I just read Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. 

It’s basically a tech startup/business book that upends pretty much everything I know is the prevailing wisdom about running tech/online businesses. Pretty much everything I thought was the right way was not the only way, it seems. They offered an alternative path to working and running a business, which I felt was refreshing and inspiring. Loads of good suggestions and alternative approaches to much of what I felt was ‘off’ about building businesses the usual way. Like how you don’t always need to grow at all costs, or work crazy 80-hour weeks, to be successful. Or how you shouldn’t care about your competitors, and why you should in fact, share all your secrets. What I admired about it was that they wrote it based on real life experience running Basecamp, so the authenticity, confidence and street credibility definitely came across in the writing. 

Sharing them here as reference for myself, and for anyone who might find it useful. This is not a book review, just raw notes lifted directly from the book, with some minor interpretations and categorisations of my own. This is part of my reading list for a new season.

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Ignore the real world.

“That would never work in the real world.” The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.

Failure is not a prerequisite for success.

A Harvard study found already-successful entrepreneurs have a success rate of 34% for their future companies, compared to 23% of people who never tried. Entrepreneurs who failed first time have same success rate as those who never. Success is what sets you apart, not failure. Evolution builds on what worked, not past failures.

Plans are just guesses.

It’s ok to think about the future. Just don’t stress or obsess over it. Plans are inconsistent with improvisation. You have the most info when you’re doing something, not before it (when you usually write a plan). It’s ok to wing it. Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship to reality is even scarier.

Why grow?

We don’t ask why Oxford didn’t expand and branch out. Why should business be any different. Small is a great destination in itself. Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Ask “Do you really need X?” You need less than you think.

Workaholism

Workaholics enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more. Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.

Scratch your own itch

When you build a product or service, you make the call on hundreds of tiny decisions each day. If you’re solving someone else’s problem, you’re constantly stabbing in the dark. When you solve your own problem, the light comes on.

No time is no excuse

When you want something bad enough, you make the time—regardless of your other obligations. The truth is most people just don’t want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time.

Draw a line in the sand

Great businesses have a point of view. You need to have backbone. A strong stand is how you attract superfans. They point to you and defend you. You’ll turn some people off. If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)

You need a commitment strategy, not an exit strategy

A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby. Starting something with hopes of selling out is like meeting a divorce lawyer on the morning of your wedding. Your priorities are out of whack if you’re thinking about getting out before you even dive in.

You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole

It’s hard enough to do one thing right. So sacrifice some of your darings for the greater good. Cut your ambition in half.

Start at the epicenter

Start at the epicenter, the parts of the equation you can’t remove. Ignore the details early on—for a while. Nail basics first and worry about specifics later. Details too early and you get lost in things that don’t really matter and will change anyway.

There’s few decisions that you can’t correct later

You don’t have to live with a decision forever. If you make a mistake, you can correct it later. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.

Throw less at a problem

When things aren’t working, the natural inclination is to throw more at the problem. Cut back. Do less. Trim away features.

Focus on what won’t change

Many latch on what’s hot and trendy. That’s fashion instead of substance. Your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now.

Sell your by-products

When you make something, you always make something else. You can’t just make one thing. Everything has a by-product. The experience that came from building a company and building software was the waste from actually doing the work. Software companies don’t usually think about writing books. There’s probably something you haven’t thought about that you could sell.

Decommoditize your product

If you’re successful, people will try to copy what you do. But there’s a great way to protect yourself from copycats: Make you part of your product or service. Inject what’s unique about the way you think into what you sell. Decommoditize your product. Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, support, explain, deliver it. Competitors can never copy the you in your product.

Underdo your competition

Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors, you need to one-up them. But this leads to an expensive arms race. Do less instead. Solve simple problems and leave the nasty problems to competitors. One-downing instead of one-upping, outdoing instead of underdoing. Don’t shy away from the fact that your product does less. Highlight it. Be proud of it. Sell it as aggressively as competitors sell their extensive feature lists.

Don’t care about competitors

Focus on competitors too much and you wind up diluting your own vision, allowing them to set the parameters. You can’t beat someone who’s making the rules. You need to redefine the rules, nit just build something better. It’s not a win-or-lose battle. Their profits and costs are theirs. Yours are yours.

Say no by default

You rarely regret saying no. But you often winds up regretting saying yes. People avoid saying no because confrontation makes them uncomfortable. Making a few vocal customers happy isn’t worth it if it ruins the product for everyone else. Don’t be a jerk about saying no, though. Just be honest. If you’re not willing to yield to a customer request, be polite and explain why. People are surprisingly understanding when you take time to explain your point of view. You may even win them over to your way of thinking. If not, recommend a competitor. It’s better to have people be happy using someone else’s product than disgruntled using yours. Your goal is to make sure your product stays right for you. You’re the one who has to believe in it most. That way, you can say, “I think you’ll love it because I love it.”

Let your customers outgrow you

We’d rather our customers grow out of our products eventually than never be able to grow into them in the first place. Adding power-user features to satisfy some can intimidate those who aren’t on board yet. Scaring away new customers is worse than losing old customers. You can’t be everything to everyone. Companies need to be true to a type of customer than a specific individual customer with changing needs.

Don’t write it down

There’s no need for a spreadsheet, database for what customers want. The requests that really matter are the ones you’ll hear over and over. Your customers will be your memory. They’ll keep reminding you.

Out-teach your competition

Big companies can afford big marketing, sponsorship and advertising budgets; you can’t. But you can afford to teach, which they won’t because they are obsessed with secrecy. Teaching is your chance to outmaneuver them. Emulate famous chefs. They share everything they know. What are your recipes? Or give people a backstage pass to how your business works. People are curious how things are made, and they’ll start to appreciate you as human beings instead of a faceless company.

Nobody likes plastic flowers

Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. There’s beauty to imperfection, based on the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi. You might not seem as professional, but you will seem a lot more genuine.

Niche media over mass media

Forget about Wall Street Journal. Stories that start on the fringe can go mainstream quickly. Niche media are tastemakers.

Hire great writers

If you’re trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer. It doesn’t matter if that person is a marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever; their writing skills will pay off. That’s because being a good writer is about more than writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. Writing is making a comeback all over our society. Look at how much people email and text now rather than talk on the phone. Writing is today’s currency for good ideas.

Build a rockstar environment

Skip the rock stars. We’re all capable of bad, average, and great work. The environment has a lot more to do with great work than most people realize. Rockstar environments develop out of respect, trust, autonomy and responsibility, privacy, workspace and tools. If you treat people like children, you get children’s work. ASAP is poison. Reserve your emergency language for true emergencies.