23 Quotes & Sayings By Jason Fried

Jason Fried is a serial entrepreneur who founded and sold a company to Google. He is the founder of 37 Signals, a web design and software development company that has developed a number of popular iPhone applications, including Basecamp, which was named Best Business Application for the iPhone at the 2009 Mashable Awards. Jason also co-founded and sold two other startups, CoffeeHaus and Vistumbler. Jason lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife and three children.

What you do is what matters, not what you think...
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What you do is what matters, not what you think or say or plan. Jason Fried
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It's like when you're on hold and a recorded voice comes on telling you how much the company values you as a customer. Really? Then maybe you should hire some more support people so I don't have to wait thirty minutes to get help. Jason Fried
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There's nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team. Jason Fried
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Don't make up problems you don't have yet. It's not a problem until it's a real problem. Most of the things you worry about never happen anyway. The decisions you make today don't need to last forever. If circumstances change, your decisions CAN change. Decisions are temporary. Pay attention to today and worry about later when it gets here. Otherwise, you'll waste energy, time and money fixating on problems that may never materialize."~ An excerpt from the awesome book, "Rework . Jason Fried
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Obscurity is a good thing. You can fail in obscurity. It removes the fear of failure. Jason Fried
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It won't be as easy, but lots of things that are worth doing aren't easy. It just takes commitment, discipline, and, most important, faith that it's all going to work out. Jason Fried
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Problems can usually be solved with simple, mundane solutions. That means there’s no glamorous work. You don’t get to show off your amazing skills. You just build something that gets the job done and then move on. This approach may not earn you oohs and aahs, but it lets you get on with it. Jason Fried
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When you don’t know what you believe, everything becomes an argument. Everything is debatable. But when you stand for something, decisions are obvious. Jason Fried
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It’s a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why. Jason Fried
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It’s a beautiful way to put it: Leave the poetry in what you make. When something becomes too polished, it loses its soul. It seems robotic. Jason Fried
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What do you gain if you ban employees from, say, visiting a social-networking site or watching YouTube while at work? You gain nothing. That time doesn’t magically convert to work. They’ll just find some other diversion. Jason Fried
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Think about it this way: If you had to launch your business in two weeks, what would you cut out? Jason Fried
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The problem with abstractions (like reports and documents) is that they create illusions of agreement. A hundred people can read the same words, but in their heads, they’re imagining a hundred different things. Jason Fried
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Don’t be insecure about aiming to be a small business. Anyone who runs a business that’s sustainable and profitable, whether it’s big or small, should be Jason Fried
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If you are trying to decide among a few people to fill a position hire the best writer. it doesn't matter if the person is marketer, salesperson, designer, programmer, or whatever, their writing skills will pay off. That's because being a good writer is about more than writing clear writing. Clear writing is a sign of clear thinking. great writers know how to communicate. they make things easy to understand. they can put themselves in someone else's shoes. they know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in any candidate. Writing is making a comeback all over our society.. Writing is today's currency for good ideas. Jason Fried
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We think of computers as smart and powerful machines. But your goldfish is smarter. Jason Fried
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It's easy to forget, as a leader, that when employees don't get the wide view, not only does the point of their work escape them, but it can also lead to real frustration. It's hard to feel pride and ownership when you don't understand where things are going. Jason Fried
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When you're short on sleep, you're short on patience. You're ruder to people, less tolerant, less understanding. It's harder to relate and to pay attention for sustained periods of time. Jason Fried
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If you ask people where they go when they really need to get work done, very few will respond 'the office.' If they do say the office, they'll include a qualifier such as 'super-early in the morning before anyone gets in, ' or 'I stay late at night after everyone's left, ' or 'I sneak in on the weekend.' Jason Fried
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If yesterday was a good day's work, chances are you'll stay on a roll. And if you can stay on a roll, everything else will probably take care of itself - including not working from the moment you get up in the morning until you nod off to sleep. Jason Fried
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Bottom line: If you can't spare some time to give your employees the chance to wow you, you'll never get the best from them. Jason Fried
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A lot of people relate leadership to formalities. They believe that leadership is about being professional and strong and always right and being a booming voice. I just don't buy that. I think that leadership is a soft skill it's a people skill. Jason Fried