The Diary of a CEO
THE FIVE BUCKETS
He was telling me to focus on filling my own buckets, because someone with full buckets can positively bend the world in any way he or she desires. (View Highlight)
We usually start our professional life acquiring knowledge (school, university, etc.), and when this knowledge is applied, we call it a skill. When you have knowledge and skills you become professionally valuable to others and your network grows. Consequently, when you have knowledge, skills and a network, your access to resources expands, and once you have knowledge, skills, a valuable network and resources, you will undoubtedly earn a reputation. (View Highlight)
The late spiritual leader Yogi Bhajan once said, ‘If you want to learn something, read about it. If you want to understand something, write about it. If you want to master something, teach it.’ (View Highlight)
Being able to simplify an idea and successfully share it with others is both the path to understanding it and the proof that you do. One of the ways we mask our lack of understanding of any idea is by using more words, bigger words and less necessary words. (View Highlight)
‘I couldn’t reduce it to the freshman level. That means we really don’t understand it.’
The Feynman technique follows a few key steps, which I’ve simplified and updated based on my own learning experience:
‘The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher.’
Healthy conflict strengthens relationships because those involved are working against a problem; unhealthy conflict weakens a relationship because those involved are working against each other. (View Highlight)
YOU MUST LEAN IN TO BIZARRE BEHAVIOUR
And the former CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer had certainly leaned out when he laughed at Apple and said, ‘There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.’ (View Highlight)
Research has shown that cognitive dissonance is most painful for us when we encounter facts or evidence that destabilise or conflict with how we see ourselves, that undermine our identity and confidence in ourselves, or that make us feel in some way threatened.
WE WOULD RATHER BE DEAD THAN WRONG (View Highlight)
Taking no risks will be your biggest risk.
NEVER COMPROMISE YOUR SELF-STORY
John Wooden: ‘The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.’ (View Highlight)
The most convincing sign that someone will achieve new results in the future is new behaviour in the present. (View Highlight)
Whether my father realised it or not, the science shows that the most important thing he did was not trying to fight the habit, but replacing the final step of the habit loop with a much less addictive reward – the lollipops. (View Highlight)
Have you ever noticed that when you focus too much on stopping something, you ultimately end up rebounding and do it more? (View Highlight)
The way that something is packaged has a big impact on how it’s received. How something is framed affects how consumers perceive and value the brand. In this moment, the frame of my favourite brand changed irreversibly. (View Highlight)
THE LAW: LET THEM TRY AND THEY WILL BUY
The kaizen philosophy vehemently rejects the notion that only a select few members of a company’s hierarchy are responsible for innovation; it insists that it has to be an everyday task and concern of all employees, at all levels. (View Highlight)
if you want to increase your chances of success, you must increase your failure rate (View Highlight)
When we need something done, we’ve been trained to ask ourselves: ‘How can I do this?’ The better question, which the world’s greatest founders default to asking, is ‘Who is the best person that can do this for me?’
This law explains the secrets to creating a truly great culture within any team, company or organisation.