We’re big fans of Jason Fried, creator of Basecamp and co-author of Rework. His Get Real column for Inc.com is a must-read for freelancers interested in freelancing, small business advice, for stories of struggle and success.
His first column for Inc.com, Driven to Distraction, is Fried’s fascinating tale of how he built 37Signals from his solo freelancing business.
“I launched my first real company, a Web design company called Spinfree, in 1996. It was a solo show: just me, a desk in my apartment, and some self-taught mediocre Web design skills. But it was all I needed. The jobs rolled in, and my clients were happy. I could pay the bills, stash away some savings, and work when and where I wanted.”
This alone is inspiring, 37signals is now a huge business (with $8m revenues by 2008), but what’s interesting in Fried’s tale is his signature ‘disruptive’ attitude. Was his success all hard work and ambition… no…
“I can attribute a healthy chunk of my success to the positive returns of laziness. Laziness has the best ROI in the business.”
Fried describes how he followed the typical freelance tactics, bidding on ever larger projects, building himself up, “saying “we” instead of “I” in an attempt to sound bigger”. But, Fried soon realised, he didn’t need to do any of these things.
“How did I figure this out? Laziness. I got tired and let down my guard and wound up learning something important about myself: I love work, just not hard work. I think hard work is overrated. My goal is to do less hard work. And what’s hard? Acting like someone else, writing elaborate proposals I don’t believe in, and flinging mud at the competition. That’s hard and horrible work.”
“Fifteen years later, this continues to be the most important lesson I’ve learned as an entrepreneur: Most of the stuff you agonise about just doesn’t matter. Truth is, things are pretty easy and straightforward — until you make them hard and complicated.”
You’ll need to read the blog to get the full story but if your interested in how one man can grow a massive business from a simple beginnings, from a solo freelance-job into a series of award-winning products with over a million customers, all while retaining his core principles and small business mindset then Fried’s work is really inspirational.
