I just finished reading my new favorite book: Rework, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. Oh, my God! This book is amazing! Finally I find a book from people who share my business philosophy!
These are some of the lessons from the book:
- You don’t need to work 80 hours a week to be successful; you need to work smart.
- Don’t accept rules that don’t make sense to you. Most of the corporate world doesn’t run effectively.
- Don’t accept failure. Failure is not a prerequisite of success.
- Long-term planning is overrated. Nobody knows what’s going to happen in five years.
- You shouldn’t grow your company for the sake of growing. Being small and great is OK.
- Being a workaholic isn’t a good thing. Working long hours means you don’t have effective systems in place.
- Do what you love and make a difference in the world. Money is nice, but being happy is more important.
- Build products that you would use but nobody is selling at the moment.
- Ideas are worth nothing; what you do with them is what counts.
- Don’t be all things to all people. Do something very well and stick to it. Your solution won’t please everybody, but it’ll make a few people very happy.
- Don’t start a business thinking about your exit strategy. Have fun, make money and grow your company. Building something thinking how to get out of it as fast as possible is kind of sad.
- You don’t need all the things you need to start a business.
- Less is more. Offer less services, less features, less payment methods and have less complications, meetings and overhead. Keep it simple and be the best in the world at what you do.
- Having limited resources to grow a business is a good thing because it makes you more effective.
- Focus on the top three priorities and don’t waste your time with small details.
- Make a decision. If it’s not the right one, you can correct it later, but don’t procrastinate.
- Launch something now and make it better later. If you’re waiting for your website or product to be perfect before launching it, you’re wasting valuable time.
- Interruption is the enemy of productivity.
- Meetings are toxic.
- Good enough is good enough. Not everything you do has to be a masterpiece. Most times, you need to get something done and move on.
- Sleeping well is as important as working hard.
- Make smaller to-do lists.
- Teaching what you know is a great way to build an audience, a reputation and grow your business.
- Everything you do is marketing. Your job doesn’t end when your customer buys your product.
- Don’t be fooled by “getting rich overnight” illusions.
- Do it yourself before hiring someone to do it for you.
- Hiring late is a lot better than hiring early. Wait until it hurts before hiring.
- Don’t hire great people just because they’re great; hire them only if you really need them.
- Test-drive employees before hiring them. Don’t rely on resumes, GPA scores or years of experience in the industry.
- Hire great writers; they’re also great communicators.
- The best are everywhere; don’t be afraid of hiring people who live in a different city or country.
- When something bad happens, talk about it or someone else will. Don’t try to hide bad news.
- Lose the corporate tone and talk like a real human being. Your customers will appreciate it.
- Give your employees freedom to get work done any way that works for them and send them home at five.
Thank you, Jason and David, for one of the best books I’ve read in my life.