Author: Jason Fried & DHH
Introduction
Breaking clichés is all what the book is about. Builds a solid perspective around how a business should be run, how a team should be built, how you need to go about making your decisions and how you need to prioritise your work and how you need to get them done.
All of the above are may sound like a usual business advice anyone throws out these days. But they are not. It is not about rebelling the conventional and contemporary thoughts around business for the sake of rebelling, they rebelled coz it is the right thing to do.
I'm glad that I started this book next to Start with Why. For moments it felt like I'm reading the part II of it.
You don't have to start this book and finish it to get its complete essence. Each topic has 1 or pages with illustrations. Read any to your liking and it will have something valuable to take out of it.
Key Takeaways
Don't start a business to compete with some. You start a business only when the problem you wanna solve or the idea behind your business intrigues you.
Never start a business with a Plan B or an Exit strategy. If you do so, you are not passionate about the very idea of starting a business.
Staying profitable is the core of any business. Not accumulating funding and expanding for the sake of burning the funding.
Staying frugal and profitable is the best thing.
Being a founder of a startup means, you don't get to sit behind and watch others play. You are the person who has the most passion on your idea. What's the point in watching it out.
Don't hire for the sake of increasing your team size. Hire only when the current team is unable to withstand the deliverables for a consistent period of atleast 4 to 6 months.
Avoid meetings that doesn't make sense. Make your point and move on.
Don't focus on adding a huge list to your To Do's. It just doesn't work that way. Work only on the most important ones that can't wait.
Don't plan for your future. In business, your success doesn't depend solely on you and you alone. You got stake holders, customers and market condition on which you have no control on. Why would you plan on something you don't have any control on.
Planning is still important. Just don't plan way ahead of your time.
You got an idea, act on it. Don't wait for customers to tell you when you need to do it or not. A mere sample size of customers in your research isn't going to be near the reality.
You don't always have to be the first one to come up with an idea. You can be the second and still win.
See your progress not in comparison to your competitors. Your only competitor is you. When you start to judge you basis your competition, your creativity and innovative will be killed as a collateral damage.
Don't spend a ton of money in marketing. The trend has changed. The way people consume content has changed. Use them to your benefit. Get out to the Social media and blog about your product. When you get a following of people who trust you. That tend to spread like a wild fire.
Find ways to reward Trust and Integrity. That will in-turn create a culture you wanna build. You don't get to build a culture with free breakfasts and funky bean bags.
Start teaching people through Youtube or Podcasts or Blogs. Teach people about the work or idea your product or company specialises in. Don't worry about your idea being stolen and used by others.
Competitors can only copy your recipe, they can never copy the YOU in your work.
You don't have to work towards beating your competition. There is room for everyone here. And everyone can succeed.
I'll close with what Seth Godin said about this book - "Ignore this book at your peril"
Happy Reading!