You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Every excuse in the book?” Rework IS that book. But it doesn’t just list excuses, it decimates them with easy-to-read logic in less than three pages each, helping you get past them and get to work on your B2B writing business… no excuses.
And it includes clever (and sometimes shocking) graphics that you’ll want to cut out and hang as reminders. Some noteworthy examples include:
- “Emulate drug dealers”
- “Pick a fight”
- “Underdo your competition”
But the book’s superpower is its straightforward myth-busting.
“No time is no excuse”
One of the biggest excuses that resonated with me was: Time — or lack of it — as a constant excuse to [insert action item here].
In The Practice, Seth Godin argues, “If you want to get in shape, it’s not difficult. Spend an hour a day running or at the gym. Do that for six months or a year. Done. That’s not the difficult part. The difficult part is becoming the kind of person who goes to the gym every day.”
Time is an excuse you have control over. Your priorities show in the things you spend your time on.
Like… my mother’s quirky wisdom at funerals makes you think. In her broken English, she’s quick to say, “I no wanna you see me dead. I wanna you see me live.” She has a point.
Work, kids, weather all become irrelevant when someone dies. Responsibilities and commitments don’t change, priorities do. If you have time for social media, games, or Netflix, it’s not a question of time. It’s a matter of priority.
Don’t use lack of time as an excuse for not getting your business where you want it to be.
You’re the only one who can prioritize your dreams.
But once you start, don’t over-compensate… because the next excuse I want to talk about is…
“Workaholism”
Per Jason Fried, “Workaholics… may claim to be perfectionists, but that just means they’re wasting time fixating on inconsequential details instead of moving on to the next task.”
The book goes on to say, “Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up.”
In other words, busyness isn’t productivity. “Do you really need?”… a business name, website, portfolio, more training, etc.? No. They’re excuses that enable procrastination. Can you find clients, earn an income, and build a business without them? Yes.
Of course, you do need the skill set. If you can’t write copy, you can’t really call yourself a copywriter. But apart from that, the bells and whistles can be used to keep you from succeeding. Don’t let them.
Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Mattel, Google… all started with old, borrowed, and sometimes broken bits in a garage. So can you.
“Less is a good thing”
Another excuse from the book I really loved was, “Constraints are advantages in disguise.” Limited time and resources force you to “make do” and get creative. I call it “MacGyvering.”
I may not start fires with chewing gum wrappers or use plastic bottles to change light bulbs, but I learned to use what was around me to do what I needed to do by watching MacGyver on TV in the 80s… and watching my dad tinkering in the garage.
- Assess the problem
- What do you have access to?
- How can it help you?
Exposure to that thinking taught me to “MacGyver” my way through personal — and professional — situations, especially when I’m off-grid.
Doing that means it isn’t going to be perfect. But it will work — and sometimes, that’s enough.
“You’re better with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole”
This one took a minute to swallow, but has immense value: “You have limited time, resources, ability, and focus. Cut your ambition in half.”
What’s the most important thing to do? Do that. And do it now. Focus on “good enough.” Share it and let feedback guide you to “better.”
But that path should be uniquely you. “Don’t copy. You have to understand why something works or why something is the way it is.”
Eugene Schwartz, author of Breakthrough Advertising, vehemently despised copycat headlines and promotions. You can’t just indiscriminately copy things without thinking about the reason behind them. With writing, copying is part of the learning process. But it’s a technique to study structure and strategy that taps into a prospect’s desires that persuade your reader to act.
You need to apply that structure and strategy to write good copy that works for your prospects.
“Be influenced. Don’t steal.”
“Nobody likes plastic flowers”
“Don’t be afraid to show your flaws. Imperfections are real and people respond to real. It’s why we like real flowers that wilt, not perfect plastic ones that never change. Don’t worry about how you’re supposed to sound and how you’re supposed to act. Show the world what you’re really like, warts and all.”
This is something I’ve been working on for a while. It’s easy and rewarding to share your successes. You get an addictive shot of dopamine.
But learning comes from challenges and failures. And they help us connect with others.
“Go behind-the-scenes”
“Letting people behind the curtain changes your relationship with them. They’ll feel a bond with you and see you as human beings instead of a faceless company. They’ll see the sweat and effort that goes into what you sell. They’ll develop a deeper level of understanding and appreciation for what you do.”
And once you experience a professional — or personal — relationship that breaks through the façade, the relationships that come from that make everyone better for it.
“Draw a line in the sand”
Think about it this way: If you had to launch your business in two weeks, what would you cut out? Funny how a question like that forces you to focus. You suddenly realize there’s a lot of stuff you don’t need.
And what you DO need seems obvious. When you impose a deadline, you gain clarity. It’s the best way to get to that gut instinct that tells you, “We don’t need this.”
“You need a commitment strategy, not an exit strategy”
Rework debunks 87 excuses. I’m sure there are dozens more we could conjure up. Reorder these lessons to suit your needs. It’s not step-by-step. Reading it back to front is just as powerful.
Rework helps you tear down any resistance you have.
Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art explains resistance as “an elusive and wily force, an emotion that will conspire to block us, undermine us, or, at the very least, stall us in the pursuit of work that matters… Resistance focuses obsessively on bad outcomes because it wants to distract us from the work at hand.”
But when you break down resistance, you can more easily take action on your business and build it to where you want it to be.
