One of the highlights of my life recently was the opportunity to attend a day workshop with one of the most influential business commentators of the current era, Michael Gerber. And for those who can't place that name think the E-myth concept of working on your business not in it.
What can one say abut a man who stepped onto the stage at 9am and spoke with an infectious passion through to 4.30pm, with a few breaks for tea, coffee and lunch, without the aid of notes, overheads or a Powerpoint presentation.
There were many insights and lessons offered by Michael which I absorbed with my usual insatiable appetite for knowledge with some of the most engaging being:
1)The reiteration of the need for todays new entrepreneur to have an outrageous dream, vision, purpose and mission backed up by an unshakeable passion to realize the outcomes. Although this presentation was on a business platform I reflected that this way of thinking must underly everything that we wish to attain to ensure the best chance of success. For without passion I suggest we are merely dabbling which gives a limited and bland experience of the pursuit that we are engaged in and usually reduces the compulsion for and ultimately the chances of achieving our goals.
2)The lessons learned from his teachers, or as Michael refers to them, his 3 great masters in life - success depends on your having the desire, discipline and will to succeed backed up by the willingness to practice - for without these your chances of succeeding at a level of greatness are zero. Look at anyone that is successful in any area today, e.g. Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, Donald Trump, J K Rowling, Richard Branson and you will find these qualities.
3) For the me the most profound insight was that of stepping outside of your business and redesigning it as your biggest competitor, the idea that you should develop a business that is going to put you (your existing business)out of business. Become your strongest critic, ask yourself the question "what is the one thing that I could do that's impossible to do, but if I could do it, it would blow peoples' minds?".
Dare to dream , break down those old restrictions and dogmas that others have put in place. These are usually only held onto by those that resist change because it will take them out of their comfort zone and force them to embrace new ideas, reinvent what they are doing and put more work in. Change will happen in the world, that is the way of things and of the human creative spirit, change is inevitable and history is testimony to that fact and also to the folly of those that resist it, so why not be one who expresses their full human potential and that changes things that you are unsatisfied with, start a revolution in what ever area of the human experience that you see a need, want to change and have the passion for.
In fact when I reflect on this, why limit this way of thinking to your business, why not apply it to reinventing yourself with the object in mind of making the present self extinct and developing a more complete and fulfilled self.
..... and so much more, if you ever have the opportunity to listen to Michael Gerber take it you will come away inspired.
"Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!"
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD).
