Tim Ferriss, 4HWW, Autograph, done by eponymousx on flickr

We’ve Been Rubes!  Rubes!

So it’s “smart” to use OPM to build your business.

You’re a “sucker” if don’t leverage the hell out of your ability to work and earn.

The underlying message here is this: that there is a leveraged ratio that doesn’t have diminishing returns.   The more money you spend on spinning some flywheel, outsourcing routine tasks, the more of a businessman you are.

You shouldn’t be working that hard.  Have the ‘good life,’ relax, hire people to work for you.  Hard work is dead.   Ahem.

Work “on” and not “in” your business.   You know?  And that is a sirens song.  But the gist is that people are looking to…not work “hard.”  People are looking to escape the workaday tedium and the application of effort that it takes to make something cool & beautiful.

Sure, Michael Gerber has his uses.  I’m not gonna discount the goodness that he’s brought into the world.  Having a path up and an idea that you have to standardize yourself is cool.   But it begets entitlement and laziness.  It takes away from the standard of excellence.

Throwing Money At A Problem = Loserdom

When I read the copy for the Outsourcing Conspiracy, Brian Clark and Jon Morrow understood this.  If you’re not an owner you’re not gonna achieve that standard.  When I call people, I can always tell when I’m dealing with someone who’s ass is on the line.

You don’t leverage yourself because you bring complexity and fragility into your life.  You have to manage people, to chase people with less spark, with a need for security over excellence.  And it’s not possible to do.   It’s got serious diminishing returns.  You might do less paperwork (drudgery), but you’ll do more stress and juggling.

What’s better?  Making $150k a year by hustling and doing the work, say on $180k in revenue?  Or making $180k on $350k in revenue?

When I look at the people I admire they don’t have the same attitude towards outsourcing.   They love their businesses.  They love what they are doing.  And they don’t avoid the work.  They become more efficient, and delegate some of it, but at the core they feel good when work is done & done right.

Getting tinfoil hatty on y’all: who wants you to have complexity?  Folks that sell financial products and services.  The more fragile you are, the more likely you are to take a loan to get you the flexibility ‘you need.’  Flexibility comes with a cost: a background stress load that is always there, and is always creeping into your life.

Flexibility is better than servitude.  The pimps and hustlers get small businesses to have to make poor, moneynow decisions because they are owned by the banks and financiers.

As for me, I’m gonna pay my entire debt off.   I’ll have–tomorrow–a sidebar with what the debt is.  I’ve cut it from $170k to just over 80.  Miles to go though.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

Why Michael Gerber, Tim Ferriss, Are Wrong: Outsourcing Is Complexity.

Related posts:

1. The E-Myth: Regurgitated. (A Michael Gerber Hit Piece)
2. How Do You Harness Uncertainty?
3. Scary Search Term! Will I survive?

The E-Myth, Revisited.  Loads of people talk about it.  It’s one of the biggest books an entreprenuer “must read.”  And I’ve read it.  I’ve read it a few times, actually.  And the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.

For most people, it’s a bad idea.

The book is fine.  There are enough disclaimers.  He doesn’t pull a Kiyosaki and lie all the time.  But the ‘hustle your ass off so you no longer have  to work thing.”  well, that’s no good for the economy, no good for business, and a stupid, stupid goal.   Most people get the wrong lesson.  Cristina Favraeu says that the Journey is the Point.  Damn straight.  The point is not to outsource your stuff in some 4HWW-esque goal.   The point is to do something you’re PASSIONATE about.   To put yourself in position where you get to do the things you enjoy most.  Not to seek idleness.

Not to detach and wander off.  The entrepreneurs that take no vacations for a decade?  They’re hustling.  Winning.  Putting their passion into it.  Not trying to work their way out of the business.

I’m for systems.  I’m for writing EVERY F#@%ing THING DOWN.  I’m for processes and making yourself REALLY GOOD.  I’m even for making it so you can replace yourself.  But I’m not for WANTING to replace myself.  I’m not for starting with a “jobber” ethos.

Here’s why.  There is something to working “on” and not “in” your business.  But the smug BS that comes with it, the self aggrandizing, and the self righteousness that the Gerberites have is revolting.   And I don’t know one that succeeded once they caught that bug.   I know it cost me because I began to resent the stuff that’s below my level.   I started resenting the necessary paperwork, the necessary customer service and the necessary bolts and nuts to win the war.

Think I’m kidding?  Maybe.  But here’s the deal.  A business that’s started to ‘get out of,’ or ‘get away from,’ is no business at all.  It’s not something the owner loves, with all his heart.  When there’s no passion, and when everything is delegated…a couple levels down, you can feel it.   Call Dell’s customer service.  Then watch Michael Dell on Charlie Rose.

You can feel it when the joy dies.  You can feel it when someone cares–mind body and soul–and when someone doesn’t.   You can feel it when you’re dealing with the owner, and when you’re dealing with a salesperson, and when you’re dealing with a wage earner.

You can’t replace a passionate and vibrant business with wage owners.  You need believers.  You can hire people, but hire passion, talent, vibrancy.   Google doesn’t hire people that don’t believe.  Neither does 37s. Neither will Scott Ginsberg, Greg Swann, Jeff Brown, Seth Godin, Tim and Julie Harris.  Not hiring someone is far better than hiring someone that has tepid beliefs.  Don’t look to work your as off then phone it in.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

The E-Myth: Regurgitated. (A Michael Gerber Hit Piece)

Related posts:

1. Why Michael Gerber, Tim Ferriss, Are Wrong: Outsourcing Is Complexity.