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Career Quotes

The E-Myth Revisited [Book]

    The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

    By: Michael Gerber

    From this Book:  16 Quotes

    Book Overview:  E-Myth \ ‘e-,’mith\ n 1: the entrepreneurial myth: the myth that most people who start small businesses are entrepreneurs 2: the fatal assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of a business can successfully run a business that does that technical work. Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber walks you through the steps in the life of a business—from entrepreneurial infancy through adolescent growing pains to the mature entrepreneurial perspective: the guiding light of all businesses that succeed—and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Most importantly, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business.

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    Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

      “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)

      Michael Gerber Quote on How The Work We Do is a Reflection of Who We Are

        “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)

        Beyond the Quote (198/365)

        “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 above, 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?

        Read More »Michael Gerber Quote on How The Work We Do is a Reflection of Who We Are

          “Always think about what you’re really being asked to give. Because the answer is often a piece of your life, usually in exchange for something you don’t even want. Remember, that’s what time is. It’s your life, it’s your flesh and blood, that you can never get back. In every situation ask: What is it? Why does it matter? Do I need it? Do I want it? What are the hidden costs? Will I look back from the distant future and be glad I did it? If I never knew about it at all—if the request was lost in the mail, if they hadn’t been able to pin me down to ask me—would I even notice that I missed out?”

          Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 191)

            “We were not put on this planet to be worker bees, compelled to perform some function over and over again for the cause of the hive until we die. Nor do we ‘owe it’ to anyone to keep doing, doing, doing—not our fans, not our followers, not our parents who have provided so much for us, not even our families. Killing ourselves does nothing for anybody. It’s perfectly possible to do and make good work from a good place. You can be healthy and still and successful.”

            Ryan Holiday, Stillness is the Key (Page 125)

              “…having an enviable career is one thing, and being a happy person is another. Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an eccentric, if not a subversive. Ambition is only understood if it’s to rise to the top of some imaginary ladder of success. Someone who takes an undemanding job because it affords him the time to pursue other interests and activities is considered a flake. A person who abandons a career in order to stay home and raise children is considered not to be living up to his potential-as if a job title and salary are the sole measure of human worth. You’ll be told in a hundred ways, some subtle and some not, to keep climbing, and never be satisfied with where you are, who you are, and what you’re doing. There are a million ways to sell yourself out, and I guarantee you’ll hear about them. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed, and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble.” ~ Bill Watterson, Speech

                “The way to attract good luck is to be reliable in a valuable area.  The more you repeatedly deliver value, the more people seek you out for that value.  Your reputation is a magnet. Once you become known for something, relevant opportunities come to you with no extra work.” ~ James Clear, Blog

                Stephen Cope Quote on Engaging With Life Rather Than Retreating—On Doing What’s Meaningful Rather Than Fun

                  “At the end of life, most of us will find that we have felt most filled up by the challenges and successful struggles for mastery, creativity, and full expression of our dharma in the world.  Fulfillment happens not in retreat from the world, but in advance – and profound engagement.”

                  Stephen Cope, The Great Work Of Your Life

                  Beyond the Quote (64/365)

                  After receiving a thunderous round of applause for a speech he gave, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson was asked if he was having fun giving speeches and talking about important intellectual topics.  When he replied, “No,” I was caught off guard.  I couldn’t understand how he could so eloquently CRUSH an hour and a half long speech, do it in a way that was so well received by the audience, laugh and joke throughout, and admit that he didn’t have fun while doing it?

                  Read More »Stephen Cope Quote on Engaging With Life Rather Than Retreating—On Doing What’s Meaningful Rather Than Fun

                    “You have a nature.  You can play the tyrant to it, but you will certainly rebel.  How hard can you force yourself to work and sustain your desire to work?  How much can you sacrifice to your partner before generosity turns to resentment?  What is it that you actually love?  What is it that you genuinely want?  Before you can articulate your own standards of value, you must see yourself as a stranger—and then you must get to know yourself.  What do you find valuable or pleasurable?  How much leisure, enjoyment, and reward do you require, so that you feel like more than a beast of burden?  How must you treat yourself, so you won’t kick over the traces and smash up your corral?  You could force yourself through your daily grind and kick your dog in frustration when you come home.  You could watch the precious days tick by.  Or you could learn how to entice yourself into sustainable, productive activity.  Do you ask yourself what you want?  Do you negotiate fairly with yourself?  Or are you a tyrant, with yourself as slave?” ~ Jordan Peterson, via 12 Rules for Life (Page 90)

                      “I meet people everyday who tell me the job market is frozen, or they’ve been laid off and fear they’ll never find work again.  But I’m here to tell you it’s not the market, it’s you.  You can increase your earnings potential—anyone can.  You can add value to the marketplace.  You can learn new skills, you can master your own mind-set, you can grow and change and develop, and you can find the job and economic opportunity that you need and deserve.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                        “You’re already a financial trader.  You might not think of it in just this way, but if you work for a living, you’re trading your time for money.  Frankly, it’s just about the worst trade you can make.  Why?  You can always get more money, but you can’t get more time.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                          “It used to be that the goal was to get rich and retire by the age of 40.  Now the goal is to get rich and work until you’re 90.  Nearly half of all individuals who earn $750,000 per year or more say they will never retire, or if they do, the earliest they would consider it is age 70.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                            “How would you live your life if you could wake up each day knowing there was enough money coming in to cover not only your basic needs but also your goals and dreams?    The truth is, a lot of us would keep working, because that’s the way we’re wired.  But we’d do it from a place of joy and abundance.  Our work would continue, but the rat race would end.  We’d work because we want to, not because we have to.  That’s financial freedom.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

                              “You should never do anything because of duty.  Either you do something because of love or you do not do it.  Make it a point that your life has to be a life of love, and if out of love, you respond, that I call responsibility.  Break the word into two—response-ability—don’t make it one.  Joining these two words has created so much confusion in the world.  It is not responsibility; it is response-ability.  And love is able to respond.  There is no other force in the world that is so able to respond.  If you love, you are bound to respond; there is no burden.  Duty is a burden.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition

                                “Your true self does not speak in words or banal phrases.  Its voice comes from deep within you, from the substrata of your psyche, from something embedded physically within you.  It emanates from your uniqueness, and it communicates through sensations and powerful desires that seem to transcend you.  You cannot ultimately understand why you are drawn to certain activities or forms of knowledge.   This cannot really be verbalized or explained.  It is simply a fact of nature.  In following this voice you realize your own potential, and satisfy your deepest longings to create and express your uniqueness.   It exists for a purpose, and it is your Life’s Task to bring it to fruition.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery

                                  “Mastery is not a function of genius or talent.  It is a function of time and intense focus applied to a particular field of knowledge.  But there is another element, an X factor that Masters inevitably possess, that seems mystical but that is accessible to us all.  Whatever field of activity we are involved in, there is generally an accepted path to the top.  It is a path that others have followed, and because we are conformist creatures, most of us opt for this conventional route.  But Masters have a strong inner guiding system and a high level of self-awareness.  What has suited others in the past does not suit them, and they know that trying to fit into a conventional mold would only lead to a dampening of spirit, the reality they seek eluding them.  And so inevitably, these Masters, as they progress on their career paths, make a choice at a key moment in their lives: they decide to forge their own route, one that others will see as unconventional, but that suits their own spirit and rhythms and leads them closer to discovering the hidden truths of their objects of study.  This key choice takes self-confidence and self-awareness—the X factor that is necessary for attaining mastery.” ~ Robert Greene, Mastery