The E Myth Revisited

High-Level Thoughts

A book of business advice that doesn't make me want to vomit. Every great business in the world is a franchise run by ordinary people with exceptional systems.

Summary Notes

Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren't so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more. (Foreword)This book is about an idea that says your business is nothing more than a distinct reflection of who you are. (Page 5)

The Fatal Assumption is: if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does technical work. (Page 13)

The technician suffering from Entrepreneurial Seizure takes the work he loves to do and turns it into a job. The work that was born out of love becomes a chore, among a welter of other less familiar and less pleasant chores. (Page 17)

The problem is that everybody who goes into business is actually three-people in one: The Entrepreneur, The Manager, and The Technician. And the problem is compounded by the fact while each of these personalities wants to be the boss, none of them wants to have a boss. (Page 19)

The entrepreneurial personality turns the most trivial condition into an exceptional opportunity. The entrepreneur is the visionary in us. The dreamer. (Page 23)

The managerial personality is pragmatic. Without The Manager there would be no planning, no order, no predictability. (Page 25)

The technician is the doer. The Technician loves to tinker. Things are to be taken apart and put back together again. Things aren't supposed to be dreamed, they're supposed to be done. (Page 26)

The typical small business owner is only 10 percent Entrepreneur, 20 percent Manager, and 70 percent Technician.
The Entrepreneur wakes up with a vision.
The Manager screams "Oh, no!"
And while the two of them are battling it out, The Technician seizes the opportunity to go into business for himself. (Page 29)

It's easy to spot a business in Infancy - the owner and the business are one and the same thing. (Page 35)If your business depends on you, you don't own a business - you have a job. And it's the worst job in the world because you're working for a lunatic! (Page 41)

A Mature business knows how it got to be where it is, and what it must do to get where it wants to go. (Page 68)

The Entrepreneurial Perspective starts with a picture of a well-defined future, and then comes back to the present with the intention of changing it to match the vision. (Page 71)

Every great business in the world is a franchise. (Page 96)

Pretend that the business you own - or want to own - is the prototype, or will be the prototype for 5,000 more just like it. (Page 98)

1. The model will provide consistent value to your customers, employees, suppliers, and lenders, beyond what they expect.
2. The model will be operated by people with the lowest possible level of skill.
3. The model will stand out as a place of impeccable order.
4. All work in the model will be documented in Operations Manuals.
5. The model will provide a uniformly predictable service to the customer.
6. The model will utilize a uniform color, dress, and facilities code. (Page 99)

I believe it's true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. (Page 139)

What is a selling system? It's a fully orchestrated interaction between you and your customer that follows six primary steps:

1. Identification of the specific Benchmarks - or consumer decision points - in your selling process.
2. The literal scripting of the words that will get you to each on successfully.
3. The creation of the various materials to be used with each script.
4. The memorization of each Benchmark's script.
5. The delivery of each script by your salespeople in identical fashion.
6. Leaving your people to communicate more effectively, by articulating, watching, listening. hearing, acknowledging, understanding, and engaging, each and every prospect as fully as he needs be. (Page 239)

You must analyze your business as it is today, decide what it must look like when you've finally got it just like you want it, and then determine the gap between where you are and where you need to be in order to make your dream a reality.
That gap will tell you exactly what needs to be done to create the business of your dreams.
And what you'll discover when you look at your business through your E-Myth Eyes is that the gap is always created by the absence of systems, the absence of a proprietary way of doing business that successfully differentiates your business from everyone else's. (Afterword)