Coming soon · Book Profile
The E-Myth Revisited
Most small businesses fail because they are started by skilled technicians who don't know how to build a business that works without them, but by adopting an entrepreneurial perspective and systematizing the business like a franchise prototype, any owner can create a business that serves their life.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
The E-Myth Revisited dismantles the romantic myth that small businesses are launched by entrepreneurs and reveals the uncomfortable truth: most are started by technicians suffering an 'Entrepreneurial Seizure' who mistakenly believe that knowing how to do the technical work means knowing how to run a business. Through the recurring dialogue with Sarah, a pie-shop owner drowning in her own business, Michael Gerber shows why businesses get stuck in Infancy and Adolescence, why owners end up owning a job rather than a business, and how the franchise model—epitomized by Ray Kroc's McDonald's—offers a turn-key blueprint for building a systems-dependent business that works predictably without the owner. With a step-by-step Business Development Program built on Innovation, Quantification, and Orchestration, and a seven-part strategy spanning your Primary Aim to your Systems Strategy, the book teaches you to work ON your business rather than IN it—transforming both your enterprise and your life.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A small business owner (or aspiring owner) who is a skilled technician wanting freedom, a thriving business, and a fulfilling life.
- The problem
- Their business is chaotic, unpredictable, and depends entirely on them doing the work. They feel exhausted, trapped, frustrated, and fearful that they own a job rather than a business.
- The plan
- Recognize you are three people—Entrepreneur, Manager, Technician—and stop letting the Technician run the show.
- Adopt the entrepreneurial perspective and treat your business as a product, the prototype for 5,000 more.
- Define your Primary Aim and derive your Strategic Objective from it.
- Build your organizational, management, people, marketing, and systems strategies.
- Continuously Innovate, Quantify, and Orchestrate to create a systems-dependent business.
- The payoff
- You own a business that works predictably without you. · You are free to live an expanded, stimulating life aligned with your Primary Aim. · Your business becomes a Game Worth Playing for you, your people, and your customers.
See our guide
Related profiles we’ve built
- Ben Horowitz - The Hard Thing About Hard Things_ Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers (2014, HarperBusiness) - libgen.li →
- Blitzscaling →
- Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition (Collins Business Essentials) →
- Founder’s Pocket Guide_ Stock Options and Equity Compensation →
- Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success →
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products →
Additional reading
- High Output Management · Andy Grove
Horowitz calls it the best management book he's ever read and credits it with changing his career, particularly its chapter on why training is the manager's job. He models his concept of 'Ones and Twos' and competence from Grove.
- Only the Paranoid Survive · Andy Grove
Cited as a key text on wartime leadership and navigating strategic inflection points, such as when Intel exited the memory business. Horowitz refers to Grove as a great wartime CEO.
- Good to Great · Jim Collins
Horowitz references Collins's research showing that internal CEO candidates outperform external ones, which he uses as a jumping-off point to discuss his 'Ones and Twos' theory of leadership succession.
- Built to Last · Jim Collins
Horowitz discusses and refines Collins's finding that lasting companies have 'cult-like cultures,' arguing that the key is not weirdness itself but creating provocative, shocking mechanisms that reinforce core values and change daily behavior.
- Yertle the Turtle · Dr. Seuss
Recommended as a 'management masterpiece' that explains the dangers of managers who have the wrong kind of ambition (personal ambition over company ambition).
- The One Minute Manager · Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson
Cited as the source for the 'Shit Sandwich' feedback technique, which Horowitz presents as a basic, often insufficient method for experienced managers.
- Netflix Reference Guide on Our Freedom and Responsibility Culture · Reed Hastings / Netflix
Presented as a prime example of a CEO (Reed Hastings) putting great effort into designing a system that enables employees to be maximally effective and run a well-managed organization.
- Crossing the Chasm · Geoffrey Moore
Explains the critical strategic shift required to move a product from early adopters to the mainstream market, a key challenge for any company transitioning from startup to scale-up.
- The Alliance · Reid Hoffman, Ben Casnocha, and Chris Yeh
Provides a framework for managing talent in the Networked Age, focusing on building mutually beneficial relationships with employees ('tours of duty'), which is critical for retaining talent during the chaos of blitzscaling.
- Zero to One · Peter Thiel
Argues for the importance of building monopolies through unique technological advantages, which complements the blitzscaling focus on creating dominance through speed and business model innovation.