The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett

This is more a summary than a review of the book, subtitled 33 Laws of Business and Life. I listened to the audiobook and must say young Mr Bartlett is an accomplished presenter of marketing ideas, none that was particularly original, but all were well-presented and stimulating to getting the reader thinking about making wiser business and life decisions, which is the point. Clever way to generate sign-ups to his email list too (you have to sign up to get his 33rd law which is a promise to send monthly “law” updates.)

Hey, fair enough, I like him. Here are summaries of the 33 laws:

The 33 laws of Business and Life:

“The Self”

1. Fill your five buckets in this order (each flow from the previous ones, the first two can never be taken from you): Knowledge, skills, network, resources and reputation.
2. To master something, teach it.
3. You must never disagree (if you want to change someone’s mind)
4. You do not get to choose what you believe – to change a belief find positive new evidence. Unchallenged beliefs are the most limiting.
5. You must lean in to bizarre behaviour, when you don’t understand or feel challenged, lean in more. Leaninig out will leave you behind. Lean in to risk
6. Ask, don’t tell. Don’t make statements, ask binary yes or no questions of others and yourself
7. Never compromise your “self story”. Keep commitments to yourself even when others aren’t watching, this will train you to have strong evidence of your mental mettle.
8. Never fight a bad habit. Create a new habit by adapting a bad one with better outcomes.
9. Always prioritise your first foundation – your health.

“The Story”

10. Useless absurdity will define you more than useful practicalities. You’ll be known for the absurd things you do, it’s for the risk taker and the genius. Normality is dull. Absurdity sells.
11. Avoid “wallpaper” at all costs. Communicate by cutting though the habituation filter. Tell stories in an unconventional way. Make people feel something, indifference is the enemy.
12. You must piss people off. Hate is a signal that you are saying the right things. Triggering an emotional response that triggers 20 percent of your audience. Indifference is the least profitable outcome.
13. Shoot your psychological moonshots first. Tiny, superficial changes can affect our perception far more than real changes, so do them first.
14. Friction can create value. Value is a perception with expectations we meet. Eg making health drinks taste worse, add an egg to Betty Crocker cake mix as humans are not rational.
15. The frame matters more than the picture. 90% lean sounds better than 10% fat. Change the frame, you change the message. A smart frame will transform the plain. Apple stores are like art museums
16. Use Goldilocks effect to your advantage. People make value judgements based on context. The context creates the value so offer three example price points to make the middle one appear the best.
17. Let them try and they will buy. Showing is better than telling. Through the lens of ownership, the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.
18. Fight for the first five seconds. They are do or die for any story. Drop the warm intro: get to the thumb-stoppingly compelling, the emotionally engaging, annoyingly magnetic point first.

“The Philosophy”

19. You must sweat the small stuff. Find the 1 percent consistent gains, rather than the occasional great gains. The Kaizan philosophy.
20. A small miss now, creates a big miss later, so watch yourself.
21. You must out-fail your competition. Failure is not a bad thing. Every fail provides useful info, failure = feedback = knowledge = power. More failure means more creativity.
22. You must become a Plan-A thinker. A backup plan is a distracting companion. Don’t have a plan B.
23. Don’t be an ostrich. Avoiding uncomfortable realities means accepting an uncomfortable future.
24. You must make pressure your privilege. Hard is the price we pay today for an easy tomorrow. Reframe pressure as the price of growth.
25. The power of negative manifestation. Your personal progression is probaby trapped behind an uncomfortable conversation. Imagine why something might fail in the future.
26. Your skills are worthless, but your context is valuable. Different markets will value your (same) skills widely differently.
27. The discipline equation: death, time and discipline. Success is not magic, it is a biproduct of how we use our time everyday. Be selective of how you use your time is greatest sign of self-respect.

“The Team”

28. Ask who, not how. Hire smart people to tell you what to do. Who is the best person to do this for me? Ego insists you do it yourself; your potential insists you delegate.
29. Create a cult mentality. Can be incredibly useful in the first stages, but cults are not sustainable.
30. Three bars for building great teams. Put culture before all other considerations for a team. Every hire you should be looking to raise the bar. Anyone who lowers the bar, get rid of asap.
31. Leverage the power of progress. Prioritise celebrating small wins, motivation is best when progress is felt.
32. You must be an inconsistent leader. Great leaders are fluid and flexible, whatever shape they need to be to complete your motivation.
33. Learning never ends.

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No. 6 of 50 books I intend to read and review in 2023. (yeah, I’m a bit behind)

I’m Patrick Sherriff, an Englishman who survived 13 years working for newspapers in the US, UK and Japan. Between teaching English lessons at my conversation school in Abiko, Japan, I write and illustrate textbooks for non-native speakers of English, release Hana Walker mystery novels, short stories, paint, sketch and write essays and a monthly newsletter  highlighting good writing in English, often about about Japan, art, crime fiction and teaching.