Why it was said

Michael Gerber's most quoted line comes from the early chapters of The E-Myth Revisited, where he describes the technician who starts a business around a craft and becomes its prisoner.

What it actually means

The sign of the trap is that nothing happens unless the owner does it: every loaf, appointment or invoice passes through their hands, so the business cannot grow past their hours or survive their holiday. Gerber's sentence draws the line between a business, which is a system that produces value, and a job, which is a person producing it, and most small businesses are the second wearing the name of the first. The way out is to work on the business rather than in it.

How to use it

1. 1Write what would break if you were away for a week; that is the list of things the business still needs you for.
2. 2Take one hour a week to move one thing from your head into a written system someone else could follow.