I'm Sorry I broke Your Company

Conclusion

Several times, I've attempted to put together a list of what I have learned to create a tidy summary of the book. More than one person has asked me to do that. (If you really need the list, the chapter subheadings will do it for you.) Yet somehow I cant bring myself to do it. It's really very easy. I have an outline with all the points I wanted to make. All I have to do is «copy and paste.» To be honest, I'm a little spooked by an early critique of this manuscript. One of the questions was whether I could be deemed an expert. While I think I'm pretty smart and knowledgeable (or is that the better-than-average effect?), that «expert» word bothers me. I'm not even sure what I am an expert in (common sense?). I don't want to write a list of lessons you should follow or summarize what you should do in bullet points because I'm not sure how much I want you to follow my lessons, and I certainly don’t think you should take my recommendations at face value. I said at the beginning of the book that I don’t want to contribute to the dogma. The only lesson I want you to take away from this book is that you should think about the consequences of a method or a best practice or a business solution before you embark on it. Just because other companies are doing it doesn’t mean it’s right.

That's the whole summary of this book. Don't believe the dogma and think about the consequences of what you are doing. I know that starting from a blank sheet of paper is scary. I think it's scary, too. But as long as you have a good team of people around you, which you likely do, you'll figure it out. People make the problems, and people can solve them, too. It's that obvious.