Anna Wintour

Velocity matters.

Six, outthink, don't just outwork.

When her boss at Harper's wanted advertiser-friendly spreads, Anna would meet photographers in the lobby, select only the best shots, and claim no others existed.

She forced him to choose between her vision and expensive reshoots, and she won every time.

Don't fight the system.

Architect situations where the system has to choose you.

Seven, don't care what they think.

Putting Madonna on Vogue's cover in 1989 horrified fashion purists.

The woman had just released a video burning crosses.

Pepsi had polled her sponsorship.

Religious groups wanted boycotts.

Anna did it anyway because a businessman on a plane said Vogue would never feature Madonna.

The issue sold 200,000 extra copies.

When everyone agrees something will never work, that's precisely when they stop testing it.

Consensus kills innovation.

Eight, positioning is leverage.

Anna accepted a made-up creative director role

had Vogue officially Mirabella's deputy, but in reality Lieberman's protege.

It wasn't the job she wanted, but it got her foot in the door.

For three years, she learned the operation while appearing to be number two.