- Banned
- #1
Amazon.com: Dr. Toad's review of Awakening the Entrepreneur Within:
I'm going to check out Michael Gerber's stuff. I found these comments on Amazon.com... thought I'd ask for people's responses and opinions.
GREEN AND GROWING'S REPLY TO THE REVIEW:
The whole idea behind e-myth is building systems for your company. Does it work - all you have to do is check out the e-myth website to see the testimonials. These systems are universal to small businesses. E-myth worldwide charges less than the cost of minimum wage employee to give excellent advice to entrepreneurs. The reviewer states he is a business consultant - a technician - he's managed to create a job for himself which is fair enough but it's not a business. " No scientific (or otherwise) survey has ever pinpointed Gerber's diagnosis as a root cause for business failure." Most people have dealt with small businesses or know small businesses owners. The service level can vary greatly and many owners work very long hours - which many surveys attest to. If you look at large companies their whole infrastructure is based on having excellent systems without which they would be lost.
E-myth has helped over 50,000 small businesses directly and many thousands of others through the books written by Michael Gerber. Its your choice - a man who has created an excellent consultancy service that has served tens of thousands of businesses or a consultant who's created a job for himself.
DR. TOAD'S RESPONSE:
I do admire your trust in testimonials and your solidarity with thousands who also believe in Michael Gerber. But do you really think that a few minutes of his messianic "inspirations" during a Dreaming Room session are worth $3,000 to $5,000? You can buy a fine used car for that money and deliver a lot of "green and growing" products to customers. When you go to the sugary website inthedreamingroom.com, you'll read about the objective of the dreaming room experience: "to reach for the impossible - to separate from history - to break free, rethink, retool, reengineer, reinvent, reenergize, to discover how to create 'More Life' with every participant." It may just work for you. Dreams are unpredictable. Be aware, though, that during most of the 2 ½ days that'll cost you thousands he won't be speaking - he will just appear at chosen moments.
But his success? He has consulted with 60000 (says so in the book) businesses over 30 years!! That's 2000 a year, or 40 a week, or 8 every day. That must have been really thorough and hands-on. But no, his "business coaches" do this for him, like Santa's little helpers. Yes, by reading from a script over the telephone. Please give them a call (number on their website), they'll tell you. It's hamburger consulting, but without even the pleasure of biting into a fat-dripping bun prepared by a worker making $8.33 an hour.
For me and some of my clients, his overall demeanor of superiority, new-age babble, not really listening but preaching, his mix of prissy white-suited Tom Wolfe elegance and Austin Power's Dr. Evil is just goofy.
But that's a matter of taste and preference. And it's naughty to talk about a 72-year old gentleman that way (although he's asking for it). More detrimental for small businesses are the promises claiming that all the secrets and systems (E-Myth "systems" are ludicrous paper check lists and the like), the magic formulas and methods work almost automatically for you, requiring no effort from you, as long as you believe, close your eyes, and pay. For businesses it is true what Einstein said about his creative work: It's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Instead of such sage advise, many (not all!) of our gurus try to convince you that you can have everything for practically nothing, "Nothing down;" success through dreaming and awakening - for $5,000 it's yours; it's not difficult to become rich, but "simpleology" itself; there is "A New Earth" out there (Eckhart Tolle's mish-mash of Buddhism and Oprah); you can be a (rather callous, admittedly) "one-minute manager" who will reward and punish like an old-Testament God and as He sees fit (Ken Blanchard); there's the laudable "Rich Dad" laughing about the stupid "Poor Dad" (Kiyosaki); there's the philosophical parable about "moving my cheese" (actually entertaining for a second), and perhaps worse, you can become part of the "Newly Rich" set with a "4-Hour Workweek" by outsourcing your work to the poor suckers in the Third World and "dance tango in Buenos Aires" instead (Timothy Ferriss).
But it works sometimes, doesn't it? The testimonials and all ...? Yes, the lottery works sometimes too. And the winners (plus the lottery officials) write the testimonials.
I'm going to check out Michael Gerber's stuff. I found these comments on Amazon.com... thought I'd ask for people's responses and opinions.
GREEN AND GROWING'S REPLY TO THE REVIEW:
The whole idea behind e-myth is building systems for your company. Does it work - all you have to do is check out the e-myth website to see the testimonials. These systems are universal to small businesses. E-myth worldwide charges less than the cost of minimum wage employee to give excellent advice to entrepreneurs. The reviewer states he is a business consultant - a technician - he's managed to create a job for himself which is fair enough but it's not a business. " No scientific (or otherwise) survey has ever pinpointed Gerber's diagnosis as a root cause for business failure." Most people have dealt with small businesses or know small businesses owners. The service level can vary greatly and many owners work very long hours - which many surveys attest to. If you look at large companies their whole infrastructure is based on having excellent systems without which they would be lost.
E-myth has helped over 50,000 small businesses directly and many thousands of others through the books written by Michael Gerber. Its your choice - a man who has created an excellent consultancy service that has served tens of thousands of businesses or a consultant who's created a job for himself.
DR. TOAD'S RESPONSE:
I do admire your trust in testimonials and your solidarity with thousands who also believe in Michael Gerber. But do you really think that a few minutes of his messianic "inspirations" during a Dreaming Room session are worth $3,000 to $5,000? You can buy a fine used car for that money and deliver a lot of "green and growing" products to customers. When you go to the sugary website inthedreamingroom.com, you'll read about the objective of the dreaming room experience: "to reach for the impossible - to separate from history - to break free, rethink, retool, reengineer, reinvent, reenergize, to discover how to create 'More Life' with every participant." It may just work for you. Dreams are unpredictable. Be aware, though, that during most of the 2 ½ days that'll cost you thousands he won't be speaking - he will just appear at chosen moments.
But his success? He has consulted with 60000 (says so in the book) businesses over 30 years!! That's 2000 a year, or 40 a week, or 8 every day. That must have been really thorough and hands-on. But no, his "business coaches" do this for him, like Santa's little helpers. Yes, by reading from a script over the telephone. Please give them a call (number on their website), they'll tell you. It's hamburger consulting, but without even the pleasure of biting into a fat-dripping bun prepared by a worker making $8.33 an hour.
For me and some of my clients, his overall demeanor of superiority, new-age babble, not really listening but preaching, his mix of prissy white-suited Tom Wolfe elegance and Austin Power's Dr. Evil is just goofy.
But that's a matter of taste and preference. And it's naughty to talk about a 72-year old gentleman that way (although he's asking for it). More detrimental for small businesses are the promises claiming that all the secrets and systems (E-Myth "systems" are ludicrous paper check lists and the like), the magic formulas and methods work almost automatically for you, requiring no effort from you, as long as you believe, close your eyes, and pay. For businesses it is true what Einstein said about his creative work: It's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Instead of such sage advise, many (not all!) of our gurus try to convince you that you can have everything for practically nothing, "Nothing down;" success through dreaming and awakening - for $5,000 it's yours; it's not difficult to become rich, but "simpleology" itself; there is "A New Earth" out there (Eckhart Tolle's mish-mash of Buddhism and Oprah); you can be a (rather callous, admittedly) "one-minute manager" who will reward and punish like an old-Testament God and as He sees fit (Ken Blanchard); there's the laudable "Rich Dad" laughing about the stupid "Poor Dad" (Kiyosaki); there's the philosophical parable about "moving my cheese" (actually entertaining for a second), and perhaps worse, you can become part of the "Newly Rich" set with a "4-Hour Workweek" by outsourcing your work to the poor suckers in the Third World and "dance tango in Buenos Aires" instead (Timothy Ferriss).
But it works sometimes, doesn't it? The testimonials and all ...? Yes, the lottery works sometimes too. And the winners (plus the lottery officials) write the testimonials.
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? What about the harder I work, the luckier I get? The one in a million shot? Sometimes it really is luck of the draw. Some things happen (good or bad) and it's out of your control, how you react to it is however up to you.
