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Category: Books summary

7 Rules of Power: Advice on How To Advance Your Career – My Takeaways

At any point in time, I have more books in my library than I can possibly read. Often this makes me commit the practice of book adultery. In my local language, it means I am “ari iyawo ko iyale”. Last Saturday, as I wrote in this post, I bought 7 Rules of Power and a week later I am writing a summary/takeaways of the same. An attestation to my “ari iyawo ko iyale” practice.

But why have I committed that practice for this one book? I am a few years into my career where the next level for me is a role that brings me closer to being expectedly responsible for people, and a team and getting such a role isn’t like the previous promotions I have heard. In my first year with PwC, I was the most nonchalant about going the extra mile beyond the commitment to do my technical jobs well. Why? Because I knew with absolute certainty that it’s all that’s required for me to get the promotion. So why should I do more? Well, that was my thinking then and I was right. I got all the promotions simply because I did my job. 

I have now entered a new era. An era where the ability to influence, evidence of value add and willingness to play a different game is part of the determinant of my promotion. So unsurprisingly when I saw the book, I knew immediately that I had to read it ASAP. Potentially, it could offer me some help on how to navigate this new era masterfully as I have always sought to navigate all aspects of my life. And indeed, the book offered some insight. 

Getting comfortable with Power

The book started by laying some ground around how we naturally tend to eschew power. The very thought of reading a book about it is so repugnant that we will not even dare to have the book let alone read it or even be seen to be reading it.

The reason according to the book is not far-fetched. Most of our experiences with power especially when we are not born with one are that of inept use or corruption. Subconsciously, we eschew power from these dynamics. Other reasons were also given.

But power unfortunately is needed for nearly all things that have to do with the coming together of people. Inevitably, someone must command power. It is part of group or crowd dynamics. As the book noted, the best way to have more examples of good use of power is to get more good people to have power. Unfortunately, good people eschew power.

Interestingly, the book was moderate both in its advice and the examples used to convey the message. Starting with the example of an African American woman, Rukaiyah whom I had to immediately connect on LinkedIn. Let me tell you a bit about her.

Rukaiyah who is now the Chief Investment Officer of a $750 million Fund, recognised at a point in her that “Clearly these organisations are not going to impart power and opportunity on me, so I have to make it myself.” Apply the rules of power she summarised her experience as below:

What once was a position of an outsider, being black and female, became an information conduit. People told me things they wanted raised, but they were too fearful to raise themselves because they were so deeply invested in their need to support their families, and most of them had spouses who didn’t work. I was young and single and as far as they were concerned, a total outsider already. They felt that they could tell me things and raise issues. Then the executive team began to pivot to me when they needed information…. I was in a position of power. That turned into a promotion to the COO seat, and once I was in that seat, the investors turned to me to tell them the truth during really different times. 

The most important thing about Rukaiyah’s story was that she understood the first rule of power: to get out of her own way–to not expect a just or fair world, and certainly not to play by rules that would leave her disadvantaged, but instead to make her own rules and play her

own game.

I think you should also get comfortable with the topic of power. I know far too often, we have been exposed to examples of vile use of power. And we now tend to associate power with bad things and in the case where power might have helped achieve good things, we do as much as possible to eschew the use of the word Power in describing such good. No more I guess. Learn the rules of power and use them (Rule 6)

The 7 Rules

The 7 rules described in the book were also counterintuitive I didn’t see much of a surprise in the book. Largely, they are things I am aware of already and practice. Interestingly, I have written about some of the principles (hereherehere…) before without using the word power. 

Rule 1. Get out of your own way

The first rule of power is about acknowledging and accepting who you are but not letting that identity define who you will be forever.

“Talented people, with objectively amazing accomplishments, hold self-descriptions that disempower themselves and that, if and when internalised, inappropriately limit their career prospects… Such behaviour is unhelpful.”

“Change your behaviour, and your attitudes about yourself and your place in the world quite likely will follow.”

“I look at the most confident people in my year and I realise that the greatest gift that has been bestowed on them is that of shamelessness.”

“Don’t let the notion that doing something new or different – particularly if that new behaviour is going to be helpful in your path to power- is inauthentic become an excuse for thinking in ways that hold you back.”

One of my best quotes from the book: 

“I do not choose to be relegated to a lower status role, although many, many in power have tried. I have no problem challenging people or making them rethink their assumptions. I don’t feel like I have to “stay in my lane” and I will not let people push me or keep me there. The dean who hired me said, “Laura, do you not see the boundaries between disciplines?” And I replied, “No, why should I?”

They have found that, across multiple cultures, the two fundamental aspects by which people judge others are warmth and competence back: “I can see how wanting to achieve something meaningful that is so deeply personal, I can see how people get forceful. When you have a vision and you can see something other people can’t see, I can see how you sort of have to push them into it.” Adams said two other things that I think are important to her

success, both related to her surrendering the need for acceptance. She commented that she did not worry too much about “what will our board think, or will I get invited to that fancy Christmas party, or this might get me disinvited from the privileged cookout.” She noted that achieving success required a combination of humility to get others on your side, and also hubris. “For women, that hubris part of it is really hard. I have to coach myself up to hubris.”

Rule 2. Break the rules

“Because of how people are socialised and the desire to be accepted by others – which we believe comes from adhering to rules for behaviour – most people, most of the time, follow conventional wisdom and willingly follow rules that others – and this is the important point, often others with more power and interests quite different from their own – have promulgated. The lesson of this chapter is that, notwithstanding these numerous forces pushing rule following and conformity, many paths to power entail parting with expectations, disregarding conventional wisdom, and breaking rules- except the rule of this chapter, which is to break the rules.”

3 rules you can break immediately to impact your career

  • Ask for things – help seeking is uncomfortable but people want to offer help.
  • Forgiveness over Permission 
  • Break rules by finding ways to stand out. 

For those who seek power, particularly those seeking it from positions of disadvantage, breaking the rules is the only possible, sensible option. Simply put, if you are going to win given the rules in place, by all means follow and advocate for those rules. For everyone else less guaranteed of inevitable success, rule breaking, the second rule of power, provides an empirically validated – and virtually the only feasible – path to success.

Rule 3. Appear powerful 

If you want to attain and maintain power, the third rule of power is to appear powerful, because others will treat you and make decisions about you depending on how you show up, and those decisions will often act in ways to make the initial impressions become true.

  • Anger is a tool. From a moral perspective, I will use it rarely.
  • Appearing confident is another potent one. Confidence in all ramifications, use of words, posture, dressing etc and have the work to show for it of course.

The premise of Rule 3 is that appearance–how someone shows up with both body language and spoken language- matters a great deal for how others perceive them.

Some suggested nonverbal way to appear powerful

Rule 4. Build a powerful brand

Rated my best rule.

“One way to build a powerful brand is to associate with other people and organisations that are themselves prestigious.”

“Do as many things as possible to be known – blog, podcast, books, events hosting, volunteering social media”

Recounting her experience helping someone to get comfortable with brand building, Deborah Lui said “I was doing a talk at this event and we were talking about self-evaluation, and this woman said, “I’m just really not good at self-promotion.” And I said, “Do you see what you just did there? If you treat your self-evaluation as self-promotion, you are not going to talk about the work that you’re doing. You’re not going to do it justice. If you call it helping your manager understand the impact that you have, if you call it helping your team get the recognition it deserves, would you see it differently?” And she said, “You’re right. I’ve been thinking about this all wrong.”

Rule 5. Network relentlessly 

Rule 6. Use your power 

Rule 7. Success excuse (almost) everything

Read the book to get more insight into other rules.

Some final thoughts

Merely looking at the rules should make anyone comfortable reading the book. It is not some 48 Laws of Power that you might have been often directed not to read (I read it by the way). Rather, it is a book for those who seek to advance their career notwithstanding any disadvantage that may surround them. Just look at what Rukaiyah did with her condition.

As I noted in my note before reading it, the book is meant for people like me. People who find themselves in an environment where they are different, they were not born with power, and have a phobia for self-proclamation.

One of the most important points to note about the subject of Power though is that anyone’s antipathy to it does not magically mean others won’t embrace it. And those who embrace it will get things that you might think you deserve and maybe you do indeed. But since you are not willing to play the cards that you’ve been dealt, unfortunately, you might be left out. When this point is mentioned, the tendency is to be quick to find disconfirming evidence. But what empirical research has shown is that those pieces of evidence are edge cases and not the norm. Selah!

Lastly, it is worth noting that we all celebrate people of power. We see our potential in them. And that’s the thing about power, when attained, we celebrate it in others. But you see doing the work that’s required to attain it is what we often have issues with. One must note though that all tools of power don’t have to be used. Only those that you are comfortable with. Getting things done and advancing your career is the goal not necessarily about the tools you employ.

The Miracle Morning – My Takeaways

I received the book during a gift exchange time in my office. I must confess that I discounted the book as one that would have nothing new to teach me beyond what’s common knowledge. And maybe I was right to have assumed what will be entailed in the book will be common knowledge. What I was certainly wrong about is to have discounted it because common knowledge doesn’t mean common application. And even though the benefit of and magic of the morning is common knowledge, I was guilty of not rising from the bed until it was about time to start working.

Before picking up the book to read, I had decided to wake up 2 hours earlier than I needed to start working. I committed 10 minutes to exercise, 1 hour to reading and 45 minutes to writing. It was working so well that one day I looked at my library in search of what to read and I saw this book again to which I then decided to give it a shot.

My impression of picking it up was simple. If I am experiencing this sound awesomeness in just a few days of changing my waking up routine, what more wisdom could be contained in a book written by someone who evidently has been keeping up to the practice for years and has also helped to build such a habit. To my amazement, I read one-third of the book the first time I picked it up and completed the book in under 5 days. The following then is what you might consider as the summary of the book or my takeaways. 

My first highlight from the book

I made my first highlight from the introduction. But before I quote here what that highlight was, let me tell you the story leading up to the highlight.

Hal Elrod recounted in the book how first, he came close to death from a fatal accident. No, he actually died for 6 minutes or so before he was brought back to life. His medical condition wasn’t perfect when he woke up as a result of injuries sustained from the accident. But in the months and years after, he rose above the challenge, resumed work and became a top sales executive breaking long-established records within his organisation.

Then a few years later, in 2008 to be precise, he went from this well-to-do guy who was about to get married to a broke guy who is drowning in debt and depression. His financial situation worsens and his mental health suffers a great deal. Unblamable, he considered suicide but didn’t consider going through with it because of the pain and anguish it would cause his mother and father. 

Like clockwork again, he overcame this life situation just as he did his near-total death experience. How? He believes that everything happens for a reason but it is our responsibility to choose the most empowering reasons for the challenges, events and circumstances of our life.

That sounds so right and demanding of emphasis that I will repeat it just as I had to highlight it in the book itself.

Everything happens for a reason but it is our responsibility to choose the most empowering reasons for the challenges, events and circumstances of our life.

My younger sister and I have this frequent conversation where our mum will give a reason for some circumstances, and she will come to me to check some of those reasons. I often used to tell her nearly the same thing, that our mum is not wrong to have resorted to that explanation. However, it is her responsibility to choose which explanation ensures that she is in control of the circumstances and that the circumstances are in no way out of hand. So it felt so great naturally to see my ideology put in dinner words in this book.

But life can so quickly get overwhelming that we feel out of control, out of touch and permanently stuck. And this is where the Miracle Morning philosophy comes to the rescue.

Comprehensive list of my highlights and a representative summary

1. Blame determines who is at fault for something, responsibility determines who is committed to improving things.

2. Who you are becoming is the single most important determining factor in your quality of life, now and for your future.

3. To make profound changes in your life, you need either inspiration or desperation.

4. I told Jon, ‘I hate running’. Without hesitation, he responded, What do you hate worse, running … or your current life situation? I was desperate. I had nothing to lose. I decided to go for a run.

5. ‘If you want your life to be different, you have to be willing to do something different first!’

6. We mistakenly believe that who we were is who we are, thus limiting our true potential in the present, based on the limitations of our past.

7. Always remember that where you are is a result of who you were, but where you go depends entirely on who you choose to be, from this moment on.

8. Isolating incidents: One of the most prevalent, yet not-so-obvious causes of mediocrity is isolating incidents. We do this when we mistakenly assume that each choice we make, and each individual action we take, is only affecting that particular moment, or circumstance. For example, you may think it’s no big deal to miss a workout, procrastinate on a project, or eat fast food because you’ll get a ‘do-over’ tomorrow. You make the mistake of thinking that skipping that workout only affects that incident, and you’ll make a better choice next time. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We must realize that the real impact and consequence of each of our choices and actions – and even our thoughts – iS monumental because every single thought, choice, and action is determining who we are becoming, which will ultimately determine the quality of our lives.

9. Our levels of success will rarely exceed our level of personal development because success is something we attract by who we become.

10. Remember this truth: now matters more than any other time in your life, because it’s what you are doing today that is determining who you’re becoming, and who you’re becoming will always determine the quality and direction of your life.

11. The reality is that if we don’t change now, our life won’t change. If we don’t get better, our life won’t get better. And if we don’t consistently invest time into our self-improvement, our life will not improve. Yet, most of us wake up every day and stay the same.

12. What I found was that whether I got nine, eight, seven, six, five, or even just four hours of sleep, as long as I consciously decided, before bed, that I was getting the perfect amount of sleep – that the hours were going to energize my body to feel wonderful in the morning – I consistently woke feeling better than I ever had before. However, don’t take my word for it. I encourage you to experiment with this yourself.

13. “Start every morning off with a personal success ritual. That is the most important key to success.”

14. Whatever it is that you write, putting words on the page is a form of therapy that doesn’t cost a dime.

15. Gap Focus: Is it hurting or helping you?

  • In the opening pages of this chapter, we talked about using the Life S.A.VE.R.S. to close your ‘potential gap’. Human beings are conditioned to have what I call gap focus. We tend to focus on the gaps between where we are in life and where we want to be, between what we’ve accomplished and what we could have or want to accomplish, and the gap between who we are and our idealistic vision of the person we believe we should be.
  • The problem with this is that constant ‘gap focus’ can be detrimental to our confidence and self-image, causing us to feel like we don’t have enough, haven’t accomplished enough, and that we’re simply not good enough, or at least, not as good as we should be.
  • High achievers are typically the worst at this, constantly overlooking or minimizing their accomplishments, beating themselves up over every mistake and imperfection, and never feeling like anything they do is quite good enough.
  • The irony is that ‘gap focus’ is a big part of the reason that high achievers are high achievers. Their insatiable desire to close the gap is what fuels their pursuit of excellence and constantly drives them to achieve. ‘Gap focus’ can be healthy and productive if it comes from a positive, proactive, I’m committed to and excited about fulfilling my potential perspective without any lettings of lack. Unfortunately, it rarely does. The average person, even the average high achiever, tends to focus negatively on their gaps.

16. Everything is difficult before it’s easy. Every new experience is uncomfortable before it’s comfortable.

17. The purpose of The Miracle Morning is more about waking up with a purpose – combining the benefits of early rising and personal development – and isn’t so much concerned with which activities you do, as long as the activities you choose are proactive and help you improve your inner world (yourself) and your outer world (your life).

18. Remember, your life situation will improve after – but only after – you develop yourself into the person you need to be to improve it.

The less than 500 words summary 

With all the highlights you have about the book, now is the time to share the main premise of the book and how the author suggests we accomplish the main premise. 

When you wake up and the first set of activities that you do when you wake determines a lot about the quality of your day, and then months and then years. Hence, if you can be more purposeful about your morning, by deliberately doing things that will improve your physical, mental and spiritual health, inevitably, the quality of your life will change from one day at a time until you look back and realise your life has indeed totally changed for the better. How can you be more purposeful about your mornings? 

Wake up earlier than you would normally do. And when you do, apply the S.A.V.E.R.S. strategy to transform your life.

  1. Silence. Start every morning with a period of purposeful Silence of at least 5 minutes. Activities to choose from and practice during the period of Silence:
  • Meditation
  • Prayer
  • Reflection
  • Deep Breathing
  • Gratitude

Don’t stay in bed for this, and preferably leave your bedroom altogether.

  1. Affirmations. Use affirmations to start programming yourself to be confident and successful in everything you do. With enough repetition, your subconscious mind will begin to believe what you tell it, act upon it, and eventually manifest it in your reality. 
  1. Visualisation. Visualisation is the process of imagining exactly what you want to achieve or attain, and then mentally rehearsing what you’ll need to do to achieve or attain it. Directly after reading your affirmations—where you took the time to articulate and focus on your goals and who you need to be to take your life to the next level—is the prime time to visualise yourself living in alignment with your affirmations. Start with just five minutes of visualisation.
  1. Exercise. Morning exercise should be a staple in your daily rituals. When you exercise for even a few minutes every morning it significantly boosts your energy, enhances your health, improves self-confidence and emotional well-being, and enables you to think better and concentrate longer.
  1. Reading. Reading is one of the most immediate methods for acquiring the knowledge, ideas, and strategies you need to achieve Level 10 success in any area of your life. The key is to learn from the experts—those who have already done what you want to do. The fastest way to achieve everything you want is to model successful people who have already achieved it. Commit to read a minimum of 10 pages per day.
  1. Scribing. Scribing=Writing. Writing enables you to document your insights, ideas, breakthroughs, realisations, successes, and lessons learned, as well as any areas of opportunity, personal growth, or improvement.

If you commit to doing all this including adopting a personal development plan that gets executed in the early morning, your life is guaranteed to take a new turn. Cheers to realising your maximum potential. 

No Room For Small Dreams

Israel is a country to reckon with today, a world power that commands one of the best militaries, has the best agriculture and is booming with innovation and more wins.

However, it wasn’t always so. At different points in history, they’ve faced the risk of extinction. The Nazi government tried, the Egyptian attempted and the league of Arab Nations that surrounded them wage war against them.

My interest in the Israel story was a pure coincidence. I happened to just have Shimon Peres’ book “No Room For Small Dreams” on my shelf and I decided to read it.

The story of how Israel came to be is wild. However, what stood out for me in a remarkable way so far is how it is inherent in humans to be anti innovation even when that was the only way possible for progress.

Upon the declaration of the accord that granted Israel the identity of a sovereign state, they faced a lot of challenges. In the midst of those challenges, Shimon and Al, a colleague, came up with the idea of building an aviation industry in Israel.

Understandably, they were in the midst of economic turmoil, a surging population and rising unemployment with limited resources. So to require that some of those scarce resources be directed to the building of an industry with no clear prospect is indeed a big ask. However, a sound of optimism rather than a die hard pessimism would have been a better response. Hope is always better than discouragement and faith is a necessary virtue to triumph. Shimon and Al got responses like the below to their initiative.

The economist and industry experts they shared the idea with thought it laughable that they would ever be able to export planes to foreign markets. Someone shouted “our only industry is bicycles and you must know it recently shut down! What madness is it to think we can build planes when we can’t even build bicycles?”

The engineers were certain Israel lacks the technical expertise to build and manage such a complicated operation. 

The cabinets responded, “with what money shall we pay for this?” Another said “Israel isn’t America in case you’ve forgotten. We don’t have the budget, the manpower and we certainly don’t have the need!”

The responses were all in such a manner. No one believed in the idea. No one encouraged them. Shimon embarked on the project with the support of the then Prime Minister.

Today the industry contributes more than 8 billion dollars to Israel GDP annually.

What does the man who went through this cruel stage not once but almost all the time in his career have to say about the experience and the lessons?

I’ve had sleepless nights and restless days because of big dreams. I’ve lost elections over them. I’ve lost some friends over them, too. But they never discouraged my imagination. Success built my confidence. Failure steeled my spine.

Experience has taught me three things about cynicism: First, it’s a powerful force with the ability to trample the aspirations of an entire people. Second, it is universal, fundamentally part of human nature, a disease that is ubiquitous and global. Third, it is the single greatest threat to the next generation of leadership. In a world of so many grave challenges, what could be more dangerous than discouraging ideas and ambition?

Throughout my life, I have been accused by many people (in many languages) of being too optimistic—of having too rosy a view of the world and the people who inhabit it. I tell them that both optimists and pessimists die in the end, but the optimist leads a hopeful and happy existence while the pessimist spends his days cynical and downtrodden. It is too high a price to pay.

Besides, optimism is a prerequisite of progress. It provides the inspiration we need, especially in hard times. And it provides the encouragement that wills us to chase our grandest ambitions out into the world, instead of locking them away in the safe quiet of our minds.

– Shimon Peres

That’s it. Optimism wins at the end of the day. Don’t stop dreaming big dreams. Naysayers shouldn’t be the reason you stopped. There will be a lot of discouragement and failures along the way but keep the optimism and keep working on that dream.


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