The E-Myth Moment: How a Boring Book Built My Breakthrough

By: Stuart Knight (Founder and CEO) | November 5, 2025

I recently read a book that changed the course of my life, and if I’m to be honest, it might have been one of the most boring books I’ve ever read.  As a fellow author, I don’t mean to slag the guy who wrote it, but instead offer that information to make the point that you don’t always have to be enthralled by something to be changed by it.  What this book did for me, is brilliantly open my eyes to something so simple that I’m somewhat embarrassed to say I hadn’t thought of it before.  

The book is called The E-Myth Revisited, and it’s written by Michael Gerber.  It’s meant to help entrepreneurs approach their business in a new way that dramatically increases the chances of them reaching their targets.  It was suggested to me by a fellow dad, while we were both watching our sons chase the ball during soccer practice.  

Throughout this book, in as many ways possible, Gerber continuously smashes one simple concept over the reader's head, leaving no doubt about what he wants you to learn, which is to embrace the power of “systems”.  For an entrepreneur, this means creating systems around all aspects of your business such as marketing, sales, operations, etc.  More specifically, it means creating a painfully detailed, and somewhat mind-numbing, step by step process that you follow meticulously, and then tweak it only to follow that now improved process even further.   

If you adhere to these systems diligently and consistently, Gerber says, “Your success should be predictable and even unsurprising.”  And then, in what was a mic drop moment for me personally, he goes on further to say, “Instead of trying to hire people who are extraordinary, create extraordinary systems that push ordinary people to become extraordinary."  It was one of those sentences that I had to read a few times in order for it to sink in deep enough to become part of my DNA.  

It was a total paradigm shift, and has offered me a new lens by which to see the world!  Although I am not currently in a situation where I am actively hiring, it helped me understand the sheer magnitude of how the proper system can not only transform your business, but it can transform any aspect of your life.  Again, the concept couldn’t be more straightforward and simple to understand, and yet I had still missed it.

Pick something in your life that you want to achieve, establish a detailed system that would produce predictable results, and then follow it obsessively.  And I can’t stress the “obsessive” part enough.  Not obsessive like the way you were with your first love in high school, but instead maniacally excited about changing your life!  With the proper system, that’s exactly what can happen.  

Now, let’s be clear, it would be hard to work in the self development space for three decades, and not have been introduced to the idea of systems before.  Yes, I’m fully aware of setting goals, building action plans, attaching time lines and then doing the work.  However, the approach I was introduced to in this book pushed me to see the difference between a general plan and a foolproof plan.  For most of my life, I have reached my goals guided by general plans, but now that I've recently been looking to take things to the next level, I realized that only a foolproof plan would get me there.

In simple terms, a foolproof plan fills the gaps missed by a general plan.  For example, if your goal was to lose ten pounds, a general plan would be to hit the gym three times a week, without a specific regimen to be followed.  Someone creating a foolproof plan to achieve the same goal would break down those three weekly gym visits into intricate details of what needs to be done, including everything from what to eat, when to go to bed, how long to work out and who to consult.  

Using a business example, a general approach to marketing would be posting videos from time to time on LinkedIn promoting your product or service.  A foolproof plan would entail knowing exactly how you will market your product/service every day of the week, who you are targeting, what your call to action is and how your sales process will surprise and delight potential customers.  And it wouldn’t end there.  With each post, someone following a foolproof plan would scrutinize the results of each advertising effort, and then scientifically refine their messaging in order to continuously improve upon their communication efforts.

General plans are easy to implement, and will produce acceptable results, while foolproof plans are extremely tedious to create and follow, but produce the results you truly desire.  Said another way, foolproof plans force you to be clear on what you must do every day to achieve a goal, while general plans give you a vague sense of what is required that day, week or month. 

Looking back at my life thus far, I am proud of what I have achieved, but can’t help but wonder where I would be today had I followed a foolproof system.  Even with all of the wins, could I have avoided those times where I fell short, lost the deal or missed an opportunity?  And sure, I understand that life is meant to unfold the way it’s supposed to, but it’s hard to not be curious about how my past could have been different when considering this newfound present day truth.

Thankfully, life gives us many chances to level up.  Knowing that, I invite you to join me in doing just that by getting “obsessed” with a system of your choosing.  If you are up for that challenge, take a moment now to think about something you want to achieve.  Once you have identified what it is, I encourage you to take part in one of the most monotonous tasks you will ever engage in, which is to create a foolproof system around making it happen. 

Write it down on a piece of paper, and then develop an insanely intricate step by step process that, if followed, would make fulfilling that goal guaranteed.  Plan out everything from where you need to be, what you need to do every day, who you need to talk to, all the way down to how much time you should spend on the toilet!

Get obsessed with it, so that your system is so detailed that any human being on planet earth following it would achieve the same result.  Then follow that system obsessively, and make this the first day of the rest of your life!  Instead of trying to be extraordinary, create a system so extraordinary that you are forced to achieve extraordinary things!  

Change your approach, and change your life.

Much love,

Stuart

Connect with Stuart on *Youtube, **Instagram and **LinkedIn.*