

Work Less, Give Your Customers Less... and Succeed Like 37Signals - comatose_kid
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/06/why_37signals_works_to_one_dow.html

======
jasonfried
For the record, we don't believe our way is the only way and we've never made
that suggestion. There are a lot of ways to do a lot of things. There are lots
of ways to be successful. We just share our way.

No one is shoving anything down anyones throat. There's a lot of information
available. A lot of different points of view. It's entirely your choice what
you pay attention to, who you listen to, and what you care about.

Absorb a lot from a lot of sources. Take whatever value you find and leave the
rest behind. Your mileage will vary. We hope everyone finds their own success.

~~~
GavinB
The title of your book is "getting real." Doesn't that directly imply someone
else is not "real?" 37Signals has very strong opinions about how things ought
to be done, and evangelizes them. So far it's worked brilliantly. If you
didn't think that your way was a huge improvement, why would you have bothered
to put all the work into Rails, Basecamp, etc?

Don't back down just because people (myself included) rag on you sometimes!

------
josefresco
I'm really getting sick of not only the hype surrounding 37 Signals but the
"religion" that they shove down our throats and the media just gobbles up.

Some people need to work more than 4 days per week, actually need to hire more
people and actually need to add features to their software (and can't say "no"
to everything)

We don't all have cult like religious followers. It's like using Apple as a
guide for starting a PC business. Not exactly a formula you can apply to
everything.

~~~
webwright
37s is not to blame. They are shoving anything anywhere (as Jason says on this
thread). Nor are they saying that their "system" works for all
businesses/problems. They're just delivering a very compelling message to a
hungry audience. It's like the 4 Hour Work Week... Or Christianity (all you
have to do is ASK for forgiveness... and viola!).

It's a great story, but not a very repeatable one.

1) Step 1 - Build an enormous and rabidly loyal audience with a great blog
(SvN) and a great framework (RoR). JoelonSoftware proved that you can do this
without the framework. :-)

2) Release products that serves the core of that audience. Watch in amazement
as profits pour in. Customer acquisition costs are near zero. No marketing
required other than public speaking engagements (which often net a speaking
fee) and the occasional blog post.

No doubt that these guys are really talented... But I don't think they owe
their success to working less or giving their customers less. They owe it to
an evangelical following and (to a much lesser degree) building an app that
does a solid job of serving that audience.

~~~
josefresco
I agree that my language was a little extreme as nobody is forcing anything
down my throat. I also agree with your statements about their success not
being very "repeatable".

I don't look to superstars or billionaires to find the secrets to success,
usually their rise to stardom is very atypical and contains a good deal of
luck (along with a lot of concrete factors like determination, skills and
timing).

I just tend to get annoyed with the self-righteous tone of many of their
articles, which is then amplified by the blogosphere (probably more the source
of my annoyance than anything 37 posts themselves).

I apologize for the troll like post, now back to the NBA finals (go Celtics!)

------
echair
_William C. Taylor is an agenda-setting thinker, writer, and entrepreneur._

Kind of frightening when you remember that bios on a site like this are
probably written by the authors themselves...

------
bbgm
I don't always agree with them, and they can certainly get irritating, but
they've built a business whose services I both use and enjoy. Their philosophy
might not be for everyone, but it has served many well. In other words, you
don't have to agree with them (and I don't think they expect you to), but
their approach and story is a valuable one for most of us.

------
crashmoriarty
As an employee in a state tech position, I find 37Signals' philosophy
refreshing. I can't speak to its appeal as a business leader, but as someone
who wants to just do the work that gets the results without the fluff and
exhaustion, it sounds great.

------
mynameishere
Or give your customers more and succeed like Microsoft, Google, Adobe, Apple,
IBM, etc, etc, etc, and so on throughout the whole of the NYSE and Nasdaq
listings.

------
webwright
This is a fluff "intro to 37Signals" piece. Meh.

