Earlier this year, Jason Fried and David Hansson from 37 Signals released Rework, a book of advice to entrepreneurs. Several weeks ago, Darmesh Shah of HubSpot wrote a post at OnStartups listing his 37 favorite insights in the book.

Now, I’ve read a bunch of posts from Darmesh Shah and he’s a bright guy. And I respect 37 Signals for challenging conventional wisdom. However, the comments from the post and the reviews of the book tout this book as the new conventional wisdom. And that I think is dangerous.

There are no absolutes in life, and there certainly aren’t any absolutes in starting up a company. And while the insights may work for some startups, they can be disastrous for other startups. The key to successfully using insights like these, is knowing when they apply. So this post is a devil’s advocate post that attempts to provide some context to these insights, based on my own experience starting and running several companies over the past 13 years.

To be clear, I have not read Rework. I’m specifically commenting on the insights posted by Darmesh, since these are similar to many nuggets of wisdom I’ve been told over the years without being told when they apply. It’s not that these nuggets were wrong; they were just incomplete and lacked context. Many of the mistakes I’ve made have come from applying the right solution to the wrong problem. Continue reading >

The New Year is often a time of reflection. It’s a great time to question what you are doing and what you could be doing better. This year I’m learning how to be a better manager and to delegate my work and focus on strategy.

I’ve also been doing a lot of reading lately about sales, marketing and management, and wanted to pass along some great articles I’ve recently read.

First up is Don’t just roll the dice: A usefully short guide to software pricing by Neil Davidson. Pricing can be difficult to get right and this book is an excellent primer on the subject. Even if you think you already know everything about pricing, I recommend you read the book. You’ll be reminded of things you already know, but may have forgotten. If you are short on time, you can read Darmesh Shah’s review, How To Price Software Without Just Rolling the Dice. Though it really is no substitute for reading the book; Neil details all the dimensions of pricing, while Darmesh covers only a few basic principles. Continue reading >

Bernie Madoff plead guilty to financial fraud on Friday. The press has vilified him, portraying him as a calculating evil mastermind who bilked billions of dollars from innocent doe-eyed victims. And he may be truly evil, a sociopath with no regard for others. Or he might be a good person who made bad decisions, which drew him down a dark path into a downward spiral he could not control.

There are bad people, and then there are people who simply made bad choices. Which was Madoff? I’m not going to try to answer that question today, nor to defend Madoff’s actions or brush away the consequences of those actions. Rather I want to show how seemingly harmless decisions can lead someone down a path toward ever-widening financial fraud.

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People I’ve talked to recently are confused why we are having a financial crisis. The financial crisis is seen as abstract, with undefined dynamics, and no discernable impact on their daily lives. This article aims to explain what I believe is one of the drivers of the financial crisis, the mark-to-market rule, in a way an average homeowner can understand. Continue reading >