Work the System:
Message from Sam
9/27/2024
I’ve spent all of 2024 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” remains the focus. I want you to “get it.”
This is the “Updated for 2025, Unwoke’” edition. 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 your 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 dramatically more accurate “one layer deeper” view, underlying system processes are starkly revealed and subsequent real-life mechanical actions will be obvious. It’s not about learning something new. It’s about acquiring a better view of how the sights, sounds and events of your business and your life operate.
You will handle everything more effectively. Life will suddenly make sense. 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. The book alone is all you need to get things operating the way you’ve always wanted them to operate. The only thing I ask is, if you buy or listen to the book, will you review it for me on that bookseller’s site? (Yes, that’s usually Amazon. When a new edition of a book is released, past book reviews are erased and the book review tally goes back to zero. Arrggghhhh.)
I have many followers on my email mailing list (you can join the list above), and under my name I have recently started to post on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
Feel free to contact me personally. I’ll always respond.
-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