Escaping the Entrepreneurial Seizure

Entrepreneurial Seizure: a technician suffering from the dream of owning their own business, and in doing so, create a job for themselves working in the business, rather than on the business.

Michael E Gerber, author of many books including The E-Myth and The E-Myth Revisited defined that phrase and in doing so has become the number one small business guru, helping thousands of clients worldwide turn their businesses into world-class enterprises through the use of systems and automation.

His message is all too clear for service-based businesses, big and small. When the company is centered around it owner or owners, it makes it much harder to scale up. While a technician may be able to perform technical skills at a high-level, often times they are unable to work on their business at that same high-level. This idea is at the core of my research for service based businesses. Can you see the difference that Michael is talking about?

Tim Ferriss, author of the New York Times Best-Selling book, The 4 Hour Work Week, interviewed Michael Gerber on his blog, centering on the subject of escaping the entrepreneurial seizure. Here is an excerpt from Tim’s interview:

Tim Ferriss: Michael, having counseled more than 50,000 post-corporate entrepreneurs caught in what you call the “entrepreneurial seizure,” can you explain this phenomenon and how to avoid it?

Michael Gerber: The “entrepreneurial seizure” lies at the heart of most failures in judgment when someone decides to leave his or her job to go out on their own.

The excitement of independence associated with getting rid of the boss is almost always fueled by a flawed understanding of what being on your own means. Most small businesses are started by technicians rather than by true entrepreneurs.

The technician believes in the fatal assumption that because he or she knows how to do the work — whether graphic design, engineering, cooking a great dinner, repairing an automobile, snow boarding, or otherwise — they can turn that capability into a business that frees them from the boss. The graphic designer creates a graphic design business. The technologist creates a technology-based business. The cook creates a restaurant. The mechanic creates an auto repair business. The snow boarder creates a snow boarding business.

But instead of freeing themselves from the boss, they have become their own boss, and they’re now — with absolutely no understanding about how it happened — working for a lunatic and doing what they know how to do but in greater volume than before.

True entrepreneurs make the transition from working for someone else to working on their own much differently. Entrepreneurs invent businesses that work without them. Technicians create businesses that work because of them. The entrepreneur is liberated from what I call the “tyranny of routine,” and the technician becomes a slave to it. In the entrepreneur’s case, the business works. In the technician’s case, the technician works. And that’s why most of the 500,000 new businesses that are started every month in the U.S.A. will fail. According to a recent study done by the Kauffman Foundation, 81% of all businesses in the US employ no people besides the owner. They’re sole proprietorships. True entrepreneurs are never sole proprietors.

You can read more of Tim’s interview with Michael over at the 4 Hour Work Week blog.

Michael’s latest venture helps entrepreneurs take their dreams and turn them into reality in his latest workshop, In The Dreaming Room. You can find out more about Michael and his offerings at his official website MichalEGerber.com.

Michael’s books have been inspirational to me on many different levels. They have allowed me to think differently about business, about work, and about life as a whole. There is a very clear definition of entrepreneurship, yet many business owners fall into the trap of creating a job for themselves, rather than an independent business system in which they can manage.

What are your thoughts on the entrepreneurial seizure? Have you fallen into that trap? Leave your thoughts and comments below.