
There's a Better Way To Start a Company. Step One: Don't Work Too Hard. - robg
http://www.slate.com/id/2248881/pagenum/all/
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thaumaturgy
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.

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mattmaroon
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
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."

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bryanh
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."

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DenisM
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.

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viggity
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.

~~~
rimantas

      I disagree, I think the most important step is to finish/release.
    

How do you finish something not started?

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viggity
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.

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madair
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.

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kiba
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.

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samd
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.

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andrewljohnson
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.

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wushupork
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.

