The Hero's Journey meets the E-Myth (9/23/17)

While most professional bloggers would advise against overwhelming audiences with two concepts in the same post-I'll roll the dice that my (small) audience can handle it.

As someone who's visited entrepreneurship now for the third time in my career, I find myself conflicted and inspired by two similar yet opposing narratives:

The Entrepreneurial Myth vs. The Hero's Journey.

The Entrepreneurial Myth (or "E-Myth" as Michael Gerber first coined decades ago) is the false assumption that the typical entrepreneur is fighting an epic battle against forces that he/she eventually conquers with a brilliant technical product or blinding sales talent.

Gerber explains that the reality of business failure reaching 90%+ within 10 years shatters the Myth of the successful, talented solo Entrepreneur.

The reason for the failure rate is due to the Entrepreneur's lack of understanding that the skills for running a successful business are in every way different than the technical skills used to first open the business.

Working ON the business vs working IN the business is the key to long-lasting, repeatable business success.  In other words, focusing on the Golden Eggs instead of the Goose will kill the entrepreneur every time.
(I should trademark that one)!

Gerber explains in this groovy 1980s vintage video (the first 5 minutes are superb):

For a shorter Recap of the E-Myth Revisited Book:

The similar (and more romantic) narrative is that of what Joseph Campbell coined: "The Hero's Journey".

We are all familiar with the classic formula for many story structures of The Hero's Journey.  We usually find our Hero, an attractive character who we relate to like Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, or Katniss Everdeen, fighting through their internal and external foes always triumphant over both in the end. *and almost always get the girl (or boy)!*

Here's a great Recap of why the Hero's Journey seems so familiar!

Since I already have my girl, I resolve to remain vigilant of the TRUTH that the only way to business success is to create, develop and deploy overwhelming value to customers while building a business structure and process that can sustain that value, always remaining true to the principles of Michael Gerber, Dr. Ernesto Siroli and Peter Drucker.

I'll probably write about those guys in future posts.

For now: I hope this post didn't overwhelm you but perhaps inspired you to identify your internal Entrepreneurial Hero.  Or at least inspire you to say a little prayer for those of us who are in the arena, on the high wire, and out on a limb.

Because unlike fictional heroes Entrepreneurs "ARE our only HOPE".