The E Myth

Welcome to another episode of Vivid Grace. I’m your host Wes. Join me as we strive to be intentional in developing lives that are fulfilled, balanced, and authentic. Let’s work together to make our passions lived out and our Visions come true.

I continue to be so humbled and thrilled by the feedback and responses that keep pouring in. One person told me my episodes have helped give them a lot of insight and ideas in choosing the next steps of their life. I was so concerned that my words would be receive as “just another guy running his mouth.” We have a lot of people out there who talk, but so few who listen. It is such an honor to hear that my words are giving others hope and inspiration.

Please understand that this wisdom comes from a combination of experience and being led by the hand through my friend and savior Jesus. I have to give credit where it is due, and I can’t claim that everything I know comes from me. In fact a lot less comes from me than one might think.

In the last two episodes we looked at Values and Vision. We’ve considered how these two topics intertwine and how important they are in creating a life that is full and abundant. Personally, I am not just one for conversation, but also for follow through. Committees are great and all, but we can identify a problem and discuss until the sun grows cold, but that isn’t the same thing as creating new life out of something stagnant or withered.

With that in mind, I want to look at some points made in Micheal E. Gerber’s book the E-Myth. If you are someone who like myself wants to operate your own business or already do I highly recommend this read. Due to time, we simply can’t look at everything. We could honestly spend the rest of the season in this book, but, as I usually do, I want to break this down into a few digestible points and then leave room for thought at the end.

At the start of the book Micheal E. Gerber talks about the “entrepreneurial myth.” He discusses how someone gets the itch to become their own boss and set their own schedule and that idea becomes intoxicating and they can’t get rid of it. The person thinks, “I know how to do the job, so I’ll be fine.” What happens, as he says on page 14, “suddenly an entrepreneurial dream turns into a technician’s nightmare.” We’ll look at what a technician is in just a moment. In the book he uses a woman named Sarah who owns a pie shop as an example on how to bring his concepts into real life. I get the sense she really existed, but he might have simply been pulling from several real life examples and complied them into this single fictitious one. Either way it doesn’t really matter.

He continues on, “see the young woman baking pies. See the young woman open a pie baking business. See the young woman become an old women.” The point that he is making, a mistake that so many do, is that when Sarah created her business she created it as a means to provide income and be her own boss. My interpretation on the latter point is having control over the situation. Many people do this. I can speak and write so I’ll start a podcast and be a life coach and be great at it. I can fix cars so I’ll open my own garage. I’ve always been good as baking cookies so I’ll open a bakery. That is what he calls being a technician. The one who does the grunt work. The technician counsels and coaches. The technician repairs cars. The technician makes cookies. However, the technician is not the same thing as the entrepreneur.

In chapter 2, he talks about the two roles and a third one called the manager. The technician does the ground work, the manager ensures the ground work is being completed, and the entrepreneur is the visionary. They’re not the one building the widget, they’re the one wondering how do we make better widgets. How do we make a new kind of widget? Is there something that we’re missing? You need all three roles. Without the technician there’s no income or work completed. Without the manager your employment loses its boundaries. Without the entrepreneur your business becomes stagnant and you become old.

Near the end of Chapter three (some of my favorite pages by the way) he talks about a common trap that most adolescent businesses fall into. The owner of the business finally reaches a point where enough traffic is coming through the doors that they need help. In a mad rush they hire a new employee. In this example his name is Harry. And Harry has worked for others for many years. He comes into to take a look at the books and starts working. Over time you see the competence of Harry so you begin to give him more and more responsibility. For once you actually feel like you can take a break.

Harry begins to hire new employees and oversee your business. Everything is going great until one day you receive a call. A customer had a dissatisfied experience. The banker informs you the check was overdrawn. A supplier calls to say you put in the order late and the wares will be late as a result of it. Furious, you storm down to see that your employees, the ones hired by Harry, aren't doing that great of a job. They don't wrap the package the way you do, they don't service the customers the way you do, they don't care about the business the way you do. You turn into a juggler trapped into some hellish nightmare. For every piece of the business you juggle you have three other pieces to manage.

Micheal E Gerber says what's going on is that most young business owners don't know how to do it any other way. They think more work or more control is the answer. Instead, they've actually reached the end of their comfort zone.

This sort of rapid crash happens all the time. Not only in business, but whenever the director or the visionary of an event or production does not know how to delegate versus abdicate.

Now up to this point the advice has been relegated to the area of forming and operating a small business. What about the rest of you? What about the person who doesn’t own their own business and has no desire to? How is any of this applicable?

Let’s consider a couple of things. Later in his book, Micheal E. Gerber points out that your business plan should be crafted based upon your primary aim, or in our case your vision. Too many open a business for income and control without taking into account how their business can allow them to achieve and reach for their primary aim. As you explore what it is that you value. As you give room for those things ingrained in you to expand. As your values lead you towards that thing that keeps you up at night and privately gives you a spark of hope, in what ways do your efforts allow you to achieve this? I need to look at my vision and values and consider how can I incorporate those elements into my day-to-day and how can I leave room for those areas to be filled in at a later time?

To use myself as an example again, I’ve talked about my efforts in building a life coaching practice. Truthfully, I’m not speaking with nearly enough clients for any sort of stable income. Which led me to applying for a job. If this pans out it’s actually a really cool story and one I’d love to share in a later episode. For now, however, one thing that I wanted to point out was that as I was applying I asked myself, “how does this employment support my vision? Am I only applying for income until life coaching is more stable? Am I applying because this is the safe option?” Now whatever the answer might be isn’t necessarily bad or a problem, but it does need to be considered. I very much believe that this opportunity would perfectly line up with my Vision. But what if it did not? Does that mean I shouldn’t apply? If you need income, I wouldn’t suggest that, but I would suggest you be upfront with yourself in understanding this is a means to an end, a pit stop if you will. Don’t go into the job and let that becomes your focus. When we’ve swapped out our vision for the vision of someone else that’s one way we’ll find ourselves feeling stuck in the mud.

The only thing I want us to consider is abdication vs delegation. Abdication is another way of saying someone had to bring someone else on board. They were forced into a partnership or relationship. But in their mind they continue to believe they have to control everything. This is why the boss always interferes. How many of us have said that if we want something done right we have to do it? Do we understand how crushing this is to living out our Values and Vision?

When we begin to step into a path of control vs a path of invitation we’re going to grow old and leave a trail of damaged relationships behind us. Control has the allure to it. It promises to creates a magical sphere of safety. This is appealing. Who doesn’t want to feel secure in their life? It also makes as a very convenient reason to trample over others without giving them any regard.

What control doesn’t tell us is that it’s mostly a lie. A sick cover up story. That sphere I mentioned instead becomes a prison. A box in which we slowly find all that we care about suffocated to death over time or pushed to the edge.

When we consider how to make room for our Values and step into our Vision we need to consider our approach. Are we moving down a path where our dreams will one day become a nightmare? Are we on a trajectory that forces us to bring others into our lives only to berate them? Are we being intentional in our efforts to create an environment of mutual respect and honesty versus an environment of toxic asphyxiation?

I’ve seen this played out time and time again. In the lives of individuals, families, work places, churches, volunteering events, a music show, etc. It’s a trap that so many fall into because as Micheal Gerber said, "it’s all we know." Life has taught many then they only way to live a full and abundant life is to control every aspect. Of course, we can’t so we try harder. So many are spending their lives stuck in a perpetual state of juggling dozens of problems and concerns. Every time one slips away and slams into the floor we find a convenient excuse that feeds into our personal filter and carry on.

That sort of life is not one where Values and Vision can be lived out. It’s not even the kind of life that allows either to be considered, much less cultivated. Why then do so many fall into this trap? The answer was provided a long time ago: Wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the gate that leads to life.

I want to end with this consideration. Are you the juggler? Are you the boss that always interferes? Are you the person that believes you have to control everything? Are you that Technician that always has to be working, always has to be doing something? If that sounds like you and for every problem you solve another dozen leap up for you to juggle then, as Micheal Gerber wrote, you have reached the end of your Comfort zone.

Next week we’ll put a bow on this conversation by looking at the story of Jonah. I’m fairly confident this isn’t the Jonah that you think it is. After that we’ll be stepping into the new year and listening to some very special guests who live within our communities.

I pray all who listen today would have the gift of spending time with family during the wonderful season of Christmas.

I’ll speak to you next Wednesday. In the meantime, let’s all be intentional to step into a fulfilled, balanced, and authentic life.