No. 01
BusinessAugust 10, 2026
When servant leadership becomes subservient leadership
I backed servant leadership in 2010 and I still do. But "How can I help?" needs a boundary, or helping ends up meaning you own someone else's problem.
Topic
emyth
20 essays
No. 02
BusinessAugust 9, 2026
The E-Myth revisited (again): ten lessons for the AI age in one read
Ten articles on Gerber's E-Myth, condensed into one practical read: capability maps, role specifications, governance, and why founders now stay close.
No. 03
BusinessJuly 30, 2026
Intelligence has always been a commodity
AI models are commoditising and human intelligence always was. Being smart was never scarce — the container you build around it is what creates value.
No. 04
BusinessJuly 7, 2026
Triage, not execution — the new shape of knowledge work
Knowledge work is shifting from doing to triage: approve, redirect, audit. Gerber saw this coming, and AI has made it impossible to keep deferring it.
No. 05
BusinessJuly 6, 2026
The cash gap that kills more scaling businesses than a bad idea
Growth spends money months before it pays you back. Five simple habits that keep the cash gap from closing a business that was doing everything right.
No. 06
BusinessJune 19, 2026
When revenue grows, here's what quietly breaks first
Growth doesn't kill small businesses on a bad idea. It exposes operational debt — and it breaks in a predictable order. Here's how to get ahead of it.
No. 07
BusinessJune 16, 2026
I rewrote the E-Myth for the age of AI agents
Gerber taught founders to build a business that runs without them. My new free book is about building one that can think for itself — and stays yours.
No. 08
BusinessJune 15, 2026
The senior hire that doesn't fix anything
When owners feel overwhelmed, a senior hire looks like the fix. Usually it's a process failure in disguise, so diagnose the breakdown before you hire.
No. 09
BusinessJune 14, 2026
The deep work sprint is the wrong discipline
Deep work sprints make founders better at being indispensable. The discipline that matters makes you less essential — and that's the old E-Myth point.
No. 10
BusinessJune 3, 2026
Claude for Small Business removes every barrier but the one that matters
Anthropic's Claude for Small Business is the best AI-employees pitch yet. But it can't define your work for you, and that was always the real barrier.
No. 11
BusinessJune 1, 2026
The founder bottleneck: why being needed is killing your growth
Being needed built the business. Around twenty people, it starts to cap growth. How to audit your week and choose what genuinely needs your judgement.
No. 12
BusinessFebruary 19, 2026
What “working on the business” means now
The E-Myth series finale. Gerber said build the system and step back. When the system thinks for itself, stepping back isn’t freedom — it’s neglect.
No. 13
BusinessFebruary 17, 2026
The E-Myth operating system: what this actually looks like in practice
Capability maps, bounded intelligence, placement decisions — what building an AI-first business operating system looks like over twelve months.
No. 14
BusinessFebruary 13, 2026
Governance, drift, and responsibility in AI-first firms
Systems don't fail dramatically in AI-first firms. They drift quietly until intent and reality diverge. The founder's irreducible role is stewardship.
No. 15
BusinessJanuary 28, 2026
Deciding where judgement belongs
Takeaways from The E-Myth: how to decide where judgement belongs in your business, clarify roles, and build systems that actually work.
No. 16
BusinessJanuary 24, 2026
How to design a role as bounded intelligence
Job descriptions assume humans fill gaps. Bounded intelligence specifications don't. Here's the mechanics of delegation that works.
No. 17
BusinessJanuary 19, 2026
Why franchising is now the wrong metaphor
Procedures scale humans. Policies scale AI systems. The franchise model breaks when consistency comes from intent, not scripts.
No. 18
BusinessJanuary 14, 2026
Org charts are dead; capability maps aren't
Org charts show who reports to whom. Capability maps show where decisions actually happen. In AI-first businesses, only one reveals how work gets done
No. 19
BusinessJanuary 7, 2026
The technician trap in an AI-first world
Gerber's technician, manager, and entrepreneur personas hold up. But they no longer map to people — they map to capability layers in AI-first firms.
No. 20
BusinessDecember 31, 2025
The E-Myth, revisited again: why Michael Gerber was right — and why that's no longer enough
Gerber taught founders to replace themselves with systems and people. AI changes what that means. Here's where the original insight breaks.