In efforts to constantly rethink business, someone in the office is always reading a business book for inspiration.

My choice? Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Rework. Dan read it too. And Joe, well, he’s on round two.

Fried and Hansson are brilliant. Pure and simple.

Truly one of the more inspiring books I’ve picked up. Ever. They’ve got a kickass company called 37 Signals. Their company started out doing web design, but in the process, started selling tools for other small businesses. Essentially, they started selling byproducts of their product. Henry Ford did the same thing. Byproduct from fires used to make cars – charcoal. Started Kingsford. Long story short, ol’ Henry did alright for himself.

Anyway, some of my favorite excerpts/takeaways from the book…

  • “They say you need to sell to the Fortune 500. Screw that. We sell to the Fortune 5,000,000.”
  • Don’t learn from your mistakes. Learn from your success. It’s how nature works. Think about evolution.
  • “Working more doesn’t mean you care more or get more done. It just means you work more.”
  • “You don’t have to live with a decision forever. If you make a mistake, you can correct it later.”
  • It’s the stuff that you leave out that makes something great. Think about an art museum. If they put all the art in the world on their walls, they’d suck. They’d be a warehouse. But, because they’re selective, and only include the stuff that is great, they’re great.
  • Tone is in your fingers. “Give Tiger Woods a set of cheap clubs and he’ll still destroy you.”
  • Be streamlined. Trim fat. “If you had to launch your business in two weeks, what would you cut out?”
  • “Cool wears off. Useful never does.”
  • “Too much ketchup can ruin the fries. Value is about balance.”
  • “Is this meeting really worth pulling six people off their work for an hour?”
  • Get enough sleep.
  • Pick a fight. Have an enemy. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter waged war in their product name.
  • “What’s the point of worrying about things you can’t control?”
  • “You rarely regret saying no. But you often regret saying yes.”
  • Marketing is not a department. It’s everything you do.
  • Hire to kill pain.
  • “We all know resumes are a joke.”
  • “Writing is today’s currency for good ideas.”
  • “Artificial culture is paint. Real culture is patina.”
  • “What do you gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social-networking site or watching YouTube while at work? You gain nothing. That time doesn’t magically convert to work. They’ll just find some other diversion.”
  • Don’t think more hours. Think better hours.
  • Kill “ASAP”. It’s stupid. It doesn’t make sense. It’s poisonous to company culture and workflow.

So, get inspired. Read Rework ASAP. Thanks for tumbling.