Excellent in third world countries too...

I live in Lima, Peru, South America, and I have noticed that Gerber's concepts are also applicable here... Of course it could be a little more difficult to do and also we needed to adapt some of his views, but, in most part, they are very USEFUL AND MOTIVATING TOO... Thanks Mr. Gerber... I dream to have you here in my country to teach us more things...!

I'm converted

I have to admit, in my business I have been a little anti-system; while trying to maintain the "home-town" feel of my management philosophy.

After reading this book I am believer in sytems and a good operations binder. We (as a management team) read this book and have finally some progress toward our over-all goal for success in our industry.

I would highly recommend this book to any person who has started a business or is thinking of taking the leap into business ownership. Lets face it, you are doing this so you can retire early and spend more time doing the things you want to do rather than what you boss tells you.

As a side note, I also downloaded the audio copy of this book on itunes for my ipod, however found the author to be a very slow at narration. Not bad, just slow. I would recommend this in its book form as this is the kind of book that is redlined and highlighted in every chapter.

High on Ideas, Low on Specifics

"The E-Myth" talks about reasons why most small businesses don't work. Essentially it boils down to the fact that most small business owners are still "employees" at heart and don't understand their responsibilities as the business leader and manager.

The ideas for overcoming this fatal flaw involve looking at your business as if you are creating a franchise. To do this requires that you work "on your business" and not "in your business" by creating a "primary aim" along with detailed, organized systems for your organization. The concepts seem to be solid and logical, but the book was just that.... concepts and no real meat.

I would have liked to have seen more specific examples in this book. While there is a running story throughout the book, it merely reviews and restates the concepts that are introduced in the chapter. I would have rather seen a brief overview of the important points of the chapter, and then an example that shows the specific steps of how to do each of the concepts the author talks about.

Regardless of its shortcomings, "The E-Myth" is still a good book for entrepreneurs to read. Just expect to come away with more questions than answers. 4 out of 5 stars.