Carpenter - Work the system: the simple mechanics of making more and working less

PRAISE FOR THE THIRD EDITION OF WORK THE SYSTEM

Work the System maps a deep adjustment plan for freeing up time for the meaningful things in life. Mark Bauerlein

This book is a reality check for business owners and department managers who are struggling.Susan Solovic

Mandatory reading. Work the System liberates. Perry Marshall

To design your ideal life, this is a must read. John Spencer Ellis

Quite simply the best management book Ive read. Colin Mills

What Sam Carpenter teaches in Work the System will revolutionize your life! Michael Jans

Work the System will change your life. Yanik Silver

One of the most profoundly useful books I have read. Joe Vitale

The best management book of the year. Follow Sams path and your business will become orderly, disciplined, repeatable, and profitable.

Thomas Cox

Instead of follow your bliss and the money will appear Sam advocates, fix the mechanics... and the bliss and money will appear.

Rodney Sampson

If you want to grow a successful business, this book is mandatory reading. Tracy Parks

Sam Carpenter brings together the practices of the biggest and best companies to help you succeed in your business. Rich Sloan

ALSO BY SAM CARPENTER

The Systems Mindset: Managing the Machinery of Your Life

Published by Greenleaf Book Group Press

Austin, Texas

www.gbgpress.com

2018 Edition

Copyright 2014 Sam Carpenter

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

Distributed by Greenleaf Book Group

For bookstore or wholesale ordering information and foreign rights, contact Greenleaf Book

Group at PO Box 91869, Austin, TX 78709, 512.891.6100.

For corporate or event bulk purchases, please contact North Sisters Publishing, 141 NW

Greenwood Ave, Suite 200, Bend, OR 97701, 800.664.7448

Design by Greenleaf Book Group.

Cataloging-in-Publication data

Carpenter, Sam.

Work the system : the simple mechanics of making more and working less / Sam Carpenter.

3rd ed.

p. ; cm.

First ed. published: Bend, Ore. : North Sister Publishing, 2008.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-60832-052-3

1. Organizational effectiveness. 2. Organizational changeManagement. 3. Success in business.

I. Title.

HD58.9 .C377 2009

658.4/02 2008943859

ISBN: 978-1-60832-253-4

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

18 19 20 21 22 23 10 9 8 7 6

First Edition: April 2008

Second Edition: April 2009

Third Edition, 6th printing: July 2018

To Dad

Just get on with it, he would say.

Ockhams Razor:
One should choose the simplest explanation,
the one requiring the fewest assumptions and principles.

WILLIAM OF OCKHAM, FOURTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH PHILOSOPHER

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

If I had eight hours to cut down a tree, Id spend six sharpening my axe.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I say this without hyperbole: Work the System is one of the most useful business books youll ever read. I should knowI read business books for a living, and teach creative people from all over the world how to build businesses that are profitable, enjoyable, and sustainable.

Here are the top three questions Im asked every single day:

• Starting a business seems so complicated. Where do I begin?
• Im working a lot, but not making much money. How can I improve my profitability?
• Im constantly stressed and anxious. How can I run my business without going crazy?

The answer to these questions is always the same: learn how to work the system.

Fundamentally, every business is a system: a collection of processes that, together, reliably produces an intended result. The more you focus on improving your business systems, the better results youll produce. Its as simple as that.

When most people hear the word system, however, their eyes glaze over. Most of us are trained to think that standard operating procedures, checklists, documentation, and the like are boring and bureaucratic.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Heres what happens when you begin improving your systems:

• You make more money, but do less work.
• You have more focus and energy to do your best work.
• You make far fewer errors and mistakes.
• You fix the mistakes you make quickly and permanently.
• You feel more calm, collected, and under control.

Solid business systems are largely a product of calm, rational, straightforward thinking. Its a skill that can be learned quickly, and a method that can be applied to improve every aspect of your life.

I use the ideas in Work the System every day when building my own business, and Ive recommended this book to my readers and clients since the publication of the first edition.

Im glad this book has found its way into your hands. Work the System will help you make better decisions, get more done, and have more fun along the way.

Josh Kaufman, author of The Personal MBA
and The First 20 Hours

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

Dysfunction Is Gold

This book is different.

Its main thrust goes beyond providing new information, although it does that. The root purpose of Work the System is to guide you to a more precise way of perceiving your life so you can gain better command of it and therefore be better able to get what you want. There will be a mechanical adjustment in the way you see your world, and when this profound shift occurs, systems Methodology will make irrefutable sense, and your work and life will never be the same. I like to call this mini-awakening getting it, and I describe what it is and how to achieve it in .

The Nutshell Premise? Your life is a collection of individual systems.

To whom is this book intended? Its for anyone who runs a business, from the founder of a brand new mom-and-pop start-up to the seasoned CEO of a multinational. At either extreme and in-between, the tenets apply uniformly because lifes fundamental mechanics work the same way, all the time, everywhere. This is about acquiring a better view of realitys universal simple mechanics; to viewing the machinations of your world with more precision.

Heres an insight that Mike, the owner of a 50 million dollar multinational, and one of our one-on-one consulting clients, gave me not too long ago: Sam! I now see that dysfunction is gold! Mike gets it, and is exactly correct: If you are enduring the typical organizational inefficiency and then suddenly see that inefficiency, and then confidently plow ahead step-by-step to eliminate it, you will immediately create additional bottom-line profits. Is there lots of dysfunction in your organization? Then there is lots of gold to be found. This increased cash flow is in addition to the new growth you will experience. The current internal dysfunction is the gold that has been there all along. You just need to get busy excavating.

I changed my life after a moment of insight, moving from a nightmarish, impoverished existence to a life of peace and prosperity. I now work less than one hour a week. Yes, Im also financially secure now, with more than I need, which enables me to invest and share. Ive had the same small business for over three decades, and this is the story of how I transformed it from a chaotic ordeal into a gold mine, pulling my staff upward with me while delivering the highest quality of service available in my industry. How I broke free, and how you can too, is described in detail. Believe me, if I can do it, so can you! Career-wise, you may have to do something different than what you do now in order to reach your goals of freedom and prosperity, but probably not. People who follow my strategy become superefficient, and most of them keep doing what they have been doing all along, as they finally leave the competition in the dust or suddenly streak up the corporate ladder.