This book goes against most ‘perceived wisdom’ and business advice. Written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson from 37signals, this is NOT a dry how-to guide. It is a collection of short, pithy opinions & suggested ways of working for small businesses - and which have definitely worked for 37signals. The contents are organised into 12 categories including: Productivity; Progress; Go; Competitors; and Evolution - this is a very quick read, especially as each short chapter is preceded by a full page graphic.
As an avid reader and owner of several business books (300 and counting), I have often struggled to understand why I need to follow some of the traditional processes and advice in my one-person business. This book confirms my unspoken thoughts and tells me I don’t have to do a lot of that stuff! Keeping things simple and applying liberal doses of common-sense are recurring themes, mixed together with solid ideas & some golden nuggets for small business success.
My only complaint about the book is that it wasn’t long enough! With so many pages of images, I reached the end of the book before I was ready. Some of the points could have been explained in a little more depth (a few came in at under a page long). But you can probably tell I’m scratching around for something to find that I don’t like about the book.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step how to guide, with graphs, figures and tables, you won’t find them in this book. But if you want short bursts of inspiration, fresh-thinking and common-sense, there’s a lot of each packed into 270 pages. Because of the short chapters, it’s an ideal book to carry around and dip into whenever you have an unexpected 5 minutes to fill.
ReWork: Change the Way You Work Forever
(affiliate link) has been added to my ‘must read’ list for business owner clients.
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