Rework Book Review

Rework is a book written by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals, a web application service company. This book is one of the first non-technical books that I have read in years and I was completely blown away by the content of this book. I have finally found a book whose philosophy on running a business is one that I can agree with whole-heartedly.

The first half of the book covers concepts for starting a business and how to be successful. From the first chapter the book sets the tone for rethinking how we think about work. The authors point out reasons why work has to be "reworked", mentioning "workaholism" their term for a culture that supports the workaholic.

The next chapter is a more inspirational chapter about getting things done and not making excuses about not having time or other excuses. The authors then go on how the current trends are to start a startup and sell it where as the authors suggest that you should build a business to have real success. This chapter ends with a section on staying thin and agile about not creating "mass" where it is not needed so that the business can stay agile and be able to adjust to the changing marketplace.

The next chapter "Progress", details how to start slow and build a quality product and not add every feature to it, but to add only a handful of features and do them correct. This chapter can really be summed up with don't half ass it, do it well.

The second half of the book covers how to maintain a business using the "Agile Philosophy". The next few chapters cover things to do to maintain a successful company. Like limiting of meetings, not over working, not trying to do it all on your own or be a "Hero".

The chapter "Competitors" has some really great ideas on how to handle competition. One example from the book is to under do the competition, where instead of a cold war of features between your self and the competition you just do less than them but do it well. I think this is a marvelous idea and should be used more often; if you just do everything the competition is doing you will have the same production.

The last few chapters cover business promotion, hiring employees, damage control, and creating a culture within your business for will lead to success.

This is a terrific book for anyone that is looking to start a business or change the way their current business is to be more agile. This should be a definite must read for anyone that is looking for the inspiration to take that plunge and start a business.