Anna Wintour

Outliers show up with solutions.

It's the same with cold emails today.

Don't tell someone how you would solve their problems.

If you want to get noticed, just solve their problem.

At New York Magazine, Anna finally had a budget to match ambition.

Want to shoot a $20,000 sable coat?

Approved.

Need the best photographers to compete with the times?

Done.

They recognized talent and they gave her room and an environment to execute.

Her first story?

summer dresses on a tilted Manhattan rooftop, making the Empire State Building appear to dance behind the models.

Every fashion editor in the city was shooting straight.

Anna was tilting reality.

But her standards remained brutal.

When one of her assistants styled her for shoot with photographer Steven Meisel, Anna killed it without explanation.

Didn't matter was her assistant's big break.

Didn't matter Meisel was talented.

Standards were standards, and Anna's standards to nearly everyone appeared unreasonable.

And also, just like Steve Jobs, that made everyone work harder and be better and pulled out the best version of themselves.