Sharing a Stage With One of My Business Hero's

Last night I had the incredible experience of speaking on stage at An Evening With Michael E Gerber in Glasgow. 

Michael E. Gerber was in the UK for his Beyond The E-Myth UK Tour and I was one of the ambassadors for his first ever Scottish appearance, last night at the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow. 

As I wrote in my last blog, Mr Gerber is one of my business hero's and reading his book the E-Myth Revisited a year ago, really changed my life and was a massive turning point when I first just started SharkDog. His philosophy of working "on your business and not in your business" was a game changer for me. When I was asked to become an ambassador for the event there was no way I could pass up the opportunity to meet the man who had such a positive influence on my life. 

For an hour before the event started, Mr Gerber was holding a private book signing for event for VIP guests and I got the amazing role of "Michael's Personal Book Signing Assistant" 

Here I am, at 23 years old spending time with one of the world's most influential business leaders of all time. The man who brought the world the E-Myth methodology, one of the highest selling business books of all time and the man Inc Magazine dub the "The World's #1 Small Business Guru"  

I'm on an amazing journey of discovery right now in my life and I know exactly where I want to go, one of the things I'm doing to help me get there is studying and deeply examining some of the world's most successful people to find out what it is that makes them so successful. So to get the opportunity to spend an hour with a man like Mr Gerber was phenomenal. 

What touched me the most was the stories that people were sharing with Michael as he signed their books. Everyone had a story of how Mr Gerber has positively impacted or changed their life. One man told the story of how his father ran a struggling restaurant business and after reading the E-Myth and applying it's methodologies he now now owns 7 hotels and restaurants. 

The most common thing about the E-Myth is that everyone who has bought it always reads it and then gives it to someone else, because the learnings are so important and people want their close friends, colleagues and associates to also soak up the excellence of the book. One man even told Mr Gerber of how he has given over 50 copies of this book to his clients over the years. 

The book signing was now over and the 200 guests were now taking their seats in the room. You would think for me that spending an hour with Mr Gerber would be the highlight of my night but what happened next was even more incredible. 

Event organiser and my mentor Alan Bonner then took to the stage to welcome the guests and say a few thank you's to the ambassador's of the event who helped promote and make it possible. 

Alan kept his thanks for me until last and then said a very special piece about the story of how Alan and I met each other and how it was all around Michael Gerber and the E-Myth which I mentioned in my last blog post. 

Alan then went on to talk about The Tartan Explorer and everything that has happened to me this year before showing my video to the packed room. 

I was then asked to come on stage to a massive reception from the audience and I said a few thanks to the people in the audience and then a very well deserved thanks to Alan for what he has done for me this year. 

Alan Bonner is a man who has had an unbelievable positive influence on my life since our short time working together. He was the man who made me believe in myself and told me anything was possible, he was the man who made me dream and as I told Alan last night on stage for the first time I believe he was the man who saved my life. 

Alan and I started working together in June this year and I truly believe it was his hands on help and support that helped me realise my purpose and vision that has allowed me to find happiness again. 

So there was a very lovely moment on stage between myself and Alan and we then got to the main event. Mr Michael E Gerber. 

Mr Gerber spoke very briefly about his background and what he had achieved before telling the audience about an experience he had very early on in his life with a man called Meryl who was teaching him to play saxophone. 

Meryl started by saying that he only worked with people who want to be the best saxophone players in the world and to do this Michael would need to practice 3 hours a day. This was Michael's first big lesson in life. 

If you want to be good and something you need to practice, practice, practice and continue doing that. 

"You don't create the zone, the zone creates you" 

He then went to work in a shoe store where he was amazed and fixated by one of his colleagues Harold who used to always sell at least 5 pairs of shoes to every customer. Because he had a system and he done it over and over again and it was the system that sold the shoes. 

He then met what he described as the most extraordinary man he'd ever met, an encyclopaedia salesman who had the greatest stories and seemed to be a god at selling. He asked Michael if he would be interested in joining the company and at first he refused because he felt he couldn't do it, to which the man replied

"That's because no one has taught you how to do it"

So Michael was sent home with a paragraph script and was told to memorise and come back the next day, which he then did and then his new acquaintance made a few tweaks and he was good to go.

Michael was now starting to realise that to sell encyclopaedia's you didn't have to know everything about them you just had to know the system of how to sell them.

So he used the lessons from his Saxophone teacher and practiced, practiced, practiced the script and before he knew it was an excellent seller of encyclopaedia's

He was now starting to realise that there's a way to do everything and you just need to master the system of how it is done.

At 38 years old he then decided he no longer wanted to work with his mouth and would now work with his hands taking up a job as a framer.

He was loving this new job and it's lifestyle and had got himself a Chevy 52 and a couple of poodle dogs and to quote Michael directly he was

"Smoking dope and having a blast"

 The turning point in his life came when a friend asked him to meet with a man called Bob who was running a tech business in Silicon Valley, because the man was struggling converting his leads into sales and his friend thought Michael could offer his advice given his background in sales. 

Michael was confused at this point as he "didn't know anything about business" and this guy was running a business so surely he knew all about business. 

This is the point where Michael stumbles across a discovery and flawed assumption that would ultimately change his life forever.

The assumption is that people think because someone is running a business, they know everything about business. 

"Business owners don't know shit about business"

The majority of business owners across the world are technicians who have experienced an entrepreneurial seizure. 

Hairdresser's, mechanics, plumbers, dentist's, beauticians and people like this assume that because they are amazing at cutting hair, or plumbing drains or fixing cars that they can run businesses that offer all of these services. 

These "technicians" think that they are in fact entrepreneurs when really they know "shit" about business. 

They think they are running businesses but essentially all they are doing is leaving paid jobs to take on a another job where you work more hours, experience more stress and take home less pay. 

These technicians are too busy working in their business carrying out all the client fulfilment that they forget to work on their business and this is the single biggest reason most small businesses fail. 

This is what Michael Gerber famously defined at the "Entrepreneurial Myth" 

Michael then found out that Bob had hired lots of product engineers to sell his products because he assumed that these people knew everything about the product so surely were the most qualified to sell it. 

This is where Michael was again learning the importance of the system. You use the system to sell. 

People learn the system and then they learn how to sell. As opposed to people learning about the product and then trying to sell it on their own. 

Systems are so critical to the success of a business and Michael hit hard this point. 

You create and implement systems and then people follow the system every single time. 

You practice, practice, practice and you get better and better and better. Continually work the system that is in place and that is how you achieve success. 

Michael then spoke very emotionally and passionately about what it takes to succeed in business. 

He explained how the most successful people in the world are just human beings like you and I, that there's nothing special about these people that helps them succeed. Success leaves clues and you just need to follow the clues of what's been done in the past. 

It's not all about who knows the most, because everyone can learn and there's always people available to teach you. 

He used Steve Jobbs as an example and said that Steve Jobs achieved so much not because he knew more, but because he cared more. 

He had a vision and a dream and he cared about it so much that he executed it and changed the lives of millions all over the world. 

He says that anyone can have this level of success, there's no secret you just need to have a dream and a vision and then set goals to execute on it. 

We're born on this planet to create. Each and every single one of has a purpose and once we find that purpose and have complete clarity in our life it then we can execute and achieve the impossible. 

He spoke of all the creative leaders of our time and said that everyone is just making it up. They're all just making up shit. 

Making up shit, just making it up. 

People everywhere making up shit. 

But the most important point of this...

"Nobody believes it until you do it" 

Michael's vision and dream at this point was now to transform small businesses all over the world.

Michael had a philosophy and he now wanted to share this with businesses all over the world to help them build real businesses and not just new jobs that are paid less for more hours and stress. 

He told the story of Ray Croc and Mcdonald's to epitomise this. 

Ray Croc build one of the world's most successful businesses on the turnkey system and franchise model. 

He never worked a day inside a Mcdonald's. His office was down the street because he was working "on his business, not in his business" 

He came up with effective strategies to sell hamburgers that people all over the world could replicate in a franchise model because all they are doing is following a system and it works like a turnkey. 

He was building a business that worked so he didn't have to. 

Michael then used the analogy of a 3 legged stool to describe what a business needs to do to build a franchise model that works without you. 

1. Lead generation

2. Client convention 

3. Client fulfilment

Think of how stable a 3 legged stool is. If you can create systems for each of these 3 parts then they will work like turnkey and you can build a real scalable business.

To scale this up you then add on top a management system, and then to turn into a full scale large enterprise you add a leadership system on top.

Michael then finished with a passionate call for the audience to hear their calling, find their purpose and then set out to achieve their goals and build a business that truly works without them that will provide them with a lifetime of happiness and opportunities.

After being on stage and having my video shown everyone wanted to speak with me and some of the contacts I met and opportunities I now have are incredible and I'm so excited for my own future. 

But for me the most incredible part of the night was afterwards in the hotel bar. 50-100 incredibly ambitious business owners all bouncing off each other and sharing ideas, thoughts and opinions on what was such a great night.

Everyone was getting on so well and talking passionately about what they do. It was so great to see and I love being surrounded by people like myself. People who want to succeed and get on in life.

I'm sure everyone got some value from the night and have lots of takeaways and ideas on how they can take their business to the next level. 

But the most important thing is, who will actually do it? 

It's all about the action. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading. If you were there last night I'd love to also hear your thoughts and if not let me know if you've read the E-Myth and what you think of the book.