Month: March 2010

I had a very productive day today and am happy to say I got through reading Rework which I really enjoyed.  Below are my notes from the book:

1. Ignore the real world
   1. Don’t listen when others say something can’t be done.
2. Failure is not a rite of passage
   1. With so much failure in the air, you can’t help but breath it in.  Don’t inhale. Don’t get fooled by the stats. Other people’s failures are just that: other people’s failures.
3. Planning is guessing
   1. Unless you’re a fortune teller, long-term business planning is a fantasy. They’re just too many factors that are out of your hands: market conditions, competitors, customers, the economy, etc.  Running a plan makes you feel in control of things you can’t actually control.  Why don’t we just call plans what they really are: guesses.  Start your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans and strategic guesses.  They just aren’t worth the stress.  When you turn your guesses in the plans, you enter a danger zone.  Plans let the past try the future. They put the blinders on you.  “This is where we’re going because, well, that’s where  we said we were going.”
4. Why grow?
   1. 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 find
      people, damaging morale, and changing the entire way you do business.  Don’t be insecure about being mean to be a small business. Anyone who runs the business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small, should be proud.
5. Workaholism
   1. Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it’s stupid. Working doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. You just need you work more.  Workaholics miss the point, too. You try to fix problems by throwing sure towers at them. To try to make up for intellectual laziness with brute force. This results in elegant solutions.  Workaholics are heroes. They don’t save the day, just use it up. The real hero is already home because they figured out a faster way to get things done.
6. Be a starter!
   1. 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, the fancy suit, a briefcase, or an above average tolerance for risk.  You just need an idea, the touch of confidence, and a push to get started.
7. Make a dent in the universe!
   1. If you’re going to do something, do something that matters.
8. Scratch your own itch.
   1. The easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use.
9. Start making something
   1. We all know that that one friend who says I had the idea for eBay. Only had they acted on it, they’d be a billionaire! That logic is pathetic and delusional.  Having the idea for eBay has nothing to do with actually creating eBay. What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan.  The most important thing is to begin. Ideas are cheap and plentiful.  The real question is how well you will execute.
10. No time is no excuse
    1. The most common excuse people give is there’s not enough time. They claimed they love to start a company, learn an instrument, market and invention, write a book, or whatever, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day.
11. Live it or leave it!
    1. Imagine you’re standing in a rental car office. The rooms cold. The carpet is dirty. There’s no one at the counter. And then you see a tattered piece of paper with some clip  rt at the top of it came to a bulletin board. Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it.
12. You need a commitment strategy not an exit strategy
    1. Building to flip is building to flop. Embrace constraints
13. Stop whining
    1. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantageous in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. Here’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative. Ever seen what a prisoner can do with a spoon?  They make do witch what they’ve got.
14. You’re better off with a kick ass half than a half ass whole.
    1. Ignore the details early on.  Architects don’t worry about which tiles go in the shower or which brand of dishwasher to install in the kitchen until after the floor plan is finalized. They know it’s better to decide these details later. You need to approach your idea the same way. Details make the difference. But getting infatuated with details to early leads to disagreement, meetings, and delays.
15. Reasons to quit
    1. Why are you doing this?
    2. Is this actually useful?
    3. Are you adding value?
    4. Will this change behavior?
    5. Is there an easier way?
    6. What could you be doing instead?
16. Focus on what won’t change
    1. A lot of companies focus on the next big thing. That’s a fool’s path.  Focus on things that people are going to want today and 10 years from now. Those are things that you should invest in.
17. Interruption is the enemy of productivity
    1. 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 reasons and options. Getting into the zone takes time and requires avoiding interruptions. It’s like REM sleep: you don’t just go directly into REM sleep. You go to sleep first and then make your way to REM. Any interruptions force you start over.
18. Nobody likes plastic flowers
    1. The business world is full of professionals who wear the uniform can try to seem perfect. In truth, they just come off as stiff and boring.
    2. No one can relate to people like that.  Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. It’s why we like real flowers the will, not perfect plastic ones that never change. Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you really like, warts and all. There is a beauty to imperfection.
    3. Drug dealers get it right.  Drug dealers are astute business people. They know the 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. Don’t be afraid to give a little away for free as long as you got something else to sell. Be confident in what you’re offering. You should know that people will come back for more. If you’re not talking about that, you having for the strong enough products.
19. You don’t create a culture
    1. You don’t create a culture. It happens. This is my new companies don’t have a culture. Culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior. If you encourage people to share, ensuring will be built in your culture.  If you award trust, and trust. We built in. If you treat customers right, treating customers right becomes your culture.
20. They are not 13
    1. When you treat people as children, you get children’s work. Yet that’s exactly how a lot of companies and managers treat employees. Employees need to ask permission before they can do anything. They need to get approval for every time you expenditure. It surprising you don’t have to get a hall pass to go take a poop.  When everything consistently needs approval, you credit culture of non-thinkers. Y
    2. What you do gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social networking site are watching YouTube while at work? You gain nothing.  That time does it magically convert to work till just find some other diversion.  And look, you’re not going to get up for eight hours a day of people anyways. That’s a minute. They might be at the office for errors, but I’m not actually working hours. People need diversions. It helped disrupt the monotony of the workday. Little YouTube or Facebook time
       never hurt anyone.
21. Forget about formal education
    1. There are companies out there who have educational requirements. They only hire people with a college degree or advanced degree or a certain GPA or certification of some sort or some other requirements. Come on.  They’re 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. 90% of CEOs currently heading the top 500 American companies did not receive undergraduate degrees from Ivy League colleges. In fact more received undergrad degrees from University Wisconsin than from Harvard.
22. How to teach your competition
    1. Teaching isn’t something your competitors are even thinking about. Most businesses focus on selling or servicing, but teaching never even occurs to them. Teach and your form a bond you just don’t get from traditional marketing tactics.
    2. Buying people’s attention with a magazine or online banner ad is one thing. Earning their loyalty by teaching them forms for different connection. Don’t trust you more. The respect you more.
23. Meetings are toxic
    1. The worse interruptions of all are meetings.
       1. Here’s why:
          1. You’re usually about words and abstract concepts not real things
          2. They usually convey in a of information for minutes
          3. They require thorough preparation that most people don’t have time for.
          4. They usually have agendas so vague that nobody is really sure the goal.
          5. Meetings procreate. One meeting leads to another to another to another
          6. It’s also unfortunate meetings are typically schedule like TV shows.  You set aside 30 minutes or an hour because that’s a scheduling software works. Too bad. It only takes seven minutes of competent meetings call, then that’s all the time you should spend.
          7. Don’t stretch seven minute meetings to 30.