Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Out of date! Worksheets no longer available.

Customer Rating:

It is with much disappointment that I must urge all readers to avoid this book. I loved the first book "E Myth Revisited" - and this is supposedly the sequel. However the book gives many exercises - and tells you to download worksheets to complete the exercises. Sadly these worksheets have been discontinued. You can phone (!) the company and ask them to email *some* of the out-of-date worksheets, but some are no longer available. This renders many of the exercises in the book impossible - and having got a third of the way through, I am no longer willing to continue, as it refers to documents I can't see online as required to do so by the book. It is disgraceful that a 2007 edition should already (May 2008) have its online content removed. It is a disgrace to the author, his company and it's insulting to the readers who end up wasting time on this book. On a final note, the book comes up with a completely different business plan to the one in the Revisited book - meaning that those of you who have spent time writing a business plan following the model in the Revisited book will have to start again if you read this book. Shame on you Michael Greber.

Heavy going, heavy on psychobabble

Customer Rating:

If you're into overwrought emotional prose this ones for you. I quote "without the passion of the soul, the mind creates an endless stream of empty suits, dreams without heart..." or this gem "a part of me is just afraid. that part of me feels like i'm jumping off a cliff, but in some strange way I also trust that I'll fall into something soft and safe" After about 100 pages it starts turning into a business book again, but after wading through the cod philosphies at the start of the book I was actually angry at the author for putting me through some really badly written stuff, concerning a lady called sarah from 'all about pies' who'd lost her passion, apparently. I knew how she felt by this point in the book. If you buy it read the real stuff at the end of the book, but really, don't encourage him. To misquote the book I certainly felt like jumping off a cliff at times. If only he'd have just stuck to the business. Why does everyone have to be a cod psychologist these days? Nuff said'

Zen and the Art of Entrepreneurship

Customer Rating:

The book is about the 'Self' as businessman/woman. The key is the, periodic, precisely ordered and focused exercises. These are questions, Michael Gerber, aims at the heart and soul of being/becoming an entrepreneur. And so one is, if one is open to the questioning, able to pinpoint within oneself the barriers to becoming a truly creative person. Then, after self-reflection, one may come from a space, which was previously closed and oppressive, to an open and experiential one. There is a storyline in the book showing clearly how the entrepreneur becomes so easily a robot and a machine in the current business ethos. So how does one stay alive and renewed in what is essentially a mechanised business world? Well, this book tackles this dilemma - by making one confront oneself and ones susceptibility, and then enabling one to recover integrity and creativity from within oneself. Because, ultimately, it is not the techniques and methods which make for success, but who one is and how well one knows oneself, and continues to discover oneself. The book has its highest value in enabling self-knowledge as an entrepreneur. Michael Gerber in the book does, however, always present the avenues and methods for success in the greatest of practical detail (for example on sales he covers internet portal, direct mail etc. etc. etc. etc. - it's all covered - with advantages and disadvantages and practical application). There are downloadable worksheets, all very ordered and practical where one can try out, test and keep records about ones experiments with oneself, the business and the marketplace. I would have liked to say more on the practical side of the book, because it is hugely practical and applicable. But it is a year since I read a borrowed copy and don't have it in front of me. I am now ordering a copy for myself. Entrepreneurship, in my view, is a difficult business. It is one of the greatest challenges to oneself. It can be a disheartening and even degrading experience. Thank you, Michael Gerber, for enabling me to know the dangers, and for giving me clarity and understanding at the beginning of my new business. Finally, this is not a quick fix book, although because of the practical detail it can be used like one. But beware, for the book is about a journey one decides to make/take - and there are many adventures to be had along the way! :)

In business?Buy this now.

Customer Rating:

Having started my own business this book, and the whole Gerber approach, has revolutionised the way we work. We already knew we wanted to change some of the things we were doing but not sure exactly what or how. This book crystallised our thinking and has made us a better outfit because of it. I have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone in a business or thinking of going into business. It is not a quick fix, it's not a load of guru speak. It is a very real set of ideas that have worked for this humble photographer.