Summary: How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard

Review and Analysis of Kriegel's Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Publisher: Must Read Summaries
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9782806246981
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Behaviour
• Index: Business

The must-read summary of Robert Kriegel's book: `How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard: Rethinking the Rules, Reinventing the Game`.

This complete summary of the ideas from Robert Kriegel's book `How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard` shows that it’s possible to be more productive, create more profit and be happier by working less hours, but in a more direct way. This summary takes this principle and splits it into two guidelines: don’t conform, but rethink the way you work, and don’t compete against others. It also breaks down these principles into measures that every businessperson can apply. Exploit your strengths, for example, rather than trying to solve your weaknesses; make a serious effort to halve your number of meetings; look at business ideas outside of your industry, and think how they could be applied. In short, look carefully at your market’s assumptions, and your personal ones, and challenge whether they are effective, could be done more quickly or need to be done at all. 

Added-value of this summary: 
• Save time
• Understand the key concepts
• Increase your business knowledge 

To learn more, read `How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard` and discover how to work better, not harder. 

Summary of How To Succeed In Business Without Working So Damn Hard (Robert Kriegel)

Don’t conform, rethink the rules of the way you do business.

1. The more you try to hurry, the worse it gets.

Main Idea

In many things, the more you try to hurry, the more time it actually takes to get things done. Therefore, don’t push so hard. Allow a little breathing space so you can make certain you achieve the quality standard that is required.

Supporting Ideas

When people focus on speed alone, they make more mistakes and actually end up taking more time to get anything done because things have to be done over. In addition, communication suffers which means little, irritating errors keep cropping up. And, if everyone is intent on rushing things through, there’s no time to be innovative or to come up with something creative.

Thus, the smart strategy is to grow slowly – to smart small, get your business model working well and then roll it out on a bigger scale. Simply trying to grow faster than the other guy is a recipe for disaster because you won’t have the time to make good decisions.

Key Thoughts

“If a company invests faster than it learns, it will over drive the opportunity and end up with an expensive and embarrassing failure. That’s the fate that befell Apple’s pioneering handheld computer, the Newton. Was there a potential market out there for palm computers? Sure. Could investment and marketing hyp alone force the market to develop on Apple’s time frame? NO.”

– Gary Hamel, author

“Don’t let growth seduce you. When you’re growing fast, the temptation is to keep increasing your growth rate. You get euphoric. You think you can walk on water. You think you’re smarter than everyone else. This is exactly what gets companies into trouble. It’s hard to say, ‘Let’s slow down’. But that’s what you have to do.”

– Michael Bloomberg, founder, Bloomberg LP

2. Slow down – you’ll be more productive that way

Main Idea

A 90-percent effort delivered with passion and creativity will always achieve more than a 110-percent effort delivered in a blind panic. Therefore, to achieve more, slow down. Stretch, but don’t get into a situation where you are straining too hard.

Supporting Ideas

Olympic athletes know they can run faster or perform better by delivering a 90-percent effort than they will if trying to perform at 100- or 110-percent of their capacity. It’s the same in business and in life. Instead of straining to deliver an all out effort, you’ll do far better if you’re doing things effortlessly.

Always trying to work at 110-percent generates other flow-on problems as well:

• You start making basic mistakes.
• You get mentally tired and burned out.
• You have serious mood swings.
• Quality falls as you cut corners and get sloppy.
• You don’t have the endurance when it is really needed.

Like anything, the idea of slowing down can be taken to an extreme, and nothing will get done at all. For most people, however, slowing down a little will be a major boost to the quality of their work. That way, there will be an opportunity to excel because you’re not so harried by the clock.

Key Thoughts

“A lot of people work really hard for thirty or forty years and then they retire and try to do all the fun things they didn’t do before. I’d much rather live life as it comes along and do neat things while you’re working and enjoy every year of your life.”

– Roger Greene, founder, Ipswitch Inc.

“It feels really great to be ahead of schedule rather than always feeling behind, which is usually the case. When I feel behind, I get scattered, rushing to try and catch up. When I am ahead I move slower, I’m more relaxed, I think more clearly, come up with better ideas, and communicate more effectively with my crews. But here’s the kicker: I get more done and with better quality at these times than when I am rushing around.”

– Mike Stanley, builder, Custom Homes

3. Exploit your strengths rather than fix weaknesses.

Main Idea

Don’t try and be good at everything. Instead, find one thing you can be great at. Then focus on doing whatever it takes to absolutely excel in that area. That approach will be far more enjoyable than trying to improve what you are weak at.

Supporting Ideas

If you build on your strengths rather than trying to address where you’re weak, you’ll be doing more of what comes naturally. It will also be lots more fun than ...

Table of contents

• Title page
• Book Presentation
• Summary of How To Succeed In Business Without Working So Damn Hard (Robert Kriegel)
• About the Summary Publisher
• Copyright