Rockstar Boss

In the year that Rockstar Boss has been ‘alive’ (it’s been dormant for many, many years before that) the question of ‘what next?’ has been bugging me.

Taking a step back: the postings here are clips from a collection of over 200 things I’ve learned in the past fifteen years. Some are controversial, others pushing mainstream thinking and a few that confirm what the older folk say can be true sometimes. If I were to give me of 15 years ago advice on how best to approach life and business, this would be all of it.

Blogs are fun and popular, but they are so very short term. A post has a half life of only a few days, regardless of how compelling its content.

Books are a great medium for collecting large instances of experiential data too, but it’s a method so difficult to fully execute on. Money is not the issue, it’s the having to put too many middlemen between the writer and the reader. The ability for a two way conversation has to happen outside of the reading medium.

The next step for Rockstar Boss is inspired in part by the format of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and throwing in the possibility for a reader to output all or pieces of content that they like in the order they prefer into a multitude of formats (audiobook, epub, mobi, pdf) to enjoy and share.

Coming early 2011 to the Mac and iOS App Store: Rockstar Boss.

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There’s one wise saying that has stuck with me since childhood: “it’s better to be the world’s best street sweeper than an average boss”. My dad said it and I cannot for the life of me remember the context or exactly when he told it to me (though I’m certain he said it more than once).

Decades have passed by since I first heard it and only now does it truly make sense to me.

The “Peter Principle” famously states “In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.”. It’s not difficult to find examples of this. Lots of them. Incompetence is only one factor that renders poor Peter useless. Fear, anxiety, lack of experience, absence of mentors, ego, jealousy. Poor Peter.

Any person’s natural instinct is to jump on that ladder and climb. The bigger the jump in steps, the better. A hierarchy in a company is it’s own game show. Must win. Must be the first. Want to control EVERYTHING.

Inside every person is a core value. Not a ‘be nice to everyone’ or ‘save the planet’ value, but rather one thing that makes you want to stay awake at night to finish something and has you jumping out of bed in the morning to carry on with it. It’s in your blood and you’re incredible when you do it. For me it’s Product Management – starting from zero to fully launching a new product to a receptive audience, with everyone around you happily along for the ride. What’s yours?

Does this mean pausing at a point in a company where you’re doing what you love should be confused for lack of ambition, laziness or corporate insanity? Definitely not.

Be the street sweeper. Be the best one in the world. Do it with heart and pride and people will notice, the world will be a better place because you’re doing something you care about and the legacy you leave will inspire others.

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