Rework
Jason Fried
Ignore the real world
Ignore the real world “That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea. This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Don’t believe them. That world may be real for them, but it doesn’t mean you have to live in it. We know because our company fails the real-world test in all kinds of ways. In the real world, you can’t have more than a dozen employees spread out in eight different cities on two continents. In the real world, you can’t attract millions of customers without any salespeople or advertising. In the real world, you can’t reveal your formula for success to the rest of the world. But we’ve done all those things and prospered.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Learning from mistakes is overrated
Learning from mistakes is overrated In the business world, failure has become an expected rite of passage
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
With so much failure in the air, you can’t help but breathe it in. Don’t inhale. Don’t get fooled by the stats. Other people’s failures are just that: other people’s failures.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Another common misconception: You need to learn from your mistakes. What do you really learn from mistakes? You might learn what not to do again, but how valuable is that? You still don’t know what you should do next. Contrast that with learning from your successes. Success gives you real ammunition. When something succeeds, you know what worked–and you can do it again. And the next time, you’ll probably do it even better. Failure is not a prerequisite for success
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
entrepreneurs are far more likely to succeed again (the success rate for their future companies is 34 percent). But entrepreneurs whose companies failed the first time had almost the same follow-on success rate as people starting a company for the first time: just 23 percent. People who failed before have the same amount of success as people who have never tried at all. * Success is the experience that actually counts.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Planning is guessing
Planning is guessing Unless you’re a fortune-teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy. There are just too many factors that are out of your hands: market conditions, competitors, customers, the economy, etc. Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you can’t actually control.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
When you turn guesses into plans, you enter a danger zone. Plans let the past drive the future. They put blinders on you. “This is where we’re going because, well, that’s where we said we were going.” And that’s the problem: Plans are inconsistent with improvisation. And you have to be able to improvise. You have to be able to pick up opportunities that come along. Sometimes you need to say, “We’re going in a new direction because that’s what makes sense today .”
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Give up on the guesswork. Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out the next most important thing and do that. Make decisions right before you do something, not far in advance. It’s OK to wing it. Just get on the plane and go. You can pick up a nicer shirt, shaving cream, and a toothbrush once you get there. Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Why grow?
Do we look at Harvard or Oxford and say, “If they’d only expand and branch out and hire thousands more professors and go global and open other campuses all over the world … then they’d be great schools.” Of course not. That’s not how we measure the value of these institutions. So why is it the way we measure businesses?
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Maybe the right size for your company is five people. Maybe it’s forty. Maybe it’s two hundred. Or maybe it’s just you and a laptop. Don’t make assumptions about how big you should be ahead of time. Grow slow and see what feels right–premature hiring is the death of many companies. And avoid huge growth spurts too–they can cause you to skip right over your appropriate size
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Small is not just a stepping-stone. Small is a great destination in itself. Have you ever noticed that while small businesses wish they were bigger, big businesses dream about being more agile and flexible? And remember, once you get big, it’s really hard to shrink without firing people, damaging morale, and changing the entire way you do business. Ramping up doesn’t have to be your goal. And we’re not talking just about the number of employees you have either. It’s also true for expenses, rent, IT infrastructure, furniture, etc. These things don’t just happen to you. You decide whether or not to take them on. And if you do take them on, you’ll be taking on new headaches, too. Lock in lots of expenses and you force yourself into building a complex businesss–one that’s a lot more difficult and stressful to run. Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small, should be proud.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Workaholism
Workaholism Our culture celebrates the idea of the workaholic. We hear about people burning the midnight oil. They pull all-nighters and sleep at the office. It’s considered a badge of honor to kill yourself over a project. No amount of work is too much work.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid. Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more. Workaholics wind up creating more problems than they solve. First off, working like that just isn’t sustainable over time. When the burnout crash comes–and it will–it’ll hit that much harder
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Workaholics miss the point, too. They try to fix problems by throwing sheer hours at them. They try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in inelegant solutions.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
They even create crises. They don’t look for ways to be more efficient because they actually like working overtime. They enjoy feeling like heroes. They create problems (often unwittingly) just so they can get off on working more.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Workaholics make the people who don’t stay late feel inadequate for “merely” working reasonable hours. That leads to guilt and poor morale all around. Plus, it leads to an ass-in-seat mentality–people stay late out of obligation, even if they aren’t really being productive.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
If all you do is work, you’re unlikely to have sound judgments. Your values and decision making wind up skewed. You stop being able to decide what’s worth extra effort and what’s not. And you wind up just plain tired. No one makes sharp decisions when tired.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Enough with “entrepreneurs”
Enough with “entrepreneurs” Let’s retire the term entrepreneur . It’s outdated and loaded with baggage. It smells like a members-only club. Everyone should be encouraged to start his own business, not just some rare breed that self-identifies as entrepreneurs.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
So let’s replace the fancy-sounding word with something a bit more down-to-earth. Instead of entrepreneurs, let’s just call them starters. Anyone who creates a new business is a starter. You don’t need an MBA, a certificate, a fancy suit, a briefcase, or an above-average tolerance for risk. You just need an idea, a touch of confidence, and a push to get started.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Make a dent in the universe
To do great work, you need to feel that you’re making a difference. That you’re putting a meaningful dent in the universe. That you’re part of something important. This doesn’t mean you need to find the cure for cancer. It’s just that your efforts need to feel valuable. You want your customers to say, “This makes my life better.” You want to feel that if you stopped doing what you do, people would notice.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
You should feel an urgency about this too. You don’t have forever. This is your life’s work. Do you want to build just another me-too product or do you want to shake things up? What you do is your legacy. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see. And don’t think it takes a huge team to make that difference either.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
If you’re going to do something, do something that matters. These little guys came out of nowhere and destroyed old models that had been around for decades. You can do the same in your industry.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Scratch your own itch
Scratch your own itch The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use. That lets you design what you know–and you’ll figure out immediately whether or not what you’re making is any good.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
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. You know exactly what the right answer is.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Best of all, this “solve your own problem” approach lets you fall in love with what you’re making. You know the problem and the value of its solution intimately. There’s no substitute for that. After all, you’ll (hopefully) be working on this for years to come. Maybe even the rest of your life. It better be something you really care about.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Start making something
Ideas are cheap and plentiful. The original pitch idea is such a small part of a business that it’s almost negligible. The real question is how well you execute.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
No time is no excuse
No time is no excuse The most common excuse people give: “There’s not enough time.” They claim they’d love to start a company, learn an instrument, market an invention, write a book, or whatever, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
There’s always enough time if you spend it right. And don’t think you have to quit your day job, either. Hang onto it and start work on your project at night.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
We’re not talking about all-nighters or sixteen-hour days–we’re talking about squeezing out a few extra hours a week. That’s enough time to get something going. Once you do that, you’ll learn whether your excitement and interest is real or just a passing phase. If it doesn’t pan out, you just keep going to work every day like you’ve been doing all along. You didn’t risk or lose anything, other than a bit of time, so it’s no big deal.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
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. Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses. It’s entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come true.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Besides, the perfect time never arrives. You’re always too young or old or busy or broke or something else. If you constantly fret about timing things perfectly, they’ll never happen
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Draw a line in the sand
As you get going, keep in mind why you’re doing what you’re doing. Great businesses have a point of view, not just a product or service. You have to believe in something. You need to have a backbone. You need to know what you’re willing to fight for. And then you need to show the world.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
A strong stand is how you attract superfans. They point to you and defend you. And they spread the word further, wider, and more passionately than any advertising could.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Strong opinions aren’t free. You’ll turn some people off. They’ll accuse you of being arrogant and aloof. That’s life. For everyone who loves you, there will be others who hate you. If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough. (And you’re probably boring, too.)
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Mission statement impossible
Mission statement impossible There’s a world of difference between truly standing for something and having a mission statement that says you stand for something. You know, those “providing the best service” signs that are created just to be posted on a wall. The ones that sound phony and disconnected from reality.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Outside money is Plan Z
In fact, no matter what kind of business you’re starting, take on as little outside cash as you can. Spending other people’s money may sound great, but there’s a noose attached. Here’s why:
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
You give up control . When you turn to outsiders for funding, you have to answer to them too. That’s fine at first, when everyone agrees. But what happens down the road? Are you starting your own business to take orders from someone else? Raise money and that’s what you’ll wind up doing. “Cashing out” begins to trump building a quality business . Investors want their money back–and quickly (usually three to five years). Long-term sustainability goes out the window when those involved only want to cash out as soon as they can. Spending other people’s money is addictive . There’s nothing easier than spending other people’s money. But then you run out and need to go back for more. And every time you go back, they take more of your company. It’s usually a bad deal . When you’re just beginning, you have no leverage. That’s a terrible time to enter into any financial transaction. Customers move down the totem pole . You wind up building what investors want instead of what customers want. Raising money is incredibly distracting . Seeking funding is difficult and draining. It takes months of pitch meetings, legal maneuvering, contracts, etc. That’s an enormous distraction when you should really be focused on building something great.
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
It’s just not worth it. We hear over and over from business owners who have gone down this road and regret it. They usually give a variation on the investment-hangover story: First, you get that quick investment buzz. But then you start having meetings with your investors and/or board of directors, and you’re like, “Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?” Now someone else is calling the shots. Before you stick your head in that noose, look for another way
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Date: September 17, 2016 |
Start a business, not a startup
The truth is every business, new or old, is governed by the same set of market forces and economic rules. Revenue in, expenses out. Turn a profit or wind up gone. Startups try to ignore this reality. They are run by people trying to postpone the inevitable, i.e., that moment when their business has to grow up, turn a profit, and be a real, sustainable business
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
Anyone who takes a “we’ll figure out how to profit in the future” attitude to business is being ridiculous. That’s like building a rocket ship but starting off by saying, “Let’s pretend gravity doesn’t exist.” A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby .
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
So don’t use the idea of a startup as a crutch. Instead, start an actual business. Actual businesses have to deal with actual things like bills and payroll. Actual businesses worry about profit from day one.
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
Building to flip is building to flop
You need a commitment strategy, not an exit strategy. You should be thinking about how to make your project grow and succeed, not how you’re going to jump ship. If your whole strategy is based on leaving, chances are you won’t get far in the first place.
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
You see so many aspiring businesspeople pinning their hopes on selling out. But the odds of getting acquired are so tiny. There’s only a slim chance that some big suitor will come along and make it all worthwhile
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
you often hear about business owners who sell out, retire for six months, and then get back in the game. They miss the thing they gave away. And usually, they’re back with a business that isn’t nearly as good as their first. Don’t be that guy. If you do manage to get a good thing going, keep it going. Good things don’t come around that often. Don’t let your business be the one that got away.
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
Less mass
Embrace the idea of having less mass. Right now, you’re the smallest, the leanest, and the fastest you’ll ever be. From here on out, you’ll start accumulating mass. And the more massive an object, the more energy required to change its direction
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
Mass is increased by … Long-term contracts Excess staff Permanent decisions Meetings Thick process Inventory (physical or mental) Hardware, software, and technology lock-ins Long-term road maps Office politics Avoid these things whenever you can. That way, you’ll be able to change direction easily. The more expensive it is to make a change, the less likely you are to make it.
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
Embrace constraints
Embrace constraints “I don’t have enough time/money/people/experience.” Stop whining. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.
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Date: September 19, 2016 |
When we were building Basecamp, we had plenty of limitations. We had a design firm to run with existing client work, a seven-hour time difference between principals (David was doing the programming in Denmark, the rest of us were in the States), a small team, and no outside funding. These constraints forced us to keep the product simple. These days, we have more resources and people, but we still force constraints. We make sure to have only one or two people working on a product at a time. And we always keep features to a minimum. Boxing ourselves in this way prevents us from creating bloated products. So before you sing the “not enough” blues, see how far you can get with what you have
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Build half a product, not a half-assed product
Build half a product, not a half-assed product You can turn a bunch of great ideas into a crappy product real fast by trying to do them all at once. You just can’t do everything you want to do and do it well. You have limited time, resources, ability, and focus. It’s hard enough to do one thing right. Trying to do ten things well at the same time? Forget about it.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
So sacrifice some of your darlings for the greater good. Cut your ambition in half. You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole. Most of your great ideas won’t seem all that great once you get some perspective, anyway. And if they truly are that fantastic, you can always do them later.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Lots of things get better as they get shorter. Directors cut good scenes to make a great movie. Musicians drop good tracks to make a great album. Writers eliminate good pages to make a great book. We cut this book in half between the next-to-last and final drafts. From 57,000 words to about 27,000 words. Trust us, it’s better for it. So start chopping. Getting to great starts by cutting out stuff that’s merely good.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Start at the epicenter
Start at the epicenter
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
When you start anything new, there are forces pulling you in a variety of directions. There’s the stuff you could do, the stuff you want to do, and the stuff you have to do. The stuff you have to do is where you should begin. Start at the epicenter.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
The way to find the epicenter is to ask yourself this question: “If I took this away, would what I’m selling still exist?” A hot dog stand isn’t a hot dog stand without the hot dogs. You can take away the onions, the relish, the mustard, etc. Some people may not like your toppings-less dogs, but you’d still have a hot dog stand. But you simply cannot have a hot dog stand without any hot dogs.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
So figure out your epicenter. Which part of your equation can’t be removed? If you can continue to get by without this thing or that thing, then those things aren’t the epicenter. When you find it, you’ll know. Then focus all your energy on making it the best it can be. Everything else you do depends on that foundation
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Ignore the details early on
Ignore the details early on
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
You need to approach your idea the same way. Details make the difference. But getting infatuated with details too early leads to disagreement, meetings, and delays. You get lost in things that don’t really matter. You waste time on decisions that are going to change anyway. So ignore the details–for a while. Nail the basics first and worry about the specifics later.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
When we start designing something, we sketch out ideas with a big, thick Sharpie marker, instead of a ballpoint pen. Why? Pen points are too fine. They’re too high-resolution. They encourage you to worry about things that you shouldn’t worry about yet, like perfecting the shading or whether to use a dotted or dashed line. You end up focusing on things that should still be out of focus. A Sharpie makes it impossible to drill down that deep. You can only draw shapes, lines, and boxes. That’s good. The big picture is all you should be worrying about in the beginning
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Walt Stanchfield, famed drawing instructor for Walt Disney Studios, used to encourage animators to “forget the detail” at first. The reason: Detail just doesn’t buy you anything in the early stages. * Besides, you often can’t recognize the details that matter most until after you start building. That’s when you see what needs more attention. You feel what’s missing. And that’s when you need to pay attention, not sooner.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
Making the call is making progress
Making the call is making progress When you put off decisions, they pile up. And piles end up ignored, dealt with in haste, or thrown out. As a result, the individual problems in those piles stay unresolved. Whenever you can, swap “Let’s think about it” for “Let’s decide on it.” Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
You want to get into the rhythm of making choices. When you get in that flow of making decision after decision, you build momentum and boost morale. Decisions are progress. Each one you make is a brick in your foundation. You can’t build on top of “We’ll decide later,” but you can build on top of “Done.”
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Date: September 20, 2016 |
It doesn’t matter how much you plan, you’ll still get some stuff wrong anyway. Don’t make things worse by overanalyzing and delaying before you even get going.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Long projects zap morale. The longer it takes to develop, the less likely it is to launch. Make the call, make progress, and get something out now–while you’ve got the motivation and momentum to do so.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Be a curator
It’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what’s truly essential. Pare things down until you’re left with only the most important stuff. Then do it again. You can always add stuff back in later if you need to.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
The owner actually tried the oil and chooses to carry it based on its taste. It’s not about packaging, marketing, or price. It’s about quality. He tried it and knew his store had to carry it. That’s the approach you should take too.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Throw less at the problem
When things aren’t working, the natural inclination is to throw more at the problem. More people, time, and money. All that ends up doing is making the problem bigger. The right way to go is the opposite direction: Cut back. So do less. Your project won’t suffer nearly as much as you fear. In fact, there’s a good chance it’ll end up even better. You’ll be forced to make tough calls and sort out what truly matters. If you start pushing back deadlines and increasing your budget, you’ll never stop.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Focus on what won’t change
Focus on what won’t change
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
A lot of companies focus on the next big thing. They latch on to what’s hot and new. They follow the latest trends and technology. That’s a fool’s path. You start focusing on fashion instead of substance. You start paying attention to things that are constantly changing instead of things that last.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
The core of your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should invest in
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Amazon.com focuses on fast (or free) shipping, great selection, friendly return policies, and affordable prices. These things will always be in high demand. Japanese automakers also focus on core principles that don’t change: reliability, affordability, and practicality. People wanted those things thirty years ago, they want them today, and they’ll want them thirty years from now. For 37signals, things like speed, simplicity, ease of use, and clarity are our focus. Those are timeless desires. People aren’t going to wake up in ten years and say, “Man, I wish software was harder to use.” They won’t say, “I wish this application was slower.”
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Remember, fashion fades away. When you focus on permanent features, you’re in bed with things that never go out of style.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Tone is in your fingers
It’s tempting for people to obsess over tools instead of what they’re going to do with those tools. You know the type: Designers who use an avalanche of funky typefaces and fancy Photoshop filters but don’t have anything to say. Amateur photographers who want to debate film versus digital endlessly instead of focusing on what actually makes a photograph great.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Use whatever you’ve got already or can afford cheaply. Then go. It’s not the gear that matters. It’s playing what you’ve got as well as you can. Your tone is in your fingers
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Sell your by-products
Sell your by-products When you make something, you always make something else. You can’t make just one thing. Everything has a by-product. Observant and creative business minds spot these by-products and see opportunities.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Our last book, Getting Real , was a by-product. We wrote that book without even knowing it. The experience that came from building a company and building software was the waste from actually doing the work. We swept up that knowledge first into blog posts, then into a workshop series, then into a .pdf, and then into a paperback. That by-product has made 37signals more than $1 million directly and probably more than another $1 million indirectly. The book you’re reading right now is a by-product too.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Software companies don’t usually think about writing books. Bands don’t usually think about filming the recording process. Car manufacturers don’t usually think about selling charcoal. There’s probably something you haven’t thought about that you could sell too.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Launch now
Launch now
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
When is your product or service finished? When should you put it out on the market? When is it safe to let people have it? Probably a lot sooner than you’re comfortable with. Once your product does what it needs to do, get it out there.
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Date: September 21, 2016 |
Put off anything you don’t need for launch. Build the necessities now, worry about the luxuries later. If you really think about it, there’s a whole lot you don’t need on day one.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Don’t mistake this approach for skimping on quality, either. You still want to make something great. This approach just recognizes that the best way to get there is through iterations. Stop imagining what’s going to work. Find out for real.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Illusions of agreement
The problem with abstractions (like reports and documents) is that they create illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words, but in their heads, they’re imagining a hundred different things. That’s why you want to get to something real right away. That’s when you get true understanding. It’s like when we read about characters in a book–we each picture them differently in our heads. But when we actually see people, we all know exactly what they look like.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Reasons to quit
It’s easy to put your head down and just work on what you think needs to be done. It’s a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why. Here are some important questions to ask yourself to ensure you’re doing work that matters:
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Why are you doing this? Ever find yourself working on something without knowing exactly why? Someone just told you to do it. It’s pretty common, actually. That’s why it’s important to ask why you’reworking on____.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
What problem are you solving? What’s the problem? Are customers confused? Are you confused? Is something not clear enough? Was something not possible before that should be possible now? Sometimes when you ask these questions, you’ll find you’re solving an imaginary problem. That’s when it’s time to stop and reevaluate what the hell you’re doing.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Is this actually useful? Are you making something useful or just making something? It’s easy to confuse enthusiasm with usefulness. Sometimes it’s fine to play a bit and build something cool. But eventually you’ve got to stop and ask yourself if it’s useful, too. Cool wears off. Useful never does
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Are you adding value? Adding something is easy; adding value is hard. Is this thing you’re working on actually making your product more valuable for customers? Can they get more out of it than they did before? Sometimes things you think are adding value actually subtract from it.
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Date: September 22, 2016 |
Will this change behavior? Is what you’re working on really going to change anything? Don’t add something unless it has a real impact on how people use your product.
| Location: 76 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
Is there an easier way? Whenever you’re working on something, ask, “Is there an easier way?” You’ll often find this easy way is more than good enough for now. Problems are usually pretty simple. We just imagine that they require hard solutions.
| Location: 76 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
What could you be doing instead? What can’t you do because you’re doing this? This is especially important for small teams with constrained resources. That’s when prioritization is even more important. If you work on A, can you still do B and C before April? If not, would you rather have B and C instead of A? If you’re stuck on something for a long period of time, that means there are other things you’re not getting done.
| Location: 77 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
Is it really worth it? Is what you’re doing really worth it? Is this meeting worth pulling six people off their work for an hour? Is it worth pulling an all-nighter tonight, or could you just finish it up tomorrow? Is it worth getting all stressed out over a press release from a competitor? Is it worth spending your money on advertising? Determine the real value of what you’re about to do before taking the plunge.
| Location: 77 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
Keep asking yourself (and others) the questions listed above. You don’t need to make it a formal process, but don’t let it slide, either. Also, don’t be timid about your conclusions. Sometimes abandoning what you’re working on is the right move, even if you’ve already put in a lot of effort. Don’t throw good time after bad work
| Location: 77 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
Interruption is the enemy of productivity
If you’re constantly staying late and working weekends, it’s not because there’s too much work to be done. It’s because you’re not getting enough done at work. And the reason is interruptions. Think about it: When do you get most of your work done? If you’re like most people, it’s at night or early in the morning. It’s no coincidence that these are the times when nobody else is around.
| Location: 79 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
Interruption is not collaboration, it’s just interruption. And when you’re interrupted, you’re not getting work done. Interruptions break your workday into a series of work moments.
| Location: 79 |
Date: September 22, 2016 |
You can’t get meaningful things done when you’re constantly going start, stop, start, stop. Instead, you should get in the alone zone. Long stretches of alone time are when you’re most productive. When you don’t have to mind-shift between various tasks, you get a boatload done.
| Location: 79 |
Date: September 23, 2016 |
Your alone zone doesn’t have to be in the wee hours, though. You can set up a rule at work that half the day is set aside for alone time. Decree that from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., people can’t talk to each other (except during lunch). Or make the first or last half of the day your alone-time period. Or instead of casual Fridays, try no-talk Thursdays. Just make sure this period is unbroken in order to avoid productivity-zapping interruptions. And go all the way with it. A successful alone-time period means letting go of communication addiction. During alone time, give up instant messages, phone calls, e-mail, and meetings. Just shut up and get to work. You’ll be surprised how much more you get done
| Location: 79 |
Date: September 23, 2016 |
Meetings are toxic
Let’s say you’re going to schedule a meeting that lasts one hour, and you invite ten people to attend. That’s actually a ten-hour meeting, not a one-hour meeting. You’re trading ten hours of productivity for one hour of meeting time. And it’s probably more like fifteen hours, because there are mental switching costs that come with stopping what you’re doing, going somewhere else to meet, and then resuming what you were doing beforehand
| Location: 82 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Judged on a pure cost basis, meetings of this size quickly become liabilities, not assets. Think about the time you’re actually losing and ask yourself if it’s really worth it.
| Location: 82 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
If you decide you absolutely must get together, try to make your meeting a productive one by sticking to these simple rules: Set a timer. When it rings, meeting’s over. Period. Invite as few people as possible. Always have a clear agenda. Begin with a specific problem. Meet at the site of the problem instead of a conference room. Point to real things and suggest real changes. End with a solution and make someone responsible for implementing it
| Location: 82 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Good enough is fine
Good enough is fine A lot of people get off on solving problems with complicated solutions. Flexing your intellectual muscles can be intoxicating. Then you start looking for another big challenge that gives you that same rush, regardless of whether it’s a good idea or not. A better idea: Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. Judo solutions are all about getting the most out of doing the least. Whenever you face an obstacle, look for a way to judo it.
| Location: 85 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Part of this is recognizing that problems are negotiable. Let’s say your challenge is to get a bird’s-eye view. One way to do it is to climb Mount Everest. That’s the ambitious solution. But then again, you could take an elevator to the top of a tall building. That’s a judo solution.
| Location: 85 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
When good enough gets the job done, go for it. It’s way better than wasting resources or, even worse, doing nothing because you can’t afford the complex solution. And remember, you can usually turn good enough into great later.
| Location: 85 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Quick wins
Quick wins Momentum fuels motivation. It keeps you going. It drives you. Without it, you can’t go anywhere. If you aren’t motivated by what you’re working on, it won’t be very good.
| Location: 87 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
The way you build momentum is by getting something done and then moving on to the next thing. No one likes to be stuck on an endless project with no finish line in sight. Being in the trenches for nine months and not having anything to show for it is a real buzzkill. Eventually it just burns you out. To keep your momentum and motivation up, get in the habit of accomplishing small victories along the way. Even a tiny improvement can give you a good jolt of momentum.
| Location: 87 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
The longer something takes, the less likely it is that you’re going to finish it.
| Location: 87 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Excitement comes from doing something and then letting customers have at it. Planning a menu for a year is boring. Getting the new menu out, serving the food, and getting feedback is exciting. So don’t wait too long–you’ll smother your sparks if you do.
| Location: 87 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
So ask yourself, “What can we do in two weeks?” And then do it. Get it out there and let people use it, taste it, play it, or whatever. The quicker it’s in the hands of customers, the better off you’ll be.
| Location: 87 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Don’t be a hero
A lot of times it’s better to be a quitter than a hero. For example, let’s say you think a task can be done in two hours. But four hours into it, you’re still only a quarter of the way done. The natural instinct is to think, “But I can’t give up now, I’ve already spent four hours on this!” So you go into hero mode. You’re determined to make it work (and slightly embarrassed that it isn’t already working). You grab your cape and shut yourself off from the world
| Location: 89 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Keep in mind that the obvious solution might very well be quitting. People automatically associate quitting with failure, but sometimes that’s exactly what you should do. If you already spent too much time on something that wasn’t worth it, walk away. You can’t get that time back. The worst thing you can do now is waste even more time
| Location: 89 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Go to sleep
Forgoing sleep is a bad idea. Sure, you get those extra hours right now, but you pay in spades later: You destroy your creativity, morale, and attitude. Once in a while, you can pull an all-nighter if you fully understand the consequences. Just don’t make it a habit. If it becomes a constant, the costs start to mount
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Stubbornness: When you’re really tired, it always seems easier to plow down whatever bad path you happen to be on instead of reconsidering the route.
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Lack of creativity: Creativity is one of the first things to go when you lose sleep. What distinguishes people who are ten times more effective than the norm is not that they work ten times as hard; it’s that they use their creativity to come up with solutions that require one-tenth of the effort. Without sleep, you stop coming up with those one-tenth solutions.
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Diminished morale: When your brain isn’t firing on all cylinders, it loves to feed on less demanding tasks. Like reading yet another article about stuff that doesn’t matter. When you’re tired, you lose motivation to attack the big problems.
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Irritability: Your ability to remain patient and tolerant is severely reduced when you’re tired. If you encounter someone who’s acting like a fool, there’s a good chance that person is suffering from sleep deprivation.
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Yet some people still develop a masochistic sense of honor about sleep deprivation. They even brag about how tired they are. Don’t be impressed. It’ll come back to bite them in the ass.
| Location: 91 |
Date: September 24, 2016 |
Your estimates suck
We’re all terrible estimators. We think we can guess how long something will take, when we really have no idea. We see everything going according to a best-case scenario, without the delays that inevitably pop up. Reality never sticks to best-case scenarios.
| Location: 93 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
That’s why estimates that stretch weeks, months, and years into the future are fantasies. The truth is you just don’t know what’s going to happen that far in advance.
| Location: 93 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
We humans are just plain bad at estimating. Even with these simple tasks, our estimates are often off by a factor of two or more. If we can’t be accurate when estimating a few hours, how can we expect to accurately predict the length of a “six-month project”?
| Location: 93 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
The solution: Break the big thing into smaller things. The smaller it is, the easier it is to estimate. You’re probably still going to get it wrong, but you’ll be a lot less wrong than if you estimated a big project. If something takes twice as long as you expected, better to have it be a small project that’s a couple weeks over rather than a long one that’s a couple months over.
| Location: 93 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Keep breaking your time frames down into smaller chunks. Instead of one twelve-week project, structure it as twelve one-week projects. Instead of guesstimating at tasks that take thirty hours or more, break them down into more realistic six-to-ten-hour chunks. Then go one step at a time.
| Location: 93 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Long lists don’t get done
Start making smaller to-do lists too. Long lists collect dust.
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Long lists are guilt trips. The longer the list of unfinished items, the worse you feel about it. And at a certain point, you just stop looking at it because it makes you feel bad. Then you stress out and the whole thing turns into a big mess
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
There’s a better way. Break that long list down into a bunch of smaller lists. For example, break a single list of a hundred items into ten lists of ten items. That means when you finish an item on a list, you’ve completed 10 percent of that list, instead of 1 percent.
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Yes, you still have the same amount of stuff left to do. But now you can look at the small picture and find satisfaction, motivation, and progress. That’s a lot better than staring at the huge picture and being terrified and demoralized.
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Whenever you can, divide problems into smaller and smaller pieces until you’re able to deal with them completely and quickly. Simply rearranging your tasks this way can have an amazing impact on your productivity and motivation.
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Instead, prioritize visually. Put the most important thing at the top. When you’re done with that, the next thing on the list becomes the next most important thing. That way you’ll only have a single next most important thing to do at a time. And that’s enough.
| Location: 95 |
Date: September 25, 2016 |
Make tiny decisions
Make tiny decisions Big decisions are hard to make and hard to change. And once you make one, the tendency is to continue believing you made the right decision, even if you didn’t. You stop being objective. Once ego and pride are on the line, you can’t change your mind without looking bad. The desire to save face trumps the desire to make the right call. And then there’s inertia too: The more steam you put into going in one direction, the harder it is to change course.
| Location: 97 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Instead, make choices that are small enough that they’re effectively temporary. When you make tiny decisions, you can’t make big mistakes. These small decisions mean you can afford to change. There’s no big penalty if you mess up. You just fix it.
| Location: 97 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Making tiny decisions doesn’t mean you can’t make big plans or think big ideas. It just means you believe the best way to achieve those big things is one tiny decision at a time.
| Location: 97 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Attainable goals like that are the best ones to have. Ones you can actually accomplish and build on. You get to say, “We nailed it. Done!” Then you get going on the next one. That’s a lot more satisfying than some pie-in-the-sky fantasy goal you never meet.
| Location: 97 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Don’t copy
Sometimes copying can be part of the learning process, like when you see an art student replicating a painting in a museum or a drummer playing along to John Bonham’s solo on Led Zeppelin’s “Moby Dick.” When you’re a student, this sort of imitation can be a helpful tool on the path to discovering your own voice. Unfortunately, copying in the business arena is usually more nefarious. Maybe it’s because of the copy-and-paste world we live in these days. You can steal someone’s words, images, or code instantly. And that means it’s tempting to try to build a business by being a copycat. That’s a formula for failure, though
| Location: 99 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
The problem with this sort of copying is it skips understanding–and understanding is how you grow. You have to understand why something works or why something is the way it is. When you just copy and paste, you miss that. You just repurpose the last layer instead of understanding all the layers
| Location: 99 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
So much of the work an original creator puts into something is invisible. It’s buried beneath the surface. The copycat doesn’t really know why something looks the way it looks or feels the way it feels or reads the way it reads. The copy is a faux finish. It delivers no substance, no understanding, and nothing to base future decisions on.
| Location: 99 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
if you’re a copycat, you can never keep up. You’re always in a passive position. You never lead; you always follow. You give birth to something that’s already behind the times–just a knockoff, an inferior version of the original. That’s no way to live.
| Location: 99 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Be influenced, but don’t steal.
| Location: 99 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Decommoditize your product
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. Make it something no one else can offer.
| Location: 101 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, how you support it, how you explain it, and how you deliver it. Competitors can never copy the you in your product.
| Location: 101 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Pick a fight
If you think a competitor sucks, say so. When you do that, you’ll find that others who agree with you will rally to your side. Being the anti-____ is a great way to differentiate yourself and attract followers.
| Location: 103 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Having an enemy gives you a great story to tell customers, too. Taking a stand always stands out. People get stoked by conflict. They take sides. Passions are ignited. And that’s a good way to get people to take notice.
| Location: 103 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Underdo your competition
This sort of one-upping, Cold War mentality is a dead end. When you get suckered into an arms race, you wind up in a never-ending battle that costs you massive amounts of money, time, and drive. And it forces you to constantly be on the defensive, too. Defensive companies can’t think ahead; they can only think behind. They don’t lead; they follow
| Location: 105 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
So what do you do instead? Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to the competition. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.
| Location: 105 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Don’t shy away from the fact that your product or service does less. Highlight it. Be proud of it. Sell it as aggressively as competitors sell their extensive feature lists.
| Location: 106 |
Date: September 26, 2016 |
Who cares what they’re doing?
In the end, it’s not worth paying much attention to the competition anyway. Why not? Because worrying about the competition quickly turns into an obsession.
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Every little move becomes something to be analyzed. And that’s a terrible mind-set. It leads to overwhelming stress and anxiety. That state of mind is bad soil for growing anything
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Your competitor tomorrow may be completely different from your competitor today.
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Focus on yourself instead. What’s going on in here is way more important than what’s going on out there. When you spend time worrying about someone else, you can’t spend that time improving yourself.
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Focus on competitors too much and you wind up diluting your own vision. Your chances of coming up with something fresh go way down when you keep feeding your brain other people’s ideas. You become reactionary instead of visionary. You wind up offering your competitor’s products with a different coat of paint.
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
If you’re just going to be like everyone else, why are you even doing this? If you merely replicate competitors, there’s no point to your existence.
| Location: 107 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Say no by default
If I’d listened to customers, I’d have given them a faster horse . –HENRY FORD
| Location: 111 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Start getting into the habit of saying no–even to many of your best ideas. Use the power of no to get your priorities straight. You rarely regret saying no. But you often wind up regretting saying yes.
| Location: 111 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
People avoid saying no because confrontation makes them uncomfortable. But the alternative is even worse. You drag things out, make things complicated, and work on ideas you don’t believe in.
| Location: 111 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
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 the time to explain your point of view. You may even win them over to your way of thinking. If not, recommend a competitor if you think there’s a better solution out there. It’s better to have people be happy using someone else’s product than disgruntled using yours.
| Location: 111 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
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.”
| Location: 112 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Let your customers outgrow you
When you stick with your current customers come hell or high water, you wind up cutting yourself off from new ones. Your product or service becomes so tailored to your current customers that it stops appealing to fresh blood. And that’s how your company starts to die.
| Location: 113 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
After our first product had been around for a while, we started getting some heat from folks who had been with us from the beginning. They said they were starting to grow out of the application.
| Location: 113 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
We said no. Here’s why: 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.
| Location: 113 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
When you let customers outgrow you, you’ll most likely wind up with a product that’s basic–and that’s fine. Small, simple, basic needs are constant. There’s an endless supply of customers who need exactly that. And there are always more people who are not using your product than people who are. Make sure you make it easy for these people to get on board. That’s where your continued growth potential lies.
| Location: 113 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
You can’t be everything to everyone. Companies need to be true to a type of customer more than a specific individual customer with changing needs.
| Location: 113 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Don’t confuse enthusiasm with priority
Coming up with a great idea gives you a rush. You start imagining the possibilities and the benefits.
| Location: 115 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
The enthusiasm you have for a new idea is not an accurate indicator of its true worth. What seems like a sure-fire hit right now often gets downgraded to just a “nice to have” by morning. And “nice to have” isn’t worth putting everything else on hold.
| Location: 115 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
So let your latest grand ideas cool off for a while first. By all means, have as many great ideas as you can. Get excited about them. Just don’t act in the heat of the moment. Write them down and park them for a few days. Then, evaluate their actual priority with a calm mind.
| Location: 115 |
Date: September 27, 2016 |
Be at-home good
Smart companies make the opposite: something that’s at-home good. When you get the product home, you’re actually more impressed with it than you were at the store. You live with it and grow to like it more and more. And you tell your friends, too
| Location: 117 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
When you create an at-home-good product, you may have to sacrifice a bit of in-store sizzle. A product that executes on the basics beautifully may not seem as sexy as competitors loaded with bells and whistles. Being great at a few things often doesn’t look all that flashy from afar. That’s OK. You’re aiming for a long-term relationship, not a one-night stand
| Location: 117 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
Don’t write it down
How should you keep track of what customers want? Don’t. Listen, but then forget what people said. Seriously.
| Location: 119 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
There’s no need for a spreadsheet, database, or filing system. The requests that really matter are the ones you’ll hear over and over. After a while, you won’t be able to forget them. Your customers will be your memory. They’ll keep reminding you. They’ll show you which things you truly need to worry about. If there’s a request that you keep forgetting, that’s a sign that it isn’t very important. The really important stuff doesn’t go away.
| Location: 119 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
Welcome obscurity
Welcome obscurity No one knows who you are right now. And that’s just fine. Being obscure is a great position to be in. Be happy you’re in the shadows. Use this time to make mistakes without the whole world hearing about them. Keep tweaking. Work out the kinks. Test random ideas. Try new things. No one knows you, so it’s no big deal if you mess up. Obscurity helps protect your ego and preserve your confidence.
| Location: 121 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
Would you want the whole world to watch you the first time you do anything? If you’ve never given a speech before, do you want your first speech to be in front of ten thousand people or ten people? You don’t want everyone to watch you starting your business. It makes no sense to tell everyone to look at you if you’re not ready to be looked at yet
| Location: 121 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
once you do get bigger and more popular, you’re inevitably going to take fewer risks. When you’re a success, the pressure to maintain predictability and consistency builds. You get more conservative. It’s harder to take risks. That’s when things start to fossilize and change becomes difficult.
| Location: 121 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
These early days of obscurity are something you’ll miss later on, when you’re really under the microscope. Now’s the time to take risks without worrying about embarrassing yourself
| Location: 121 |
Date: September 30, 2016 |
Build an audience
All companies have customers. Lucky companies have fans. But the most fortunate companies have audiences . An audience can be your secret weapon.
| Location: 124 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
When you build an audience, you don’t have to buy people’s attention–they give it to you. This is a huge advantage
| Location: 124 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
So build an audience. Speak, write, blog, tweet, make videos–whatever. Share information that’s valuable and you’ll slowly but surely build a loyal audience. Then when you need to get the word out, the right people will already be listening.
| Location: 124 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
Out-teach your competition
Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or outsponsor competitors, try to out-teach them. Teaching probably isn’t something your competitors are even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling or servicing, but teaching never even occurs to them
| Location: 126 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
Teach and you’ll form a bond you just don’t get from traditional marketing tactics. Buying people’s attention with a magazine or online banner ad is one thing. Earning their loyalty by teaching them forms a whole different connection. They’ll trust you more. They’ll respect you more. Even if they don’t use your product, they can still be your fans.
| Location: 126 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
Go behind the scenes
Give people a backstage pass and show them how your business works. Imagine that someone wanted to make a reality show about your business. What would they share? Now stop waiting for someone else and do it yourself. Think no one will care? Think again. Even seemingly boring jobs can be fascinating when presented right. What could be more boring than commercial fishing and trucking? Yet the Discovery Channel and History Channel have turned these professions into highly rated shows: Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers
| Location: 130 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
It doesn’t need to be a dangerous job, either. People love finding out the little secrets of all kinds of businesses, even one that makes those tiny marshmallows in breakfast cereals
| Location: 130 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
People are curious about how things are made.
| Location: 130 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
Letting people behind the curtain changes your relationship with them. They’ll feel a bond with you and see you as human beings instead of a faceless company.
| Location: 130 |
Date: October 1, 2016 |
Nobody likes plastic flowers
Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you’re really like, warts and all
| Location: 132 |
Date: October 2, 2016 |
There’s a beauty to imperfection. This is the essence of the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi values character and uniqueness over a shiny facade. It teaches that cracks and scratches in things should be embraced. It’s also about simplicity. You strip things down and then use what you have. Leonard Koren, author of a book on wabi-sabi , gives this advice: Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered but don’t sterilize.
| Location: 132 |
Date: October 2, 2016 |
Press releases are spam
a generic pitch sent out to hundreds of strangers hoping that one will bite? Spam. That’s what press releases are too: generic pitches for coverage sent out to hundreds of journalists you don’t know, hoping that one will write about you.
| Location: 134 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
You want the press to pick up on your new company, product, service, announcement, or whatever. You want them to be excited enough to write a story about you. But press releases are a terrible way to accomplish that.
| Location: 134 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
If you want to get someone’s attention, it’s silly to do exactly the same thing as everyone else. You need to stand out
| Location: 134 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Instead, call someone. Write a personal note. If you read a story about a similar company or product, contact the journalist who wrote it. Pitch her with some passion, some interest, some life. Do something meaningful. Be remarkable. Stand out. Be unforgettable. That’s how you’ll get the best coverage.
| Location: 134 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Forget about the Wall Street Journal
You’re better off focusing on getting your story into a trade publication or picked up by a niche blogger. With these outlets, the barrier is much lower. You can send an e-mail and get a response (and maybe even a post) the same day. There’s no editorial board or PR person involved. There’s no pipeline your message has to go through. These guys are actually hungry for fresh meat. They thrive on being tastemakers, finding the new thing, and getting the ball rolling. That’s why many big-time reporters now use these smaller sites to find new stories. Stories that start on the fringe can go mainstream quickly.
| Location: 136 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Drug dealers get it right
Drug dealers are astute businesspeople. They know their product is so good they’re willing to give a little away for free upfront. They know you’ll be back for more–with money. Emulate drug dealers. Make your product so good, so addictive, so “can’t miss” that giving customers a small, free taste makes them come back with cash in hand.
| Location: 138 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Bakeries, restaurants, and ice cream shops have done this successfully for years. Car dealers let you test-drive cars before buying them. Software firms are also getting on board, with free trials or limited-use versions. How many other industries could benefit from the drug-dealer model?
| Location: 138 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Don’t be afraid to give a little away for free–as long as you’ve got something else to sell. Be confident in what you’re offering.
| Location: 138 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Marketing is not a department
Marketing is something everyone in your company is doing 24/7/365.
| Location: 139 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
The myth of the overnight sensation
You will not be a big hit right away. You will not get rich quick. You are not so special that everyone else will instantly pay attention. No one cares about you. At least not yet. Get used to it.
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
You know those overnight-success stories you’ve heard about? It’s not the whole story. Dig deeper and you’ll usually find people who have busted their asses for years to get into a position where things could take off. And on the rare occasion that instant success does come along, it usually doesn’t last–there’s no foundation there to support it.
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
Trade the dream of overnight success for slow, measured growth. It’s hard, but you have to be patient. You have to grind it out. You have to do it for a long time before the right people notice.
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
Plus, you’re still just a no-name with a product no one’s ever heard about. Who’s going to write about that? Once you have some customers and a history, you’ll have a story to tell. But just launching isn’t a good story.
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
Do it yourself first
Never hire anyone to do a job until you’ve tried to do it yourself first. That way, you’ll understand the nature of the work. You’ll know what a job well done looks like. You’ll know how to write a realistic job description and which questions to ask in an interview. You’ll know whether to hire someone full-time or part-time, outsource it, or keep doing it yourself (the last is preferable, if possible).
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
You’ll also be a much better manager, because you’ll be supervising people who are doing a job you’ve done before. You’ll know when to criticize and when to support.
| Location: 144 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Hire when it hurts
Don’t hire for pleasure; hire to kill pain. Always ask yourself: What if we don’t hire anyone? Is that extra work that’s burdening us really necessary? Can we solve the problem with a slice of software or a change of practice instead? What if we just don’t do it? Similarly, if you lose someone, don’t replace him immediately. See how long you can get by without that person and that position. You’ll often discover you don’t need as many people as you think.
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Date: October 4, 2016 |
The right time to hire is when there’s more work than you can handle for a sustained period of time. There should be things you can’t do anymore. You should notice the quality level slipping. That’s when you’re hurting. And that’s when it’s time to hire, not earlier.
| Location: 146 |
Date: October 4, 2016 |
Strangers at a cocktail party
Hire a ton of people rapidly and a “strangers at a cocktail party” problem is exactly what you end up with. There are always new faces around, so everyone is unfailingly polite. Everyone tries to avoid any conflict or drama. No one says, “This idea sucks.” People appease instead of challenge. And that appeasement is what gets companies into trouble. You need to be able to tell people when they’re full of crap. If that doesn’t happen, you start churning out something that doesn’t offend anyone but also doesn’t make anyone fall in love. You need an environment where everyone feels safe enough to be honest when things get tough. You need to know how far you can push someone. You need to know what people really mean when they say something.
| Location: 150 |
Date: October 7, 2016 |
So hire slowly. It’s the only way to avoid winding up at a cocktail party of strangers.
| Location: 150 |
Date: October 7, 2016 |
Resumés are ridiculous
If someone sends out a resume to three hundred companies, that’s a huge red flag right there
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Date: October 8, 2016 |
If you hire based on this garbage, you’re missing the point of what hiring is about. You want a specific candidate who cares specifically about your company, your products, your customers, and your job
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Date: October 8, 2016 |
So how do you find these candidates? First step: Check the cover letter. In a cover letter, you get actual communication instead of a list of skills, verbs, and years of irrelevance. There’s no way an applicant can churn out hundreds of personalized letters. That’s why the cover letter is a much better test than a resume. You hear someone’s actual voice and are able recognize if it’s in tune with you and your company. Trust your gut reaction. If the first paragraph sucks, the second has to work that much harder. If there’s no hook in the first three, it’s unlikely there’s a match there. On the other hand, if your gut is telling you there’s a chance at a real match, then move on to the interview stage.
| Location: 152 |
Date: October 8, 2016 |
Years of irrelevance
Of course, requiring some baseline level of experience can be a good idea when hiring. It makes sense to go after candidates with six months to a year of experience. It takes that long to internalize the idioms, learn how things work, understand the relevant tools, etc. But after that, the curve flattens out. There’s surprisingly little difference between a candidate with six months of experience and one with six years. The real difference comes from the individual’s dedication, personality, and intelligence.
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Date: October 8, 2016 |
How long someone’s been doing it is overrated. What matters is how well they’ve been doing it.
| Location: 154 |
Date: October 8, 2016 |
How long someone’s been doing it is overrated. What matters is how well they’ve been doing it.
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Date: October 8, 2016 |
Forget about formal education
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education . –MARK TWAIN
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Date: October 8, 2016 |
There are plenty of intelligent people who don’t excel in the classroom. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking you need someone from one of the “best” schools in order to get results. Ninety percent of CEOs currently heading the top five hundred American companies did not receive undergraduate degrees from Ivy League colleges. In fact, more received their undergraduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin than from Harvard
| Location: 155 |
Date: October 8, 2016 |
Too much time in academia can actually do you harm. Take writing, for example. When you get out of school, you have to unlearn so much of the way they teach you to write there. Some of the misguided lessons you learn in academia: The longer a document is, the more it matters. Stiff, formal tone is better than being conversational. Using big words is impressive. You need to write a certain number of words or pages to make a point. The format matters as much (or more) than the content of what you write.
| Location: 155 |
Date: October 8, 2016 |
Bottom line: The pool of great candidates is far bigger than just people who completed college with a stellar GPA. Consider dropouts, people who had low GPAs, community-college students, and even those who just went to high school.
| Location: 155 |
Date: October 8, 2016 |
Everybody works
With a small team, you need people who are going to do work, not delegate work. Everyone’s got to be producing. No one can be above the work. That means you need to avoid hiring delegators, those people who love telling others what to do. Delegators are dead weight for a small team
| Location: 157 |
Date: October 9, 2016 |
Hire managers of one
Managers of one are people who come up with their own goals and execute them
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
These people free you from oversight. They set their own direction. When you leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they’ve gotten done. They don’t need a lot of hand-holding or supervision.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
How can you spot these people? Look at their backgrounds. They have set the tone for how they’ve worked at other jobs. They’ve run something on their own or launched some kind of project. You want someone who’s capable of building something from scratch and seeing it through. Finding these people frees the rest of your team to work more and manage less.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Hire great writers
If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate. They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone else’s shoes. They know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in any candidate.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
The best are everywhere
To make sure your remote team stays in touch, have at least a few hours a day of real-time overlap. Working in time zones where there’s no workday overlap at all is tough. If you face that situation, someone might need to shift hours a bit so they start a little later or earlier in the day, so you’re available at the same time
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Also, meet in person once in a while. You should see each other at least every few months. We make sure our whole team gets together a few times a year.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Geography just doesn’t matter anymore. Hire the best talent, regardless of where it is.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Test-drive employees
Interviews are only worth so much. Some people sound like pros but don’t work like pros. You need to evaluate the work they can do now, not the work they say they did in the past.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
Interviews are only worth so much. Some people sound like pros but don’t work like pros. You need to evaluate the work they can do now, not the work they say they did in the past.
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Date: October 9, 2016 |
The best way to do that is to actually see them work. Hire them for a miniproject, even if it’s for just twenty or forty hours. You’ll see how they make decisions. You’ll see if you get along. You’ll see what kind of questions they ask. You’ll get to judge them by their actions instead of just their words.
| Location: 164 |
Date: October 9, 2016 |
These companies have realized that when you get into a real work environment, the truth comes out. It’s one thing to look at a portfolio, read a resume, or conduct an interview. It’s another to actually work with someone
| Location: 164 |
Date: October 9, 2016 |
Own your bad news
When something goes wrong, someone is going to tell the story. You’ll be better off if it’s you. Otherwise, you create an opportunity for rumors, hearsay, and false information to spread.
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Date: October 10, 2016 |
When something bad happens, tell your customers (even if they never noticed in the first place)
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Date: October 10, 2016 |
Here are some tips on how you can own the story: The message should come from the top. The highest-ranking person available should take control in a forceful way. Spread the message far and wide. Use whatever megaphone you have. Don’t try to sweep it under the rug. “No comment” is not an option. Apologize the way a real person would and explain what happened in detail. Honestly be concerned about the fate of your customers–then prove it.
| Location: 166 |
Date: October 10, 2016 |
Speed changes everything
Getting back to people quickly is probably the most important thing you can do when it comes to customer service. It’s amazing how much that can defuse a bad situation and turn it into a good one. Have you ever sent an e-mail and it took days or weeks for the company to get back to you? How did it make you feel?
| Location: 168 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
These days, that’s what people have come to expect. They’re used to being put on hold. They’re used to platitudes about “caring” that aren’t backed up. That’s why so many support queries start off with an antagonistic tone. Some people may even make threats or call you names. Don’t take it personally. They think that’s the only way to be heard. They’re only trying to be a squeaky wheel in hopes it’ll get them a little grease. Once you answer quickly, they shift 180 degrees. They light up. They become extra polite. Often they thank you profusely.
| Location: 168 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
It’s especially true if you offer a personal response. Customers are so used to canned answers, you can really differentiate yourself by answering thoughtfully and showing that you’re listening. And even if you don’t have a perfect answer, say something. “Let me do some research and get back to you” can work wonders.
| Location: 168 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
How to say you’re sorry
How to say you’re sorry There’s never really a great way to say you’re sorry, but there are plenty of terrible ways.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
A good apology accepts responsibility. It has no conditional if phrase attached. It shows people that the buck stops with you. And then it provides real details about what happened and what you’re doing to prevent it from happening again. And it seeks a way to make things right.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
“We apologize …” If you spilled coffee on someone while riding the subway, would you say, “I apologize”? No, you’d say, “I’m so, so sorry!” Well, if your service is critical to your customers, an interruption to that service is like spilling hot coffee all over them. So use the appropriate tone and language to show that you understand the severity of what happened. Also, the person in charge should take personal responsibility. An “I” apology is a lot stronger than a “we” apology.
| Location: 170 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
“… any inconvenience …” If customers depend on your service and can’t get to it, it’s not merely an inconvenience. It’s a crisis. An inconvenience is a long line at the grocery store. This ain’t that.
| Location: 170 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
“… this may have caused” The “may” here implies there might not be anything wrong at all. That’s a classic non-apology apology move. It slights the very real problem(s) that customers are experiencing. If this didn’t affect them, you don’t really need to say anything. If it did affect them, then there’s no need for “may” here. Stop wavering.
| Location: 170 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
The number-one principle to keep in mind when you apologize: How would you feel about the apology if you were on the other end? If someone said those words to you, would you believe them? Keep in mind that you can’t apologize your way out of being an ass. Even the best apology won’t rescue you if you haven’t earned people’s trust. Everything you do before things go wrong matters far more than the actual words you use to apologize. If you’ve built rapport with customers, they’ll cut you some slack and trust you when you say you’re sorry.
| Location: 170 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Put everyone on the front lines
Everyone on your team should be connected to your customers–maybe not every day, but at least a few times throughout the year. That’s the only way your team is going to feel the hurt your customers are experiencing. It’s feeling the hurt that really motivates people to fix the problem. And the flip side is true too: The joy of happy customers or ones who have had a problem solved can also be wildly motivating.
| Location: 173 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Take a deep breath
Take a deep breath When you rock the boat, there will be waves. After you introduce a new feature, change a policy, or remove something, knee-jerk reactions will pour in. Resist the urge to panic or make rapid changes in response. Passions flare in the beginning. That’s normal. But if you ride out that first rocky week, things usually settle down.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
People are creatures of habit. That’s why they react to change in such a negative way. They’re used to using something in a certain way and any change upsets the natural order of things. So they push back. They complain. They demand that you revert to the way things were. But that doesn’t mean you should act. Sometimes you need to go ahead with a decision you believe in, even if it’s unpopular at first. People often respond before they give a change a fair chance. Sometimes that initial negative reaction is more of a primal response. That’s why you’ll sometimes hear things like, “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen.” No, it’s not. It’s a minor change. Come on.
| Location: 175 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
So when people complain, let things simmer for a while. Let them know you’re listening. Show them you’re aware of what they’re saying. Let them know you understand their discontent. But explain that you’re going to let it go for a while and see what happens. You’ll probably find that people will adjust eventually. They may even wind up liking the change more than the old way, once they get used to it.
| Location: 175 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
You don’t create a culture
You don’t create a culture Instant cultures are artificial cultures. They’re big bangs made of mission statements, declarations, and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic. Artificial culture is paint. Real culture is patina.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
You don’t create a culture. It happens. This is why new companies don’t have a culture. Culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, then sharing will be built into your culture. If you reward trust, then trust will be built in. If you treat customers right, then treating customers right becomes your culture.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
Culture is action, not words. So don’t worry too much about it. Don’t force it. You can’t install a culture. Like a fine scotch, you’ve got to give it time to develop.
| Location: 178 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Decisions are temporary
Don’t make up problems you don’t have yet. It’s not a problem until it’s a real problem. Most of the things you worry about never happen anyway
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
Besides, the decisions you make today don’t need to last forever. It’s easy to shoot down good ideas, interesting policies, or worthwhile experiments by assuming that whatever you decide now needs to work for years on end. It’s just not so, especially for a small business. If circumstances change, your decisions can change. Decisions are temporary.
| Location: 179 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
At this stage, it’s silly to worry about whether or not your concept will scale from five to five thousand people (or from a hundred thousand to 100 million people). Getting a product or service off the ground is hard enough without inventing even more obstacles. Optimize for now and worry about the future later.
| Location: 179 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
The ability to change course is one of the big advantages of being small. Compared with larger competitors, you’re way more capable of making quick, sweeping changes. Big companies just can’t move that fast. So pay attention to today and worry about later when it gets here. Otherwise you’ll waste energy, time, and money fixating on problems that may never materialize.
| Location: 179 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Skip the rock stars
Skip the rock stars A lot of companies post help-wanted ads seeking “rock stars” or “ninjas.” Lame. Unless your workplace is filled with groupies and throwing stars, these words have nothing to do with your business.
| Location: 181 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Instead of thinking about how you can land a roomful of rock stars, think about the room instead. 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.
| Location: 181 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Rockstar environments develop out of trust, autonomy, and responsibility. They’re a result of giving people the privacy, workspace, and tools they deserve. Great environments show respect for the people who do the work and how they do it.
| Location: 181 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
They’re not thirteen
They’re not thirteen When you treat people like children, you get children’s work. Yet that’s exactly how a lot of companies and managers treat their employees. Employees need to ask permission before they can do anything. They need to get approval for every tiny expenditure. It’s surprising they don’t have to get a hall pass to go take a shit.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of nonthinkers. You create a boss-versus-worker relationship that screams, “I don’t trust you.”
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
And look, you’re not going to get a full eight hours a day out of people anyway. That’s a myth. They might be at the office for eight hours, but they’re not actually working eight hours. People need diversions. It helps disrupt the monotony of the workday. A little YouTube or Facebook time never hurt anyone.
| Location: 183 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Then there’s all the money and time you spend policing this stuff. How much does it cost to set up surveillance software? How much time do IT employees waste on monitoring other employees instead of working on a project that’s actually valuable? How much time do you waste writing rule books that never get read? Look at the costs and you quickly realize that failing to trust your employees is awfully expensive
| Location: 183 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Send people home at 5
But packing a room full of these burn-the-midnight-oil types isn’t as great as it seems. It lets you get away with lousy execution. It perpetuates myths like “This is the only way we can compete against the big guys.” You don’t need more hours; you need better hours.
| Location: 185 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
When people have something to do at home, they get down to business. They get their work done at the office because they have somewhere else to be. They find ways to be more efficient because they have to. They need to pick up the kids or get to choir practice. So they use their time wisely.
| Location: 185 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
As the saying goes, “If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know.” You want busy people. People who have a life outside of work. People who care about more than one thing. You shouldn’t expect the job to be someone’s entire life–at least not if you want to keep them around for a long time.
| Location: 185 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Don’t scar on the first cut
Policies are organizational scar tissue. They are codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again. They are collective punishment for the misdeeds of an individual.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
So don’t scar on the first cut. Don’t create a policy because one person did something wrong once. Policies are only meant for situations that come up over and over again.
| Location: 187 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Sound like you
This mask of professionalism is a joke. We all know this. Yet small companies still try to emulate it. They think sounding big makes them appear bigger and more “professional.” But it really just makes them sound ridiculous. Plus, you sacrifice one of a small company’s greatest assets: the ability to communicate simply and directly, without running every last word through a legal-and PR-department sieve.
| Location: 188 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
That applies to the language you use everywhere–in e-mail, packaging, interviews, blog posts, presentations, etc. Talk to customers the way you would to friends. Explain things as if you were sitting next to them. Avoid jargon or any sort of corporate-speak. Stay away from buzzwords when normal words will do just fine
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
Don’t use seven words when four will do
| Location: 188 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Write to be read, don’t write just to write. Whenever you write something, read it out loud. Does it sound the way it would if you were actually talking to someone? If not, how can you make it more conversational?
| Location: 188 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
And when you’re writing, don’t think about all the people who may read your words. Think of one person. Then write for that one person. Writing for a mob leads to generalities and awkwardness. When you write to a specific target, you’re a lot more likely to hit the mark.
| Location: 189 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Four-letter words
There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They’re not fuck or shit . They’re need, must, can’t, easy, just, only , and fast . These words get in the way of healthy communication
| Location: 190 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Need . Very few things actually need to get done. Instead of saying “need,” you’re better off saying “maybe” or “What do you think about this?” or “How does this sound?” or “Do you think we could get away with that?”
| Location: 190 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Easy . Easy is a word that’s used to describe other people’s jobs. “That should be easy for you to do, right?” But notice how rarely people describe their own tasks as easy. For you, it’s “Let me look into it”–but for others, it’s “Get it done.”
| Location: 190 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
These four-letter words often pop up during debates (and also watch out for their cousins: everyone, no one, always , and never) . Once uttered, they make it tough to find a solution. They box you into a corner by pitting two absolutes against each other. That’s when head-butting occurs. You squeeze out any middle ground. And these words are especially dangerous when you string them together: “We need to add this feature now. We can’t launch without this feature. Everyone wants it. It’s only one little thing so it will be easy. You should be able to get it in there fast!” Only thirty-six words, but a hundred assumptions. That’s a recipe for disaster
| Location: 190 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
ASAP is poison
Stop saying ASAP. We get it. It’s implied. Everyone wants things done as soon as they can be done. When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of every request, you’re saying everything is high priority. And when everything is high priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top priority until you actually have to prioritize things.)
| Location: 192 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
ASAP is inflationary. It devalues any request that doesn’t say ASAP. Before you know it, the only way to get anything done is by putting the ASAP sticker on it.
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Date: October 12, 2016 |
So reserve your use of emergency language for true emergencies. The kind where there are direct, measurable consequences to inaction. For everything else, chill out.
| Location: 192 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |
Inspiration is perishable
Inspiration is perishable We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date. If you want to do something, you’ve got to do it now. You can’t put it on a shelf and wait two months to get around to it. You can’t just say you’ll do it later. Later, you won’t be pumped up about it anymore. If you’re inspired on a Friday, swear off the weekend and dive into the project. When you’re high on inspiration, you can get two weeks of work done in twenty-four hours. Inspiration is a time machine in that way. Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.
| Location: 195 |
Date: October 12, 2016 |