Tim O'Reilly. Work that matters: basic principles

Work on Stuff that Matters: First Principles

published January 11, 2009

I spent a lot of time last year convincing people to do work that matters . This caused a lot of questions, what kind of work it could be. I didn’t really like to answer these questions, because for each person there will be a different answer. I decided that it would be good to start the new year by formulating several principles to help you understand this problem for yourself.

But first of all, I want to clarify that “work that matters” does not mean only non-commercial projects, charity, or another form of “good deeds”. Non-profit projects often mean a good thing, and people with technical skills can make an important contribution , but it is very important to get out of this framework. I am absolutely convinced of the social value of a business that is being conducted correctly. We need to create an economic system in which socially significant projects are automatically and guaranteed to receive remuneration, rather than based on charitable organizations financed by the kindness of the heart.

I have several "litmus papers", intuitive tests that I constantly use in my life on a subconscious level. I will try to formulate them and I hope that you will help me with your comments.
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1. Work on what is more important to you than money.
I touched on this issue, speaking to SIMS students a couple of years ago, I think I can just quote myself from that speech.

Some of you may find a job in a prestigious company. Some may succeed, while others fail. I want to remind you that financial success is not the only goal or the only measure of success. It is very easy to plunge into the reckless bustle of making money. But you have to take money as fuel for what you really want to do, not as an end in itself. Money is like gasoline in a car, you need to keep an eye on it, otherwise you will find yourself on the side of the road, but normal life is not a journey through gas stations!

Whatever you do, think about your true values. If you are an entrepreneur, then the time for such reflections will help you create a better company. If you are going to work for someone else, then such thoughts will help you find the right company or organization for employment, and when you find it, you can do your job better.

Do not be afraid to think big. Jim Collins, the author of business books, says that good companies always have big, dangerous, and daring goals . Google’s motto “access to all the world's information” is an example of such a goal. I want to think that the mission of my company “to change the world, spreading the knowledge of innovators” is also such a goal.

Do not be afraid to fail. Rilke has a wonderful poem in which the biblical Jacob fights with the angel, fails, but becomes stronger from this battle. It ends like this:

He will not look for victories.
He is waiting for a higher beginning
He increasingly won to grow back.

One of the bubble checks is how many entrepreneurs are fixated on their future income, and not on the big goals they hope to achieve. Clone products are almost always focused on cash. Entrepreneurs who are the first to enter the market usually expect less easy success, and struggle, like Jacob with an angel, with a difficult problem that they expect to solve or at least split a little.

It is also clear that if you think more about competition than about users and the values ​​you are going to create for them, then you are on the wrong path. As Katy Sierra once remarked , "in many cases, the more you try to compete, the less competitive you actually become."

Most successful companies perceive success as a by-product on the way to achieving their main goal, which is always more and more important than their own project.

2 Bring more benefits than you get.
It is quite easy to see that Bernie Madoff did not follow this rule, like other Wall Street titans, who went so far as to give themselves billions in bonuses, destroying our economy along the way. It is difficult to estimate from this point of view of small business representatives, but it is quite clear that most companies actually benefit their community and their customers, as well as themselves, and the most successful companies for this create a self-developing cycle of mutually beneficial exchange of values ​​with their customers.

For example, a bank credits small businesses, sees their success, perhaps lends them even more money, increases turnover, hires new employees, takes even more deposits and helps even more entrepreneurs. The energy of this cycle is capable of pulling people out of poverty, which is clearly seen in the example of microfinance organizations, such as Gremin Bank . This bank is clearly focused on delivering more value than it does on its own, unlike Fanny May, Freddie Mac or Washington Mutual, or many other failed financial institutions involved in the current financial collapse. They may have started with the right principles, but at some point they obviously became more concerned with their own gain.

If you follow this principle, you may suddenly find that others have earned more from your ideas than you do. This is normal. I have seen not one billionaire (and a huge number of startups who are trying to repeat their path), who admitted that their commercial activity began with several O'Reilly books. I had businessmen who, according to them, found an idea for business in something that I said or wrote. It's good! I remember, as at the dawn of the Internet, after my speech at the Borders store, one of the buyers said: “You know, you just gave your competitors a publishing program for the year ahead.” If my goal is to “change the world, spreading the knowledge of innovators,” then I’m just excited that my competitors are helping me in this mission!

Look around. How many people have you gotten a good job? How many customers use your products to make a living? How many competitors have you spawned? How many people have you helped without getting anything in return?

In The Les Miserables there is a remarkable passage about the benefits that Jean Valjean brought as a businessman (working under the pseudonym Uncle Madeleine). Thanks to the success of his industry, he made his entire region prosperous, so that “there was not a single old pocket without even a little money; there was no such poor dwelling where there would be at least a little joy. ” And the key point:

He grew rich himself, but, oddly enough, for a simple merchant, he apparently did not consider profit to be his main concern. He seemed to be thinking more about others than about himself.

Focusing on significant goals, not making money, and bringing more benefits than you get yourself - these are closely related principles. The first is a test for those who are starting something new, and the second is a more difficult test that you must pass in order to create something viable.

Take Microsoft. They started with a big goal: “a computer on every desk and in every home” and for many years without any benefit did more good than they did themselves. They helped give birth to the entire PC industry; they built a platform for the prosperity of many small software vendors. But over time, they began to take more values ​​than they give: when the cost of the PC fell, iron producers had to survive on a tiny margin, while Microsoft was collecting monopoly superprofits. Bit by bit, Microsoft has swallowed up its own developer ecosystem, building in the achievements of successful startups in its own products, and using its operating system to ruin innovators. As I wrote all over the place, I’m convinced that Microsoft should switch to big goals beyond its own profitability , and bring more benefits than it gets itself if it wants to succeed (just last week Danny Sullivan wrote an excellent article about the strategic advantage of this idea) .

Or take google. Again, a giant goal: “to organize all the information of the world.” And like Microsoft in the early years, they allow others to flourish at their own expense, while they themselves make a lot of money. Any company that is present on the Internet can simply look at its logs to make sure who brings more benefits to whom. How much traffic do you get from Google? But again, as I wrote, this test still looms in the future of Google. Will they continue to bring more benefits than they receive, or will they start looking for more profit for themselves ?

This is a matter of balance. Every business should follow the minimum level of profitability, each person should take care of a roof over their heads and provide means of subsistence for their loved ones. But look carefully: how much do you think about yourself and what can you get compared to thinking about how much you can benefit others?

It is rather difficult to keep attention on large tasks in the face of an economic downturn, because the main task is to save money. I recall some of the decisions that I made after the dot-com crash in 2001, when I began to care much more about the survival of my business than about creating values ​​for society. We have published several clone books that I really regret; and things that were not related to keeping a business afloat became the foundation of our future.

But the two tests listed above are not enough, for it becomes clear that we also need a long-term environmental perspective. Therefore, I would add the third principle.

3. Take a distant sight.
Brian Eno tells about a wonderful event from his life, after which he got the idea to create The Long Now Foundation (Organization of the Long Now).

In 1978, I was in New York. A rich acquaintance invited me to a housewarming party, but when the taxi driver drove me through the increasingly dirty and broken streets, I began to worry if I told him the right address. Finally, he stopped at the door of a dark, inhospitable industrial building. On the steps lay in oblivion two crumpled vagrants. No more signs of life on the street.

“I think you made a mistake,” I shyly turned to the taxi driver.

But he was not mistaken. The voice of my girlfriend said: “Top floor!” When I pressed the doorbell, and I thought, knowing her sense of humor, that this was some kind of joke. I was ready to laugh when I went up. The elevator creaked and drove slowly. I got out of it - and got into a multimillion palace. It is impossible to describe the contrast with the rest of the building and with the street.

I just could not understand. Why did someone decide to spend a lot of money and build such a palace in such a dismal place? Later, I asked the hostess, “Do you like living here?”, And she replied that this is the best place she ever lived. "But listen, in this area, after all, how would it be a real hole?" “Ah, the district? Well ... so it’s outside! ”She laughed merrily.

In a conversation many years ago, when I heard this story from Brian, he described the apartment of his acquaintance, the space that she controls as “small here”, and the space outside, full of wanderers and homeless people, as “big here”. From there, he was born a similar concept of Long Now (Long Now).

It's very easy to make local optimizations, but in the end they will overwhelm you. Our economy is in many ways similar to the financial pyramid . We borrow from other countries to finance our own consumption , we borrow from our children, driving them into debt and using non-renewable sources of energy.

It's hard to look beyond the “small here” and “short now,” especially if you live in a beautiful place at a pleasant time. That is why so many truly important projects find shelter under the wing of non-profit organizations only.

That is why the time is like today, when the bubble starts to burst - a great moment to reflect on the importance of the overall picture, what is important not only for us, but for creating a sustainable economy in a sustainable world.