Book Report: Rework

by Jon Hubbard, Director of Marketing, Boomer Consulting, Inc.

Book: Rework
Authors: Jason Fried & David Heinemeier

Overview

This book is about a new way to build, run and grow a business. The book is chock-full of ideas, techniques and strategies in the areas of progress, productivity, competitors, hiring and more. The authors, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier, are the founders of 37 Signals and have written this book based on their experience building 37 Signals. Jason and David have done things much different and have challenged the traditional notions of running a successful business. This book is edgy and will make many readers uncomfortable because it challenges “the norm” in almost every area of business.

Top 5 Points

1. Ignore the Real World – The “real world” is a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches and foreign concepts always lose. Don’t pay attention to pessimists because the “real world” isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s justification for not trying. For example, 37 signals has a dozen employees in eight cities on two continents.
2. Don’t Be a Workaholic – Workaholism is a real problem in our culture because most people celebrate the idea of working too much.  Fixing problems by throwing sheer hours at them is stupid. “Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hereo is alreadyhome because she figured out a faster way to get things done.”
3. Make a Dent in the Universe – To do great work, you need to feel you are making a difference. You don’t need to be curing cancer but you need to feel that your efforts are valuable. You want to hear your clients say “this makes my life better.” Do you want to have a “me-too” product or service or do you want to shake things up?
4. Make Decisions to Make Progress – You can’t build upon “we’ll decide later” or “let’s think about it” but you can build upon “done”. Don’t wait for the perfect solution to come along. Decide and move forward. Hesitating on making a decision with the hope that a “perfect solution” will come along is toxic.
5. Be a Curator – An art museum is not great because all the best art is on the same wall.  What makes it great is what’s not on the wall.  Be willing to say no to certain projects & opportunities.  This true for processes and procedures, constantly look for things to remove, simplify and streamline. Only allow the best product, service, tool or process to be involved in your company.

How is this book applicable to our industry?

This book contains many (upwards of 85) points that firms should consider.  The point of reading this book is to not duplicate what 37 signals is doing but to learn from their experiences and challenge ourselves and the norms in our industry.  It may be comfortable to keep things as “business an usual” but surprising results may be on the other side if we push the envelope a little.