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
"The E-Myth ('Entrepreneurial Myth') is the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by 'technicians' who know nothing about running a business. Hence most fail...Let me assure you that in my experience, ...I still see too many businesses started by technicians who haven’t acquired the basic skills or knowledge, or still assume that business acumen is a minor part of the new business equation."
This is a central point of Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth (E stands for entrepreneur). You must work on your business as much as you work in it from day 1.
I suspect it is this one based on the summary at Amazon "Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited should be required listening for anyone thinking about starting a business or for those who have already taken that fateful step. The title refers to the author's belief that entrepreneurs--typically brimming with good but distracting ideas--make poor businesspeople."
I wish I had found The E-Myth Revisited before I started my first business, and I'll re-read it more carefully before trying again. It really breaks down the difference between the roles needed: the technician doing the work, the visionary entrepreneur, and the pragmatic manager.
I've been an entrepreneur a long time and my take is:
1. Not a myth! Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Foursquare, ... There are counterexamples but certainly plenty of young ones. I'm 40+ now so no bias. :-)
2. Correct, myth. I could teach you to be an entrepreneur if you wanted to be one.
3. Myth
4. Myth. Gilt Groupe a good example.
5. Myth
When I started my software development business nearly 3 decades ago, someone told me (paraphrased) "Beware the technician who has a skill/passion that they love so much that they decide to leave a job they hate and do it for a living...They are just building themselves another job that they will eventually come to hate."
And by technician I mean anyone who can do/make things with their own hands and creative energy. It is probably very dated now, but I highly recommend anyone thinking of starting their own business to read Robert Gerber's "The E-myth Revisited".
In a nutshell, every business owner has to realise that they have to wear three hats - that of Technician, Manager and Entrepreneur. All three require energy and different skills, and it is very rare that one person will have requisite skills in all 3 fields, so outside help, or more learning is needed.
And the beautiful myths then contribute to the ways that other (perhaps less experienced) entrepreneurs engage in self-sabotage. See “self-sabotage via avoiding a boring success”:
Entrepreneur: one who starts a new business. often several in sequence, regardless of whether the earlier ones succeed or fail. often with a new product, technology, market or competitive advantage. could start small then grow to very large, or, in some cases, start large at creation (think spinoffs or multi-corporate-backed partnerships.) May take VC. May become a billionaire. Often seeks an exit in the form of an IPO or buyout, and often early enough in their career that they can move on to the next startup, or, to retire young.
Small business owner: you own a small business. you may not have started it. you might have bought it. it might be a franchise. it often is not innovative. typically a commodity product or service (apples, hair cuts, lawn mowing, etc.). it often will not scale up well. it is often a family thing and may already be on the 2nd generation. if it fails the owner/founder is more likely to go back to having a traditional job. May take angels, but almost never VC. May become a millionaire. Often seeks to maintain it as a lifestyle business, at most offloading operational duties to hired management in order to gain a passive income stream, but typically closer to traditional retirement age.
in practice? the line blurs, esp when people use the terms without making a consistent distinction.
Steve Jobs: entrepreneur
Uncle Bob and his lawn moving service: small business owner, NOT an entrepreneur
I agree with your points, but is it realistic or are those excuses? Has anybody quantified actual entrepreneurship? Yes, your example are complete home runs but most entrepreneurs would end up with a small business and not unicorns.
This would include people who are inspired by autonomy and self-determination (read: congenitally unable to work for someone else) - the "E-Myth" claims not working for someone else is the main reason people start a business.
> One of the core tenants at Yipit is that everyone should think and act like an entrepreneur.
Does everyone get to learn how to do sales, marketing, customer interaction, forcasting, and corporate financing too? Seems like they are equating "being able to code" with "being a successful entrepreneur" when it's not that at all. (See The E-Myth Revisited)
#2 is interesting: both the thesis and the antitheses are wrong! There can hardly be an "entrepreneur gene", but at the same time, what makes an entrepreneur is its ability to break rules, and breaking rules can't be taught.
I followed a couple of courses about entrepreneurship in a top B-school - not too many, though - and I am quite sure none of them turned corporate exec, engineers, consultants or lawyers into entrepreneurs if they were not ready for it in the first place.
i think you make an important point: the entrepreneur myth that techcrunch/si valley perpetuate is not reality. and people who have gone through it (raising money etc, raising hand high here) often choose an alternative path. although i know i could raise money for matchist (new endeavor) im consciously making the decision to bootstrap to avoid this kind of stress/lifestyle. entrepreneurship is what you make it...entrepreneurshit is the myth
> The concept of entrepreneurism as a small-time life-style has evaporated from the culture, and now entrepreneur and start-up means “get big fast.”
No. Get yourself out of the filter bubble, because it is seriously warping your understanding of the world.
There are still orders of magnitude more "small-time" start-up businesses in the world than "get big fast" start-up businesses. Your town probably has dozens of them: they're restaurants, roofing companies, independent tradesman, etc. Those people are all doing exactly what you're talking about.
If you google "define:entrepreneur" then the first definition is:
"someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it"
so small businesses are run by entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur has to go down in history with "irony", "literally" and "physically" as being the most misused words in modern English.
Voted #1 business book by Inc. 500 CEOs.
https://www.amazon.ca/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/...
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