Number twenty-four: Read “Rework”
Good day, I'm Troy Dean from Video User Manuals and Agency Mavericks. This is the 101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees. A practical guide for WordPress consultants to start attracting better quality clients, work on better more interesting projects and get paid better fees. Now, let's go elevate.
Number 24, read “Rework,” by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hannson. I hope I pronounced your name right David. The founders of 37 Signals, the company behind Base Camp, everybody's favorite project management software. If you have read Rework, pat yourself on the back. You're a thought later and go and read it again.
What I love about Rework is that you can literally open this book to any page and get inspired and get motivated. It's really a series of short essays on how they have redefined working in the web space. Now, remember, these guys used to be a web agency and then got into the software business. So, they have a lot of lessons, they've made a lot of mistakes and they've had some big wins and they have a lot to teach about running a web agency and running a software as a service company.
What I really like is about the attitude and the philosophy that these guys have is they're so true to themselves they don't really care what other people think about them. They have caught a little bit of criticism over the years for being arrogant, but they're just confident in the work that they do and they don't really care what other people think and they walk to the beat of their own drum.
They say things like, don't right functional spec documents. They say things like, say no to future requests. They say things like, do less than your competition, but do it better. Work out what it is you do and do it better. Don't get caught up in feature [blow]. Don't write long proposals. Design in the browser. There are so many thought leading ideas in this one book. I think it's important that we stay ahead of trends and that we stay up with what's happening in the space and that we educate ourselves.
This is one of those books that lives on my desk. I open it on a daily basis and just get inspired reading a short essay which reminds me to not be average and to go after extraordinary results. So, if you haven't already read it read Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. If you have read it I would definitely suggest you read it again.
In the next video, we're going to start talking about submitting proposals to clients. Until then, go elevate. Make sure you subscribe to the 101 Ways Podcast in the iTunes store. Just search for 101 Ways to Elevate or visit us at wp101ways.com and download the free 101 Ways ebook.
