The Artisan Craftsman vs. Entrepreneur Paths

Artisan Craftsman: someone who focuses primarily on doing high-quality work.

Entrepreneur: someone who focuses primarily on making money.

In his book The E-Myth, Michael Gerber takes the position that you’re not an entrepreneur if you’re not laser focused on scaling up. I disagree. If you launch your own business, then in my mind you’re an entrepreneur taking a big risk regardless of how big you intend to be. It’s really just a question of how big you want to scale.

My bottom line is that I want to live a happy life that includes having enough money to not worry about money. I’ve chosen the Artisan Craftsman path because I love doing the work I do, and I realized I could make enough money to be financially independent. I also have a member of my High-Performance CEO & Owner Roundtable who decided to scale down rather than up because of similar reasons.

I work with entrepreneurs every day, but focusing primarily on making money isn’t the only path to financial independence and happiness. If you go full on entrepreneur, then how you spend your time changes dramatically. Instead of doing the work of your skilled trade, you spend much more of your time being a leader, manager, and administrator. For some people this is heaven, and for others it’s the opposite of heaven.  

I’m an expert at managing people, and I’ve managed people in small businesses, but I don’t particularly enjoy it. For me it’s a lot more fun to be “The Pro from Dover” who shows up and helps leaders be more financially successful and happier.

In the path I’ve chosen I don’t get to be “the boss of everybody,” so sometimes it’s frustrating not to have the authority to make the positive changes that could be made.  I’m clear, however, that my role is to provide wisdom and serve up opportunities. I can’t control whether the leaders I work with take advantage of those opportunities. 

What does true happiness look like for you? How do you like to spend your time, and how much money do you need to not worry about money?

Don’t be a stranger. (770) 993-1129. tdockery@TheResolveFirm.com