Synopsis: Breaking Loose

Synopsis of
Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less

8/19/2025

INTRODUCTION

Hi! Sam Carpenter here, author of the book Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, now in its 5th edition (May 2025).*

The purpose of my book, and by extension the Work the System Method, is to help owners of small to medium-sized businesses break loose; to eliminate organizational inefficiency so growth will happen, profits will increase, and true personal freedom is obtained. 

What are the simple prerequisites for personal freedom? Lots of time and lots of money. (The opposite? Being way too busy and struggling financially.)

Here at the beginning, it’s a good time to introduce three definitions and a foundational principle. They are all excerpted from the Introduction of my book:

“System, subsystem (or process, mechanism, machine): An enclosed entity with numerous spinning wheels, all contributing to the singular purpose of that entity, which is to accomplish a particular goal. Within the work-the-system context, we are especially interested in recurring systems. The words system and subsystem are interchangeable depending on the application.”

Systems mindset or work-the-system mindset: The embedded vision of the world as an orderly collection of processes, not as a chaotic mass of sights, sounds, and events.

“System improvement: The heart of the Method. It’s the never-ending search-and-repair effort of tooling a system closer and closer to perfection while documenting and then maintaining that system so its hyperefficient execution will recur every time.”

The foundational principle? It’s imperative to remember some very basic physics: all systems execute in 1-2-3-4 steps, one after the other, across time. This will make more sense as you get further into this synopsis.

OVERVIEW

Your business? Brick and mortar, virtual, retail, construction, service provider, product producer, owner-operated, or an organization with a large staff: It doesn’t matter. Regardless of the type or size of the organization, dysfunction most often has its roots in this too-common leadership weakness: a frenetic, fire-killing, non-systematic approach stemming from a limited view of mechanical reality.

In your business and/or personal life, I’ll show you how to descend “one layer deeper” so you can, via what I call the “systems mindset,” see your world more accurately and, with that, negotiate it more effectively. I want you to “get” the mindset so you can create what you want in your life. More time. More money.

Question: Do you sometimes think you’re spending your day fruitlessly “herding cats?” Are you positive you can prosper, but because of the interminable chaos, you just can’t make it happen?

If so, you’re a member of a club that includes 99% of humanity, business owners included…..

Once you “get” the systems mindset, how long does it take to start to see meaningful improvement? Immediately. And with those first successes, the gratification you will experience will permanently internalize the systems mindset.

The Work the System methodology takes a simple yet profound approach, one that begins with a one-layer-deeper adjustment in the leader’s perspective on how the business mechanically functions. With this new vantage point, inefficient methodologies are easy to detect, new possibilities emerge, and the necessary subsequent actions for “system improvement” come naturally.

The Work the System method complements the brilliant works of elite motivators and business/personal gurus such as Steven Covey, Anthony Robbins, Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, Robert Ringer, Cal Newport, Michael Gerber, Jordan Peterson, and, of course, the late Dale Carnegie. Better said, the method gets underneath these proven methodologies and makes them even more potent.

I DID THIS MYSELF

I’ve owned my answering service business, Centratel, for over 40 years. For the first decade and a half, I worked 80-100 hours a week, earning just enough to support my two children and me. (I was a single custodial parent.) But then in 1999, twenty-seven years ago, in a single moment, the systems mindset vision struck, and I was instantly able to begin to turn things around. Now I work two to four hours per month from our home in rural Kentucky, while our personal income from it is substantially more than what Diana and I require. My company, Centratel, headquartered in Bend, Oregon, is a high-tech telephone answering service with competitors worldwide, and by several statistical measures, is #1 in our industry.

And yes, the people who work for me, some of them for as long as 30 years, are very well paid.

IS THIS YOU?

My book, Work the System,  addresses the following fact: Most business owners experience the world as a complex, swirling mass of sights, sounds, and events. And because of this inaccurate perception of reality, the leader works long and stressful hours, heroically dousing fires and performing endless recurring repair tasks, and is always contending with cash-flow problems. This is the definition of fire-killing! It’s seemingly impossible to build solid infrastructure, coddle customers, train staff, and then find the energy to devise and take the steps necessary to drive steady, organized growth. And usually, family life is a struggle, too. Add to this, personal health problems. 

It’s a pity: As the years churn on, entire lives are spent this way! You know it’s true! You’ve seen it…or maybe you are experiencing it yourself.

It’s a further pity because, trapped by their own egos, these business owners view themselves as heroes, self-satisfied with their ability to put out every fire and face any challenge. This is virtue signaling: self-induced, twisted heroics that distract from the careful management of the tainted underlying machinery that actually produces the results. This leader is going to fail.

In any five-year period, 80% of small businesses fail.

So, what is the get-down-to-it foundational reason for business mediocrity and failure? Leaders don’t see the less-than-perfect internal systems that are producing poor results, so they don’t make adjustments within those systems to prevent those poor results from happening again!

And, there’s this: Most people don’t see that attributes such as hyper-enthusiasm, willingness to work long hours, advanced education, good looks, robust health, engaging personality, great personal contacts, etc., are not the cause of any particular success.

What is the actual cause of a successful leader’s success? Super-efficient processes are devised and then carefully nurtured to produce desired results.

It’s the machinery of your life that creates the results in your life!

DO YOU SEE THE MACHINERY?

You must carefully manage your life-machinery if you are to produce the results you want.

Whether you perceive it or not, and whether you like it or not, the systems within a life are constantly and relentlessly working to produce end results in that life. So it follows that an unseen—and therefore unmanaged—system will produce ongoing, random, negative results that must be repaired. Again, this is not heroics. It’s fire-killing.

The successful leader understands precisely how the machinery that produces results works and is continuously adjusting those mechanisms to achieve desired results. Is there a problem? Then this leader doesn’t just fix the actual real-time problem; he or she immediately examines the errant system that allowed the problem to occur in the first place, and then adjusts that process so the problem won’t reappear.

The leader who can’t see the machinery that is producing the bad results will keep thrashing, barely surviving, never getting ahead.

It’s the seeing-the-machinery part that is critical!

And then what happens after the systems mindset is internally embedded? The leader enthusiastically “works the system” ALL the time!

Yes, it’s that simple…one’s systems mindset constantly attends to the machinery and is always focused on internal system improvement. Not once in a while, but all day long…this is how one breaks loose! This is how dysfunction goes away, and growth and peace finally materialize. So, the Work the System Method requires a change in mindset—the adoption of an outside and slightly elevated vantage point—a view that vividly sees the separate systems of the world. The Systems Mindset is logical and self-evident, as it generates incredible efficiency at work and in personal life. The added bonus? A powerful yet relaxed mental state that reflects a solid command of events and outcomes. One’s life comes under control.

The systems mindset is not hocus pocus, mystical, or esoteric. It’s about simple, believable, real-world mechanics. There’s no need for a list of tips or motivational gimmicks, though my book offers guidelines to apply before and after the “get-it” systems mindset insight occurs.

(Part One of my book is designed to guide the reader into quickly acquiring the new mindset.)

LIFE IS NOT CHAOTIC

Our individual lives are NOT inherently chaotic and at the mercy of random or hostile outside influences. And despite the media’s never-ending doomsday diatribes—yes, it’s a numbers game—the world, as a whole, is not dysfunctional. Whether you perceive them or not, your life is a collection of individual linear systems executing over time, the vast majority of which—per their construction—operate with incredible efficiency and are relentlessly producing good results. Relatively speaking, only a few need adjustment to achieve the desired results.

Here’s a meditative exercise to help you internalize the systems mindset; to deep-down grasp the utter reliability of the vast majority of systems in which you are immersed. First, relax and take a deep breath. Then consider the complexities of a tree, a business, a car, a house, or a human body. See that countless subsystems work together to form each of these “primary” entities. For example, the human body is an incredibly sophisticated arrangement of billions of cells…and with trillions of electrical signals executing each second. Subsystems include neuromuscular, structural, cardiovascular, etc. It all works near-flawlessly as subsystems interact, adjust, and maintain themselves. It’s mechanical, yes, but it’s a miracle!

And that’s just the human body. Incredible perfection surrounds us everywhere! Can you start to see it? Just look around….

A NEW APPRECIATION

The whole world operates in this wonderful way! So, despite our tendency to focus on the relatively few imperfections in our lives, thoughtful systems-mindset observations lead to the following conclusion: the vast majority of systems around us work just fine. Truth is, the world as a whole is 99.9% flawless in its operation…and internalizing this fact makes one realize that, in our own lives, there isn’t that much to adjust in order to break free, to “get what one wants.”

And no small thing, the insight induces a new appreciation of life.

“Getting” this new vision leads to a more efficient existence; a life more in tune with how the world actually mechanically operates.

If we thoroughly understand how a machine works, we’re better able to fix that machine and then guide it to optimum functionality. It’s that simple, and it’s exactly what I did with every facet of my own life.

And my business? It’s made up of people who see things in the same simple way. They “get it!”

THE SYSTEMS MINDSET IN YOUR BUSINESS (AND YOUR LIFE)

At work, how does one fix inefficiencies? It’s breathtakingly simple. View the workplace as it is in reality: a collection of individual linear systems that execute across time—how the phone is answered, how a complaint is handled, how a sales presentation is conducted, how customers are billed. Begin with the most problematic systems first! Get this for sure: these systems are separate from each other, yet they share precisely the same mechanical functioning: each unfolds in linear sequence, step by step, across time.

There is no need to change occupations or upset the family! It’s a personal revolution that will benefit everyone already in the picture. Once the systems mindset vision is acquired—the moment-to-moment ability to starkly perceive the myriad of separate, independent systems that make up one’s world—new, correct actions will be naturally taken and great outcomes will quickly and smoothly fall into place.

Perfect systems executed perfectly 100% of the time: For each system within the business, one at a time, document its execution (typically in a simple 1-2-3-4 step format). Then, with staff, brainstorm and improve the sequence of steps within that particular system until they are perfect. Document the revised system. Then reinsert the perfected system back into the operation so it is executed perfectly 100% of the time.

As a matter of policy, everyone in the organization will follow each perfected system in exactly the same sequence every time. Does this sound regimented? Some of it IS regimented, but the release valve is in giving your people the power to quickly “tweak”their systems to higher and higher efficiency. I call it “Bottom-up.” And you’ll teach your managers and front-line staff to create the ongoing documentation. This is key to employee loyalty and enthusiasm. Do this, and you’ll get the buy-in from your employees that you’ve always wanted.

It’s a workplace culture centered around never-ending system improvement. In the systems mindset-driven business, management and staff are constantly adjusting systems. That’s how they spend their time. It’s what they do. And it’s how they buy into the system improvement process.

And anyway, getting everyone to climb on board is a simple matter because once things begin to fall into place—and it won’t take long—you and your people will make more money, the work environment will become serene, and there will be a powerful sense of pride throughout the organization. There will be no going back to the way things were, because everything will be unfolding so smoothly. Best of all, powerful growth will happen, and that’s certainly good for everyone.

Here is the heart of the Method. Memoirize it:  “Don’t be a fire-killer. Be a fire-prevention specialist.“

Stop expending energy in the constant repair of the up-until-now bad results that have been produced by your unseen and therefore unmanaged systems. Instead, “go one layer deeper ” into reality and spend your days observing and then managing the systems that are creating the results you want. Do this, and get growth and freedom. Break loose!

It’s pure physics!

Is there something here for a one-person operation or for a corporate middle manager? Yes! This is about dramatically improving efficiency. The more efficient one is, the more one gets what one wants out of life…and that includes a rapidly expanding solo business or a fast climb up the corporate ladder.

And in your private life? You’ll naturally and effortlessly apply the same systems mindset principles

You can subscribe to my mailing list at www.workthesystem.com .

From the book…

“Life is serious business and whether you know it or not—or whether you like it or not—your personal systems are the threads of the fabric of your life. Together, the end-products of your personal systems add up to you. And if you are like most people, you negotiate your days without seeing your systems as the singular entities they are, some working well and some not so well.”

“The focus must be on the proactive management of systems, not in coping with random bad results due to unseen and therefore unmanaged systems.”

“Without prodding, nor willing it to happen, I stepped outside my life, rose above it and looked down, never again to settle back into the morass that had been my existence. There was nothing mystical about this new vantage point. It was mechanical and logical. I saw that the solution to my business problems did not lie in becoming more proficient at whacking moles—the solution was to find a way to eliminate the moles altogether.”

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