Demand exceptionally high standards from yourself and your work, even if they seem unreasonable to others, as this creates a unique moat and prevents complacency from small compromises.
Build real power and resilience by making yourself indispensable to multiple interconnected systems or industries simultaneously, ensuring survival and influence even if one system fails.
Build your career not just as a series of jobs or titles, but as an architectural structure that becomes the indispensable platform and infrastructure controlling the future of your industry.
In creative fields, prioritize speed and decisiveness over the pursuit of absolute perfection, as perfection without deadlines often leads to procrastination.
Create an environment where every detail matters; manage inputs and control the environment to make excellence inevitable, understanding that casualness in small things leads to casualness in work.
Instead of aiming for realistic goals, name your ultimate, ambitious destination with certainty and then work backward to define the necessary steps.
Commit to obsessively learning and accumulating high-quality inputs in your field to build deep mastery and develop strong pattern recognition.
Cultivate the ability to anticipate major industry shifts and trends before they become mainstream, allowing you to act proactively rather than reactively.
Maintain consistent core methods (e.g., control environment, high standards, speed) while constantly evolving and adapting your specific tactics to changing circumstances.
Ensure your work is not only excellent but also consistently profitable, as this combination guarantees survival and success in both good times and crises.
Make decisions clearly and directly without over-explaining, as this encourages people to anticipate your standards and thinking rather than to argue or question.
Define focus not as doing a single task, but as exclusively doing the tasks and making the decisions that only you are uniquely positioned to do.
To build real power, focus on creating your own network and positioning yourself as the central hub through which all important connections and information flow.
Prioritize being kind by delivering direct, honest, and clear feedback, even if it’s not ’nice,’ ensuring people know exactly where they stand and what is expected.
Cultivate the courage to be disliked, as prioritizing universal approval can hinder your ability to be direct, efficient, and focused on your path.
When you have complete self-belief, interpret rejection as mere data for adjustment and learning, rather than a definitive verdict on your capabilities or vision.
Differentiate between being fired for poor performance and being fired for uncompromising standards; the latter is not a failure but valuable reconnaissance about an incompatible environment.
If a system consistently fails to reward merit or is dominated by politics, choose to leave (’exodus’) rather than engaging in arguments or attempting to fix it.
When facing resistance, don’t argue directly; instead, subtly architect situations and constraints that make your preferred outcome the most practical or only viable option.
Always play a longer strategic game, focusing on ultimate goals and positioning, rather than getting entangled in short-term office politics or battles.
When seeking opportunities, don’t just prepare answers; instead, show up with fully realized solutions or proactively solve a problem to get noticed.
Do not hide your ambitions; instead, state them clearly and directly, allowing the world to adjust to your stated goals.
When you acquire power or a new position, exercise it decisively and immediately, as hesitation can invite resistance and undermine your authority.
Recognize that comfort breeds complacency; design your environment to introduce productive discomfort and eliminate friction between thought and action, fostering decisiveness.
Use rigorous, consistent approval processes and high standards not just to review work, but to ‘program’ your team’s thinking to anticipate and produce excellence.
For disruption, identify and legitimize behaviors or desires that already exist but are not yet widely accepted, showing people what they didn’t know they were allowed to want.
When ’everyone agrees’ something would never work, consider doing precisely that, as consensus often stifles innovation and prevents significant attention.
Understand that consumers are drawn more to aspirational narratives and ongoing stories (like celebrity lives) than to static aspirational images.
When presented with an either/or choice, actively seek a third, narrow path where both seemingly opposing options can achieve a win.
Learn to understand and ‘speak’ the language of finance and business fluently, even while maintaining a strong artistic or creative vision.
Recognize that industry disruption is inevitable; strategically, it is better to be the one doing the cannibalization and disruption yourself rather than reacting to it.
Develop the ability to effectively compartmentalize personal challenges from your professional persona, allowing you to perform through crises without personal issues derailing your work.
When speculation about your next move or position arises, maintain an air of mystery rather than confirming or denying, as this can multiply your leverage.
Utilize sub-brands or smaller ventures as laboratories to test risky strategies and controversial ideas that your main brand cannot afford to undertake.
Understand that carefully managed controversy can drive engagement, and increased engagement can, in turn, drive revenue.
Approach digital transformation not as abandoning core successful principles, but as effectively translating and adapting them to new, measurable digital mediums.
In the digital realm, prioritize measurement and data tracking, as anything that cannot be effectively measured cannot be monetized.
Position yourself by building options and preparing for multiple possible future scenarios, then execute your plans with focus and without emotional interference, as crises reveal true preparedness.
Instead of merely playing within existing rules, strive to build the entire game or infrastructure of your industry, then control access and monetize it.
Aim not just to survive industry transformations, but to be the driving force behind them, actively shaping the future of your field.
Recognize that true advantage comes not just from having opportunities, but from knowing precisely what to do and executing effectively once those opportunities arise.
Embrace opportunities to learn every job in detail, viewing challenging, ‘over your head’ apprenticeships as invaluable education rather than mere exploitation.
Develop and maintain strong taste, meticulous organization, and unwavering certainty in your decisions, ensuring you are always prepared and decisive.
Create impact and find ‘magic’ by intentionally mixing high-aspiration elements with accessible ones, avoiding both pure snobbery and pure commodity.
Focus on maintaining exceptional standards in your own work, as this will naturally expose and highlight mediocrity in others without direct confrontation.
Hire talented individuals and empower them with freedom and responsibility, as this approach encourages better work and performance.
Understand that in certain industries, your personal appearance is not vanity but a strategic argument that communicates your standards and vision.
Be open to working in unconventional or ‘disreputable’ environments and embrace opportunities others are too proud to take, as they can offer unique freedom and learning.
Adopt strategies like a consistent wardrobe choice to simplify daily decision-making, freeing up mental energy for more critical tasks.
Cultivate immense loyalty by genuinely helping others, especially those without established names, providing opportunities and support that build strong professional relationships and a lasting legacy.
Cultivate decisiveness as a muscle, using it frequently to increase your speed of action, understanding that velocity is a critical factor in success.