This book by Steven Bartlett is an excellent read that covers essential tips for both personal and professional life. I recently came across it as an audiobook (better late than never) and was so impressed by the content that I also purchased a physical copy to add to my ‘Hall of Fame.’
The book is structured around four pillars: Self, Story, Philosophy, and Team.
Here are my favorite takeaways from the book:
Pillar 1: Self
Fill Your Buckets in the Right Order
- What you know (Knowledge)
- What you can do (Skills)
- Who you know (Network)
- What you have (Resources)
- What the world thinks of you (Reputation)
Teach It to Master It
- If you want to master something, do it publicly and consistently.
- Simplifying an idea and successfully sharing it with others is key to understanding it. One way we mask our lack of understanding is by using more complex words.
Never Disagree
- If you want to keep someone’s mind open and receptive to your point of view, avoid starting your response with a statement of disagreement.
- Find common ground first, then share your view or rebuttal.
You Do Not Choose What You Believe
- Our beliefs are not constant; they change over time.
- Many of our most important beliefs lack evidence, except that trusted people hold these beliefs.
- To change someone’s belief, simply telling them they’re wrong won’t work. They need firsthand experiences from their senses (hence, “seeing is believing”).
- To change others’ beliefs, inspire new ones by highlighting the positive impact of new evidence without directly contradicting their existing beliefs.
- A detailed self-review can weaken any belief.
- Example: A study asked graduates to rate their understanding of their toilet at home. After attempting to explain its workings, their confidence dropped significantly.
- Growth happens when you start doing things you aren’t yet qualified to do.
Cognitive Dissonance Is Not Arrogance—Lean Into Your Bizarre Behavior
- Cognitive dissonance is the tension you experience when your thoughts conflict with your behavior.
- When you don’t understand something, lean in more. When it challenges your intelligence, lean in more. When it makes you feel stupid, lean in more. Don’t block people you disagree with; don’t run from ideas that make you uncomfortable.
Ask, Don’t Tell—The Question/Behavior Effect
- Questions, unlike statements, elicit an active response—they make people think.
- Example: “Will you recycle?” vs. “Please recycle.”
- Use cognitive dissonance to your advantage. Once someone says “yes,” it’s more likely they’ll follow through.
Never Fight a Bad Habit
- Understand the pattern: Trigger → Routine → Reward.
- Identify what triggers the action that creates a habit. Then, replace the resource (e.g., switch from a cigarette to chocolate) when the routine is triggered, so your pattern remains.
- Focusing too much on stopping something often leads to doing it more.
- When creating a new habit, take care of yourself and get plenty of sleep.
“Sleep, lift, move, smile, laugh, listen, read, save, hydrate, fast, build, create—your habits are your future.”
Always Prioritize Your Foundation
You have one body—take care of your health. There is no greater form of gratitude than taking care of yourself.
Pillar 2: Story
Useful Absurdity Will Define You More
- A brand’s publicity is often defined more by its useless absurdity than its useful practicalities.
- Example: Imagine setting up a 100 ft climbing wall in the office—the kind of traction that would generate.
- Normality is ignored as it becomes standard; absurdity sells. Think differently.
Avoid Wallpaper at All Costs
- Habituation is a phenomenon where the brain adjusts to repeated stimuli by ignoring or downgrading their significance. This cognitive process frees up mental capacity for other things, a basic survival mechanism.
- Example: “Subscribe to this YouTube channel” is usually ignored.
- Wallpaper refers to the overuse of popular terms, phrases, and calls to action to the point where the brain tunes them out.
- Great marketing is uncomfortable; it sparks a dormant brain into a neurological frenzy.
Shoot Your Psychological Moonshots First
This is a fantastic concept, and one of the best in the book.
💡 A psychological moonshot is a relatively small investment that drastically improves the perception of something.
- Example: Uber is a psychological moonshot. It addresses customer needs at a psychological level:
- The Peak and End Rule: Customers judge their entire experience based on just two moments—the best (or worst) part and the end.
- Idleness Aversion: People who are busy are happier than those who are idle. Uber addresses this by showing you when your driver is arriving.
- Operational Transparency: Brands should be glass boxes. Uber gives clear bill details and driver locations.
- Uncertainty Anxiety: Domino’s shows the progress of your pizza, addressing the need for certainty.
- The Goal Gradient Effect: We work faster as we get closer to achieving a goal.
“It’s usually easier to change perception than reality. Our truth is not what we see; our truth is the story we choose to believe.”
“Making things easier isn’t necessarily the path to a psychological moonshot; sometimes you have to do the opposite—increase friction, wait times, and inconvenience—to achieve the same increase in perceived value.”
“Value does not exist. It’s a perception we reach with expectations we meet.”
“Framing is an important aspect. It isn’t about lying or deception; it’s about presenting your product or service through the most factual and compelling lens.”
Use Goldilocks to Your Advantage
The Goldilocks effect is a type of anchoring—a cognitive bias where individuals rely too heavily on seemingly irrelevant information (the “anchor”) when making decisions. In most scenarios, true value is nothing more than your opinion.
People tend to make value judgments based on context, so offering a range of options (e.g., economy, standard, and premium) can affect how customers perceive your standard offering.
The context creates the value.
Let Them Try and They Will Buy
Getting your product into customers’ hands remains an incredibly powerful tool for sales, marketing, and branding.
Fight for the First 5 Seconds
No matter the medium, you must earn the attention you seek within the first five seconds.
The average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. The quote, “You have the attention span of a goldfish,” is becoming irrelevant, as even goldfish have an attention span of 9 seconds.
“Attention might just be the most generous gift that anyone can give.”
Pillar 3: Philosophy
Small Stuff and Small Misses
“Good work is the culmination of hundreds of tiny details, so sweat the small stuff.”
Small misses now create big misses later.
“The smallest seeds of today’s negligence will bloom into tomorrow’s biggest secrets.”
Don’t Be an Ostrich
- Like a proverbial ostrich with its head buried in the sand, avoidance often leads to even greater distress.
- Accept uncomfortable truths as quickly as possible.
- Engaging in uncomfortable conversations early paves the way for resolution.
“In business, the person with the fewest blind spots stands the greatest chance of victory.”
Your Skill Is Worthless, But Your Context Is More Valuable
Our skills hold no intrinsic value.
The value of any skill is determined by the context in which it’s required.
The perceived rarity of a skill influences how much people value it.
People will assess the worth of your skill based on how much value they believe it can generate for them.
- Example: Joshua Bell’s violin performance in a Washington D.C. subway station vs. performing in a prestigious concert hall.
“To be considered the best in your industry, you don’t need to be the best at one thing; you need to be good at a variety of complementary and rare skills that your industry values and your competitors lack.”
Discipline Equation: Death, Time, and Discipline
- Discipline is the ultimate secret to success in any ambition.
- Humans struggle to comprehend infinity and time, which slowly creeps in, intangible and invisible.
- Death reflection exercises report higher life satisfaction, a stronger desire to spend time wisely, pursue meaningful goals, and increased kindness and generosity.
- Time Betting Mental Model: You have finite chips, and every chip represents an hour. How will you spend them?
- Discipline Equation: Value of the Goal + Reward of the Pursuit - Cost of the Pursuit.
“Being selective about how you spend your time and who you spend it with is the greatest sign of self-respect.”
Pillar 4: The Team
Leverage the Power of Progress—The Superpower of Small Wins
- How to create prospective progress in teams:
- Create meaning.
- Set clear and actionable goals.
- Provide autonomy.
- Remove friction.
- Broadcast progress (Celebrate).
“The most professionally rewarding feeling in the world is a sense of forward motion.”
Ask Who, Not How—Delegate
“Your ego will insist you do it, but your potential will insist you delegate.”
Raise the Bar
“The definition of the word ‘company’ is just a group of people.”
Learning Never Ends
Find Out More (It’s Worth It)
- Buy the book: The Diary of a CEO: 33 Laws of Business and Life
- Full Audiobook: Spotify
- Podcast: Spotify | YouTube