Ben Wilson

It's better to remain in a smaller role where you have genuine control than take a larger role where you will be blamed for things that you can't change.

A phenomenal example of this is Horatio Nelson, the great British Admiral.

As a British admiral, you want to be the captain of a ship, and then you want to work your way up a fleet.

So you want to go from on the flagship to becoming a vice admiral to becoming the admiral, right?

But that's not the path Horatio Nelson takes.

He goes from being a captain to being in charge of the frigates, which are the small ships.

They take the communications.

They're the smaller ships.

And he does that.

For this very reason, because he's in charge.

He's only responsible for the outcomes that he can actually control.

So it's better to take a lower appointment where you have more control than to go up to being vice admiral where, hey, it's more prestige, but I don't actually control my own outcomes.

Okay, so think about positions with that paradigm in mind.

You always want to be the main character.

Lesson three, have a vision and articulate it clearly.

The genius of Hitler's political vision was its combination of simplicity and stability.

Germany humiliated, Germany reborn, Germany great.

That was the vision.

Everything else was detail.

The 25-point program was deliberately vague.