Personal Branding Interview: Michael E. Gerber
Today, I spoke to Michael E. Gerber, who is the founder of E-Myth Worldwide. Gerber is the author of 13 business books, including the mega-bestseller The E-Myth Revisited. In this interview, he talks about how his brand is described by himself and the media, as well as why small businesses fail.
How would you describe your personal brand?
At INC Magazine they call me, “The World’s #1 Small Business Guru.” At HarperCollins they call me “One of the world’s foremost business thought leaders.” If you were to ask my readers, or any of our over 70,000 business clients, they would say “You transformed my life!” As far as I’m concerned, I’m a guy who learned a significant lesson about why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it, and have been avidly teaching it ever since. You wear a hat a lot. Is that on purpose? Yes, it’s both fun, and my respect for G-d.
What would you recommend to someone who works for a company, but wants to start a business?
I would say, start right now!
Do you have tips for entrepreneurs who have an idea but don’t know how to execute on it?
Yes, learn how.
On your main website, michaelegerber.com, you have a video of yourself speaking about your offerings. What led you to do this? I love to speak, I’m called to do it, and the guys who produced the video created the technology to make it possible on my website.
Why do most small businesses fail?
For the absence of an entrepreneur. Thus, The E-Myth (The Entrepreneurial Myth). Most business owners are technicians suffering from an entrepreneurial seizure, who believe that knowing how to do the work they know how to create a business that does that work, and, unfortunately for most, they don’t. The rest of the story is truly tragic. They go to work IN their business, rather than ON their business and create a job for themselves…which quickly becomes the worst job in the world.
Article by, Dan Schawbel, the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He authors the Personal Branding Blog and publishes Personal Branding Magazine and authored the upcoming book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, Spring 2009). Dan has been called a “personal branding force of nature” by Fast Company and his work has been published in BrandWeek Magazine, Advertising Age and countless other publications.
