Rework – Change the Way you Work Forever: Review
People say you need to sell to the Fortune 500. 37signals say ‘screw that. We sell to the Fortune 5,000,000.’
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson pull together a series of ideas on the new non-rules of business.
Snippets (direct quotes) include:
The timing of long range planning is screwed up too. You have the most information when you’re doing something, not before you’ve done it.
Lock in lots of expenses and you force yourself into building a complex business – one that’s a lot more difficult and stressful to run.
Make a dent in the universe…. Your efforts need to feel valuable. You want your customers to say ‘this makes my life better’… You should feel an urgency about this too. You don’t have forever. This is your life’s work….. What you do is your legacy. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see.
Kubrick knew that when you’re new at something, you need to start creating. The most important thing is to begin.
No time is no excuse: squeeze out a few extra hours of every week. 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. 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.
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. A strong stand is how you attract superfans. For everyone who loves you, there will be others that 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.)
Outside money is Plan Z. Customers move down the totem pole. You wind up building what investors want instead of what customers want.
Cut your ambition in half. You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole…. Getting to great starts by cutting out stuff that’s merely good.
Ignore the details – for a while. Nail the basics first and worry about the specifics later. 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.
Just Seven Things 
Sounds interesting and it has got a totally new angle to the way we are tuned to see things.
The ideas here might seem bit revolting to few school of thoughts where the stress in on planning, analyzing and then executing.
I personally feel that no two situations are similar and hence no planning/analyzing can help much.
Anyhow, people who change after the change…survive,
People who change with the change….. succeed,
But people who cause the change….Leads..:-)
Best of luck
Anjani
Hello Anjani, I am someone who follows ‘self-help’ titles… and it has always turned positive to me :) I have copied your last note near my monitor @ work…
However, I defer from what you wrote earlier… plan on execution will always makes me prepared for what i night receive… so I see a strong point in plan & then execute!!!