E-Myth Part 1: A New Way Of Thinking

If you have heard of The E-Myth, you may have heard of the saying “working on your business rather than working in your business”. Over the next few blogs, I am going to explain exactly what this means, and what it can look like for you.

It’s important to understand that working on it does not exclude you from working in it. It simply means that while you’re working in it, you’ll be working on it to discover better ways to achieve the results you’re there to produce.

The E-Myth essentially means that just because you understand how to do the technical work of your business, it does not enable you to successfully build a business that works and gives you greater independence. 

You may be great at the technical side of financial planning, or hairdressing, or optometry, but that does not mean you know how to run a successful, profitable business.

When you dig deep, the sole purpose for building any business is to give you more life, more freedom, more satisfaction. And unless you construct your business to do that, it will inevitably do the opposite. 

A New Way Of Thinking

The E-Myth is more than just implementing a new system in your business, or organising the chaos. It’s about a new way of thinking. A whole new point of view about who you are and what your business is.  

There’s a Sicilian saying “the fish always stinks from the head down.”

We’ve learned we have to change the way the owner of a business thinks first, and then the business will follow.  When you try to change the business without changing the way the owner thinks, the business will never be anything more than it currently is.

Right now your business is a perfect operating mirror of who you are. A reflection of YOU! If your business is chaotic, it’s because you are. If it’s sloppy, it’s because you are. If it’s filled with integrity and values and standards, it’s because you are. If you look at it honestly and openly, you’ll see some things about yourself that will delight you. You will also see things you wish you didn’t, and have been trying to keep secret from everybody else.

If what you’re doing isn’t working the way you want, then it makes sense to try something else. By following the E-Myth, you are going to learn how to build a business that works, so you don’t have to.

The Tyranny Of Routine

Do you often find yourself working 10 to 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week? Being consumed from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep with this extraordinary commitment to be successful. Never finding that light at the end of the tunnel?

“We must never be too busy to take time to sharpen the saw” – Steven Covey

Steven Covey says it well when he talks about “sharpening the saw” in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Whilst it is true for self development and self reflection, it is also true for business. 

If you are constantly doing, doing, doing, busy, busy, busy, you will never stop to reflect on the bigger picture. How is the business really performing, what systems can we implement or improve, is what we are working on day in, day out, progressing us towards our goals?

Liberate yourself from the tyranny of routine and work more productively. Once you have this liberation, you’re going to begin to work in a much richer, more expansive, more productive way.

Working More Productively: Understanding The E-Myth

The E-Myth is the entrepreneurial myth that people who go into business for themselves aren’t the entrepreneurs we believe them to be, but technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure. They’re consumed with the idea that because they understand how to do what they do, they understand how to build a business that does it.

Quite simply, most of the time, they don’t.

Within every organization, whether that organization is a single person or 20,000 people, the hierarchy of work is identical for your practice, for your business, for your enterprise.

Please write those three words down. My practice, my business, my enterprise.

The practice exists within the business.

The business exists within the enterprise.

The enterprise is the strategic event.

The practice is the tactical event.

The practice is the least expansive.

The enterprise is the most expansive.

The enterprise is one’s vision.

The practice is one’s job.

As an example, many financial advisors are seduced by the idea that you can become more effective in your practice, and that’s where the opportunity lies.

That’s true in a limited way, not in an expansive way. As you become more effective by becoming more efficient at doing that work, you still have limited yourself needlessly to doing it, doing it, doing it, busy, busy, busy.

There is a true opportunity for each and every one of you to understand that there is a completely different world. If you live in the one called “My Practice,” there is a completely different world in this hierarchy of work called “My Business.” And the focus on “My Business” is distinctly different than the focus on “My Practice.”

Now that you understand what the E-Myth is, in our next blog we are going to cover The Entrepreneur, The Manager And The Technician.