How to succeed in Business

emulate the sparrow, the “wisest of birds.” According to the Zhuangzi, “If its eyes do not spot a suitable place, it will not look twice. If it happens to drop the nut it is carrying, it will simply abandon it and continue on its way. It is wary of people, and yet it lives among them, protected within the altars of grain and soil.”

be clear about your intentions.

Narrow your focus: The book introduces the “Hedgehog Concept,” which managers can use as a strategic tool to focus their organizations on three intersecting circles:

• What they can be the best at.

• What drives their economic engine.

• What they’re passionate about.

For managers, this concept is invaluable in clarifying and simplifying the strategic

“You don’t get extreme results without extreme actions.” - Derek Sivers

The amount of serendipity that will occur in your life, your Luck Surface Area, is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you’re passionate about combined with the total number of people to whom this is effectively communicated. It’s a simple concept, but an extremely powerful one because what it implies is that you can

If you do everything the way the average startup does it, you should expect average performance. The problem here is, average performance means that you'll go out of business. The survival rate for startups is way less than fifty percent. So if you're running a startup, you had better be doing something odd. If not, you're in trouble.

“Your job isn’t to sell—it’s to help people,”

Don’t just sit there. Do something. The answers will follow.

A systems-first mentality provides the antidote. When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running