Simple and Sane Rules for Great Business

We need to re-think the rules of business (Big and Small). Here are 10 rules for you to try out.

1. Treat people extremely well
   • This includes Customers, Employees, and Competition
2. Swap priorities
   • Stop focusing on what will make you the most money, and start working on the things people want.
3. Keep Instructions Clear and Complete
   • Worst mistake you can make is to create a complex product and miss out on the whole
4. Don’t Abide Jerks
   • Even the smartest Jerk has too high a cost as you will lose employees, trust, and culture by allowing them to stick around.
5. Every Employee is an investment.
   • When you have an employee concern, spend the time and money to attempt improvement over replacement
6. High Trust is better than High Performance
   • Trust builds better teams than performance, and the team that trusts is the team that triumphs
7. Lead by Context, Not Control
   • Communicate Clear goals at each level, and work to keep those goals in line, and let your employees blaze the trails
8. Dissent is Loyalty, not Disloyalty
   • Someone is not a jerk because they disagree, especially when their disagreement comes for a concern of the quality of the business, product, or customer
9. Live by Radical Candor
   • Say what you mean – always with positive intent
10. “Higher ups” need bigger ears
    • The “higher” you are in the company, the more you need to listen to those offering up concern and questions

What do you think of these rules? Are there others you would suggest?