Rework

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3 Sentence Summary

This book is a field manual for better, faster, and more productive ways to work and succeed in business. Rework flies in the face of conventional corporate strategy and suggests ideas like it’s better to ignore the competition, work regular hours, and that you need less (not more) to get ahead. Simple to read, inspiring, and practical, Rework is for entrepreneurs, small business owners, or anyone who is looking for a straightforward approach to getting results.

5 Key Takeaways

1. Break down big projects until you know what needs to be accomplished this week.
2. Forget about the details at the start. Focus on what people really care about.
3. When you’re new to something, the most important thing is to start building. Momentum fuels motivation.
4. Don’t wait around for perfection. Make a decision and move forward.
5. Share what you know generously and out-teach the competition.

Rework Summary

Takedowns

• Learning from mistakes is overrated
• Planning is guessing. Plans are inconsistent with improvisation
• Give up on the guesswork. Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out the next most important thing and do that
• Workaholics make the people who don’t stay late feel inadequate for merely working reasonable hours
• The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done

Go

• Do you want to build just another “me too” product or do you want to shake things up? What you do is your legacy. Don’t sit around and wait for someone else to make the change you want to see. And don’t think it takes a huge team to make that difference either.
• When you’re new at something, you need to start creating. The most important thing is to begin.
• When you want something bad enough, you make the time regardless of your other obligations. The truth is most people just don’t want it bad enough. Then they protect their ego with the excuse of time.
• Standing for something isn’t just about writing it’s down. It’s about believing it and living it.
• A business without a path to profit isn’t a business, it’s a hobby
• You need a commitment strategy, not an exit strategy
• Embrace the idea of having less mass. Right now, you’re the smallest, the leanest, and the fastest you’ll ever be.

Progress

• Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that’s forces you to be creative.
• Build half a product, not a half-assed product
• The stuff you have to do is where you should begin. Start at the epicenter
• Ignore the details early on. Details make the difference. But getting infatuated with details too early leads to disagreement, meetings, and delays.
• Commit to making decisions. Don’t wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.
• Long projects zap morale. Make the call, make progress, and get something out now.
• Be a curator. Stick to what is truly important.
• Focus on what won’t change. Fashion fades away. When you focus on permanent features, you’re in bed with things that will never go out of style.
• People use equipment as a crutch. They’re looking for a shortcut.
• The best way to get there is through iterations. Stop imagining what’s going to work. Find out for real.

Productivity

• Do everything you can to remove layers of abstraction. Abstractions create illusions of agreement.
• Cool wears off. Useful never does.
• Interruption is the enemy of productivity
• Good enough is fine. Find Judo solutions, those that delivers maximum efficiency with minimum effort. Problems can usually be solved with simple, mundane, solutions. Remember you can usually turn good enough into great later.
• Momentum fuels motivation. The longer it takes, the less likely that it is you’re going to finish it.
• Ask yourself, what can we do in 2 weeks? And then do it.
• What distinguishes people who are 10 times more effective than the norm is not that they work 10 times as hard; it’s that they use their creativity to come up with solutions that require 1/10 of the effort.
• Your estimates suck. Keep breaking your time frames down into smaller chunks.
• Long list don’t get done. Whenever you can, divide problems into smaller and smaller pieces until you’re able to deal with them completely and quickly.
• Prioritize visually. Put the most important thing at the top

Competitors

• Decommoditize your product. Inject what’s unique about the way you think into what you sell.
• Under-do your competition. Do less than your competitors to beat them.
• Who cares what they’re doing? Focus on yourself instead. What’s going on in here is way more important than what’s going on out there

Evolution

• Start getting into the habit of saying no, even too many of your best ideas.
• Your goal is to make sure your product stays right for you
• Let your customers outgrow you. Scaring away new customers is worse than losing old customers.

Promotion

• Out-teach your competition. Instead of trying to outspend, outsell, or out sponsor competitors, try to out-teach them.
• Nobody likes plastic flowers. don’t be afraid to show your flaws. There is beauty to imperfection.

Hiring 

• Never hire anyone to do a job until you’ve tried to do it yourself first.
• Pass on great people. Problems start when you have more people than you need
• Hire managers of one. You want someone who’s capable of building something from scratch and seeing it through
• Hire great writers

Damage Control

• The number one principle to keep in mind when you apologize: how would you feel about the apology if you were on the other end? If someone said those words to you, would you believe them?
• Take a deep breath. Sometimes we need to go ahead with the decision you believe in, even if it’s unpopular at first. Make sure you don’t foolishly backpedal on a necessary but controversial decision

Culture 

• You don’t create a culture. Culture is the byproduct of consistent behavior.
• Decisions are temporary. Optimize for now and worry about the future later.
• Build a rock star environment. Great environments show respect for the people who do the work and how they do it.
• Write to be read, don’t write just to write
• ASAP is poison. When you request things ASAP all the time you turn everything into a high priority. And if everything is high priority, then nothing is the priority.

More Books Like Rework

If you enjoyed Rework, then check out these similar book summaries:

• The E-Myth Revisited
• The Lean Startup
• The Great CEO Within
• The Pursuit of WOW!
• Profits Aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing

Blog Posts Inspired By Rework

These are the posts I’ve written that build upon some of the key ideas presented in Rework.

• Start now because great ideas alone are useless
• Decide and move forward
• Embrace constraints
• Harness the power of quick wins
• Plan for today
• Be okay with good enough
• Communication requires effort
• Get more sleep
• Learn from success
• Start at the epicenter
• Get results working reasonable hours
• Interruption is the enemy of productivity