things I was doing in life. They became things that I hoped to get round to when a huge part of my life was over. This is a foolish way to think, as the rest of your life may never come.”
Last Wednesday night, Diane Sawyer had a 1-hour special on Randy Pausch, my former teacher who, after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, gave an inspiring lecture that has now been seen by 10 million people.
To me, it was a reminder never to wait for the rest of my life to come.
Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Synchronicities: Just Coincidence, Or Signs From The Universe?
Hi Ian – totally agree on the E-Myth totally undervaluing people. One part that I really think sucks is where Gerber encourages you to treat the boring bits as a game to keep your people enthusiastic – not his exact words but you’ll probably know the bit I mean. I think this really insults the intelligence of the average person.
I haven’t read Drayton’s blog since he went to Australia – am so behind on blog reading since I was ill. And he is brilliant, even though his words may offend some. I’m pleased he seems to have struck up an alliance with Clayton Makepeace – another great copywriter.
Hi Jeff – I guess a lot of people are wishing that. I think it’s all about perseverance. I think I read that Darren Rowse blogged for 2 and a half years before he began to do it full-time. You’ll get there.
Hi Debbie – it matters so much to believe in the product doesn’t it? There’s so many great products out there that it would be madness to sell something you didn’t like.
Thanks Hunter. And that reminds me – I loved the post where you mentioned that video. I keep meaning to watch the whole video and I will get round to it. When are you off to Japan – you lucky thing?
Hi Catherine,
Passion for what you do is definitely important. In our business, we both love what we do. My husband loves “playing in the dirt”, and I love working with numbers, so it’s a great fit.
And, I think we can have more than one passion too. My newly found passion is blogging. Sometimes is difficult to decide which to do first…but the paying job usually wins out.
Customers can easily “read” business owners. If the owner of a business doesn’t show a passion for what they do, customers will sense it. If it’s too obvious, the clients may read the lack of enthusiasm as a warning sign that the job/service/product may meet up to their standards either, and may result in lost revenues.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Why Pay For It, You Can Get It For Free
Is there a way you can free up your time more to do other things you want to do? I noticed you spend a lot of time doing financial stuff. Is there nobody you can delegate some of it to, to free up some of your time?
It might be worth asking your accountant. Whilst they are usually too expensive to delegate everything to, they’re ok for some things. For example, my accountant does payroll. If you’re as slow at doing it as I am, it works out cheap. It might be worth asking.
It’s a good idea to outsource what you safely can. That way you can focus on the things you’re good at, and add a little more value into your business.
I notice that alot of business people try to do everything to save a little cash. It is sometimes false economy.
The time it would take me to run accounts software, do payroll, produce invoices etc could have instead produced thousands in income.
And, it makes the business more valuable if you’re not essential to its running. I’m not there yet, but working “on” the business is certainly now within reach.
I’d rather develop the business than work within it as an essential worker.
Ian Denny’s last blog post..How Awful Is My First Attempt At An E-Book? Tell Me The Brutal Truth
Hi Ian – that is very true. Often I’ve seen myself do things that would have been so much better for others to do. Mind you, when we first decided to run only laptops at home, I got up early on the Sunday morning and networked them – and I did that surprisingly quickly for me (I was too impatient to wait!)
I guess it definitely depends what you’re trying to do – anything accounts wise I would gladly outsource, but only if they were using a system I understood and could monitor.
The odd things like sales letters are sometimes quicker for me to do personally. Mind you – there’s probably no excuse now – I could outsource them over the Internet. Nothing needs to be local anymore does it.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Fab Quotes Of The Week
Hi Catherine,
I’m assuming your response was for me…about freeing up some of my financial stuff/responsibilities. I actually LOVE doing the financial end of the business. Numbers have always been a passion, and compiling reports, payroll, receivables and payables are a joy for me. Even though I complain about it at times, that’s only because I put too much on my plate and wish there were more hours in the day.
I remind myself that blogging is a hobby, and even though it’s another thing I’m passionate about, it doesn’t pay the bills.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..Why Pay For It, You Can Get It For Free
Sorry Barbara – yes I meant you – I was rushing! I wish I had some of your enthusiasm for numbers. I like doing projections, cos they are plans, but I hate doing the actual accounts because thats stuff we’ve already done. Silly really – they’re both numbers but the different meanings affect my enthusiasm.
Great post! I agree with you about passion for one’s business. Been a long time since I read that book. The fast food restaurant examples in the book, I viewed as a large scale extreme example of systemization. I’m not sure that would work for all businesses. But, I think small businesses have the flexibility to incorporate both passion and systemizing (to a certain degree) in their business. Takes some fine tuning. It also helps if the people one works with also have a passion for the business too.
wren’s last blog post..Art Event: European Media Art Festival April 23-27, 2008
by nature I’m a curious person, I wonder about just about everything. My girlfriend calls me a big kid. I was really fascinated just recently about the veins on a leaf. I was working and mentioned this to some of the guys and they stared at me like I was on drugs.I got an interesting response from one of them, “I dont care why things are they way they I’m just happy that they’re like that” I chuckled at the simplicity of that comment. What I found interesting about this and why I respect this comment coming from my co-worker is because this guy has a lot of personal power. He manifests like theyre no tommorow. Hes a bit macho (exterior facade) but hes also very sensitive. In getting to know him I’ve questioned him from time to time about his life and what not, just recently I asked him this. Have you ever noticed that things just come to you. Almost arrogantly with a smirking smile he says verbatim ” yeah, I think it and it happens whys that so hard to understand” Hes my team leader on a big project we’re working on and hes 26 yrs old.
Point I’m getting at here is that I dont neccesarily think it requires a passion, not a requisite for succes or happiness. But sometimes you just have to decide and do. It’s funny too because my curiousity towards life in general has really helped me understand what makes people do the things they do. For instance some days I just HATE what I am doing, or something pisses me off, my head gets all in a funk of negativity and turmoil, know what happens shortly after the fuming I cut or injure my self in some small way. Then I laugh because I know exactly what just happened.
I really envy the people who have the rage to do something, or the rage to suceed and chase a passion.
Others like myself and I suspect I’m like alot of other people. Who have to really dig and mine hard for it come to fruition.
I wouldnt say I have a huge passion for any one thing in life and struggle with that ALOT (at times anyways)
I think also that alot of us are really good at something and dont believe in ourselves enough to follow that skill set.
I did the passion finding excercise with my friends and girlfriend a year or so ago. My girlfiend pointed out that people tell me the craziest things about themselves. Same thing came out of a few friends of mine. I attribute it to my curiousity about things and life in general. I am passionate about humans and what makes people do the things they do.
I think a point that might be added to your post is : what time frame have you set for accomplishing your goals and do you have the resource to achieve them.
I was running a bit behind on a pjt at work, testing was going poorly etc etc and my pjt leader (mr manifester mentioned above) said he needed it done by friday, it was tuesday. I told him I need some extra resources to get it done by that day. and was given the things I needed, it got done thursday.
Alot of the time the universe will make you wait until you have the resources neccesary. This causes frustration in people and they become robotic about what theyre doing.
So I think time frame is very important. I do enjoy what I am doing and know with dead certainty that I am where I am supposed to be right now, and thats comforting. Its difficult judge anothers chosen direction until you really know whats making them tick. But I do get the impression sometimes that the business aspect of life is passionless, you know the manical mechanical things that NEED to be done, as opposed to the what is wanted to be getting done.
Just my .02$
shane’s last blog post..Your beacon score and what is a beacon score
Hi Wren – I agree, some systemising is essential. There was a heated debate on this blog a few months ago and many folks were saying their jobs were heavily systemized and after they’d completed their work, they weren’t encouraged to do anything else.
Many of them wound up spending 20% of their time blogging or using the Internet. It seemed such a waste. I don’t know if Google still do the thing where staff are encouraged to work on their own ideas 20% of the time, but maybe something like that would work for many other companies too.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Are You A Manager Or A Leader?