1. Why don't we just call plans what they really are: guesses.

Start referring to your

business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your
strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much.
They just aren't worth the stress. When you turn guesses into plans, you enter a danger
zone. Plans let the past drive the future. They put blinders on you. "This is where we're
going because, well, that's where we said we were going." And that's the problem: Plans
are inconsistent with improvisation. And you have to be able to improvise. You have to
be able to pick up opportunities that come along. Sometimes you need to say, "We're
going in a new direction because that's what makes sense today."
2. Maybe the right size for your company is five people. Maybe it's forty. Maybe it's two
hundred. Or maybe it's just you and a laptop. Don't make assumptions about how big
you should be ahead of time. Grow slow and see what feels right- -premature hiring is
the death of many companies. And avoid huge growth spurts too--they can cause you to
skip right over your appropriate size.
3. Not only is this workaholism unnecessary, it's stupid. Working more doesn't mean you
care more or get more done. It just means you work more.
4. To do great work, you need to feel that you're making a difference. That you're putting a
meaningful dent in the universe. That you're part of something important. This doesn't
mean you need to find the cure for cancer. It's just that your efforts need to feel valuable.
You want your customers to say, "This makes my life better." You want to feel that if you
stopped doing what you do, people would notice. You should feel an urgency about this
too. You don't have forever. This is your life's work.
5. Strong opinions aren't free. You'll turn some people off. They'll accuse you of being
arrogant and aloof. That's life. For everyone who loves you, there will be others who hate
you. If no one's upset by what you're saying, you're probably not pushing hard enough.
(And you're probably boring, too.) Lots of people hate us because our products do less
than the competition's. They're insulted when we refuse to include their pet feature. But
we're just as proud of what our products don't do as we are of what they do. We design
them to be simple because we believe most software is too complex: too many features,
too many buttons, too much confusion. So we build software that's the opposite of that. If
what we make isn't right for everyone, that's OK. We're willing to lose some customers if
it means that others love our products intensely. That's our line in the sand. When you
don't know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable.
But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious.
6. Less is a good thing. Constraints are advantages in disguise. Limited resources force
you to make do with what you've got. There's no room for waste. And that forces you to
be creative.
7. Detail just doesn't stages buy you anything in the early. You often can't recognize the
details that matter most until after you start building. That's when you see what needs
more attention. You feel what's missing. And that's when you need to pay attention, not
sooner.
8. Whenever you can, swap "Let's think about it" for "Let's decide on it." Commit to making
decisions. Don't wait for the perfect solution. Decide and move forward.
9. When things aren't working, the natural inclination is to throw more at the problem. More
people, time, and money. All that ends up doing is making the problem bigger. The right
way to go is the opposite direction: Cut back.
10. The core of your business should be built around things that won't change. Things that
people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should
invest in
11. Interruptions break your workday into a series of work moments. Forty-five minutes and
then you have a call. Fifteen minutes and then you have lunch. An hour later, you have
an afternoon meeting. Before you know it, it's five o'clock, and you've only had a couple
uninterrupted hours to get your work done. You can't get meaningful things done when
you're constantly going start, stop, start, stop. Instead, you should get in the alone zone.
Long stretches of alone time are when you're most productive. When you don't have to
mind-shift between various tasks, you get a boatload done. (Ever notice how much work
you get done on a plane since you're offline and there are zero outside distractions?)
12. When you think about it, the true cost of meetings is staggering. Let's say you're going to
schedule a meeting that lasts one hour, and you invite ten people to attend. That's
actually a ten-hour meeting, not a one-hour meeting. You're trading ten hours of
productivity for one hour of meeting time. And it's probably more like fifteen hours,
because there are mental switching costs that come with stopping what you're doing,
going somewhere else to meet, and then resuming what you were doing beforehand.
13. The way you build momentum is by getting something done and then moving on to the
next thing. No one likes to be stuck on an endless project with no finish line in sight.
14. We've experienced this problem firsthand. So we decided that if anything takes one of us
longer than two weeks, we've got to bring other people in to take a look. They might not
do any work on the task, but at least they can review it quickly and give their two cents.
Sometimes an obvious solution is staring you right in the face, but you can't even see it
15. Forgoing sleep is a bad idea. Sure, you get those extra hours right now, but you pay in
spades later: You destroy your creativity, morale, and attitude.
16. Whenever you can, divide problems into smaller and smaller pieces until you're able to
deal with them completely and quickly. Simply rearranging your tasks this way can have
an amazing impact on your productivity and motivation.
17. Having an enemy gives you a great story to tell customers, too. Taking a stand always
stands out. People get stoked by conflict. They take sides. Passions are ignited. And
that's a good way to get people to take notice.
18. If you're planning to build "the iPod killer" or "the next Pokemon," you're already dead.
You're allowing the competition to set the parameters. You're not going to out-Apple
Apple. They're defining the rules of the game. And you can't beat someone who's
making the rules. You need to redefine the rules, not just build something slightly better.
19. Use the power of no to get your priorities straight. You rarely regret saying no. But you
often wind up regretting saying yes.
20. After our first product had been around for a while, we started getting some heat from
folks who had been with us from the beginning. They said they were starting to grow out
of the application. Their businesses were changing and they wanted us to change our
product to mirror their newfound complexity and requirements. We said no. Here's why:
 We'd rather our customers grow out of our products eventually than never be able to
grow into them in the first place. Adding power user features to satisfy some can
intimidate those who aren't on board yet. Scaring away new customers is worse than
losing old customers. When you let customers outgrow you, you'll most likely wind up
with a product that's basic--and that's fine. Small, simple, basic needs are constant.
There's an endless supply of customers who need exactly that.
21. Smart companies make the opposite: something that's at-home good. When you get the
product home, you're actually more impressed with it than you were at the store. You live
with it and grow to like it more and more. And you tell your friends, too.
22. Teach and you'll form a bond you just don't get from traditional marketing tactics. Buying
people's attention with a magazine or online banner ad is one thing. Earning their loyalty
by teaching them forms a whole different connection. They'll trust you more. They'll
respect you more. Even if they don't use your product, they can still be your fans.
23. talk like you really talk. Reveal things that others are unwilling to discuss. Be upfront
about your shortcomings. Show the latest version of what you're working on, even if
you're not done yet. It's OK if it's not perfect. You might not seem as professional, but
you will seem a lot more genuine.
24. They know their product is so good they're willing to give a little away for free upfront.
They know you'll be back for more--with money.
25. Never hire anyone to do a job until you've tried to do it yourself first. That way, you'll
understand the nature of the work. You'll know what a job well done looks like. You'll
know how to write a realistic job description and which questions to ask in an interview.
You'll know whether to hire someone full-time or part-time, outsource it, or keep doing it
yourself (the last is preferable, if possible).
26. You need an environment where everyone feels safe enough to be honest when things
get tough. You need to know how far you can push someone. You need to know what
people really mean when they say something.
27. Check the cover letter. In a cover letter, you get actual communication instead of a list of
skills, verbs, and years of irrelevance.
28. The best way test job candidates do that is to actually see them work. Hire them for a
miniproject, even if it's for just twenty or forty hours. You'll see how they make decisions.
29. Everyone on your team should be connected to your customers--maybe not every day,
but at least a few times throughout the year. That's the only way your team is going to
feel the hurt your customers are experiencing. It's feeling the hurt that really motivates
people to fix the problem. And the flip side is true too: The joy of happy customers or
ones who have had a problem solved can also be wildly motivating.
30. Instant cultures are artificial cultures. They're big bangs made of mission statements,
declarations, and rules. They are obvious, ugly, and plastic. You don't create a culture. It
happens. This is why new companies don't have a culture. Culture is the byproduct of
consistent behavior.
31. As the saying goes, "If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know." You
want busy people. People who have a life outside of work. People who care about more
than one thing. You shouldn't expect the job to be someone's entire life--at least not if
you want to keep them around for a long time.
32. We all have ideas. Ideas are immortal. They last forever. What doesn't last forever is
inspiration. Inspiration is like fresh fruit or milk: It has an expiration date.