ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever

by Jason Fried

Pass on hiring people you don’t need, even if you think that person’s a great catch. You’ll be doing your company more harm than good if you bring in talented people who have nothing important to do.

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. —MARK TWAIN

With a small team, you need people who are going to do work, not delegate work. Everyone’s got to be producing. No one can be above the work.

Managers of one are people who come up with their own goals and execute them. They don’t need heavy direction. They don’t need daily check-ins.

If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position, hire the best writer. It doesn’t matter if that person is a marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever; their writing skills will pay off.

Geography just doesn’t matter anymore. Hire the best talent, regardless of where it is.

Some people sound like pros but don’t work like pros. You need to evaluate the work they can do now, not the work they say they did in the past. The best way to do that is to actually see them work. Hire them for a miniproject,

Customers are so used to canned answers, you can really differentiate yourself by answering thoughtfully and showing that you’re listening.

How to say you’re sorry There’s never really a great way to say you’re sorry, but there are plenty of terrible ways.

One of the worst ways is the non-apology apology, which sounds like an apology but doesn’t really accept any blame.

A good apology accepts responsibility. It has no conditional if phrase attached. It shows people that the buck stops with you.

That’s why they often have chefs work out front as waiters for a stretch. That way, the kitchen staff can interact with customers and see what it’s actually like on the front lines.

Everyone on your team should be connected to your customers—maybe not every day, but at least a few times throughout the year.

You don’t create a culture. It happens. This is why new companies don’t have a culture. Culture is the by-product of consistent behavior.

Don’t make up problems you don’t have yet. It’s not a problem until it’s a real problem. Most of the things you worry about never happen anyway. Besides, the decisions you make today don’t need to last forever.

When you treat people like children, you get children’s work. Yet that’s exactly how a lot of companies and managers treat their employees. Employees need to ask permission before they can do anything. They need to get approval for every tiny expenditure.

Don’t create a policy because one person did something wrong once. Policies are only meant for situations that come up over and over again.

Whenever you write something, read it out loud. Does it sound the way it would if you were actually talking to someone? If not, how can you make it more conversational?

There are four-letter words you should never use in business. They’re not fuck or shit. They’re need, must, can’t, easy, just, only, and fast. These words get in the way of healthy communication.

These four-letter words often pop up during debates (and also watch out for their cousins: everyone, no one, always, and never). Once uttered, they make it tough to find a solution.

When you turn into one of these people who adds ASAP to the end of every request, you’re saying everything is high priority. And when everything is high priority, nothing is. (Funny how everything is a top priority until you actually have to prioritize things.)

WE ALL HAVE ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn’t last forever is inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.