209 - TZL - John Wheaton

hearing? What are you experiencing and you have the ability then to make decisions. Again, control what we can control and manage what we can manage.

Randy Wilburn [28:12] I think that's the way you have to look at it. You really do. I'm curious. You mentioned something earlier, the entrepreneurial operator's system, or operating system. Where did you get that and can you just talk a little bit about what that is for anybody that's listening that may not be familiar with that?

John Wheaton [28:31] Yes, it’s called The Entrepreneurial Operating System, or EOS worldwide; it's a business operating system. So there are a variety of business operating systems. There's a franchise prototype operating system that was the E Myth book, an E Myth revisited was big on that and we set up that way earlier on. But we hit that ceiling at 5 million in revenue, and we just couldn't break through it without playing hero ball and me exhausting myself. And so we retracted some, but the retraction was necessary. I really think EOS is a way for us to go. There are a couple of clients that use it. There's another industry competitor, who's a respected collaborator that uses it, and some other engineering firms. And basically, EOS is best for private firms between 15 and 250. There's a book called, Traction that you could look up and there's also a book called Rocket Fuel, and Rocket Fuel was the book I first read. It was introduced to me by my business and personal coach, Chuck Misha, who said, this EOS system is built on kind of a dynamic duo, kind of a two-person. It's best for private companies. It's really built on a visionary integrator relationship with a leadership team. And I think what it would do is it would help protect your firm from your visionary ideas and constant tinkering and changing by filtering your vision through an integrator, who's like a CEO type, your partner, and put in a leadership team that can execute the mission of the business and frees you to explore new paths. We're still working through it. It was expensive. It takes time. It's difficult. It requires a lot of candor. Some people get left behind. If I go to the New England Patriots, I'm going to bolt into the Bill Belichick operating system. If I go to the San Francisco 49, I'm probably going to bolt into the Bill Walsh operating system. If you come to Wheaton Sprague you're going to bolt into the Entrepreneurial Operating System as defined by others. It basically says, if you plug into this, you define it this way, you're going to experience success so that's what we're working through.

Randy Wilburn [30:38] I like that. I'm a huge Michael Gerber fan with E Myth. But all that you're describing and talking about E Myth and EOS, these are just systems and if you put proper systems in place and follow them properly, and adhere to whatever the tenets are of those

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