“You have to act and act now.” – Larry Ellison
1. Do business with strangers as if they were brothers and with brothers as if they were strangers.
2. The most important thing in your business relationships is your reputation for honesty. If you can genuinely and sincerely fake honesty, you will be a success. Never doubt it.
“To lead people, walk behind them.” – Lao Tsu
3. In business, the golden rule is: whoever has the most power make the rules.
“The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.” – J. Paul Getty
4. Mind your own business but keep your eye on the other successful businesses.
5. If your neighbor gets up early, get up earlier.
6. Never give business advice to another that doesn’t profit you and your own interests.
7. Extreme problems usually require extreme solutions.
8. People problems must sometimes be dealt with harshly. When you make an example of someone, make sure everyone knows what the lesson is. Punish one, teach a hundred
“If you owe the bank $100, that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” – J. Paul Getty
9. When stumped for a solution to a particularly difficult problem, look to the past for a solution.
10. Work smarter, not harder.
11. Choose the time of day or night when your energies are highest and conduct business at that time.
12. Be prepared for betrayal from anyone on your staff, but especially from those you have the most trust in. Every betrayal must be repaid as quickly and as publicly as possible. If you should let a betrayal go unpunished, you are through as a leader.
13. Remember, not even a machine is 100 percent efficient. Don’t expect the humans who work for you to be.
14. Do not ever base your plans on achieving the best possible outcome but if it comes, welcome it – after you have examined it on every side.
15. Many things in life are beyond our control but with people, it is usually possible to pull strings, manipulate them.
“The way to make money is to buy when blood is running in the streets.” – John D. Rockefeller
16. The best thing to invest in your business is your time. To schedule, plan and use time effectively, know your turf and know your objectives. Assess the obstacles and opportunities, then devise your strategies.
“In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.” – J. Paul Getty
17. Even if it’s your day off or you are on vacation, business comes first before anything else.
18. Effective time management means making the most of every minute you work and making certain that you have hours everyday and days every week, weeks and weeks every year when you do not have to work.
“Hell, there are no rules here. We are trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison
19. Before making an important decision, get as much as you can of the best information available and review it carefully, analyze it and draw up worst case scenarios. Add up the plus or minus factors, discuss it with your team and do what your guts tell you to do.
“Screw it, let’s do it.” – Richard Branson
20. After loyalty come ability, skill and competence. Promote only able people (and the occasional humbler). You find able people by testing them.
21. “Don’t be too familiar with your followers; it may at first inspire affection but eventually, like all familiarity; it will breed contempt.”
22. There will be times when you will have to be abrasive, even brutal to members of your staff. Don’t worry that your people will say bad things about you because of this. They already have. But in general, try to be pleasant and accommodating. Try to please the greatest number who work for you that you can; antagonize the fewest. Blow smoke.
“Willingness to change is a strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while.” – Jack Welch
23. At meetings, have someone else float your newest ideas. Watch the reaction of the rest of your staff. Note who opposes, who supports, who links up with whom. See who responds with an open mind, whose mind is already made up, one way or the other. If you are going to walk on water, you have to know where the rocks are.
“The speed of the leader determines the speed of the gang.” – Mary Kay Ash
24. Don’t encourage overtime. Tell your people that the best way to impress you is to do a great job in the time allotted for it and then go home and relax.
25. You are in a war. You must plan to take the other guy down first and do it. Winning is not the best thing; it’s the only thing. If it were not, no one would keep score. To win the war, you must take charge. You must set the organization’s objectives, establish a chain of control, delegate, appraise performance, adjust and act.
“When somebody challenges you, fight back. Be brutal, be tough.” – Donald Trump
“To win one hundred battles in one hundred victories is not the ACME of skills. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the ACME of skill.” – Sun Tzu
As a final note, I ask you this: Are you prepared to tap and learn from the uncommon wisdom of a Mafia leader? Do you want to adopt the Mafia’s leadership style of running a business? Would you love to build a formidable business empire that will stand the test of time? If your answer to these three questions is yes, then I will advice you get yourself “The Mafia Manager.” Enough said.
