The Way I Work: Jason Fried of 37Signals
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091101/the-way-i-work-jason-fried-of-37signals.html
Very good read.
“I recently wrote a scathing piece on the tech media. It really bothers me that the definition of success has changed from profits to followers, friends, and feed count. This crap doesn’t mean anything. Kids are coming out of school thinking, I want to start the next YouTube or Facebook. If a restaurant served more food than everybody else but lost money on every diner, would it be successful? No. But on the Internet, for some reason, if you have more users than everyone else, you’re successful. No, you’re not.”
- Jason Fried
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“If anyone ever writes us with a complaint, our stance is it’s our fault — for not being clear enough or not making something work the way it should.”
Always take responsibility — until you are SURE it’s not your fault.
A lot of losers like to point the fingers at someone else first.
“We have an accountant who runs the numbers, which David and I look at daily.”
Eye on the numbers yeah?
Okie, this sounds like nitpicking and getting too literal but… the only way for the restaurant to profit, them, would normally be to raise prices or lower cost? (Maybe carry advertisement for someone, haha) It’s harder irl to actually make a profit outside of what you are oferring, I think. But online, having many users brings future potential (not necessarily so irl if you are like offering free food at a loss), and there are probably more ways to monetize outside of the probably intangible product you are actually offering. Nevertheless, ofc, if you fail to find a way to translate the user base into something that generates $$$, then yeah, it’s fail. Just my view
Though Jason Fried probably doesn’t mean that the large user base isn’t a good measure of success, but highlighting strongly that at the end of the day, you are seeking $$$. (Or does he really mean it when he says it doesn’t mean anything?)