Embrace reality quickly by identifying and acknowledging the true situation, as reality is undefeated. This allows you to take action and make progress on problems sooner.
As a leader, relentlessly focus the organization on the single ‘main thing’ that truly matters for its survival or success. Avoid sprawl and small compromises, as they dilute effort and undermine leadership obligations.
Prioritize family as ’number one’ over the pursuit of being ‘best in the world’ if it means sacrificing core personal values or relationships. Be ambitious, but draw a clear line on what you’re willing to lose.
Be fully present when interacting with family and loved ones, avoiding mental preoccupation with work. Lack of presence, rather than overt conflict, can corrode relationships over time.
Structure your day intentionally to optimize for high-quality decision-making, recognizing and working around concepts like decision fatigue. Schedule important decisions for times when you are most mentally alert and able to focus.
Differentiate between ‘one-way’ (irreversible) and ’two-way’ (reversible) decisions. For two-way doors, prioritize speed and rapid feedback, knowing that mistakes can be corrected as long as integrity is maintained.
Identify the 5-10% of individuals who deliver 90% of your organization’s value and ensure they are treated with commensurate respect, authority, and responsibility. Avoid appeasing the majority at the expense of these high-impact contributors.
As a leader, prioritize finding and attracting a few ’trajectory-changing’ individuals for your company. This focused effort on high-impact talent can be more transformative than many other linear progress activities.
As a leader, consistently make decisions that are clearly and demonstrably in the best interest of the company, establishing an unchanging ‘North Star.’ Any action that deviates from this principle, even for short-term gain, will erode trust and ultimately be detrimental.
When creating new products or services, aim for 10x improvement, not just incremental gains. Consumers are ‘divinely discontent’ and only truly value innovations that fundamentally change their experience.
When addressing undesirable behavior (e.g., whining) in children, ask questions to guide them to self-reflection and internalize lessons, rather than reacting emotionally or dictating. This helps them understand what happened and what they could have done differently.
After a loss, engage children in a ‘hard conversation’ about why they didn’t win and what they can do differently, rather than providing participation trophies. This teaches them about effort, talent, and agency in achieving success.
Prioritize quantity of time with young children, as quality moments are unpredictable and often arise from everyday interactions. Avoid rationalizing less time with the belief that a few ‘quality’ events suffice.
Reframe your perspective on work from ‘you’ve got to’ to ‘you get to,’ remembering you chose your path. Make the time spent away from family and loved ones truly count by being present and focused, ensuring it’s ‘worth it.’
Be authentic across all life domains, avoiding a separate ‘work personality’ and ‘home personality.’ This prevents burnout and fosters trust in your relationships.
When facing a problem, shift from merely thinking about it to actively working on it, even if progress is minimal. Taking action, however small, can significantly improve your state of mind and lead to eventual solutions.
Seek and utilize rapid, continuous feedback, similar to high-level sports teams, to quickly identify and address shortcomings. This immediate reality check helps in constant improvement.
Apply a high standard of craftsmanship and beauty to every aspect of your work, even the parts that aren’t immediately visible to others. True excellence means making something beautiful from every angle.
Identify the one to three critical factors that absolutely must go right for a project or investment to succeed, then maintain maniacal focus on those specific things. This ensures resources and attention are directed towards the most impactful elements.
To restart growth, be willing to experiment and risk existing assets or profits. Innovation often requires stepping outside current constraints and embracing potential loss for future gain.
When writing, read your work out loud to identify weaknesses and improve clarity. Continuously edit until the text sounds good and effectively conveys your thoughts.
For important habits like exercise, commit to doing them every day rather than ‘some days.’ This eliminates internal negotiation and makes consistency easier by predetermining the action.
Adhere to your principles 100% of the time, as it’s easier than trying to follow them 98% of the time. This prevents constant negotiation and maintains clear boundaries for your actions.
To manage diet, use a 21-meal-per-week framework: aim for 19+ good meals to lose weight, 15-19 to maintain, and less than 15 will likely lead to gain. Remove decision-making by pre-planning consistent healthy meals (e.g., Monday-Friday breakfast and lunch).
To improve writing, practice daily, choose topics you genuinely care about, and immediately capture ideas when they strike. This consistent effort, passion, and quick capture enhance both skill and output.
Establish clear personal rules, like being home every day when your children return from school, to maintain consistency and presence in their lives. This creates a predictable environment for connection, even if interactions are minimal.
Cultivate extreme focus, especially when away from family, to ensure that time is not wasted and genuinely contributes to your professional goals. This maximizes the value of time spent on work.
Implement a weekly practice where every team member identifies and writes down their single most important task for the week. This fosters discipline and ensures collective focus on high-priority items.
When interviewing, present a complicated scenario and ask candidates to identify the single most important thing, or to directly solve a core problem (e.g., ‘fix the fridge’). This assesses their ability to prioritize and take effective action.
In problem-solving, prioritize direct, immediate action to address the core issue and maintain business operations, rather than over-analyzing or seeking systemic solutions first. Focus on the ‘fix the fridge’ mentality.
In problem-solving, prioritize finding the most effective solution directly, without seeking ‘points for degree of difficulty.’ Focus on the right answer, even if it seems simple, and execute it.
When faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem with no good options, actively seek to transform the situation into an impetus for a new, advantageous path. Commit fully to making this new path happen.
Practice self-reflection through writing private memos to test your thinking and honestly identify the strengths and weaknesses of your arguments. This internal scrutiny helps refine decision-making.
Be highly selective and targeted in seeking advice, identifying specific individuals whose expertise aligns with the topic at hand. Don’t be polite; focus on getting the most relevant and valuable input for each decision.
When facing uncertain decisions, actively seek to gather all available information by asking targeted questions, rather than accepting limited options. Efficiently reduce uncertainty to only what cannot be resolved within the given timeframe.
When making critical decisions, allocate unlimited time for discussion and deliberation, starting when minds are fresh (e.g., morning). If a clear answer isn’t reached, defer the decision rather than forcing a rushed conclusion.
Be flexible with meeting agendas, allowing discussions to naturally extend on important topics rather than rigidly adhering to a predetermined schedule. This ensures sufficient time is given to critical issues, reflecting their true difficulty and importance.
Recognize that most short-term, reversible decisions have minimal long-term impact, and be willing to delegate or express indifference. This conserves mental energy for truly important, one-way decisions.
Cultivate influence by being selective about when you assert your strong opinions. Reserve your most emphatic input for the few truly critical issues, making others more likely to listen when it matters.
When disagreements arise, especially with a partner, each person should rate the issue’s importance to them on a scale of one to ten. The person with the higher rating gets to decide, streamlining conflict resolution and acknowledging differing priorities.
As a parent or mentor, tailor your approach to each individual’s unique needs to maximize their long-term potential, even if it means treating them differently. Prioritize their growth over perceived ‘fairness’ of identical treatment.
In a partnership, establish a clear, shared ‘optimization function’ (e.g., ‘what is best for the family’) to guide major decisions. This common goal fosters trust and makes even difficult or unconventional choices easier to understand and support.