MMM Conversation
by Shane on 16/11/05 at 10:25 am
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Well the first MMM Conversation got off to a great start! The “Conversation” that was started was largely based on observations made in the first few chapters of E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber. Andrew did an excellent job in facilitating the process. We are working on posting an audio of the conversation on this site. Here is an excerpt for now…WARNING! It may sound familiar!:
Let’s imagine a guy called Mark. Mark is a programmer at a decent sized software company. He’s really good at what he does, but he’s doing it for someone else. He thinks to himself, “Why am I doing this? Why am I making my boss rich? I know as much about this business as he does. If it weren’t for me there wouldn’t be a business. In fact, any dummy can run a business. My boss is one of them!” The thought of cutting the chord consumes Mark. He can’t stop thinking about it, planning for it, doodling a logo for his new company. Then one Friday at the end of the month he gets his pay cheque, thinks about how hard he’s worked that month, and decides that he’s had enough. He hands in his resignation and heads off to start his own business. Has anyone here had a similar experience to this? Definition: A technician is someone who does the actual work in a business. Most of the time, new businesses are started by technicians heading out on their own. A hairdresser starts a beauty salon, a musician opens a music store, an engineer starts a manufacturing business. The technician wants a place to go to work, to be free to do what he wants, free from the constraints of working for The Boss. In the beginning the freedom is exhilarating. There is a lot of work, but Mark is working for himself, so there is no price too high. He under-charges and over-delivers in order to gain new customers. All of Mark’s thoughts, all of his feelings are consumed with work. He does it well, and the customers are happy. And he’s loving it! The assumption that all technicians who go into business for themselves make is: “If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand the business that does the technical work.” Suddenly the technician is doing one job that he knows (the technical work), but also 10 other jobs that he doesn’t know anything about. Suddenly the Entrepreneurial Dream becomes the technician’s nightmare. Mark, the programmer-turned-business owner, finds himself: - Fighting with the bank about unexpected charges - Trying to decide whether ADSL is worth the exorbitant cost, or if he should stick to dial-up - Chasing up on the client who stills owes him payment for a job he completed 3 months ago - Trying to register for PAYE, SDL, UIF, CIPRA, FICA, SETA, VAT, RSC Levies, Provisional Tax, Income Tax, Captial Gains Tax, The Access to Information Act, and SARS e-filing, because the accountant who could do that all for him wants to charge R800 an hour. So the one thing that Mark enjoys doing, programming, gets relegated to 2am in the morning. Programming becomes a chore, something to get through to make time for everything else. Soon there are too many balls in the air for Mark to be able to juggle. Too much work, too many customers demanding access to Mark, and too many complaints. And the master juggler starts dropping balls. Mark works harder, stresses out, and finally despairs that nothing is going to change!
The next MMM Conversation, 14 Dec 2005
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
