Author: David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
Genre: Self-help book
Publisher: Crown Business
First published On: March 2010
Rework book review:
Is business always on your mind?
I am sure you must have read a lot of business books and learned many things from them.
Now it’s time to unlearn it.
Pick this unconventional book that will teach you how to rethink and rework. It will change your thoughts and urge you to get started with your business idea the very moment you finish reading this book. Also mentioned by the author, you can ignore this book at your own peril.
Key takeaways:
1. Learning from mistakes is overrated
You must have heard failure builds character. “Fail early and fail often.”
This book talks about learning from your success. When something succeeds, you know what worked and you can do it again. And the next time, you’ll probably do it even better.
If you linger on past failures, you will never know what should be your next step. Success is like experience that really counts, not the failures.
2. Planning is guessing
Writing a long-term plan makes you feel that you control the things, that you can’t control. There could be so many factors like market conditions, competitors, customers, the economy, etc that may make your plan just not workable.
So you are not making a business plan, but you are making business guesses. You just need to 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.
3. Workaholism
Workaholism is stupid. It doesn’t work long-term. It simply drains the employee’s energies and makes them inefficient. Working overtime means you are wasting your hours of time.
You become less productive, which could be managed intelligently. You need to know to save the day and figured out a faster way to get things done.
Read:12 Best Leadership and Management Books
4. Scratch your own itch
Instead of solving world problems, solve your own first. You need to build a product or service which you need.
You know exactly what the right for you. Also, you’ll figure out immediately whether or not what you’re making is any good. There is no need for focus groups, market studies, or surveys for your product.
5. Embrace constraints.
If you don’t have enough time/money/people/experience, it’s a blessing.
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. You’ll be amazed at what you can make with just a little. Not enough is not real. It provides a place for creativity, innovation, experiment, excellence, and a lot more opportunities.
6. Meetings are toxic
The author said meetings are the worst interruption. Avoid meeting to be more productive. The author describes meetings to be abstract concepts, not real things.
If at all you need to conduct a meeting, make sure to make it short and result oriented. Have a clear agenda. Invite a few people as per necessity. And don’t forget to watch the time.
7. Don’t be a hero
You can do everything alone. If you are stuck with some work and already invested a lot of time in it, you need to stop. Working on it is with no productivity is stupidity. Instead, you can take help from others. You will also get a fresh perspective towards completing the task. Sometimes, quitting more important to be relevant.
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. So, you need not be the hero at times.
My Favorite Section:
I really liked the way the author has explained the complex problems in a much simpler way. With the creative headline and relatable images, he is able to pour in the thoughts correctly in the reader’s mind. The author has not only mentioned his experience but also shared the examples of other companies.
Sharing their personal experiences and creating learnings out of them. It is resourceful for all future businesses. It’s time you learn the best business practices from the experts.
Recommendation:
It’s an unconventional book for unconventional people. If you think differently and believe in your ideas this book is for you.
This book is for all the dreamers who are continuously urged of starting something of their own. It’s also for the young entrepreneurs who need a different approach to run their businesses.
This book is a guide for those who are stuck in their regular jobs and wish to start their own business. You can start a business on the side while keeping your day job which can meet your monthly expenses.
Rework will definitely make you rethink and rework to achieve your goals. Hoping this rework book review will nudge you to grab it now.
About the author of the book:
Jason Fried is the founder and president of 37signals, a web-based software development company. His motto is to help small companies by getting things done the easy way. 37signals’ simple but powerful collaboration tools include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard.
David Heinemeier Hansson is a programmer and the creator of the popular Ruby on Rails web development framework and the Instiki wiki. He is also a partner at the web-based software development firm Basecamp.
Read: 10 Lessons by Jack Ma on Life, Success, and Entrepreneurship.
Quotes from the book:
“Until you actually start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea.”
“Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it.”
“Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.”
Rating: 5/5
It’s time to wake up the entrepreneur inside you. Grab this book and get started. Comment and let me know if this rework book review helped you.
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