Building a Self-Sustaining Business: The Balance Between Involvement and Independence

Can you build a company that thrives even when you’re not in the room? In this episode of The REWORK Podcast, 37signals co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson talk about the jobs they've created for themselves and how they're able to step away without progress coming to a halt. They discuss the fine line between being involved and letting the team run things without them.

Key Takeaways:

• 00:14 – The importance of creating a job for yourself that you enjoy
• 02:45 – The tragedy of owning a business you don't love
• 06:56 – Staying relevant in your business and knowing when to step in
• 15:14 – Knowing when to step back so your team can grow
• 17:51 – Maintaining a life outside of your business and having work/life balance
• 20:36 – The parts of the business that require the founders' involvement
• 23:33 – Jason and David's stance of not being serial entrepreneurs

Links and Resources:

• Get Basecamp for free at Basecamp.com
• Books by 37signals
• HEY World | HEY
• The REWORK podcast
• The Rework Podcast on YouTube
• The 37signals Dev Blog
• 37signals on YouTube
• @37signals on X