The word of the day is “autodidact” (rhymes with grotto-pie-smacked, like when you get hit with a pastry while spelunking).
It’s a fun one, right? I like its meaning, too, which is basically “a person who goes to the library instead of racking up a six-figure student loan debt before they turn 20.”
One reason I like it so much, perhaps, is that I myself am an autodidact. Much to the chagrin of my maternal grandmother (may she rest in peace), I dropped out of school to open my first business in my early 20s.
It isn’t all narcissism, though. The main reason I like the word is that it has intimate ties to one of my favorite categories of people on earth: small business owners.
Entrepreneurs are legendarily fickle when it comes to staying in class until the bell rings. Mark Zuckerberg, who left Harvard to start Facebook, comes to mind. Businesspeople, especially trailblazers, have a gut feeling for the wisdom of a saying such as “he who hesitates is lost” – i.e., even if you have a great idea, chances are always good that someone else may beat you to the punch.
To put it even more bluntly, the world isn’t going to sit around twiddling its thumbs while you finish your “Intro to Western Philosophy” course. You gotta move!
That said – and if I may be permitted to coin a saying of my own – any entrepreneur who isn’t constantly learning is as good as lost even if they do manage to make the leap.
Before I met my mentor, Randy Komisar, I mainly tried to model myself on great business leaders of the past. I read voraciously and still do. Between books and the school of life, I’m always in class, and I suspect that whoever your personal heroes happen to be, the same thing is true of them.
Where to start
Brand new business owners don’t have a ton of spare time to browse through libraries and bookstores. If you’re anything like I was when I started out, recommendations of relatively short, wisdom-packed, easy-to-read books will be as welcome as an oasis in a desert.
Traveler, I’ve got you covered. Michael E. Gerber’s The E-Myth Revisited changed the way I see the world. It’s a groundbreaking book that challenges common misconceptions about entrepreneurship and small business ownership.
Now that I’ve got your full attention, you should know that the “E-Myth” of the title refers to the Entrepreneurial Myth – the highly mistaken belief that most businesses are started by entrepreneurs with business skills. In reality, they are often started by technicians who are skilled in their craft but lack business acumen.
The book argues that the primary reason small businesses fail is not due to a lack of technical skill, but rather a lack of understanding of what it takes to run a business effectively.
To remedy that lack, Gerber introduces three distinct roles within a business: the entrepreneur – aka “the visionary”; the manager – aka “the planner and organizer”; and the technician – aka “the doer.”
While most small business owners primarily operate as technicians, focusing on the day-to-day work rather than the overall business strategy, Gerber emphasizes the importance of working on your business rather than just in it. He’s a passionate advocate of creating systems and processes that allow the business to function independently of the owner.
I don’t want to spoil the whole book nor bore you to tears with a dry summary of what Gerber so eloquently argues for himself. Suffice it to say that throughout The E-Myth Revisited, Gerber will challenge you to shift your perspective from that of being a full-time employee for your business to that of being an owner of a business that constantly works on your behalf.
Yes, you heard me correctly: by implementing systems, documenting processes, and focusing on overall business strategy, even college dropouts can create successful, scalable businesses that aren’t dependent on them running around constantly with a bucket in their hand putting out fires.
By adopting Gerber’s approach, you can build a business that not only survives but thrives. This, in turn, just may end up providing you with all the freedom and success you can ever ask for.
Who knows – you may even get back to that philosophy course. Judging by all those used bookstore copies of Plato’s Republic with only the first five pages underlined, it may be just the thing to read while sipping a mojito on the beach.
#Book #Business #Owner #Read