Abílio Azevedo.

ReWork

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Abílio Azevedo
Abílio Azevedo

TAKEDOWNS

  • Ignore the real world - Don't use "that would never work in the real world" as an excuse. People often don't really know.
  • Learning from mistakes is overrated - Failure in business has become an expected rite of passage, but it shouldn't be.
  • Planning is guessing - Making detailed long term plans is futile. Focus on what you will do this week instead.
  • Why grow? - Staying small can be an advantage, growing just for the sake of it often backfires.
  • Workaholism - Some people create crises so they can work overtime and feel heroic.
  • Enough with “entrepreneurs” - Replace this fancy term with the more humble "starters".

GO

  • Make a dent in the universe - Do work that makes people's lives better so they notice if you disappear.
  • Scratch your own itch - Make something you yourself want to use.
  • Start making something - What matters is creating, not just having an idea.
  • No time is no excuse - Find the time, don't just complain about being too busy.
  • Draw a line in the sand - Decide what you stand for instead of being generic.
  • Mission statement impossible - Corporate mission statements tend to be generic nonsense.
  • Outside money is Plan Z - Bootstrapping should be the default approach, investors later if needed.
  • You need less than you think - Cut your assumptions on budget, people required etc by half or more.
  • Start a business, not a startup - Focus on sustainability and revenue from the start rather than chasing valuation.
  • Building to flip is building to flop - Making decisions focused on an easy exit often compromises quality.
  • Less mass - Stay as lean and flexible as when you started out.

PROGRESS

  • Embrace constraints - Limitations force you to be creative and eliminate waste.
  • Build half a product, not a half-assed product - Trying to build too many features at once leads to a crappy product. Prioritize ruthlessly.
  • Start at the epicenter - Ignore peripheral stuff early on and focus on the critically important parts first.
  • Ignore the details early on - Defer unimportant decisions as long as possible, especially early on.
  • Making the call is making progress - Committing to a decision and moving forward is better than waiting for the perfect solution.
  • Be a curator - Apply an editing mindset to eliminate the merely good in order to make space for the best ideas.
  • Throw less at the problem - Trying to solve problems by throwing money/people/resources often backfires. Constraints breed creativity.
  • Focus on what won’t change - Latching onto the latest hot trends is risky long-term, build on foundations that won't shift quickly.
  • Tone is in your fingers - Features and technology can be copied, but your unique personality and thinking cannot be.

PRODUCTIVITY

  • Illusions of agreement - Abstract documents often create the illusion of agreement when people interpret them differently.
  • Reasons to quit - Ask tough questions about priorities and goals to ensure you're working on what truly matters.
  • Interruption is the enemy of productivity - Context switching kills productivity, distractions and meetings especially.
  • Meetings are toxic - They waste time, drift off topic easily, need excessive prep, and suck the life out of productivity.
  • Good enough is fine - Seeking complex, perfect solutions to problems can give an intellectual rush while being counterproductive. Apply just enough effort to solve the issue.
  • Quick wins - Momentum and motivation come from moving fast and demonstrating progress.
  • Don't be a hero - Know when to quit if something is dragging on much longer than expected.
  • Go to sleep - Sacrificing sleep destroys creativity and productivity.
  • Your estimates suck - Most estimates are too optimistic. Leave lots of buffer time.
  • Long lists don't get done - Break things down into smaller, actionable next steps.
  • Make tiny decisions - Incremental tiny decisions keep you moving while avoiding big potentially mistaken bets.

COMPETITORS

  • Don’t copy - Imitation can be part of learning, but don't just copy others long-term.
  • Demoditize your product - Make what you offer stand out by baking your unique personality and thinking into it so it can't easily be copied.
  • Pick a fight - Picking a competitor to challenge positions you and gives your supporters something to rally around.
  • Underdo your competition - Trying to match the scale or scope of larger competitors on their own terms rarely succeeds. Do less but do it exceptionally well.
  • Who cares what they’re doing? - Obsessing about competitors breeds unhealthy paranoia and distraction. Stay focused on your own vision.

EVOLUTION

  • Say no by default - Set the default to say no to avoid getting spread too thin and losing sight of what really matters.
  • Let your customers outgrow you - Be willing to part ways with customers who make overly demanding custom requests that don't match your vision.
  • Don't confuse enthusiasm with priority - The excitement rush of a new idea makes it tempting to drop everything else and pursue it, but that excitement quickly fades. Carefully evaluate what's really most important.
  • Be at-home good - Don't just optimize for what seems best in the store. Ensure it still feels like the right choice when actually put to use.
  • Don't write it down - Let your customers be your memory. The requests repeated most often indicate what matters most.

PROMOTION

  • Welcome obscurity - Being unknown allows you to make mistakes privately as you improve.
  • Build an audience - Having fans invested in your work provides a huge advantage over just having customers.
  • Out-teach your competition - Teaching and sharing knowledge in your space allows you to stand out from competitors focused only on sales.
  • Emulate chefs - Chefs like Emeril Lagasse have huge followings because they openly share recipes and techniques instead of guarding secrets.
  • Go behind the scenes - Give customers an inside look at how your business operates instead of hiding the sausage-making.
  • Nobody likes plastic flowers - Have flaws and quirks to come across as genuine instead of hiding behind a slick veneer of perfection.
  • Press releases are spam - Generic press releases sent en masse get ignored just like email spam.
  • Forget the Wall Street Journal - As a small company realistically you won't get coverage in big mainstream publications right away no matter what you try.
  • Drug dealers get it right - Give people a small, free taste upfront knowing the quality will leave them wanting more.
  • Marketing is not a department - Everyone in the company, not just the marketing team, contributes to marketing via their work and interactions every day.
  • Marketing is not a department - The myth is that successes happen overnight. This ignores the groundwork that made it possible. Lay the foundation in obscurity first before going public. Building an audience and fine-tuning your work takes time. Success comes from daily progress.

HIRING

  • Do it yourself first - Trying to do every role yourself first equips you to hire for it better later.
  • Hire when it hurts - Delay hiring as long as possible until the pain of not having enough hands absolutely demands it.
  • Pass on great people - Avoid accumulating people without a clear, immediate purpose even if they seem talented.
  • Strangers at a cocktail party - Resumes tell you nothing about how candidates will actually perform or fit into real workplace scenarios and culture.
  • Resumes are ridiculous - Resumes are almost entirely marketing fluff with little info anyone can actually confirm or trust.
  • Years of irrelevance - Judging candidates simply by years of experience rewards time but not skill or results.
  • Forget formal education - Requirements like degrees filter out unconventional thinkers while certificates show little about practical skills.
  • Everybody works - At small scale everyone needs to actively contribute individual work rather than merely delegate.
  • Hire managers of one - Seek self-motivated people who set their own direction without micromanagement.
  • Hire great writers - Great writing equates to great thinking and conveys skill and credibility regardless of role.
  • The best are everywhere - Thanks to remote work and technology, don't limit yourself to just local talent pools. Hire the best people regardless of geographic distance.
  • Test-drive employees - Evaluate candidates directly based on actual work rather than just resumes and interviews.

DAMAGE CONTROL

  • Own your bad news - Break bad news yourself directly and accurately before rumors or false information spreads.
  • Speed changes everything - Fast and decisive action to address mistakes reassures people rather than compounding damage through slow responses.
  • How to say you’re sorry - Any apology with excuses comes across as insincere. Take full responsibility, state how you are making amends, and explain how you will prevent it in the future.
  • Put everyone on the front lines - Rotate all roles including executives to interface directly with customers so the entire company understands issues firsthand.
  • Take a deep breath - After a major change, wait patiently through initial outraged reactions since they usually subside given time.

CULTURE

  • You don’t create a culture - Strong cultures develop organically over longer periods of time. Attempts to instill culture quickly through top down mandates fail.
  • Decisions are temporary - Most decisions can be revisited and changed later if needed. Avoid overplanning and analysis paralysis.
  • Skip the rock stars - Job ads seeking "ninjas" and "rock stars" signal immature bro culture and environment.
  • They’re not thirteen - Treat employees like responsible adults instead of children by eliminating contemptuous policies that restrict basic freedoms.
  • Send people home at 5 - Requiring long hours and sacrificing personal lives breeds burnout and churn rather than sustainable loyalty and quality work.
  • Don’t scar on the first cut - Don't overreact to first missteps by implementing heavy-handed policies. Give direct feedback first before considering policy changes if poor behavior persists.
  • Sound like you - Don't hide behind formal, impersonal corporate-speak. Communication should match the real personalities of leadership.
  • Four-letter words - Ban potentially divisive, aggressive language like "need" and "can't" that derails productive discussions.
  • ASAP is poison - Implying other priorities are more important by demanding "as soon as possible" devalues people's existing work.

CONCLUSION

  • Inspiration is perishable - Inspiration must be acted on immediately when it strikes. It won't wait for you.
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Experienced Software Engineer with degree in Electrical Engineering with over 10 years of hands-on expertise in building robust and scalable mobile, web and backend applications across various projects mainly in the fintech sector. Mobile (React Native), Web (React and Next.JS) and Backend (Node.JS, PHP and DJANGO). My goal is to create products that add value to people. - © 2024, Abílio Azevedo