Michael Gerber Quotations

Many residents have grown more cynical about government, ... Sure, I want my constituents to feel good about me as their legislator, but we have to do something to restore the public's faith in government.

My experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren't so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.

I am upset with the effect that both of these issues have had on the public,

I was uncomfortable with the timing, ... We were getting millions less from the federal government for Medicaid and having to search for funds to restore some of those cuts and I just did not think it was right to put a pay raise on the board that would cost tens of millions of dollars.

Most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working IN your business rather than ON your business.

A pay increase of 5 percent is more than justified. It would compensate for losses we've had in the past and I'd like to be able to buy the everyday things I've put off for years, like a new TV.

The E Myth. Most entrepreneurs are merely technicians with an entrepreneurial seizure. Most entrepreneurs fail because you are working IN your business rather than ON your business.

A true business opportunity is the on that an entrepreneur invents to grow him or herself. Not to work in, but to work on.

Systems run the business and people run the systems.

If everybody's doing everything, then who's accountable for anything?

The problem with most failing businesses is not that their owners don?t know enough about finance, marketing, management, and operations - they don?t, but those things are easy enough to learn - but that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know. My experience has shown me that the people who are exceptionally good in business aren?t so because of what they know but because of their insatiable need to know more.

Building a World Class Company is a commitment to the integration of passion, purpose, and practice.

The greatest business people I've met are determined to get it right no matter what the cost.

A martial arts practice hall, a dojo, is a place you go to practice being the best you can be. But the true combat in a dojo is not between one person and another as most people believe it to be. The true combat in a martial arts practice hall is between the people within ourselves.

The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities.

If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business—you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!

Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each and every day. They go to work on their lives, not just in their lives.

What is your Primary Aim? Where is the script to make your dreams come true?

I believe the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next.

What is the first step to take and how do you measure your progress? How far have you gone and how close are you to getting to your goals?

With no clear picture of how you wish your life to be, how on earth are you going to live it?

Most entrepreneurs fail because they are working IN their business rather than ON their business.

Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Systems permit ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results predictably.

Organize around business functions, not people. Build systems within each business function. Let systems run the business and people run the systems. People come and go but the systems remain constant.

If your business requires your presence you don't have a business, you have a job.

The true start-up of a business is what happens before you start-up.

You have to see the pattern, understand the order and experience the vision.

The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.