4 ms·

There's a Better Way To Start a Company. Step One: Don't Work Too Hard.

28 points by robg 17y ago

thaumaturgy 17y ago
It's just another 37signals love-fest. Y'know, I like 37signals as much as the next person. I thought DHH gave a great talk at Startup School a couple of years ago. But, what made his talk great wasn't so much the business development strategy he was talking about, it was that he was advocating a different way of doing things in the middle of a bunch of people repeating each-other. "The 37signals Way" suddenly becomes a lot less attractive when it's presented as the only way to do things.
- mattmaroon 17y ago
  Nobody ever sold an advice book saying "this is one of many valid ways to do things." It's the inherent flaw in advice books.
  - evanrmurphy 17y ago
    Someone needs to to write an advice book saying, "the only way to write an advice book is to present it as one of many valid ways to do things."
viggity 17y ago
from the article: As Fried and Hansson write, "The most important thing is to begin." I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. I can't tell you how many products I've begun. But after a year and half, I've finally finished a product and will start accepting paid orders tomorrow. The sense of joy is overwhelming, even if I don't make a dime off of it.
- kiba 17y ago
  I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. I disagree. The most important thing is to keep trying to iterate. If that mean starting 20 projects and seeing 19 of them fail, then so be it. I got a lot of dead projects, but there is a few project that I stick, to rain or shine. It took me years to finally start programming.(Granted, I was 14-15 years old when I started programming) Persistence is more important than finishing anything. Eventually, finishing will take care of itself as you develop pain tolerance.
- gizmo 17y ago
  > finally finished a product ... and will start accepting paid orders tomorrow Hate to say it, but you've only just begun. Your product life-cycle starts when you get your first customers, and 98% of the work is still ahead of you. But congrats. Launching is a great milestone!
- rimantas 17y ago
  I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. How do you finish something not started?
  - viggity 17y ago
    Don't get me wrong, starting is certainly important, the problem lies in that most people have a drawer full of half finished products/projects. I think this is because of the maxim: "The first 90% of a software project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% of the project takes the other 90% of the time" I personally have 9 started, yet unfinished/unreleased projects. You can't just say "oooh.... something shiny!" all the time if you want to make money. You have to finish. You have to release. And doing that is a lot harder than starting.
- HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
  I wish I had cites for this, but my observations and my understanding of human nature tell me otherwise. Most people never even start, they think idly about starting a business, complain about their lives, say how happy they would be if... In another thread a few weeks ago I posted that my friend who had started an after hours handyman business found that the biggest complaint his customers had (and what made it easy for him to get business) was that the contractors they talked to on the phone simply never showed up!
  - waterlesscloud 17y ago
    Having dealt with small construction contractors several times, it's not just that they don't show up, it's that half the time they stop showing up in the middle of the job. Just vanish. It's the weirdest thing.
kiba 17y ago
I am not too sure about this whole 37signals gurus thing. Their advice might be great, but it seem to me that it is pretty hard to do so or take a lot of work in actuality. No offense, but if you're wanna be patio, you have to work your butt by learning all sort of cool hacks, statistics, etc. 5 hours per week might seem a breeze, but it's easier said than done. But then again, I am a 18 years old who possess 1/100th of the knowledge of people like patio, and Tim Ferris...so what I think look like a huge gulf might be a pond to adults.
andrewljohnson 17y ago
Work all day and all night works for me. It's not always necessary, but sometimes it is, especially when you are first starting a company.
madair 17y ago
It's easy to criticize these guys, but I'm thankful, for one, for a company that's trying to show us alternatives to the aristocrat-themed corporate management structures that dominate commerce.
bryanh 17y ago
I bet if you interviewed a random smattering of successful business people you'd find that one consistent theme isn't that they "didn't work too hard."
- DenisM 17y ago
  Well, Jessica did just that and she wrote a book - "founders at work". Anyone who wants to find an answer to this question can just read it. My impression was that working too hard does not correlate with success.
samd 17y ago
Remember Joel's article about Amazon versus Ben & Jerry's. 37 Signals is in the Ben & Jerry's camp, and companies in that camp can take it slow because they are in an established market. Companies in the Amazon camp can't take it slow because they are in a race to dominate a new market. I think the message 37 Signals is trying to get out is that it's perfectly OK to be in the Ben & Jerry's camp and that it may be a better option for most people starting companies.
wushupork 17y ago
With anything I always come out thinking just because it worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for me. That applies to many folks and ideologies, not just 37signals. We can't all start posting pictures of funny animals and make millions of dollars or make a billboard out of a million pixels and make a million bucks.

28 points by robg 17y ago

It's just another 37signals love-fest. Y'know, I like 37signals as much as the next person. I thought DHH gave a great talk at Startup School a couple of years ago. But, what made his talk great wasn't so much the business development strategy he was talking about, it was that he was advocating a different way of doing things in the middle of a bunch of people repeating each-other. "The 37signals Way" suddenly becomes a lot less attractive when it's presented as the only way to do things.

mattmaroon 17y ago
Nobody ever sold an advice book saying "this is one of many valid ways to do things." It's the inherent flaw in advice books.
- evanrmurphy 17y ago
  Someone needs to to write an advice book saying, "the only way to write an advice book is to present it as one of many valid ways to do things."

viggity 17y ago

from the article: As Fried and Hansson write, "The most important thing is to begin." I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. I can't tell you how many products I've begun. But after a year and half, I've finally finished a product and will start accepting paid orders tomorrow. The sense of joy is overwhelming, even if I don't make a dime off of it.

kiba 17y ago
I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. I disagree. The most important thing is to keep trying to iterate. If that mean starting 20 projects and seeing 19 of them fail, then so be it. I got a lot of dead projects, but there is a few project that I stick, to rain or shine. It took me years to finally start programming.(Granted, I was 14-15 years old when I started programming) Persistence is more important than finishing anything. Eventually, finishing will take care of itself as you develop pain tolerance.
gizmo 17y ago
> finally finished a product ... and will start accepting paid orders tomorrow Hate to say it, but you've only just begun. Your product life-cycle starts when you get your first customers, and 98% of the work is still ahead of you. But congrats. Launching is a great milestone!
rimantas 17y ago
I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release. How do you finish something not started?
- viggity 17y ago
  Don't get me wrong, starting is certainly important, the problem lies in that most people have a drawer full of half finished products/projects. I think this is because of the maxim: "The first 90% of a software project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% of the project takes the other 90% of the time" I personally have 9 started, yet unfinished/unreleased projects. You can't just say "oooh.... something shiny!" all the time if you want to make money. You have to finish. You have to release. And doing that is a lot harder than starting.
HeyLaughingBoy 17y ago
I wish I had cites for this, but my observations and my understanding of human nature tell me otherwise. Most people never even start, they think idly about starting a business, complain about their lives, say how happy they would be if... In another thread a few weeks ago I posted that my friend who had started an after hours handyman business found that the biggest complaint his customers had (and what made it easy for him to get business) was that the contractors they talked to on the phone simply never showed up!
- waterlesscloud 17y ago
  Having dealt with small construction contractors several times, it's not just that they don't show up, it's that half the time they stop showing up in the middle of the job. Just vanish. It's the weirdest thing.

kiba 17y ago

I am not too sure about this whole 37signals gurus thing. Their advice might be great, but it seem to me that it is pretty hard to do so or take a lot of work in actuality. No offense, but if you're wanna be patio, you have to work your butt by learning all sort of cool hacks, statistics, etc. 5 hours per week might seem a breeze, but it's easier said than done. But then again, I am a 18 years old who possess 1/100th of the knowledge of people like patio, and Tim Ferris...so what I think look like a huge gulf might be a pond to adults.

andrewljohnson 17y ago

Work all day and all night works for me. It's not always necessary, but sometimes it is, especially when you are first starting a company.

madair 17y ago

It's easy to criticize these guys, but I'm thankful, for one, for a company that's trying to show us alternatives to the aristocrat-themed corporate management structures that dominate commerce.

bryanh 17y ago

I bet if you interviewed a random smattering of successful business people you'd find that one consistent theme isn't that they "didn't work too hard."

DenisM 17y ago
Well, Jessica did just that and she wrote a book - "founders at work". Anyone who wants to find an answer to this question can just read it. My impression was that working too hard does not correlate with success.

samd 17y ago

Remember Joel's article about Amazon versus Ben & Jerry's. 37 Signals is in the Ben & Jerry's camp, and companies in that camp can take it slow because they are in an established market. Companies in the Amazon camp can't take it slow because they are in a race to dominate a new market. I think the message 37 Signals is trying to get out is that it's perfectly OK to be in the Ben & Jerry's camp and that it may be a better option for most people starting companies.

wushupork 17y ago

With anything I always come out thinking just because it worked for you doesn't mean it's going to work for me. That applies to many folks and ideologies, not just 37signals. We can't all start posting pictures of funny animals and make millions of dollars or make a billboard out of a million pixels and make a million bucks.