Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Miscellaneous The EMyth The EMyth Throughout the reading of the E-myth, I found countless insights and concepts on entrepreneurship and small business management worthy of application to my situation. Currently, I am the Vice President of Internet Technology for the Association for Systems Management here at BYU. So many points in the book, if properly applied, will help me this semester as I carry out my duties. Throughout the majority of this paper I will discuss many of these concepts, and apply them to my current position and responsibilities. Throughout my experience in the past two years with the Association for Systems Management, the web team has not been as effective as it could have been or needed to be. When I joined the ASM, I immediately became involved on the web team. I attended the unorganized, sparsely attended meetings and helped out as much as I could. It always seemed to me that the team lacked organization and leadership. The site needed work, and the team was not structured to fulfill this purpose. So, last December I ran for the office of webmaster and won. I had high goals and aspirations. I was going to organize a team that would get things done. I would make the site what others could not. As things often do, my responsibilities piled up, I found myself overwhelmed with work, school, and family duties. As time passed, I found myself scrambling to get the ASM site working smoothly. I tried to organize a web team and actually had a good turnout for a few weeks, but I failed to provide the structure and leadership to motivate my team to work hard and deliver on their responsibilities. I ended up doing all of the work myself. I spent long hours programming and debugging the site to meet deadlines. I worked hard – really hard at being a Technician. In the E-myth, I learned a great principle – the principle of the Entrepreneur, the Manager, and the Technician. I learned that last year, as I struggled to organize the web team, I was not being anyone but the Technician. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off because I would not let go of the Technician’s duties and take on another role. Additionally, because I was doing all of the work myself, I lost joy in the very interest that made me seek out the position. As Gerber puts it, “The work that was born out of love has become a chore…Rather than maintaining a specialness, representing the unique skill the technician possesses and upon which he started the business, the work becomes trivialized, something to get through in order to make room for everything else that must be done.” This is what I was going through. This is what I felt to a “T”. I was so over extended, so over burdened with everything in my life, I could no enjoy the very interest that brought me to this point. This year I am once again the VP of Internet Technology – the webmaster of ASM. I plan to take this newfound principle and apply it. I want to remember to step back from my technical duties an manage. This year as I organize my web team, I will be the Manager, and not the Technician. This resolution brings me to the next applicable point Gerber taught: to work on your business, not in it. Truthfully I have struggled to grasp the significance of this concept – to work at organizing and leading your business, rather than in the operations of it. This year as I manage the web for ASM, I need to work on the structure of things. I need to work on setting up a system that works. I need to set up a structure that will maintain the site without me. I need to work on the web team rather than in it. Honestly, this will not be an easy task. I must think carefully about how to motivate people to take on projects and produce results. I must think carefully to make the web team free up my time, not consume it. I must create a franchise – a turn-key solution to maintaining and updating the site. I must enable each team member to succeed and provide value to the site and the team. We must, as a team, create operations manuals and documentation for the committees of the future. I can even apply this concept to my life today. In my life, instead of just living from day-to-day and going through the motions. I need to step back and look at the bigger picture. I need to work on my life rather than solely live in it. How is my life? Am I heading the right direction? Is my life functioning as it should? Am I leading my life or am I being lead by it? A great way to answer these questions and another powerful concept from the book is the principle of a “Primary Aim” – a true goal, purpose, or projection for my life. Gerber shared some very influential words in his book that really made me think about my goals and aspirations. He wrote of life goals and of how we want our lives to be viewed and remembered. Consider the following passage (here Gerber writes as if you were attending your own funeral): “From the four corners of the room comes a tape recording of your voice…You’re addressing your guests. You’re telling them the story of your life…How would you like that story to go? That’s your Primary Aim. What would you like to be able to say about your life after it’s too late to do anything about it? That’s your Primary Aim.” Clearly, my Primary Aim is very important to me. After considering Gerber’s statements on achieving one’s Primary Aim, I feel even more strongly the need to set goals, to achieve greatness, to make my dreams happen. My Primary Aim is simple. I write my Primary Aim as a vision, or a projection, if you will, of what I foresee myself and my life being in the distant future. So, the following is a brief “vision” of my life: I see a man who loves life. He is active. He is very happy. He loves spending time with his wife and children. He maintains a perfect balance between religion, family, and business. He manages his time well. This man knows what he wants and conducts his day-to-day life accordingly. He keeps up on the little things, for he knows that from consistency in these, great things will come to pass. He is strong and faithful to his religion. He is active in his church responsibilities. He is well regarded by others in the organization and given special duties. He uses his success and prosperity to help all who are in need that he comes across, both monetarily and spiritually. His family is strong. His wife and he have raised their children well and taught them about God. His wife and children love him and respect him. His love for them is also obvious. And although as family they have struggled at times, they have always worked through their problems together. They have always remained best friends as only families can. He runs his own profitable business, which allows him time at home to enjoy the good things in life. He has created his business in such a way that it runs almost automatically. He need not be involved in the daily operations of it, for he has trained others and set up a system which manages itself. The hard work and sweat-equity he put into his primary business frees up valuable time – a part of which he uses to research and build other ventures he has dreamed up. I could really go on and on with my Primary Aim, and I will privately. What I want to focus on now is applying my Primary Aim to my life and how this will affect all of my decisions. Applying my Primary Aim to my life means making it a standard by which all my actions can be measured. So, throughout the remainder of my life, in all decisions, I can ask myself if my actions and activities are going to facilitate my Primary Aim, or deter me from achieving it. This will me direction, purpose, and motivation in all that I do. In my family, the decisions my wife and I make can be based not only on what we have learned from the past, or from our parents, but also we can judge them against our Primary Aim. Business decisions will be guided as well. My business goals will no longer be an end, but a means to an end – a vehicle through which my life dreams can be achieved. In summary, I have applied many of the concepts in the book to my own life and activities to my great benefit. The E-Myth is a wonderful book and I feel I am a better person for reading it. I hope to reread it every so often to remind myself of the principles am trying to master. Bibliography: This is a paper without a bibliogaphy Word Count: 1538
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