It’s a week later, and I’ve managed to listen to is 1.5 times, and this was quite a different animal than Crush It. Rework starts by deconstructing business as we all know it, and suggests the way we should really go about things, or at least the ways in which 37Signals did it, and did it well. We find how the philosophy behind large business practices like meetings and prolonged decision making that fail to actually get things done. We took apart the entrepreneurial misconceptions that I’ve picked up from “Startup” talk around the internet about finding someone to fund your project, and what it costs to be beholden to a process like that.
Rework tends to go for some shock statements. For instance “Emulate drug dealers” sounds ridiculous for a business book at first, but upon reflection, you find that we’re discussing a shareware or trial model or some variation of either. The focus is on light products that are easily mobile and have more focus. Items like “ASAP is Poison” talks about how our communication can be broken at work.
As someone looking to build something for himself, this book came in handy. I had been looking at things from the entrepreneurial side, which became intimidating, and maybe it didn’t fit what I really wanted to do. On a recent net@night interview, the writers mentioned that this was an intentionally short book to be reread easily. I can certainly see doing that to mull over when I would actually have to consider looking at resumes and if to hire more people. Like Crush It last week, there is an undercurrent of an idea that you’re doing something important to you, and to step up and just run with your inspiration. You don’t sit on it.
For those looking to break out on their own, I have to recommend Rework and Crush It as a sort of one two punch to get yourself motivated. This as the nuts and bolts of thinking about your venture, and Gary V’s book as a cheerleader to destroy what you need to do.