Story Time
What happened?
If you’re familiar with the The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber, you may have spotted the problem.
(This part gets a bit long, stay with me. If you don’t read anything else on our site, please understand this concept. Hopefully it’ll bring tremendous value to you.)
In the book Mr. Gerber summarizes that most new businesses are started not by your prototypical “entrepreneur" but instead by people who were employees working for someone else. This employee was skillful at their job and decides to start their own business doing that same thing. The problem, the author concludes, is this false assumption that being skillful at some particular thing will translate into them being skillful at running a business for that particular thing.
In other words, just because you’re a great cook does not automatically mean you can run a great restaurant. The skills required for each task are not exactly the same.
He goes on to explain most business that end up failing are run by a “technician." The technician is someone who is an expert in their craft. They love utilizing their specific skillset, whether it be it fixing engines, writing code, making music, etc. The technician loves doing the work but he argues, many times to the detriment of the big picture.
He describes the technician not as a separate type of person, but instead as a role every working person has. The other two “roles” are The Entrepreneur and The Manager. In short, the Entrepreneur is the dreamer, the visionary, the one with no time for details but the one who moves the business forward. The Manager is the responsible, day-to-day operator. They make sure the bills are paid, paperwork submitted on time and that the Technician and Entrepreneur don’t kill each other.
Again, the three roles are part of us all. The author suggest all three roles are important to the success of any business and the neglect of any one of the three roles is a recipe for failure.
What the heck does this business talk have to do with me/us in the nonprofit field?!?
It took me a while to fully understand the “technician” side of us committed to the nonprofit sector. After all, some NPOs are committed to helping abused women, others to feeding the poor and yet others want to provide puppies for kids in hospitals. You get the point, it appears our “skillset” is random and cannot be easily defined as say, “writing” or “playing the piano.”
So what is your “technical ability?” It is frankly, your ability to care. Your ability to care, to really, really care, should not be taken lightly, dismissed or even diminished. It is because of this “skill" that you will succeed in the nonprofit world. You care profusely. Your ability to be selfless, to prioritize others, to demonstrate extra-ordinary empathy IS your “skill.”
But just like knowing how to fix a bike is a skill, passionately caring does not automatically mean you or your organization will succeed. Unfortunately, caring is many times just not enough.
Our Entire Company’s Purpose
Our purpose is simple, help you realize all the potential of your skills by supporting you with the entrepreneurial and management tool set.