Michael E. Gerber argues most people chase money and success for the wrong reasons because they never ask deeper questions about who they are and why they're here. He says his own readers buy his business books seeking wealth and free time rather than authentic purpose, and that confronting these fundamental questions can shift toward a more meaningful life.
Chapters
What questions should we ask you that we're not asking? Why am I here? We think we know the answer to that question, to do this. Why am I here? Now that sounds terribly abstract, but in reality, we don't know why we're here. We don't even know what here is. We have no understanding, or true understanding, of what a human being is. And if we have no true understanding of what a human being really is— really, I don't mean like sort of, I don't mean like they teach us in stupid school, I don't mean like what coaches tell us and consultants tell us and personal growth people tell us. And I don't mean all that crap. I mean, really. So why am I here? You know that old question, who am I? And the minute you begin to ask questions, everybody shuts off. Or it gets very, very quiet in the room. And it gets very, very quiet in the room, Evan, because there's an innate understanding that I don't know who I am or why I'm here. And because I don't know who I am and why I'm here, I have all of these other seeming problems. Of being dissatisfied with how I am here. And then I become distracted by a whole subset of want, want, want, want, want, want, which takes me away from the question, who am I? Why am I here? To how can I get what I want? How can I get what I want? How can I get what I want? And in fact, All of the millions of buyers of my books, I would suggest, bought my books to get what they want. Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. My business doesn't work. I want my business to work so I can be happier, so I can have more money, so I can have more free time, so I can get— so I can get— you follow me? All for the wrong reason. So everybody does everything for the wrong reason. Well, that leads me to ask the question, and so what's the right reason? So you understand, if we got involved in these kinds of questions, something could happen that can't happen when people ask all the questions that they ask. So when my wife says to me, Luz Delia says to me, Michael, you're always asking, answering a question nobody asked. I'm saying, yeah, but I'm answering the question he should have asked. Because underlying the question he did ask is this question he didn't ask because he didn't know to ask it, which then suggests he's going to discover something deeper, more meaningful, more genuine, more authentic as he pursues the questions and the answers and the process I'm leading him to. And that's not my narcissism or my ego saying that. It's just freaking true.
