ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever

by Jason Fried

The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.

People who failed before have the same amount of success as people who have never tried at all.1 Success is the experience that actually counts.

Plans are inconsistent with improvisation.

Working without a plan may seem scary. But blindly following a plan that has no relationship with reality is even scarier.

If you’re solving someone else’s problem, you’re constantly stabbing in the dark.

Best of all, this “solve your own problem”

Hang onto it and start work on your project at night.

Don’t let yourself off the hook with excuses. It’s entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come true.

Standing for something isn’t just about writing it down. It’s about believing it and living it.

Customers move down the totem pole. You wind up building what investors want instead of what customers want.

Raising money is incredibly distracting. Seeking funding is difficult and draining. It takes months of pitch meetings, legal maneuvering, contracts, etc. That’s an enormous distraction when you should really be focused on building something great.

Start a business, not a startup

exist.” A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby.

but get creative and you’ll be amazed at what you can make with just a little.

So before you sing the “not enough” blues, see how far you can get with what you have.

Lots of things get better as they get shorter.

There’s the stuff you could do, the stuff you want to do, and the stuff you have to do. The stuff you have to do is where you should begin. Start at the epicenter. For example, if you’re opening a hot dog stand, you could worry about the condiments, the cart, the name, the decoration. But the first thing you should worry about is the hot dog. The hot dogs are the epicenter.

The way to find the epicenter is to ask yourself this question: “If I took this away,

would what I’m selling st...

epicenter. Which part of your equation can’t be removed?

Whenever you can, swap “Let’s think about it” for “Let’s decide on it.” Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.

You’re as likely to make a great call today as you are tomorrow.

You don’t have to live with a decision forever. If you make a mistake, you can correct it later.

Don’t make things worse by overanalyzing and delaying before you even get going.

The core of your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should invest in.

Getting Real,

That’s why you want to get to something real right away. That’s when you get true understanding. It’s like when we read about characters in a book—we each picture them differently in our heads. But when we actually see people, we all know exactly what they look like.

Find a judo solution, one that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort.

Even heroes need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes—someone else to give them a reality check.

Pour yourself into your product and everything around your product too: how you sell it, how you support it, how you explain it, and how you deliver it. Competitors can never copy the you in your product.

You become reactionary instead of visionary.

When you build an audience, you don’t have to buy people’s attention—they give it to you. This is a huge advantage. So build an audience. Speak, write, blog, tweet, make videos—whatever. Share information that’s valuable and you’ll slowly but surely build a loyal audience.

Then when you need to get the word out, the right people will already be listening.

Wabi-sabi values character and uniqueness over a shiny facade.

Trade the dream of overnight success for slow, measured growth.

First step: Check the cover letter. In a cover letter, you get actual communication instead of a list of skills, verbs, and years of irrelevance. There’s no way an applicant can churn out hundreds of personalized letters. That’s why the cover letter is a much better test than a resumé. You hear someone’s actual voice and are able recognize if it’s in tune with you and your company.

We’ve all seen job ads that say, “Five years of experience required.” That may give you a number, but it tells you nothing.

People are creatures of habit.

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.

You don’t need more hours; you need better hours.

Policies are organizational scar tissue.

Policies are only meant for situations that come up over and over again.

Only thirty-six words, but a hundred assumptions. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Inspiration is a magical thing, a productivity multiplier, a motivator. But it won’t wait for you. Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work.