Most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working IN your business rather than ON your business.
Interpretation
Entrepreneurs often focus too much on daily tasks instead of strategic planning, leading to failure.
In this quote, Michael Gerber highlights a common pitfall among entrepreneurs: they become consumed by the technical aspects of their business instead of steering it towards growth and innovation. This 'entrepreneurial seizure' can lead to their downfall as they fail to spend enough time on strategic planning and development, ultimately compromising the long-term success of their venture.
In practice
This quote can be used during a business workshop to emphasize the importance of strategic thinking.
The only choice that leads small business owners to real success in their endeavors is the one that requires real thought. Understanding and building the systems they need within their company to afford them a framework of organization that can scale the business from a company of one to a company of one thousand.
Quit being 'busy' and start actively owning and operating your company, and you'll be able to understand where the money is coming from and how to make more of it.
Most people who go into business for themselves and, therefore, believe they are entrepreneurs, are doomed to struggle because they don't have a true Entrepreneurial Perspective. They have a Technician's Perspective.
The entrepreneur rarely thinks in terms of what he or she wants, but dreams about results - always results and nothing but results - that can solve someone else's problem or contribute to making someone else's life better.
Here's the problem with phones - they are a ready-made diversion from the considerably harder work of growing a business.
Your goal as an entrepreneur is to understand not only what your business does but the clients that it serves. If you really have your pulse on their needs and wants, then your 'absolute' failures are always going to have limits.
Success is always temporary. When all is said and one, the only thing you'll have left is your character.
The best part of being an angel investor is seeing these kids coming up with companies that get way more traffic than Reddit had when we sold it. I think, 'Are you kidding me? They're just kids, and they've done so much.
Yes - en I's rich now, come to look at it. I owns myself, en I's wuth eight hund'd dollars. I wisht I had de money, I wouldn' want no mo'.
Efficiency is doing better what is already being done.
It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. Overnight success is a fallacy. It is preceded by a great deal of preparation. Ask any successful person how they came to this point in their lives, and they will have a story to tell.
First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.