The E-Myth

[David Iannone]

A friend of mine sent me a link to this book. I found chapter one very interesting. I am going to buy this book and read it, and I am not a book person but it sounds like an interesting point of view.

Dave

[Bob Eustace]

Pretty spot on and "The zest for the climb had turned into a terror of heights." really sums it up. Interestingly those of us shed various businesses prior to retirement. Now what do we do once we retire? Well you only have to look around here to see that we then spend the rest of our lives building up our "home" factories! Do we love it? You bet we do!

[chiloquinruss]

Over the years (many) I have had several small businesses. I started them ALL because it was fun. Once the fun started to wear on me as not being quite as much fun, I spent my off hours getting the business ready to sell. In every case my motivation was always FUN, when it stops being fun you are now in that JOB area the article talks about. Fortunately in ALL of OUR cases Aspire is fun, ShopBot is fun, and taking a hunk of 4x12 cedar plank and making a fireplace mantel is really fun! At least I think so . . . . Russ

[Burkhardt]

Good read! Maybe I should buy the book to see what I have all missed ;-)

I am electrical and mechanical engineer and have been working a few years as at a research institute and many years in industry for product development, R&D manager and as operations manager. I have been waffling a dozen times about going self-employed because I am more of a tinkerer and technologist while the management aspects of the job were not really what I liked to do. But considering the self-employed perspective not only doing the fun stuff but also being my own accountant, quality engineer, buyer, sales person, business developer, IT guy, etc. made my shudder. Not to mention that by any realistic estimate I would have to take an income hit, lose my benefits and take a serious risk of failure.

Which means I am probably just not cut out to be an entrepreneur and after all, I still had some fun working for that company. Fortunately I have only another 2 or 3 years before retirement and negotiated now a project engineering position without all the management **** as a smooth exit Maybe I start a small business then and don't care if it is profitable or not.

[Brian Harnett]

I can relate to the book I had a dream job for me I was the R&D manager for a high end teak furniture company, I got a position designing and building prototypes less than six months there after just being hired to work production.

Then I got a metal lathe and mill along with other metalworking equipment and built machinery and jigs for production along with the designing. I loved that job troubleshooting and improving ways to make our furniture made me love going to work, they got bigger got more managers and micromanaging started to kick in so I left.

I left knowing my weaknesses, paperwork, I hate but I did it the first few years my wife does it now its a huge relief.

I am a introvert but do well in one on one situations with customers the first few years I was treading water but I kept going.

I miss at times the old job just dealing with the work but they went out of business 5 years after I left so it was a good move.

[bleeth]

Yesterday I (with the help of some great helpers) finished closing up my shop and moving what was left to a storage unit.
Over the years of owning/operating my own businesses there were years that we made money and years we didn't.
Times that for days or weeks on end I felt totally juiced every day and plenty that I had to drag myself in. Mistakes were made and triumphs were had.
After 45 years in the trades (started paint and paperhanging when I was 21 or so and boatbuilding when I was 25) both as a worker and a manager, I am starting into a whole new chapter. Knowing I was closing down and walking into the shop I had so carefully laid out and equipped over the last couple of months was not easy. Funny thing is, as the days of dis-assembly wore on it started getting easier. The decision to "throw it out" instead of keeping it became easier and easier, till some of the things I said to toss in the dumpster were secretly put in the truck instead by my helpers as they sensed where I really was.
New chapter comes with some of those nice things Gert mentioned, like guaranteed steady income, well defined parameters, professional back-up and doesn't have the roller coaster or 50 hat issues of ownership.
But I bet I will miss it too.

[rgreever]

hey bleeth,
I saw your bot on ebay the other day! Did you get it sold? I wish I had the space/funds to make it happen, but alas...
All the best to you on your next chapter!

[bleeth]

Still available. And thanks

[Ajcoholic]

I have been following this thread in the back of the class, so to speak... thought there were a lot of self-employed here, but not too many responses.

I might be the odd man out here, as I have never known what it is like to work for someone else. Other than my father's company that is, which Ill just consider self employment.

I will say, it does take a certain kind of "crazy" to be the owner/operator. I don't recall my dad being "stressed" or complaining when I was a kid. He had up to 10 guys at one time working in and out of the shop. WHen I took over things in the later 90's, we were down to 3 or 4 and I have pared that down to two plus me, and plan to stay that way.

The day to day stresses of work, dealing with the business side of things - as well as trying to put in a decent amount of work time in, and keeping things running smoothly with my guys, is enough for me to handle. Some days it is quite overwhelming, but I have never had one day in the past 21+ now that I didnt want to get to the shop and get going. Even when we're on holidays I look forward to getting back to my shop and doing something productive.

I think having an interest in what you do isn't enough. You have to have a passion to do what it is you do (in my case woodworking) every day and not fear the bad days. Sure, you will have bad days and so forth but overall you have to push like hell to keep going forward and do whatever it takes to succeed.

I have often thought what it would have been like, if I took the substantial amount of $$ I had from selling off our old shop, and instead of putting that and more than double into a new shop - took the proceeds, and went to work for someone else. I think about it, but I kind of realize it would not be as fun and "exciting" as making all the decisions, planning each day and seeing job after job end with a satisfied customer, and what you get out of that. I could be wrong, but hopefully I'll never know...

But I have seen many others try and fail for various reasons. Liking something, and loving it - wanting to eat, breathe and live it 24/7 are two entirely different things. Also, not being happy with your present/current job isn't a good reason to start a business either. There is so much more to it than you see from the outside looking in...

[joe]

AC,

Thanks for getting this thread back on track.