BTD: Speaker Profile: Michael Gerber

Posted by Jason Markow on Oct 30, 2009 in Events | 0 comments

Michael Gerber is an author and the founder of E-Myth Worldwide, a business skills training company aimed at the small business and entrepreneurial community.
His speaker profile was saved for last because he was without a doubt the most passionate, energetic, and controversial speaker at BizTechDay.   He riled up the crowd better than you think a 73 year old, or anyone for that matter, could.

“90% of you are gone.  Just like that, 90%.  You will fail because you are doing the wrong shit, in the wrong way, for the wrong reason.” It was not just attendees that were criticized by Michael.  He attacked Tim Ferriss on his highly popular “Four Hour Work Week”.  He said “Seriously, Tim, you don’t really believe this shit” and referred to the entire process as “bullshit”.

Early into the talk he made it clear he was not out to make friends.  Many people muttered things like “asshole” as they made a beeline for the door only minutes in (even in the video link below you will see much more people crossing the camera line than usual).  And the tone did not waiver as the talk opened up to questions.  An attendee admitted his friend (also attending) was one of the people who left.  He asked “what should I tell them?”  to which Michael replied “I am an asshole”.

But Michael is not an asshole.  He is right… about everything, and some people refuse to accept it.  It is impossible to sum up 2 hours of Michael’s energy into a few paragraphs, but his message is another story.  It is short, it is simple, and can be summarized in to a handful of statements:

(anyone who is familiar with the book will recognize many of these points)

• Go to work ON your business not IN it.
• If you don’t want to grow, pack it up now
• Look at your business from 30,000 feet up
• You are here to transform the world
• To be a successful entrepreneur, you must be a:

• Dreamer
• Thinker
• Storyteller
• Leader
• If you can’t do all four, hang up your hat, don’t do it anymore, you will fail.

• The only thing holding you back is you
• If you can do it “here” you have to do it everywhere

The bullet points above hardly scratch the surface as to what it takes to “Invent the System” you need to to be successful.  The think (here) Blog will focus more on Michael Gerber in the future, but for now we will end with a short clip of Michael speaking at BizTechDay courtesy of bnet.com and one question: Are YOU working ON your business or IN it?