A large portion of what was written (and how it was written) by Michael Gerber in The E-Myth Revisited reminded me of Robert Kiyosaki, and not in a good way. As with Kiyosaki’s fictitious “rich dad”, Gerber makes up characters in the book who lay massive compliments on his ideas. In return, he also compliments his invented characters for their eloquence. The “conversations”, especially with his favourite “business owner” named Sarah, are cringeworthy to say the least. To make matters worse, there are repeated plugs for his consulting services.
The book suffers from a lot of generalisation and stereotyping, and the first few chapters are long-winded and repetitive. Gerber’s habit of belabouring a point with endless anecdotes can test your patience. He harped incessantly on the turn-key “revolution” and talked about the franchise game as though it is the holy grail of entrepreneurial business. It would be tolerable if some of these “principles” were not outdated.
Gerber also dishes out the classic guru advice about “systems” (as did Kiyosaki), insisting that every business problem stems from a failure to build systems so the solution is to make use of the book’s “key to success”. Unfortunately, reality is not as straightforward, such that a one-size-fits-all solution will lead you down the path of success.
