Title: Rework
Author: Jason Fried and David Hansson
There are quite a few books that I cannot wait to receive through the post as soon as I make the order for them, and REWORK was one such book.
Hailed as the ‘Business Book’ for entrepreneurs, REWORK challenges traditional business rules that have governed businesses for much of the past century.
Simple, blunt, and filled with counter intuitive ideas that actually make sense, I couldn’t put the book down and was able to finish it in less than a day. Here are three concepts that struck me:
1. Planning is guessing:
The authors of the book argue that business planning is simply a fantasy and that there are too many factors that are out of your hand to actual plan anything accurately. I thought back to my own ‘plans’ which were simply guesses and compared them to reality which turned out to be drastically different. The authors still recommend that you should have some kind of a plan, but don’t let that plan blind you from pursuing other opportunities.
2. Scratch your own itch:
According to the authors, “the easiest, most straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use”. This is very true and it’s an extension of the famous proverb, “Necessity is the mother of inventions”. I personally have learned to never create a website, product, or service that I myself would not use.
3. Inspiration is Perishable:
“We all have ideas… what doesn’t last forever is inspiration. That expires. If you want to do something, do it now… you can’t put it on the shelf for 2 months and expect to come back to it with the same energy”. We have all been through this experience – a fabulous idea pops into our mind and we’re so enthused; for various reasons, we end up pushing the idea to the back of our minds for a month or two; then, when we revisit that same idea, we don’t have that same energy for it and then proceed to completely abandon the idea. ProductiveMuslim.com was born out of inspiration, and if I hadn’t stumbled out of bed at 4:30am to register the domain name and write my first blog piece, I don’t think ProductiveMuslim would have ever come into existence.
Those are just a few of the ideas in the book, and REWORK contains a lot more advice on productivity and life in general. The ideas are not ground-breaking, but due to their clarity and simplicity, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the field of entrepreneurship, business and productivity.
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