"You don't need an MBA, a certificate, a fancy suit, a briefcase, or an above-average tolerance for risk. You just need an idea, a touch of confidence, and a push to get started."
- Rework, page 28
"The real world isn't a place, it's an excuse. It's a justification for not trying."- Rework, page 14
There’s a new business paradigm, admits 37Signals. They thrive because they did what many people were afraid to do: Ignore the real world. This sole conviction is the most powerful takedown from which the rest of book springs forth.
What is the “real world?” It’s the common ailment that many business starters hear from business dinosaurs, or even friends and family. It’s the realm of automatic doubt against any new idea. Yours included. 37Signals wastes no time in defining “the real world” as a place where “new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose.”
How do you start a business today? You first start by not believing this place called the real world.
“The real world may be real for them, but it doesn’t mean you have to live in it.”
37Signals have defied the real world by doing many things that can scare traditional businesses: They’ve intentionally stayed lean and small. They’ve attracted millions of customers without salespeople or advertising. They’ve forgone long-term planning and estimates. They’ve preferred to out-teach competitors, rather than outsell or outspend. They’ve lived by their own anti-real world advice and still remain profitable today.
"What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan."- Rework, page 38
When you can bravely ignore the real world, you can ditch the assumptions:
If this is really your life’s work, what’s wrong with starting, creating, and co-creating with what you have, right now? Can’t you start small and grow along the way?
What 37Signals advocates is casting away excuses: What’s good enough so that you can simply get started, or even launch?
When you estimate and plan down to every detail, you’re really guessing. When you seek outside money, you’re likely to give up control. When you limit talent only to resumes and formal education, you miss the discovery of talent everywhere else. When you wait for inspiration, or the “right time,” neither seem to stick around for long.
Ideas are plentiful. Inspiration is extinguishable. Anyone can have an idea, but what matters is what you do and how well you execute.
“Until you start making something, your brilliant idea is just that, an idea. And everyone’s got one of those.”
There’s also the idea of aiming for less mass and avoiding growth for the sake of growth. Some big companies wish to be leaner and more flexible, but can’t, since they’ve sealed their fate with tech lock-ins, excess staff, long-term contracts and unforeseeable road maps. If they try to make critical changes, it can take years. They wind up talking, meeting, but not doing.
How much do you really need? Start out lean, keep mass low. Good enough is just fine. That way, you have room to improvise. It’s easier to execute decisions regarding your product line and feature sets, when you come to work expecting to adapt and change. You can make mistakes, fix them quickly, and simply get on with it.
"Standing for something isn't about just about writing it down. It's about believing it and living it."- Rework, page 48
The world is populated by some truly inspiring companies; companies we can learn from and emulate. But, (sadly) the world is also loaded with some uninspiring, Jurassic era, legacy companies that may appear healthy, but are actually rotting from the inside. You might’ve worked for one of them.
37Signals points out the common flaws from these doomed companies:
The Rework guys demonstrate that a lot of these negative effects can actually hinder good intentions. One of those intentions – the ideas of hiring “Rockstars” to build reputation and credibility – can completely backfire. “Instant culture” isn’t possible. Not in a lasting way, at any rate. Real cultures develop through time and consistent behavior. There’s nothing wrong with Rockstars… but grow them, don’t necessarily hire for them. Start with your environment. A talented team can’t thrive if the work environment is poisonous to begin with.
“Rockstar environments develop out of trust, autonomy, and responsibility. They’re a result of giving people the privacy, workspace, and tools they deserve.”
Everyone’s capable of great work, not just rockstars, ninjas, or jedis. Rockstar environments emerge when you detox the work environment and give employees what they deserve. Get rid of mere order delegators and phony policies that create nothing meaningful but illusions of control and agreement.
“Culture is action, not words.”
And communicate for real.
There’s more in the book about growing, nurturing, and thriving as a business: Better ways to handle competitors. Better ways to hire. Better ways to make progress. Better ways to evolve your product, service, and even your team. But ignoring excuses and fearful justifications always come first. Rework is a potent reminder that, to build a great business today, you have to take down the past.
You can rework and redefine the real world. Just get going and start creating. You need less than you think.
