ReworkThanks to a recommendation from my Twitter pal Todd Herman I picked up “ReWork” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson on the Kindle last week.

Devoured in 24 hours, “ReWork” is one of the books I’ve come across for a number of reasons, namely:

1) The no-BS writing style, Jason and David get down and dirty from the very first chapter.

2) Lack of unnecessary “filler” content that seems to be horribly synonymous with business books of late.

3) Simple but profound messages that you can inhale, digest and implement immediately.

At final count I’d taken 23 Kindle pages of notes, safe to say I got a LOT out of this book, too much for just one post.
So today, and tomorrow you’ll get to see just a handful of my favorite takeaways from the book “ReWork”.

Lesson #1 – Ignore the “Real World” Mentality

You need to learn to ignore – and remove yourself from – the people who throw the “that would never work in the real world” line your way.

As Jason and David said in the book, “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.”

The online industry at large defies the “real world” test in almost every way. Making money on the couch in your pajamas defies the “real world” test for almost everybody.

And yet these things do happen, in fact, these things are part of our everyday reality as online business owners.

We don’t live in a “real world” so our ideas don’t need to be constrained to fit in one. Shrug off those pessimistic real-worlders and let your ideas soar into new dimensions.

Lesson #2 – Learning From Success is Far More Fun Than The Alternative

You often hear the titans of industry describe the need to fail often, fail well and learn from your failures – note that fail was used 3 times in that sentence.

Too many people focus on learning from mistakes, finding lessons in failures when they could be finding successes from which to build upon.

Failure doesn’t need to be a precursor to success. And while I admit that it will most likely be part of your journey (in some capacity) it doesn’t need to be your focus and/or your point of reference.

Jason and David shun the “failure is guaranteed” approach in the book, and instead adopt a “lets learn from the good s***” attitude (my words, not theirs).

Which leads to one of my favorite lines, “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.”

Lesson #3 – Long Term Planning Is Messed Up

I’m a major planner, in fact that is probably even an understatement. I plan everything from the grocery list to what flights we’ll be taking in November.

However, I am the first to admit that planning way into the future is more often than not, impractical and unrealistic. Most long term plans are hard to correlate with reality. These plans don’t stand the test of time and can often prevent you from jumping on new opportunities when they arise.

The problem with planning long into the future in business is that, as business owners, you receive the bulk of your information while doing it – not before. Considering that logic, doesn’t it seem absurd that we plan months and months into the future before we’ve even executed the first step.

One line from the book that struck a chord with me was this, “Working without a plan may seem scary, but blindly following a plan that has no connection to reality is even scarier.”

Don’t bury yourself in plans, in the “guesstimates” of what you think might happen and how you think it’ll work.

Run with your idea, put the steps in action, jump on new possibilities and most importantly make decisions based on what works for you now!

Lesson #4 – Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Too many people focus on being the biggest and the best. Ego infiltrates every element of their business and heavily influences the direction they take and the choices they make.

You need not be insecure about being a small business. This is one case where size really doesn’t matter.

In fact, many big businesses envy the flexibility that small businesses enjoy, the ability to change direction and shape as they please.

As the boys say in Rework, “Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small, should be proud.”

If you are happy, profitable and experiencing sustainable growth, then why not enjoy your agile smaller business.

Remember to check back here tomorrow (Friday) for Part II.


 Mail this post

StumbleUpon It!

Technorati Tags: , , ,