Book review: The E-Myth Revisited
Categorised under: Book & product reviews
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber
This was one of the books on my reading list with the aim of continuing to improve the way Step Two Designs operates. As a small business, there is the ever-present challenge of managing our current operations, while positioning ourselves for further growth.
This book started well, by describing the Entrepreneurial Myth, where someone becomes enthused about the concept of “working for themselves” and therefore takes the (often-misguided) step of setting up their own business. Gerber then describes three phases of business growth (infancy, adolescence, maturity), the behaviours at each stage, and the challenges to confront.
Gerber also takes the interesting approach of describing every small-business owner has having a split personality (The Entrepreneur, The Technician, The Manager), and how the inevitable conflicts between these roles often leads to business failures.
Up to this point, I was interested, and could see a lot of parallels to my business experiences and history.
Gerber then goes onto describe a solution, and unfortunately, this is franchising. In fact, Gerber only presents one approach, which is to create a new “business process” franchise, leading into having dozens, hundreds or thousands of stores.
It quickly becomes apparent that Gerber is solely focused on evangelising the benefits of franchising, and uses McDonald’s repeatedly as the “ideal” business approach and model.
In Gerber’s world-view, the only way to run a successful business is to establish rigid business systems and processes, enforce consistency in all aspects, and hire staff with no prior experience so they can be “molded” to fit their job roles and ethos.
Scattered liberally through all of this are references to Gerber’s company (E-Myth Worldwide), their proprietary approaches, and where their services would be useful. Subtly done, but nonetheless, it becomes apparent that this book is just one big advert for Gerber’s company.
All in all, this an above-average book from one of the earliest “get rich” gurus, and while there is some useful information to be gained, the only person who’s likely to become truly rich from the advice is Gerber himself.
Overall score: 2/10
James Robertson is the Managing Director of 