12 Motivational Michael Gerber Quotes from The E-Myth Revisited

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Excerpt: Small business guru Michael Gerber will help you become a successful entrepreneur. These quotes from The E-Myth Revisited will get you going.

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Introduction: What Does Your Work Say About You?

“Autograph your work with excellence,” has become a sort of mantra that I live by. Whatever I set out to do, I always try to give it my absolute best shot. And it doesn’t matter what it is. It could be something important like writing these articles or something that might be considered more menial like vacuuming the rug.

The underlying idea is that all work that gets done always gets done with an autograph attached to the work. And that autograph, that work, as Gerber points out in some of the quotes below, acts as a reflection of the person who did it. The question that you then have to ask yourself is, what does your work say about you?

If you’re the type of person who rushes and is always mentally elsewhere, then your autograph will start to become associated with sloppy work. If you’re the type of person who is always running late and is scatter-brained, then your autograph will start to equate to “late” and “scattered” type work. If you’re the type of person who is always complaining about the work and is seemingly uninterested in its completion, then your autograph will be attached to boring work.

If you think about the people with whom you’ve worked with, you’ll see how accurate this description is. Every job completed paints a self portrait of the person who does it. The work each person produces on the outside is a reflection of who they are on the inside.

And, again, your autograph is not discriminatory. You don’t get to choose which pieces of work get your autograph and which don’t—they all get your autograph. Everything from your most prized productions to your lamest attempts at doing small tasks—all, equally, get that same signature of yours.

And in this idea comes an opportunity and, maybe for some, a wake-up call. The opportunity is this, if you want people to start taking you more seriously—then you need to start taking yourself more seriously. If you don’t want your work to be so boring, then stop being bored while you work. If you seriously want to rise above what’s considered “average,” then you need to start autographing all of your work with excellence. This means doing everything to the absolute best of your ability.

The wake up call is just the same. Your job isn’t boring—you’re boring. Your work isn’t unimportant—you’re making it unimportant. You’re not getting paid less than you want because you’re performing excellently—you’re getting paid less than you want because your performance is lackluster. If you were going to ask someone to do a job for you, think about the people you might ask and what their autographed work might look like. Can you see how you automatically equate each person to a certain type of work ethic, demeanor, and energy? This is what everybody else in your life equates to you, too.

But, don’t just change your work ethic for them. Change your work ethic for you. Because ultimately, what other people think of you is out of your control and is their business, but what you think of yourself is all up to you and should be your main business.

So reclaim the beauty behind your signature and associate that autograph of yours to excellence. Let your work become a reflection of who you are as a person and let excellence become the standard to which you always default to when you work. Watch the value of your signature rise and watch how more doors open for you in your life as a result. People want autographs from people who are excellent—not just average.

Below, you will find our list of 12 motivational Michael Gerber quotes from The E-Myth Revisited. The E-Myth is the entrepreneurial myth. It’s the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs and furthermore, it’s the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work.

Running a successful business is about much more than just technical work and Gerber paints for readers a clear picture of just what running a small business entails—beyond just the production of the product or service.

The intention behind these quotes from The E-Myth Revisited that we have collected for you below is to introduce you to some of the themes that Gerber shares throughout his book and whet your appetite for the full course—the book—if the ideas captivate you.

Some of the important themes include a business’s real purpose, how to optimize and systemize the tasks required to run the business, how to delegate and prioritize your time so that you can work on the business rather than always in the business, and the impact a successful business can have on it’s customers and community—it’s not just about profiting.

I hope you enjoy this sneak peak of The E-Myth Revisited and I hope these quotes motivate you to rethink your business (or the business you work in). Good luck!

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The List: 12 Motivational Michael Gerber Quotes from The E-Myth Revisited

“Nobody is interested in the commodity. People buy feelings. And as the world becomes more and more complex, and the commodities more varied, the feelings we want become more urgent, less rational, more unconscious. How your business anticipates those feelings and satisfies them is your product.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 155)

“We’ve fast become a world of things. And most people are being buried in the profusion. What most people need, then, is a place of community that has purpose, order, and meaning. A place in which being human is a prerequisite, but acting human is essential. A place where the generally disorganized thinking that pervades our culture becomes organized and clearly focused on a specific worthwhile result. A place where discipline and will become prized for what they are: the backbone of enterprise and action, of being what you are intentionally instead of accidentally. A place that replaces the home most of us have lost.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 207)

“The business is a place where everything we know how to do is tested by what we don’t know how to do, and that the conflict between the two is what creates growth, what creates meaning.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 201)

“Contrary to popular belief, my experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren’t so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.“

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page xiii)

“The work we do is a reflection of who we are. If we’re sloppy at it, it’s because we’re sloppy inside. If we’re late at it, it’s because we’re late inside. If we’re bored by it, it’s because we’re bored inside, with ourselves, not with the work. The most menial work can be a piece of art when done by an artist. So the job here is not outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves. How we do our work becomes a mirror of how we are inside.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 200)

“What makes people work is an idea worth working for, along with a clear understanding of what needs to be done.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 4)

“A business that looks orderly says to your customer that your people know what they’re doing. A business that looks orderly says to your people that you know what you’re doing. A business that looks orderly says that while the world may not work, some things can. A business that looks orderly says to your customer that he can trust in the result delivered and assures your people that they can trust in their future with you. A business that looks orderly says that the structure is in place.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 103)

“The key is to plan, envision, and articulate what you see in the future both for yourself and for your employees. Because if you don’t articulate it—I mean, write it down, clearly, so others can understand it—you don’t own it! And do you know that in all the years I’ve been doing this work with small business owners, out of the thousands upon thousands we’ve met, there have only been a few who had any plan at all! Nothing written, nothing committed to paper, nothing concrete at all.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 65)

“I believe it’s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing. The difference between the two is living intentionally and living by accident.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 139)

“Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day. They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives. Their lives are spent living out the vision they have of their future, in the present. They compare what they’ve done with what they intended to do. And where there’s a disparity between the two, they don’t wait very long to make up the difference.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 139)

“We can’t change the world ‘out there.’ And fortunately, we don’t have to; we can begin much closer to home. We can begin ‘in here.’ In fact, if we’re to succeed, we must. Because the chaos isn’t ‘out there’ in everyone else. It’s not ‘out there’ in the world. The chaos is ‘in here’ in you and me. The world’s not the problem; you and I are. The world’s not in chaos; we are. The world’s apparent chaos is only a reflection of our own inner turmoil.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 260)

“We are an ‘out there’ society, accustomed to thinking in terms of them against us. We want to fix the world so that we can remain the same. And for an ‘out there’ society, coming ‘inside’ is a problem. But now is the time to learn how. Now is the time to change. Because unless we do, the chaos will remain. And we can’t afford this kind of chaos much longer. We’re simply running out of time.”

Michael Gerber, The E-Myth Revisited (Page 261)

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If you enjoyed these motivational Michael Gerber quotes from The E-Myth Revisited, then you’ll definitely want to check out the book in full. It comes highly recommended:

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