Michael E. Gerber’s small business classic has recently been updated as The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, with Kindle and Audiobook versions available as well.

Gerber’s book is one of the few that I consider “must-reads” for new small business owners and executives, either extant or aspiring. Originally written in the 1980s, the titular “E” doesn’t stand for electronic, as we’ve come to expect (as in email, e-commerce, etc.); it stands for “Entrepreneur Myth,” which is the often disastrous assumption that people who are experts regarding the technical details of a product or service will also be expert at running that sort of business.

One of the book’s most important lessons is that an entrepreneur can’t be content to simply do the work of their business; they also have to build a system for their business. A business can still survive if these internal systems are neglected, but it’s a lot less likely to thrive. The E-Myth Revisited explains how to build a company in a sustainable way while avoiding the pitfall of the Entrepreneur Myth.