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I've been working on the other side of the fence for the last 18 months as an EIR for a local VC fund.
Previously I started several companies and those that I found most rewarding were the one's where I knew I could start making money and control my destiny in the first month.
I have seen so many young entrepreneurs and intelligent, experienced engineers come through the door with "great products that will change the way people and businesses function" and most of them fail. They fail because the mentality towards what a business should be and how it should be run is different now. Years ago when you opened a business you had fixed costs and you hustled each month to cover bills and grow so that you could do more than just cover bills soon. Technology is not an industry, in my opinion, it is a tool that is used to make an industry more efficient and effective... now I know this means that the production of these tools in an industry, but how many companies today really create tools and how many create cool crap that is dead in 6 months?
Investors use terms like "sexy" and "viral" and 22 year old CEOs use buzz terms like scalable, robust and enterprise but there is no meat to anything anyone is saying. No one asks "how do you make money, how quickly, how much, what are your CPCA..." oh and 22 and you are a CEO... really... get over yourself...
The illusion of success, the delusion of being the next Zuckerberg... are we fostering great minds or setting the next generation up for failure and dissapointment?
I could write about this forever, but will leave by saying that I hope that together people like you and I can help teach the next generation that business is not about being rich or famous, it is about providing a valuable service that someone is willing to pay for.
And to those who didn't enjoy it - thanks for sharing your thoughts too. There are lots of different ways to work, lots of ways to get things done. My way is one way, yours may be another. At the end of the day, whatever works for you (and your team) is what you should do. Don't be like anyone else - be yourself.
But hopefully this article will encourage people to approach work with an open mind. You may be surprised to find out that what you thought would never work ends up being a pretty natural way to work after all.
http://readcrumbs.blogspot.com/2009/12/38th-sig...
I'd like to experiene a pay day at a company with these philosphies. And by "pay day" I mean bonus round.
I'd also like to see a company like this do business with a company with similar philosphies. Are they tolerant of the internal needs of that business over the needs of their people?
Basically, if there was a "company fantasy league" I wouldn't trade my team.
I don't read fiction. I find it a waste of time. There are so many amazing things that are real; I don't need to spend any time on a made-up story.
HOUSE IS A MADE-UP STORY, TOO, GUY.
I have limited time to read so I choose to read non-fiction. Not dismissing fiction for anyone else - I just prefer to spend my reading time learning things that are real. So many amazing real/true stories out there. The world is an incredible place.
Kidding, fair enough. I go through phases myself. Plus, when you're
ready for real truth & beauty, fiction will still be waiting for you.
WINNK!
I totally agree. It all comes down to getting the work done. So many people say, "He got here at 7 am and will be here til 8pm. What a great worker." People somehow tie how many hours somebody works in the office as productivity.
Also, meetings suck. My last job, we had a 2 hour long meeting each monday at 5:30pm. we'd spend all day getting ready for it. the information required rarely had any impact on any other team members, and the "boss" never really used the info we provided or followed up with anything during the next meetings.
They live on Ruby on Rails, which so far hasn't replaced J2EE as the web framework of pro choice. Their web applications are all done better by Google.
Anyway, even if he gets rich when his company is bought by Google, he will still be a kid with a beard and a pretentious liking for obscure tea.
I'd rather have my life.
So please, for the sake of all who prefer not to waste their time reading the comments of absent-minded trolls, discontinue your banter.
Calibrate success much? They have a business with thousands of paying subscribers, they are behind a framework that's popular with thousands of developers and they rock up to work at 10am. The fact that they aren't "beating" J2EE or Google couldn't miss the point more completely if you tried.
RoR doesn't work for everyone (me included), but it has its place.
But don't ever get married or have kids because reality will come crashing down
on your head. ;-)
So obvious, so true, yet so misunderstood by 90% of all businesses.
I don't really care about what kind of tea or tea whisk he uses or what he likes to read, but I like some of his leadership tenets.
By the way, I hear that most of their products are pretty outstandingly good, so they must be doing something right.
@JeffreyJDavis
www.jeffreyjdavis.com
However, I can tell you not a parent. When/if you are, things will be a little less relaxing -- because you have to fit all that you do in a day into the periods between when you are giving your children the attention they need, not to mention the fact that the school system still assumes the "this place/this many hours" idea and if your kids are to do well, you have to help them be there.
However, 37signals uses a model that I think helps us to live instead of simply drone. Except if you work on a hourly basis. Most of my clients would not like it if I could not tell them what I was doing all day, even though I am rarely in the office (and I have too much self-honesty to simply bill when I'm not actually working on their project) and I must make the hours.
Fast work == fewer hours == happy client == more work for me == more hours for me == average monthly take.
Personally I'd rather give them something like a set retainer for a month of iterations, I've been doing it long enough that I know roughly what it will take in time/skills etc, but the fact is that unless my clients see things your way (which most don't) then they want a more traditional billing method. Something that they are used to and understand.
If I can keep their product(s) progressing and the client happy then I feel I'm doing what they are paying me for. Tracking those hours is not a big deal and they end up pretty much the same over a month anyway, even though I may not work every day (which proves your point).
The whole point of working the way I do is that my time is my own. I define when and where I work, as long as the work gets done... which brings me very close to your own typical day :)
Those of us in our armchairs have a shitload of lessons to learn if we want to run a company and live a life like Jason's.
I regret the 5 minutes i spent on this PR blurb
Regret your wasted time on your own time.
Greetings from Romania.
That said....what's the best way to use those 20-30 minute intervals between meetings if you can't eliminate the meetings? I'm using those blocks for email, reading blog posts and unstructured time etc. Thoughts?
i thought it was pretty insightful. at first glance one could read it as self-indulgent and 'douche-iness' (@April Mohr) but it's really more along the lines of one that is content with himself and simply honest about it.
Well done Jason (congrats on the company), now get yourself a woman!
It's even more douche-like to insult his personality and way of doing things for no reason other than that it is different than your own... or heaven forbid — better. I for one completely agree with him. 40 hour work weeks suck. They are a colossal waste of time and energy. I've worked in both environments, in his industry and area (chicago area web work). People waste time like crazy when you treat them like animals or machines and lock them up in a box for 40 hours. It's human nature. When you tell them they can go do something they truly enjoy after their work for the day is finished, they are bound to have exponentially more motivation to get the job done. Corporate culture has never realized these basic principles of human activity. I've seen people spend hundreds of hours on a project in a corporate environment, only to accomplish the same amount of work in 2 hours or less in an open schedule and location-flexible job. Jason's philosophy is real-life and spot on.
however, i dont his overall model of work is viable in most business environnments. people by and large need a structured work day. meetings are usually a necessity. it is when they become too common place that they hinder productivity. making sure everyone is on the same page a couple of times a week is a great way to decrease wasted work hours.
Thank you Jason for staying late and answering every question our students had, sharing what you've learned over the years, and inspiring everyone who meets you, which I had the pleasure to do.
I wish you continued success,
Vicky
P.S. Since you have been a fellow Wisconsinite for a while and know how lovely our state is, I had hoped we could schedule a nice, relaxing road trip for you say.... beginning/mid February. The snow is beautiful as you drive and we'd love to have you speak again. All our students who heard you speak previously have graduated and we'd love to have you back to inspire our students again!
I'd like to see an automobile or something more complicated than a stupid iPhone app engineerind with web-based tools. Don't bother retorting, that's what I do, these big things.
It's like everyone else who thinks the web and the internet is the answer to your dreams. What are you going to do when you have to start charging for it. It does NOT do anything for interpersonal skills. Like all the kids on the bus, looking at their stupid cell phone to see who just called them, and they just checked 5 minutes ago. They wear their iPods like an old man wears a colostemy (sp.) bag.
Want to know why we have 10 percent unemployment, becasue of attitudes like this.
Good luck, you'll probably go the way of e-vitamins and home grocery delivery.
Young on-line gameplaying goobs made money (even millions) on selling on-line game money and character upgrades or additions- so much so they ended up having Chinese/Korean/Indian sweatshops of game players playing just to harvest point upgrades.
The point is that, while we can agree this guy may fall on the goob end of the spectrum, he is making cash out of something that didn't exist 20 years ago. When I read about a teen girl making boatloads money via profile theme designs, I found out that there is huge potential in this market for even minor stuff as long as you can develop it free or nearly free and sell it for a price. Like it or not- people are getting rich on nothingness other than digital pixels and code...
Also don't forget the entrepenurship ideal of charging everything off as a business expense. Company provided car, personal laptop/computer at home, home internet connection, write off, write off, everthing is a write off/business expense, the company vacation places that to which employees are dragged off, even personal travel as long as you can work in a speaking event or trade show attendance...
He says:
"We rarely have meetings. I hate them. They're a huge waste of time, and they're costly. It's not one hour; it's 10, because you pulled 10 people away from their real work."
then says:
"We have a catered lunch every Thursday that everyone in the Chicago office is encouraged to attend, because we don't see each other very often."
So what is it? Employees are always on the group chat tool yet you have an ~encouraged~ "free lunch" once a week- sounds like a meeting to most people but multitasked with eating.
And vacations with coworkers is cool for the young, single, hip crowd but the question is how many family members are hosted? He might need to rethink that if some folks are leaving their children and significant other home to attend the company vacation.
I'll tell you when I wake up, how I wake up, and what I like to eat in the morning. I'll also tell you about how I've been extremely successful within my industry, and why that is. I'll also tell you of the very famous people that have used the services my organization has developed, and I'll tell you why that's important to everyone thinking about business.
Jason, congratulations on all your success and your thoughtfulness about not only what you are doing but how you should do it. I understand why people are rubbed the wrong way by your success. Luckily, it will remain THEIR problem, though.
I did find one thing amusing: Mr. Fried refuses to read fiction because it is a waste of time, yet watches American Idol. What an odd statement from a self-proclaimed creative person.
Apparently I'm not the only one.
It's amazing that there are so many people who feel the need to express vehement negativity after reading something like this -- it is not a model that will work for everyone nor is it meant to be.
He isn't trying to force you to do something different -- you can stick to your Java or 8 to 5 or the Steve Jobs-like domination of the workforce or the Microsoft-like throw-money-at-it-or-buy-it approach to business if you want.
It is simply something that works for Jason/37signals and may work for you or it may not.
If I was in charge of 37signals right now I'd be focusing on just one product. Simple designs are easy to copy. Complex systems are not. I think 37signals needs more than just a great work schedule. It needs a sufficiently complex product (or a product mix sufficiently inter-woven) which if bought today, will not be substituted for with trivial ease in 2 years' time.
I hope that everyone (within reason, I would hate for an emergency surgeon to show up late) gets to experience this type of freedom with their schedule at some point in their life.
Now if you told us WHY... that would probably be slightly more insightful...
Respond to your clients. Be the first AND the best to respond to them. The world moves fast, a 10 or 11am start time is about 3-4 hours too late in a local economy. Think about that on a global scale...no one is waiting for you.
"shooting down many of your customers suggestions". - Is that the attitude going in, or is it result of a product that just attracts customers with bad ideas?
jdoria
and in response to the 2nd comment is also in line with the above said scenario, just going after customer's backside to get some cheap money while the rest of the world can do the same job in better way but did not get the project becoz yours sold the work cheap,
when you develop some products that is entirely diff from the rest, customer oriented in the first place, they would understand if you turn some ideas down...
For non-client facing staff, I could care less when they do their jobs. As long as they are done on time, and done correctly, its a non-issue.
Clien-facing staff - Dont think you are the only game in town. You never are.
For the record - To pay someone 12 time zones away 1/3rd the money to produce ¼ the results achieved locally is something that company leaders should be publically bludgeoned for. Outsourcing doesn’t work as its documented. Angry consumers just get tired and stop complaining about it, effectively appearing as a success for outsourcing. Have you ever heard, “Gee that call with my bank/ cell phone provider/ credit card / software developer went so well”…
Matthew Barron - "the whole "eight hours a day no matter what" is a thing of the past."
Right on brother - but unless you are the pinnacle of timing, ingenuity, and communication, you will never stay on top. There is always competiton biting at your heels.
http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Success-Behind-U...
This is I think 15th time I come back to read the bits...Just wished to congratulate Jason on this cool philosophy put in practice! I wish I can implement at least something in my business.
Do you ever come to Europe to speak? Anywhere? If I happen to organize a conference in Serbia, how to invite you? :)
Also, I started using Basecamp only few months ago and I very much like the tool!! All the best.
I've spoken in Europe a few times, but not recently. After REWORK (our next book) is out next year I may head to Europe for some speaking gigs to support the book.
Drop me an email at jason@37signals... and let me know about your conference. I can't make any guarantees, but I'll consider any invitation. Thanks again.
:-)
really nice piece
greets from brazil