A business without a dream is like a life without a purpose.”
—Michael Gerber
Dream • Vision • Purpose • Mission
These words have been defining the life of Michael Gerber, bestselling author and international small business guru. He created E-Myth Worldwide in 1977 to transform the way that small business owners grow their companies. Now he's created In The Dreaming Room as a place where entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs come to discover how to make their dreams a reality.
Michael's Dream: to inspire people to dream by awakening the entrepreneur within them.
Michael's Vision: to be the authority for helping dreamers everywhere create the small businesses they once could only imagine.
Michael's Purpose: to transform the lives of ordinary people by providing them with the thrill of creation while creating the means to generate their own and others' economic freedom.
Michael's Mission: to create a turnkey system for awakening the entrepreneur within every person who wishes to go into business for themselves, while providing them with the support for doing it.
And he has done it. In Awakening the Entrepreneur Within you are invited into the Dreaming Room, where your own entrepreneurial dreams will come alive and become reality. Michael will help you shape your dream into a viable, economically successful company! As he writes: “It is time to dream. It is time to care about something bigger than you. It is time to imagine something sorely needed in the world—the world you live in—that somebody would pay to have. It is time to look around you and ask yourself, 'What's missing in this picture?'”
If you see something missing in your world, it's time to start dreaming. Let Michael Gerber welcome you to the Dreaming Room.
Table of Contents
Foreword Ken Blanchard xxv
Preface xxvii
Introduction xxix
The Preparation
A Conversation with My Mother Leads to the Dreaming Room 3
The Five Realities of the Entrepreneur 9
The Four Dimensions of the Entrepreneurial Personality 15
The Dreamer and the Dream
The Awakening 23
The Realization 31
The Negative Reaction 37
The Personal Dream 45
The Impersonal Dream 49
The Sudden Shock 57
The Dream Is Born 63
The Thinker and the Vision
Taking the Dream Apart 73
Taking the Dream Apart Again 83
The Vision Begins to Take Form 87
The Vision Continues to Take Form 95
Coming to Grips with the Business Model 103
The Storyteller and the Purpose
Defining Purpose to Capture Your Imagination 121
Pursuing Your Story 135
And the Story Grows from Within 145
The Leader and the Mission
The Leader 155
The Leader Goes to Work 171
The Wisdom of Process 177
Beginning the Strategy; Beginning the Plan 201
The Mission Is Under Way 209
The Mission Reveals Itself 219
We Suddenly Understand 229
The Mission Is Being Realized 237
The Revelation of the Golden Pyramid 243
Epilogue: All Systems Go! 261