Develop a persistent spirit that compels you to stick it out even when tired, forcing you to persevere and find ways around obstacles, as it is essential for building a successful business.
Continuously iterate and refine your products or services, always striving to make them better, as an obsessive zeal for improvement leads to mastery and turns problems into opportunities.
Recognize that human touch and a deep understanding of human nature are the most powerful forces in business, as all business is ultimately personal, and great companies are built on these connections.
Proactively act with generosity and positivity (“go positive and go first”) to unlock the principle of reciprocation, as helping others get what they want is the most effective way to achieve your own goals.
Instead of just selling a product, focus on providing customers with clear, observable results and adding value through your interactions and sales process.
Do not let customers try products alone; personally demonstrate how to use them correctly to ensure they have the right experience and avoid blaming the product for their own potential misuse.
Design your business model to prioritize repeat sales, understanding that this necessitates a win-win relationship with customers, as only win-win relationships endure over time and build lasting empires.
Understand when to avoid direct competition, especially when you are not yet strong enough, and instead build your capabilities quietly and invisibly, choosing to enter markets on your own terms.
Instead of focusing on competing for a slice of an existing market, innovate to expand the entire market, creating new categories or uses that benefit the whole industry and allow for greater overall growth.
To create new markets, focus not just on changing a product, but on transforming how customers perceive themselves in relation to that product, thereby shifting its role from a luxury to an everyday item.
Gain a thorough understanding of exactly why your products work, what they contain, and how they are made, so you can confidently explain their value beyond just marketing claims.
Treat quality not just as a standard, but as an absolute obsession, being willing to discard entire batches if they aren’t perfect, even for details no one else would notice, to uphold your brand’s integrity.
Recognize that every detail, no matter how small, contributes to the overall brand experience; orchestrate launches and presentations with infinite respect and care, ensuring perfect coordination.
Never compromise on the quality or prestige of your product’s placement, as starting in a second-tier environment can permanently diminish your brand’s image, pricing power, and future potential.
Treat every potential customer with respect and attention, regardless of their appearance or perceived status, and never allow your own or others’ prejudices to limit your vision or effort.
View sales staff as your most important asset and train them meticulously on product knowledge, presentation, seasonal messaging, and absolute honesty, ensuring they embody the brand as walking advertisements.
Provide samples or gifts, even without a purchase, to get products into customers’ hands, allowing them to experience the benefits at home and transform them into loyal believers.
Focus on creating such a positive and transformative experience for individual customers that they are compelled to share their excitement and recommend your products to others, creating viral marketing.
Find moments when your target audience is receptive, captive, and thinking about your product’s domain, then offer a compelling, low-risk proposition to engage them.
Always provide a direct, hands-on demonstration of your product, tailoring the experience to the individual (e.g., on their face or hand), to allow them to immediately feel and see the benefits.
If traditional avenues or invitations are not forthcoming, proactively devise and execute your own strategies to generate opportunities and gain access to desired markets or contacts.
When faced with a ’no,’ interpret it as ’not yet’ and actively seek to understand the underlying reasons for rejection, then adapt your approach to find a way around the obstacle.
Ensure your persistence is guided by clear direction and focus, as undirected effort, no matter how persistent, will not yield the desired results.
When faced with skepticism about high prices, don’t lower them; instead, raise curiosity and explain the unique value, creativity, and experience customers are paying for, linking it to tangible benefits.
For every new launch or opening, commit 100% of your effort by personally training staff, engaging all relevant internal departments, blitzing local media, and ensuring every detail supports the product’s success.
Cultivate relationships with staff in complementary departments, offering them samples and showing how your products enhance theirs, encouraging them to cross-promote your offerings to their customers.
Actively engage with local media by offering samples, makeovers, and expert advice, focusing on building genuine relationships rather than just seeking immediate product placements.
When faced with limited resources or unexpected challenges, avoid panic and instead creatively demonstrate new ways to use existing products, turning perceived weaknesses into unique selling propositions.
Treat packaging as a critical component of the product experience, obsessing over every detail like durability, aesthetics, and how it integrates into the customer’s environment.
Protect critical intellectual property with elaborate coding systems and by ensuring that the final, crucial components of a formula are only known and handled by trusted individuals, creating a ‘maze’ rather than a simple ‘wall.’
Avoid getting drawn into competitive fights, scandals, or the limelight; instead, focus intently on your own business and unique offerings, doing your own thing rather than constantly reacting to competitors.
Identify and claim a unique brand positioning that competitors haven’t fully captured, such as ’elegance,’ to differentiate yourself and build a distinct identity at scale.
Approach each new market as a unique puzzle, customizing your product offerings, messaging, and distribution strategies to best fit local needs, preferences, and competitive landscapes.
Look beyond traditional demographic labels like gender to identify universal needs that your product or service addresses, opening up new market segments.
If possible, structure your business to allow for a multi-decade planning horizon, enabling strategic decisions that prioritize long-term growth and quality over short-term quarterly returns.
Always strive to do what is right, as this approach will not only satisfy some but also astonish others, building a reputation for integrity and authenticity.
Design product launches and brand interactions as immersive ’theater,’ using scientific authority, advanced technology, and professional presentation to convey a clear, compelling message that transcends typical marketing.
Don’t be afraid to embrace unique or unconventional design choices, even if they make some people nervous, as distinctiveness can be a powerful brand asset.
When introducing significantly different product lines, consider launching them as separate, independent brands to allow each to grow strongly without diluting the identity or potential of the others.
Invest in high-quality, stark, and practical advertising that focuses on the essence of the product rather than conventional models, relentlessly pursuing perfection in every detail to create memorable and impactful campaigns.
Never compromise your brand’s identity or credibility, even for quick profits from discount channels, as credibility is fragile and, once broken, is impossible to fully restore.
Instead of chasing sheer size, break operations into smaller units and prioritize cultivating deep, loving relationships with a few key partners or customers over merely stocking in many locations.
Demonstrate profound respect for your customers by portraying them holistically and selling elegance and aspiration rather than resorting to crude or superficial marketing tactics.
Establish excellence as the non-negotiable standard for all operations, including training, by ensuring environments promote total focus and demand perfection at all times.
Refrain from putting anger into written form, as written words are permanent and cannot be retracted, potentially causing lasting damage.
When competitors imitate your work, choose to view it as flattery rather than theft, maintaining grace and a positive approach (“you get more bees with honey”).
Keep your business private to maintain control over your vision and long-term strategy, free from external pressures that might compromise your core principles.
Trust your gut instincts and intuition, but always verify them with thorough research and data to ensure your decisions are well-founded.
Operate with toughness and determination in business, but always maintain your grace, professionalism, and composure, even in challenging situations.
Uphold an absolute commitment to quality without compromise, but be generous in all other aspects, such as offering samples, advice, and building relationships.
Understand that achieving excellence is not a final destination but an ongoing, continuous journey of improvement and refinement.
Dismiss the notion that you are too old to start a business, as many highly successful entrepreneurs began their ventures later in life, proving that age is not a barrier to ambition and success.
Be willing to make high-stakes, ‘all-in’ decisions, like consolidating distribution to only the most prestigious channels, to instantly establish brand credibility and cachet, even if it means sacrificing immediate, smaller revenue streams.
Don’t just run your business from spreadsheets (the map); actively engage with customers, salespeople, and stores (the territory) to gain a real-world understanding and a dose of reality that data alone cannot provide.
Study and emulate companies known for exceptional customer experience, focusing on hands-on demos, obsessive packaging quality, and tight control over distribution to command premium pricing and brand loyalty.
While engaging with media for promotion, strategically maintain a low profile regarding internal operations, finances, and future plans to avoid unnecessary attention and competitive scrutiny.
Always be truthful in your business dealings and communications.
Resist the urge to chase every latest fad; instead, focus on your core business and unique strengths, staying in your own lane to build sustained value.
Imagine a transformative future for your customers or industry, creating a “reality distortion field” around that vision, and then relentlessly work to make that imagined future a reality.
Don’t wait for permission or external opportunities; proactively create your own paths and chances, as true outliers are those who forge their own way.
When faced with a demeaning or hurtful experience, internalize the promise to yourself that such an event will never happen again, using it as a driving force to achieve your desires.
Look at common behaviors or unused products and ask fundamental ‘why’ questions to uncover hidden problems or unmet needs, which can lead to revolutionary innovations and new markets.
Design your product experience to allow customers easy, direct sensory interaction (e.g., unscrewing a cap to smell), ensuring the product’s essence lingers and draws them back for purchase.
Create products with features that provide a sustained, subtle benefit or reminder throughout the day, ensuring continuous positive reinforcement and encouraging repeat engagement.
Challenge the idea of a single-use product by encouraging customers to build a ‘wardrobe’ of different options for various occasions, while also setting clear guidelines for appropriate usage.
Allow yourself to process despair and frustration from rejection in private, but then immediately return to a polite, cheerful, and understanding demeanor when re-engaging with the gatekeeper.
Carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages of private versus public company status, recognizing that private status allows for long-term vision and uncompromising quality, while public status can provide capital access and a forcing function for efficiency.
When dealing with organizations, always work through and empower the person directly responsible for the relevant department, ensuring they receive credit and feel valued, rather than going over their head.
As an entrepreneur, possess such strong self-belief and obsession in your ideas that you cannot be talked out of them, even when faced with grave concerns or warnings from trusted advisors.
Be completely invested in your work, as someone who is 100% committed will significantly outperform those who are not, leading to substantial success.