Work the System:
The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, Fifth Edition
Message from Sam, 9/9/2024: I’ve spent the last ten months going deep, hunkered down, bringing “Work” up to date yet carefully preserving the main threads (because, of course, base reality works the same way everywhere, all the time…). I’ve made the book easier to read and understand, added some new insights, and addressed the economic/social earthquakes of the last five years.
Of course, the “systems mindset” is the focus: I want you to “get” it.
I’m calling this 5th Edition the “Updated for 2025, Unwoke’” edition. (Yes, go ahead and read into that.) My aim continues to be this: bricks and mortar, virtual, retail, construction, service and/or product producer, owner-operated, large or small staff—it doesn’t matter. Whatever the business type (presuming the product or service is useful), dysfunction has its roots in this foundational weakness: a fire-killing, non-systematic approach by the leader. The systems mindset is utterly logical and believable, a deeper vision of how a business—and a life—mechanically unfolds.
Yes, for any endeavor’s success, including a life well-lived, leadership IS everything.
The systems mindset epiphany occurs in a single identifiable moment, never to fade. Suddenly, with this vivid “one layer deeper” view, underlying system processes are starkly revealed and subsequent real-life mechanical actions are obvious.
You’ll never be the same. You’ll never go back.
Watch the animation below.
Perhaps a surprising nuance, my book is not a lead-in to coaching, consulting, or some online training program. I have nothing down the line to sell you. At the risk of cliche, now my job is to spread the word; to provide a guidebook to those who may be sinking. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I have many followers on my email mailing list (you can join me here on this page). I have recently started to post on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
This fifth edition was published on August 20, 2024, in hardcover and e-book iterations. You can order those versions on Amazon and elsewhere. (Be sure to choose the 5th edition, not the 4th. For now, they are both listed by certain sellers.) The audio for the 5th, which I narrate, should be available late this month.
Feel free to contact me. I’ll always respond personally.
-Sam Carpenter
A Simple Explanation of the Work the System Method
Sam’s second book, The Systems Mindset: Managing the Machinery of your Life, is for those who don’t own or manage a business. See www.thesystemsmindset.com.
The Book
Sam Carpenter’s Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less is now in its fifth edition (August 2024). Since the first edition was published in 2008, tens of thousands of business owners have used the Work the System Method as a foundational guide to quickly eliminate disorder, systemizing their businesses and their lives into super-efficiency. 4,000,000+ copies distributed worldwide in English, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Romanian and Japanese.
To Reach Sam
Podcast and media interviews, culture transformation analysis and discussion.
Business Documentation Software
BDS exactly conforms to the Work the System Method. It’s an intuitive and simple platform designed to make it easy for you to create, tweak and store your three primary documents as described in Part Two of Sam’s book.
BDS is simple to use. There’s no fluff or excess. It’s about “bottom up,” point-of-sale, and never-ending system improvement.
Work the System is integral to the Mindvalley operation. Simple and powerful…essential reading for the CEO.
Vishen Lakhiani
I am looking down at my business, seeing all the moving parts.
Eleanor Pinkney
Mandatory reading. Work the System liberates…
Perry Marshall
One of the most useful business books you’ll ever read.
Josh Kaufman
If you think your business can benefit from organization, efficiency and predictability, then you need to read this book.
Luke A. Mosch
Investing in WTS has been one of the most profitable decisions we’ve ever made.
Sharon Desjarlais